Open society refers to a set up where individuals have the chance to move higher or down the social class through hard work, luck or marriage. On the other hand, in a closed society, a person is assigned a social status by birth, and they have no possibility of moving up or down the class. The Russian Serfdom was a form of a closed society where when one was born to a peasant family in a particular estate, he or she would live their entire life in that estate to the point of being restricted to marrying from the same estate. Russian serfdom started during the periods between 16 th and 17 th century due to the shortage of labor to work in the widely available pieces of land. Individuals were granted land in return for their services either in the military or other services; the demand for laborers to work in the available lands led to the introduction of serfdom. Serfdom was a term used to describe the sense of unfree peasants of the Russian empire. In the 17 th century, serfdom became the dominant relationship between the nobility and the peasants; a series of steps were made by these landowners to restrict the mobility of peasants living on these farms. Peasants were also subjected to an increasing oversight by a class of servitors who monitored them closely. However, serfdom only existed in the southern and central parts of the Empire. This practice was not introduced in the northern parts of the Russian empire in such areas as Siberia and Urals.
Culture before Transition
Origins of serfdom in Russia can be traced back to the 11 th century where feudal exploitation began to spread in some regions of the rural population. Feudal exploitation was a form of structure in the society where the relationship was developed between holding of land in exchange for service or labor. By the 15 th century the rights of some peasants to leave their masters had been limited to a one week period, and by 1550 the transition to full serfdom had been achieved. Additional taxes were introduced called the transportation fee, and if a peasant was not able to pay the tax in the form of harvest, then a temporary prohibition preventing the peasant from leaving their master was introduced. Over time the prohibition was made permanent, and a peasant was completely prohibited from leaving his master.
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Permanent prohibition was introduced in 1597 during the reign of Boris Godunov and the rights of peasants to free movement around was revoked hence binding the large majority of the Russian peasantry into full serfdom. It was during this period that the fixed years was introduced; fixed years refers to the number of years that a runaway slave had to be searched and returned to the owner. Initially, the runaway years was set to a 5-year time frame and sanctions were defined for those individuals found to be keeping runaways or those hiding them. The fine imposed on people found to be hiding slaves were paid to the previous owners of the slave. In 1649 serfs were given to estates and in 1658 escape of peasants from these estates was declared as a criminal offense. These gave the Russian landowners unlimited ownership over the serfs meaning that they could transfer their serfs to another landowner while keeping the family and personal property of the serf. The landowner, however, was not allowed to kill the serf.
As time went, major landowners felt that the period of slave search and prosecution was short and they started lobbying for an increased time frame. By the year 1642, the Russian government increased the time limit of slave search from 5 years to 10 years; they also increased the limit for the search of those peasants taken by new owners to 15 years.
The serfs were not allowed to marry the persons of their choice since their mobility was significantly restricted that there was not much an option when it came to selecting a spouse. Marriages were not also allowed to take place on some days of the week. For instance, marriage was not authorized to be held on the eve or day of the holiday, time of fasting, and the entire week of Easter or two weeks before Christmas. Marriage was not allowed to take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The minimum age of marriage initially was set to be 13 years for girls, and 15 years for boys, however, the age limit was later increased to 16 years for ladies and 18 years for men. Individuals that wanted to marry at the age of 60 years needed to have permission but an individual over 80 years was forbidden from marrying. The landowners wanted to keep all their slaves, and they discouraged marrying from other estates.
Culture during Transition
The transition period was preceded by a series of rebellions where several people including peasants and other free persons revolted against the bondage. Most of these rebellions were started by the Cossack uprisings. Cossack was a group mainly composed of East Slavic speaking individuals. During this period the revolutions were started by Ivan Bolotnikov, Stenka Razin, and Yamelyan Pugachev. The rebellions were not targeted towards the institution of serfdom itself; instead, it involved escape from slavery and joining the Cossack movement.
Peter III came up with two measures in the year 1762 that helped in abolishing serfdom. He came up with rules to end mandatory service for noble state service. The second rule he introduced was the secularization of church estates that transferred its peasants and land to the state jurisdiction. By the year 1775, Catherine II came up with measures that will prosecute estate owners in instances where they treat their slaves cruelly. These measures were further strengthened in 1871 and the late 1820’s. The law required that estate owners should help serfs during the times of famine by even giving them grains available in the reserves.
During 1816 to 1819, serfdom was abolished in Livonia, Courland, and Estland; the land, however, remained in the hands of the noble and labor rent was imposed up to 1868 when it was replaced by landless laborers and sharecropping. The landless workers were required to ask for permission before leaving the estate.
Culture after Transition
The transition was achieved during the reign of Alexander II, who was one of the, most liberal leader in Russia. He saw that the feudal system was a liability and it was a contributing factor that resulted in the defeat of Russian forces in the Crimean war. The Russian armies that were mainly composed of privately owned serfs were outmatched by France and Great Britain army that was mainly made up of volunteers.
Alexander published an Emancipation Manifesto in March 1861; the manifesto was later converted into law that required privately owned serfs to be given the right to be free citizens, to own land, to marry people of their choices, and to own businesses. The slaves that were tied to the land that they had earlier on leased were allowed to buy the land though at unfriendly rates. The lands that the serfs were allowed to buy were mostly of a poor quality while the best junk of land remained with the land owners. The newly freed serfs had to acquire land for more than three times the market value. They paid for the land through loans that were given to them by the government and were required to pay it back over a period of 49 years. This redemption payment brought a considerable amount of hardship that forced them to resale the land to the previous owners so as to pay their debts.
The debts were abolished in 1907; the emancipation of the serfs led to a period of growth in the Russian economy where it expanded on an average of 4.6% between the year 1860 and 1900. The freedom of serfs led to an increase in commercial farming that also had a great impact on the Russian agricultural sector. The changing nature of working and middle classes also resulted in the increase in the number of individuals qualified to take positions in management of industries and factories that in the long run increased the productivity.
Conclusion
As seen above, adopting an open society brings about a positive change towards the economy. It brings a level ground where every individual strives to be better, unlike the closed economy where individuals are not allowed to work hard to better their lives instead they are required to accept themselves the way they were born and maintain the status quo the way it is. The lives of the slaves turned for the better when they were given the rights to own property and to marry from any facet; it even led to the rapid growth in the Russian economy.
