ABSTRACT
Slaves and serfs together made up over 90 percent of the population, perhaps as much as 95 percent. Depending on the locale and the era, slaves in Muscovy comprised 5 to 15 percent of the population. Peasants (later serfs) comprised 85 to 90 percent of the population. Calculating that townsmen accounted for 2 percent of the population, the members of the service classes another 2 percent, and the members of the clergy at most a final 2 percent, then slaves and serfs were the remainder in what was not a very complex society. In this essay the composite imaginary slave is placed in the 1590s, because that is when fundamental changes were made in the institution of slavery. The imaginary serf is placed in the 1640s, because that is when the institution of serfdom was fully established legally by the Law Code (Ulozhenie) of 1649.
