ABSTRACT
The ownership of land has always been an important question and has played a significant role in the development of different countries. For Russia issues concerning the private ownership of land have been central for centuries and are still unsolved. In the middle of the nineteenth century this question came into focus because of the intention to emancipate the serfs.1 One problem was that ownership of land was very vaguely defined by legal usage. Land fell into several categories; first the land which clearly belonged to the landlords.2 This land was cultivated by the peasant commune3 (selskoe obshchestvo or mir) who paid the landlord an annual quit-rent (obrok) or through forced labour (barshchina). Second, the land held in common by the peasant commune which was allotted by the commune to the different households. Third, the small garden plots held by each household. The serfs’ right to land was based on the commune or on the household (dvor) and not on individuals. The serfs were owned by the landlord but the existing law threw no light on the question of to whom the land belonged, except for the first category.
