ABSTRACT
According to R. E. F. Smith and Rodney Hilton, ‘Serfdom is the legal expression of one of the means by which the ruling groups in a peasant society make sure that they get as big a share as they can of the product of peasant labour. 1 In Russia, where serfdom developed over the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and lasted until 1861, peasants living on nobles’ estates were exploited by their owners, who demanded obligations in the form of labour or dues. Large numbers of other Russian peasants lived on lands belonging to the state, the Russian Orthodox Church (until 1762–64), and the tsar’s family (the court). These landowners exploited the peasants on their domains. In addition, the state obliged all Russian peasants to pay taxes and send recruits to the army. Exploitation was thus at the heart of the hierarchical social structure. The main uses to which the tsars put the resources they extracted from the peasantry were the defence, expansion and colonisation of their realms.
