The bulk of the population is on the class ladder. Estates in the Russian Empire in the 18th century. When did estates appear in Russia?

Until the 18th century, there was no class system in Russia. Society was divided many times and the composition of social groups changed depending on different situations. Peter I and his followers adjusted Russian society to medieval Western European models and by the 19th century formed a class system in the country. The situation was enshrined in Volume IX of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. In the 4th article, all “natural inhabitants of Russia” were divided into four main classes:

1. The nobility is the highest privileged ruling class.
2. Christian clergy is a privileged class of church servants.
3. The urban population included privileged Honorary Citizens, merchants of the 1st and partly of the 2nd guild, as well as tax-paying merchants of the 3rd guild and townspeople.
4. The rural population consisted of peasants of various forms of dependence and privileged Cossacks.

From these classes and foreign groups, by the end of the century, several categories were formed, which conditionally made up the class structure of Russian society.

Estates in the 19th century: their rights, privileges and responsibilities

By the 19th century, most European countries abandoned the clear division of classes, but in the Russian Empire this tradition continued to exist until the middle of the century. The abolition of serfdom improved the situation of the peasants, but did not weaken inter-class contradictions. The peasantry, crushed by redemption payments, could not, for the most part, escape from severe poverty. The privileged classes retained their dominant position in Russian society for a long time.

In the 18th century, with a significant lag behind the West, in Russia 4 estates were finally formed from the class groups of Moscow society: the gentry (nobility), the clergy, the bourgeoisie (from urban townspeople) and the peasantry.. The main feature of the class system is the presence and transmission of inheritance of personal rights of the estate and corporate rights and obligations.

Registration of the nobility. The nobility was formed from different categories of service people (boyars, okolnichi, clerks, clerks, children of boyars, etc.), received the name of the nobility under Peter I, was renamed the nobility under Catherine II (in the acts of the Statutory Commission of 1767), and transformed over the course of a century from the service class to the ruling, privileged class. Some of the former service people (nobles and children of boyars) settled on. in the outskirts of the state, by the decrees of Peter I of 1698–1703, which formalized the nobility, she was not included in this class, but was transferred under the name of single-lords to the position of state-owned peasants.

The leveling of the position of feudal lords of all ranks was completed by the decree of Peter I of 1714 “On Single Inheritance”, according to which estates were equated to estates and assigned to the nobles on the right of ownership. In 1722, the “Table of Ranks” established methods for obtaining the nobility by length of service. She also secured the status of the ruling class for the gentry.

According to the “Table of Ranks”, everyone in the public service (civil, military, naval) was divided into 14 ranks or ranks, from the highest field marshal and chancellor to the lowest - adjutant to lieutenants and collegiate registrar. All persons from 14th to 8th rank became personal, and from 8th rank - hereditary nobles. Hereditary nobility was passed on to the wife, children and distant descendants in the male line. Daughters who got married acquired the class status of their husband (if he was higher). Before 1874, of the children born before receiving hereditary nobility, only one son received the status of a father, the rest were registered as “honorary citizens” (this status was established in 1832), after 1874 - all.

Under Peter I, the service of nobles with compulsory education began at the age of 15 and was for life. Anna Ioanovna somewhat eased their situation by limiting their service to 25 years and placing its beginning at the age of 20. She also allowed one of the sons or brothers in the noble family to stay at home and take care of the household.

In 1762, Peter III, who stayed on the throne for a short time, abolished by a special decree not only the compulsory education of nobles, but also the compulsory service of the nobility. And Catherine II’s 1785 “Certificate on the Rights and Advantages of the Russian Nobility” finally turned the nobility into a “noble” class.

So, the main sources of the noble class were in the 18th century. birth and length of service. Longevity included the acquisition of nobility through a grant and indigenat for foreigners (according to the “Table of Ranks”), through receiving an order (according to the “Charter of Grant” of Catherine II). In the 19th century higher education and an academic degree will be added to them.

Belonging to the rank of nobility was secured by an entry in the “Velvet Book”, established in 1682 during the abolition of localism, and from 1785 by inclusion in the local (provincial) lists - noble books, divided into 6 parts (according to the sources of the nobility): grant, military length of service, civil service, indigenous, title (order), prescription. Since Peter I, the estate was subordinate to a special department - the Heraldry Office, and from 1748 - to the Department of Heraldry under the Senate.

Rights and advantages of the nobility. 1. Exclusive right of ownership of land. 2. The right to own serfs (with the exception of the 1st half of the 18th century, when persons of all statuses could own serfs: townspeople, priests and even peasants). 3. Personal exemption from taxes and duties, from corporal punishment. 4. The right to build factories and plants (from Catherine II only in the countryside), to develop mineral resources on their land. 5. Since 1771, the exclusive right to serve in a civil department, in the bureaucracy (after the ban on recruiting persons from tax-paying classes), and since 1798 to form an officer corps in the army. 6. The corporate right to have the title of "nobility", which could only be taken away by the court of "peers" or by decision of the king. 7. Finally, according to the “Charter of Complaint” of Catherine II, the nobles received the right to form special noble societies, elect their own representative bodies and their own class court. But this was no longer their exclusive right.

Belonging to the noble class gave the right to a coat of arms, a uniform, riding in carriages drawn by four, dressing footmen in special liveries, etc.

The bodies of class self-government were district and provincial noble meetings, held once every three years, at which leaders of the nobility and their assistants - deputies, as well as members of noble courts were elected. Everyone who met the qualifications took part in the elections: residence, age (25 years), gender (men only), property (income from villages not less than 100 rubles), service (not below the rank of chief officer) and integrity.

The noble assemblies acted as legal entities, had property rights, participated in the distribution of duties, checked the genealogical book, expelled defamed members, submitted complaints to the emperor and the Senate, etc. The leaders of the nobility exercised serious influence on provincial and district authorities.

Formation of the bourgeois class. The original name was citizens (“Regulations of the Chief Magistrate”), then, following the example of Poland and Lithuania, they began to be called burghers. The estate was created gradually, as Peter I introduced European models of the middle class (third estate). It included former guests, townspeople, lower groups of service people - gunners, strikers, etc.

By the “Regulations of the Chief Magistrate,” Peter I divided the emerging class into 2 groups: regular and irregular citizens. The regular ones, in turn, consisted of two guilds. The first guild included bankers, noble merchants, doctors, pharmacists, skippers, silversmiths, icon painters, painters, the second - all those “who trade in small goods and all kinds of food supplies, as well as handcrafted carvers, turners, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, etc. similar." Craftsmen, as in the West, were divided into guilds. At the head of the guilds and workshops were foremen, who often performed the functions of state bodies. Irregular citizens or “vile people” (in the sense of low origin - from slaves, serfs, etc.) included everyone “found in hire and menial work.”

The final registration of the bourgeois class took place in 1785 according to the “Charter of Grant for Rights and Benefits to the Cities of the Russian Empire” of Catherine II. By this time, the entrepreneurial layer in the cities had noticeably “strengthened, in order to stimulate trade, customs outposts and duties, monopolies and other restrictions were eliminated, freedom to establish industrial enterprises (that is, freedom of entrepreneurship) was announced, and peasant crafts were legalized. In 1785, the population cities were finally divided according to the property principle into 6 categories: 1) “real city inhabitants”, owners of real estate within the city; 2) merchants of three guilds; 3) artisans; 4) foreigners and out-of-towners; 5) eminent citizens; 6) the rest of the townspeople population. Belonging to the class was secured by being included in the city's philistine book. Belonging to the merchants' guild was determined by the size of the capital: the first - from 10 to 50 thousand rubles, the second - from 5 to 10 thousand, the third - from 1 to 5 thousand.

The exclusive right of the petty bourgeois class was to engage in crafts and trade. Duties included taxes and conscription. True, there were many exceptions. Already in 1775, Catherine II freed the inhabitants of the suburbs, who had a capital of over 500 rubles, from the poll tax, replacing it with a one percent tax on the declared capital. In 1766, merchants were exempted from conscription. Instead of each recruit, they paid first 360 and then 500 rubles. They were also exempt from corporal punishment. Merchants, especially those of the first guild, were granted certain honorary rights (riding in carriages and carriages).

Corporate law for the bourgeois class also included the creation of associations and self-government bodies. According to the “Charter of Grant”, city residents who had reached the age of 25 and had a certain income (capital, the interest charge on which was not less than 50 rubles) were united into a city society. The meeting of its members elected the mayor and the vowels (deputies) of the city duma. All six categories of the city population sent their elected representatives to the general duma; in the six-voice duma, 6 representatives of each category, elected by the general duma, worked to carry out current affairs. Elections took place every 3 years. The main field of activity was urban management and everything that “serves to the benefit and need of the city.” Of course, governors supervised local governments, including the spending of city funds. However, these amounts, donated by the merchants for urban improvement, for the construction of schools, hospitals, and cultural institutions, were sometimes very significant. They, as Catherine II planned, played an important role in the matter of “benefits and decoration of the city.” It was not for nothing that Alexander I, having come to power in 1801, immediately confirmed the “Charter of Grant”, which had been canceled by Paul I, and restored all the “rights and benefits” of the townspeople and all Catherine’s city institutions.

Peasants. In the 18th century Several categories of peasantry took shape. The rank of state peasants was formed from former black farmers and from peoples who paid yasak. Later, the already mentioned odnodvortsy, descendants of Moscow service people, settled on the southern outskirts of the state, who did not know communal life, joined it. In 1764, by decree of Catherine II, the secularization of church estates was carried out, which came under the jurisdiction of the College of Economy. The peasants taken away from the church began to be called economic peasants. But since 1786, they too became state peasants.

Privately owned (landowner) peasants absorbed all the previous categories of dependent people (serfs, serfs) who belonged to factories and factories since the time of Peter I (possession). Before Catherine II, this category of peasants was also replenished by clergy who remained on staff, retired priests and deacons, sextons and sextons. Catherine II stopped converting people of spiritual origin into serfdom and blocked all other ways of replenishing it (marriage, loan agreement, hiring and service, captivity), except for two: birth and distribution of state lands from peasants into private hands. Distributions - awards were especially widely practiced by Catherine herself and her son, Paul 1, and were stopped in 1801 by one of the first decrees of Alexander I. From that time on, the only source of replenishment of the serf class was birth.

In 1797, by decree of Paul I, another category was formed from the palace peasants - appanage peasants (on the lands of the royal appanage), whose position was similar to the position of state peasants. They were the property of the imperial family.

In the 18th century The situation of the peasants, especially those belonging to the landowners, noticeably worsened. Under Peter I, they turned into a thing that could be sold, donated, exchanged (without land and separately from the family). In 1721, it was recommended to stop the sale of children separately from their parents in order to “calm the cry” among the peasants. But the separation of families continued until 1843.

The landowner used the labor of serfs at his own discretion, quitrent and corvee were not limited by any law, and the previous recommendations of the authorities to take from them “according to force” were a thing of the past. The peasants found themselves deprived not only of personal but also property rights, for all their property was considered to belong to their owner. The law and the right of court of the landowner did not regulate. He was not allowed only to use the death penalty and hand over peasants in his place to justice (under Peter I). True, the same king in the instructions to the governors from 1719. ordered to identify landowners who ruined peasants and transfer management of such estates to relatives.

Restrictions on the rights of serfs, starting in the 1730s, were enshrined in laws. They were forbidden to purchase real estate, open factories, work under contract, be bound by bills, assume obligations without the owner's permission, or enroll in guilds. Landowners were allowed to use corporal punishment and send peasants to restraining houses. The procedure for filing complaints against landowners has become more complicated.

Impunity contributed to the increase in crimes among landowners. An illustrative example is provided by the story of the landowner Saltykova, who killed more than 30 of her serfs, who was exposed and sentenced to death (commuted to life imprisonment) only after a complaint against her fell into the hands of Empress Catherine II.

Only after the uprising of E.I. Pugachev, in which the serfs took an active part, the government began to strengthen state control over their situation and take steps towards mitigating the serfdom. The release of peasants to freedom was legalized, including after serving conscription (together with their wife), after exile to Siberia, for ransom at the request of the landowner (since 1775 without land, and since 1801 - the Decree of Paul I on “free cultivators" - with the land).

Despite the hardships of serfdom, exchange and entrepreneurship developed among the peasantry, and “capitalist” people appeared. The law allowed peasants to trade, first with individual goods, then even with “overseas countries”, and in 1814 people of all conditions were allowed to trade at fairs. Many wealthy peasants, who became rich through trade, were bought out of serfdom and, even before the abolition of serfdom, constituted a significant part of the emerging class of entrepreneurs.

State peasants were, in comparison with serfs, in a much better position. Their personal rights were never subject to such restrictions as the personal rights of serfs. Their taxes were moderate, they could buy land (while retaining duties), and were engaged in entrepreneurial activities. Attempts to curtail their property rights (taking out farm-outs and contracts, purchasing real estate in cities and counties, obliging themselves with bills of exchange) did not have such a detrimental effect on the state of the economy of state peasants, especially those living on the outskirts (in Siberia). Here, the communal orders preserved by the state (land redistribution, mutual responsibility for the payment of taxes), which held back the development of the private economy, were much more energetically destroyed.

Self-government was of greater importance among state peasants. Since ancient times, elders elected at gatherings have played a prominent role. According to the provincial reform of 1775, state peasants, like other classes, received their own court. Under Paul I, volost self-governing organizations were created. Each volost (with a certain number of villages and no more than 3 thousand souls) could elect a volost administration, consisting of a volost head, a headman and a clerk. In the villages, elders and tens were elected. All these bodies performed financial, police and judicial functions.

Clergy. The Orthodox clergy consisted of two parts: white, parish (from ordination) and black, monastic (from tonsure). Only the first constituted the estate itself, for the second part had no heirs (monasticism took a vow of celibacy). The white clergy occupied the lowest positions in the church hierarchy: clergy (from deacon to protopresbyter) and clergy (sacristans, sextons). The highest positions (from bishop to metropolitan) belonged to the black clergy.

In the 18th century the clergy class became hereditary and closed, since the law prohibited persons of other classes from accepting the priesthood. Leaving the class, for a number of formal reasons, was extremely difficult. Among the class rights of the clergy, one can note freedom from personal taxes, from conscription, and from military quarters. It had privilege in the field of legal proceedings. In general courts, the priesthood was tried only for particularly serious criminal offenses; civil cases involving lay people were resolved in the presence of special representatives of the clergy.

The clergy could not engage in activities incompatible with the clergy, including trade, crafts, servicing farm-outs and contracts, producing alcoholic beverages, etc. As we have already seen, in the 18th century. it also lost its main privilege - the right to own estates and serfs. Church ministers were transferred “to pay.”

In the Russian Empire, other Christian and non-Christian faiths coexisted freely with Orthodoxy. Lutheran kirks were built in cities and large villages, and from the middle of the 18th century. and Catholic churches. Mosques were built in places where Muslims lived, and pagodas where Buddhists lived. However, the transition from Orthodoxy to another faith remained prohibited and was severely punished (in the 1730s, there was a known case of an officer being burned in a wooden frame).

Estates and classes.

The entire urban and rural population was divided “according to the difference in rights of state” into four main categories: nobility, clergy, urban and rural inhabitants.

The nobility remained the privileged class. It shared into personal and hereditary.

Right to personal nobility, which was not inherited, received by representatives of various classes who were in the civil service and had the lowest rank in the Table of Ranks. By serving the Fatherland, one could receive hereditary, i.e., inherited, nobility. To do this, one had to receive a certain rank or award. The emperor could grant hereditary nobility for successful entrepreneurial or other activities.

City dwellers- hereditary honorary citizens, merchants, townspeople, artisans.

Rural inhabitants, Cossacks and other people engaged in agriculture.

The country was in the process of forming a bourgeois society with its two the main classes - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. At the same time, the predominance of semi-feudal agriculture in the Russian economy contributed to the preservation and two main classes of feudal society - landowners and peasants.

The growth of cities, the development of industry, transport and communications, and the increase in the cultural needs of the population lead to the second half of the 19th century. to increase the proportion of people professionally engaged in mental work and artistic creativity - intelligentsia: engineers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, etc.

Peasantry.

The peasants are still constituted the vast majority population of the Russian Empire. Peasants, both former serfs and state-owned ones, were part of self-governing rural societies - communities Several rural societies made up the volost.

Community members were connected mutual guarantee in paying taxes and fulfilling duties. Therefore, there was a dependence of the peasants on the community, manifested primarily in the restriction of freedom of movement.

For the peasants there was special volost court, whose members were also elected by the village assembly. At the same time, the volost courts made their decisions not only on the basis of legal norms, but also guided by customs. Often these courts punished peasants for such offenses as wasting money, drunkenness, and even witchcraft. In addition, peasants were subject to certain punishments that had long been abolished for other classes. For example, volost courts had the right to sentence members of their class who had not reached 60 years of age to flogging.

Russian peasants revered their elders, viewing them as bearers of experience and traditions. This attitude extended to the emperor and served as a source of monarchism, faith in the “tsar-father” - an intercessor, guardian of truth and justice.

Russian peasants professed Orthodoxy. Unusually harsh natural conditions and the associated hard work - suffering, the results of which did not always correspond to the efforts expended, the bitter experience of lean years immersed the peasants in the world of superstitions, signs and rituals.

Liberation from serfdom brought to the village big changes:

• P First of all, the stratification of the peasants intensified. The horseless peasant (if he was not engaged in other non-agricultural work) became a symbol of rural poverty. At the end of the 80s. in European Russia, 27% of households were horseless. Having one horse was considered a sign of poverty. There were about 29% of such farms. At the same time, from 5 to 25% of owners had up to ten horses. They bought large land holdings, hired farm laborers and expanded their farms.

• a sharp increase in the need for money. The peasants had to pay redemption payments and a poll tax, have funds for zemstvo and secular fees, for rent payments for land and for repaying bank loans. The majority of peasant farms were involved in market relations. The main source of peasant income was the sale of bread. But due to low yields, peasants were often forced to sell grain to the detriment of their own interests. The export of grain abroad was based on the malnutrition of the village residents and was rightly called by contemporaries “hungry export.”

• Poverty, hardships associated with redemption payments, lack of land and other troubles firmly tied the bulk of the peasants to the community. After all, it guaranteed its members mutual support. In addition, the distribution of land in the community helped the middle and poorest peasants to survive in case of famine. Allotments were distributed among community members interstriped, and were not brought together in one place. Each community member had a small plot (strip) in different places. In a dry year, a plot located in a lowland could produce a quite bearable harvest; in rainy years, a plot on a hillock helped out.

There were peasants committed to the traditions of their fathers and grandfathers, to the community with its collectivism and security, and there were also “new” peasants who wanted to farm independently at their own risk. Many peasants went to work in the cities. The long-term isolation of men from the family, from village life and rural work led to an increased role of women not only in economic life, but also in peasant self-government.

The most important problem of Russia on the eve of the 20th century. was to turn the peasants - the bulk of the country's population - into politically mature citizens, respecting both their own and others' rights and capable of active participation in public life.

Nobility.

After the peasant reforms In 1861, the stratification of the nobility was rapidly progressing due to the active influx of people from other segments of the population into the privileged class.

Gradually, the most privileged class lost its economic advantages. After the peasant reform of 1861, the area of ​​land owned by the nobles decreased by an average of 0.68 million dessiatinas 8* per year. The number of landowners among the nobles was declining. Moreover, almost half of the landowners had estates that were considered small. In the post-reform period, most of the landowners continued to use semi-feudal forms of farming and went bankrupt.

Simultaneously Some of the nobles widely participated in entrepreneurial activities: in railway construction, industry, banking and insurance. Funds for business were received from the redemption under the reform of 1861, from the leasing of land and on collateral. Some nobles became owners of large industrial enterprises, took prominent positions in companies, and became owners of shares and real estate. A significant part of the nobles joined the ranks of owners of small commercial and industrial establishments. Many acquired the profession of doctors, lawyers, and became writers, artists, and performers. At the same time, some of the nobles went bankrupt, joining the lower strata of society.

Thus, the decline of the landowner economy accelerated the stratification of the nobility and weakened the influence of the landowners in the state. In the second half of the 19th century. the nobles lost their dominant position in the life of Russian society: political power was concentrated in the hands of officials, economic power in the hands of the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia became the ruler of thoughts, and the class of once all-powerful landowners gradually disappeared.

Bourgeoisie.

The development of capitalism in Russia led to the growth of the bourgeoisie. Continuing to be officially listed as nobles, merchants, bourgeois, and peasants, representatives of this class played an increasingly important role in the life of the country. Since the time of the “railway fever” of the 60s and 70s. The bourgeoisie was actively replenished at the expense of officials. By serving on the boards of private banks and industrial enterprises, officials provided a link between state power and private production. They helped industrialists obtain lucrative orders and concessions.

The period of the formation of the Russian bourgeoisie coincided with the active activity of the populists within the country and with the growth of the revolutionary struggle of the Western European proletariat. Therefore, the bourgeoisie in Russia looked at the autocratic government as its protector from revolutionary uprisings.

And although the interests of the bourgeoisie were often infringed by the state, they did not dare to take active action against the autocracy.

Some of the founders of famous commercial and industrial families - S.V. Morozov, P.K. Konovalov - remained illiterate until the end of their days. But they tried to give their children a good education, including a university education. Sons were often sent abroad to study commercial and industrial practices.

Many representatives of this new generation of the bourgeoisie sought to support scientists and representatives of the creative intelligentsia, and invested money in the creation of libraries and art galleries. A. A. Korzinkin, K. T. Soldatenkov, P. K. Botkin and D. P. Botkin, S. M. Tretyakov and P. M. Tretyakov, S. I. played a significant role in the expansion of charity and patronage of the arts. Mamontov.

Proletariat.

One more The main class of industrial society was the proletariat. The proletariat included all hired workers, including those employed in agriculture and crafts, but its core were factory, mining and railway workers - the industrial proletariat. His education took place simultaneously with the industrial revolution. By the mid-90s. XIX century About 10 million people were employed in the wage labor sector, of which 1.5 million were industrial workers.

The working class of Russia had a number of features:

• He was closely connected with the peasantry. A significant part of the factories and factories were located in villages, and the industrial proletariat itself was constantly replenished with people from the village. A hired factory worker was, as a rule, a first-generation proletarian and maintained a close connection with the village.
• Representatives became workers different nationalities.
• In Russia there was a significantly greater concentration proletariat in large enterprises than in other countries.

Life of workers.

In factory barracks (dormitories), they settled not according to the workshops, but according to the provinces and districts from which they came. The workers from one locality were headed by a master, who recruited them to the enterprise. Workers had difficulty getting used to urban conditions. Separation from home often led to a drop in moral level and drunkenness. The workers worked long hours and, in order to send money home, huddled in damp and dark rooms and ate poorly.

Workers' speeches for improving their situation in the 80-90s. became more numerous, sometimes they took on acute forms, accompanied by violence against factory management, destruction of factory premises and clashes with the police and even with troops. The largest strike was that broke out on January 7, 1885 at Morozov’s Nikolskaya manufactory in the city of Orekhovo-Zuevo.

The labor movement during this period was a response to the specific actions of “their” factory owners: increasing fines, lowering prices, forced payment of wages in goods from the factory store, etc.

Clergy.

Church ministers - the clergy - constituted a special class, divided into black and white clergy. The black clergy - monks - took on special obligations, including leaving the "world". The monks lived in numerous monasteries.

The white clergy lived in the “world”; their main task was to perform worship and religious preaching. From the end of the 17th century. a procedure was established according to which the place of a deceased priest was inherited, as a rule, by his son or another relative. This contributed to the transformation of the white clergy into a closed class.

Although the clergy in Russia belonged to a privileged part of society, rural priests, who made up the vast majority of it, eked out a miserable existence, as they fed on their own labor and at the expense of parishioners, who themselves often barely made ends meet. In addition, as a rule, they were burdened with large families.

The Orthodox Church had its own educational institutions. At the end of the 19th century. in Russia there were 4 theological academies, in which about a thousand people studied, and 58 seminaries, training up to 19 thousand future clergy.

Intelligentsia.

At the end of the 19th century. Of the more than 125 million inhabitants of Russia, 870 thousand could be classified as intelligentsia. The country had over 3 thousand scientists and writers, 4 thousand engineers and technicians, 79.5 thousand teachers and 68 thousand private teachers, 18.8 thousand doctors, 18 thousand artists, musicians and actors.

In the first half of the 19th century. The ranks of the intelligentsia were replenished mainly at the expense of the nobles.

Some of the intelligentsia were never able to find practical application for their knowledge. Neither industry, nor zemstvos, nor other institutions could provide employment for many university graduates whose families experienced financial difficulties. Receiving a higher education was not a guarantee of an increase in living standards, and hence social status. This gave rise to a mood of protest.

But besides material reward for their work, the most important need of the intelligentsia is freedom of expression, without which true creativity is unthinkable. Therefore, in the absence of political freedoms in the country, the anti-government sentiments of a significant part of the intelligentsia intensified.

Cossacks.

The emergence of the Cossacks was associated with the need to develop and protect the newly acquired outlying lands. For their service, the Cossacks received land from the government. Therefore, a Cossack is both a warrior and a peasant.

At the end of the 19th century. there were 11 Cossack troops

In villages and villages there were special primary and secondary Cossack schools, where much attention was paid to the military training of students.

In 1869, the nature of land ownership in the Cossack regions was finally determined. Communal ownership of stanitsa lands was consolidated, of which each Cossack received a share of 30 dessiatines. The remaining lands constituted military reserves. It was intended mainly to create new village sites as the Cossack population grew. Forests, pastures, and reservoirs were in public use.

Conclusion:

In the second half of the 19th century. there was a breakdown of class barriers and the formation of new groups of society along economic and class lines. The new entrepreneurial class - the bourgeoisie - includes representatives of the merchant class, successful peasant entrepreneurs, and the nobility. The class of hired workers - the proletariat - is replenished primarily at the expense of peasants, but a tradesman, the son of a village priest, and even a “noble gentleman” were not uncommon in this environment. There is a significant democratization of the intelligentsia, even the clergy is losing its former isolation. And only the Cossacks remain to a greater extent adherents to their former way of life.

In Russia, by the beginning of the 20th century, estates and classes coexisted, since at that time Russia was in the stage of transition from a feudal system, which was characterized by class division, to a capitalist system, which was characterized by a class division of society.

Philistinism

Philistinism - the middle strata of the urban population (petty employees, artisans, domestic servants, etc.) In Russia before 1917 - an estate, the lowest rank of urban inhabitants. The bourgeoisie belonged to the tax-paying classes, bore conscription and tax duties, and could be subject to corporal punishment.

Merchants

The merchant class is a trading class. It turned out to be the most adapted to the beginning of capitalist transformations. The merchant class became the basis for the formation of the Russian bourgeoisie. The merchant class was freed from the poll tax, corporal punishment, and its elite was freed from conscription. The class status of the merchant was determined by the property qualification. Since the end of the 18th century, the merchant class was divided into three guilds. Belonging to one of them was determined by the size of the capital, from which the merchant was obliged to pay an annual guild fee in the amount of 1% of his capital. This made it difficult for representatives of other segments of the population to gain access to the Merchants. For the period from the beginning of the 19th century to the revolution 1917 The merchant class grew from 125 thousand males to 230 thousand. However, 70-80% belonged to the third guild. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the class boundaries of the merchant class had lost clarity; many rich representatives of the merchant class received titles of nobility and, on the contrary, part of the philistinism and peasantry joined its ranks.

Classes

Bourgeoisie

The bourgeoisie is a class of exploiters that owns the instruments and means of production as private property and extracts surplus value through the exploitation of hired labor. The petty bourgeoisie is a class of small owners who own the means of production and use wage labor to a small extent or not at all. By the beginning of the 20th century, the bourgeoisie became the economic support of the autocracy, but was deprived of political rights. This leads to the fact that the Russian bourgeoisie was highly politicized.

Proletariat

The proletariat (German “Proletariat” from the Latin “proletarius” - the poor) is a social class deprived of ownership of the means of production, for which the main source of livelihood is the sale of its own labor power.
The proletariat in Russia was quite small (10%). It was characterized by a sharp stratification into the labor aristocracy and unskilled workers, whose standard of living was extremely low and whose working conditions were appalling. The poorest sections of the proletariat were extremely revolutionary.

Landowners

Landowner - nobleman - landowner owning an estate, patrimonial owner in Russia at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Initially, service people, “placed”, i.e. received land (estate) for use for public service. Gradually the estates became hereditary, with 1714- property of P. October Revolution 1917 liquidated the P. estate and their land ownership.

Peasants

Peasants (from "Christians") are agricultural producers of family-individual labor, the main class of feudalism, when the majority of the peasantry was turned into serfs. Peasants emerged as a class in the 14th century. They were the property of the landowner, were personally dependent on the landowner, paid a poll tax, quitrent, worked corvée, monthly work, and used plots of communal land; The right of serfs to buy land and enter into transactions was limited. They were distinguished by the use of traditional tools, weakly changing production techniques, patriarchal orders, local isolation, and narrow interests.

At the beginning of the reign of Peter I there were approximately 90% of Russia's population and finally lost personal freedom. Already in the 17th century. the position of the peasants almost ceased to differ from the position of the slaves. With the development of the economy, they were involved in commodity-money relations, which led to stratification, the separation of farms, the numerical reduction of the peasantry, and the cooperation of labor. In the 19th century peasants accounted for approximately 75% of the country's population(about half of the peasants are poor).

The relationship between estates and classes

An estate is a social group that had certain inheritable rights and responsibilities enshrined in custom or law. The formation of classes took place in the process of legal registration of property inequality, as well as social functions - religious, military, professional - of different groups of the population; in the course of this, a special way of life and morality of each group developed.

The class division of society was associated with the class division, but did not coincide with it. The number of estates, the degree of their isolation and isolation varied greatly in different countries and at different times, which reflected specific paths of historical development. The characteristic principle of inheritance of class affiliation was also observed to varying degrees. Thus, it was absolutely inherent in the Indian castes, and in the medieval states of Western Europe or Russia the opportunity to enter the privileged class was given by the monarch. An exception to the rule of inheritance of class is the Christian clergy. Striving to achieve ideological and spiritual dominance, the Christian Church tried to attract the most gifted people to its service, regardless of their class and financial status and promoting their education.

A classic example of the class organization of medieval society is France, where in the 14th and 15th centuries. the entire population was divided into three groups: the clergy, the nobility and the so-called third estate. Moreover, the first two belonged to the same class of feudal lords and had numerous privileges, the most significant of which included tax exemption and special advantages when holding government positions. The third estate, subject to taxes, included all other classes and groups of the population, including during the late Middle Ages the nascent bourgeoisie, which gradually accumulated enormous wealth, but remained politically disempowered. Therefore, during the period of establishment of capitalist relations - during bourgeois revolutions - it destroys the class hierarchy, contrasting it with the hierarchy of wealth and establishing the principle of formal equality of citizens. Thus, in France, the class system was destroyed by the Great French Revolution of 1789-1799.

In Russia in the 2nd half of the 18th century. The division of society into 5 estates was established: nobility, clergy, peasantry, merchants and philistines.

The nobility constituted the highest privileged class, whose main duty was “sovereign service,” primarily military. Since the time of the “Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility” (1762), this service has ceased to be mandatory, and privileges increasingly outweigh the “gravity” of duties. The command staff of the tsarist army was formed from the nobility, its representatives occupied the highest government positions, and local government was in their hands. It had the exclusive right to own populated lands, controlled agriculture, had a monopoly on distilling, and was free from state taxes. Corporal punishment was prohibited against nobles. The children of nobles enjoyed an exclusive, later preferential right to education. Estate self-government preserved and ensured their privileges (formed a noble society, convened noble meetings, elected leaders of the nobility in provinces and districts, police officers, etc.).

The clergy was entrusted with the responsibility of educating the flock in the spirit of the ideas of Christianity and unconditional submission to the monarch and those in power, for which they were granted many privileges, including tax exemption and the right to educate children, which allowed the children of the clergy, in turn, to enter the clergy.

The merchants are the main trading class of Russia (later industry was also in their hands). This is the tax-paying class. In addition to the basic right to engage in industrial and commercial activities, membership in it gave the right to receive, for example, the title of hereditary honorary citizen, exempted from corporal punishment, provided some opportunities in the education of children, ensured participation in the city and class (merchant societies, congresses, meetings, etc.). d.) self-government.

The petty bourgeois class, also taxable, included city dwellers from small traders, artisans, homeowners, and low-level employees. Belonging to the philistinism did not give privileges and did not exempt from corporal punishment. The lot of the peasant was the hard work of a farmer on the landowner's land, the payment of all kinds of taxes and complete lack of rights.

This class division existed in Russia before the February bourgeois revolution of 1917.

The bourgeoisie denies estates, but individual manifestations of estate inequality under capitalism continue to exist.