Names

Table of class position in society. What is the estate in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century? Unprivileged social groups

Today in Russia there is no class division, it was abolished after the revolution, in 1917. And what is an estate in pre-revolutionary Russia, what social groups did our ancestors belong to, and what rights and obligations did they have? Let's figure it out.

What is an estate in the Russian Empire?

Such a division of the people was official in pre-revolutionary Russia. And first of all, the estates were divided into taxable and non-taxable. Within these two large groups there were subdivisions and layers. The state granted certain rights to each estate. These rights were enshrined in legislation. Each of the groups had to perform certain duties.

So what is an estate? So in Russia one can name a category of subjects who enjoyed special rights and had their own obligations in relation to the state.

When did estates appear in Russia?

Class division began to emerge from the time of the formation of the Russian state. Initially, it was a class group, not particularly different from each other in rights. The transformations in the era of Peter and Catherine formed clearer class boundaries, but at the same time, the difference between the Russian system and the Western European one was much wider opportunities for transition from one group to another, for example, through public service.

Estates in Russia ceased to exist in 1917.

The main difference between estates in the Russian Empire

The main noticeable difference between them was their right to privileges. Representatives of the exempt class had significant privileges:

did not pay the poll tax;
were not subjected to corporal punishment;
were exempted from military service (until 1874).

The unprivileged, or taxable, estate was deprived of these rights.

privileged social groups

The nobility was the most honorable estate of the Russian Empire, the basis of the state, the support of the monarch, the most educated and cultured stratum of society. And you need to understand that such an estate was dominant in Russia, despite its small number.

The nobility was divided into two groups: hereditary and personal. The first was considered more honorable and was inherited. Personal nobility could be obtained by order of service or by a special highest award, and it could be hereditary (inherited to descendants) or lifelong (did not apply to children).

The clergy is a privileged class. It was divided into white (worldly) and black (monastic). According to the degree of priesthood, the clergy were divided into three groups: bishop, priest and deacon.

Belonging to the clergy was inherited by children, and could also be acquired by joining the white clergy of representatives of other social groups. The exception was serfs without a leave of absence from the owners. The children of clergy, upon reaching the age of majority, retained their belonging to the clergy only on the condition of entering a clergy position. But they could also choose a secular career. In this case, they had the same rights as personal nobles.

The merchant class was also a privileged class. It was divided into guilds, depending on which the merchants had various privileges and rights to trade and fishing. Registration in the merchant class from other classes was possible on a temporary basis when paying guild duties. Belonging to a given social group was determined by the size of the declared capital. The children belonged to the merchant class, but upon reaching the age of majority, they had to independently enroll in the guild to acquire a separate certificate, or they became philistines.

The Cossacks are a special semi-privileged military estate. The Cossacks had the right to corporate ownership of lands and were exempt from duties, but they were obliged to perform military service. Belonging to the Cossack estate was inherited, however, representatives of other social groups could also enroll in the Cossack troops. Cossacks could reach the service of the nobility. Then belonging to the nobility was combined with belonging to the Cossacks.

Unprivileged social groups

Philistinism - urban unprivileged taxable class. The petty bourgeois were necessarily assigned to a certain city, from which they could leave only with a temporary passport. They paid a poll tax, were obliged to carry out military service, and did not have the right to enter the civil service. Belonging to the bourgeois class was inherited. Craftsmen and small merchants also belonged to the bourgeois class, but could increase their position. Craftsmen were enrolled in the workshop and became workshops. Small merchants could eventually move into the merchant class.

The peasantry is the most numerous and dependent social group deprived of privileges. The peasantry was divided into:

state-owned (belonging to the state or the royal house),
landlord,
sessional (assigned to factories and factories).

Representatives of the peasantry were attached to their community, paid a poll tax and were subject to recruitment and other duties, and could also be subjected to corporal punishment. However, after the reform of 1861, they had the opportunity to move to the city and register as a tradesman, subject to the purchase of real estate in the city. They used this opportunity: a peasant bought real estate in the city, became a tradesman and was exempt from part of the taxes, while continuing to live in the countryside and farm.

At the beginning of the 19th century, by the time of the revolution and the abolition of the class organization in Russia, many boundaries and divisions between the strata of society were noticeably erased. Representatives of estates had much more opportunities to move from one social group to another. Also, the duties of each class have undergone significant transformations.

In any society that has crossed the stage of primitiveness and is at the stage of civilization, inequality necessarily appears. Society is divided into different groups of people, with some groups in a high position in society, and others in a low one.

Historians have put forward two ways to distinguish such groups of people in medieval society. The first way is the allocation of estates, that is, such groups of people who have strictly defined rights and obligations in society, which are inherited. Estates are closed: it is very difficult or almost impossible to move from one estate to another. This means that in what class a person was born, in that he, as a rule, lived all his life. In the Middle Ages, there were three estates, each of which had a specific occupation. According to the prestige and importance of this occupation, the estates received numbers. The people of the Middle Ages clearly knew what class they belonged to. The idea of division into estates was reinforced by Christian teaching: it was believed that God himself singled out three estates (therefore, the number of the estate determined its proximity to God) and assigned each person a place in one of them. Therefore, to strive to move from one estate to another meant to oppose "God's will." Only the first estate was replenished at the expense of people from other estates, although belonging to the estate of those at war and working was considered hereditary. In some rare cases, the right to move from one estate to another was granted by the king.

The closest to God was considered the first estate, which consisted entirely of the clergy (people who served in churches and monasteries: monks, priests, bishops and above up to the pope). It was called “prayers”, because its main merit to society was that it atoned for the sins of people belonging to other classes before God, took care of their spiritual healing. The clergy were to serve as an example of faith and morality for the whole society. The second estate was called "warring" and consisted of warrior knights of various levels: from the richest and most influential (dukes and counts) to the poor, who could hardly find money to buy a horse. The main merit of the representatives of the second estate before society was that they shed their blood in battles, protecting the fatherland, the king and people belonging to other estates from external enemies. Finally, the so-called “third estate” was the furthest from God, which included all other people: the majority were peasants (they were engaged in agriculture and partly handicraft), and the smaller part were townspeople (they were also called burghers, they were engaged in craft and trade), people of "liberal professions" (wandering artists, teachers, doctors, etc.), etc. The third estate was also called "workers", since the people who were part of it created food and everything necessary for themselves and the first two estates. It was only through the hard work of the Third Estate that the other two could carry out their duties.

But the allocation of estates did not take into account the most important thing for the Middle Ages: who owned the main wealth for that era - land. Therefore, historians have put forward another way to distinguish groups in medieval society - to distinguish classes. Classes are distinguished not on the basis of the rights and obligations of each person, but on the basis of what kind of property a person had. Historians have identified two main classes in medieval society: the class of feudal lords, whose representatives owned land plots, and the class of peasants, who did not have their own land. In order to feed himself, the peasant needed to take land from the feudal lord for rent, but for this he was obliged to bear special duties in favor of the feudal lord. There were two of these duties: either the peasant gave away part of the product received on the rented plot (crop, meat, etc.) (such an obligation was called quitrent), or he had to work on the land of the feudal lord several days a week (on the plot that the feudal lord did not rented out to peasants) - such a duty was called corvée (the word meant that the land belonged to the "master" - the feudal lord). The class of feudal lords included the king, knights and the church (clergy), since it was they who owned the land in the Middle Ages.

Over time, the feudal lords attached the peasants to the land: if earlier the peasant could move from one feudal lord to another when he did not like the growth of corvee and dues, now the peasant, together with his family, was always forced to work for his master. Moreover, the feudal lords received judicial power over the peasants (the disputes of all the peasants who lived on the feudal lord's estate were resolved by the feudal lord himself) and the right to interfere in the private life of the peasants (to allow or not allow them to move, marry, etc.). This complete dependence of the peasant on the feudal lord (both land, and judicial, and personal) was called serfdom.

Questions:

1. Make a table "Differences between estates and classes", independently choosing criteria from the studied text

criteria	classes	estates

2. Fill in the diagram: "Two ways of dividing medieval society into groups"

class name	who was in	duty in society

class name

relation to property

had __________, but did not work for it and rented it to _____________

did not have their own __________, but rented it from _________ for two duties - ___________ (cultivating the land of the feudal lord) and ____________ (giving part of the crop to the feudal lord)

3. Why were the estates numbered from one to three?

4. Estates in the Middle Ages were divided into higher and lower: the higher ones were honorary, their representatives had more rights than duties, while the lower ones had the opposite. Think about which classes belonged to the higher, and which - to the lower?

5. The position of which of the estates was the most difficult? What were the demands of this class?

6. What was considered the main wealth in the Middle Ages? Justify your answer with the available knowledge about the Middle Ages.

7. What estates possessed landed property in the Middle Ages and therefore can be considered a class of feudal lords?

8. What are duties? What were the main duties in the Middle Ages?

9. Why were attempts to move from one class to another considered sinful?

10. Did wealth affect what class a person belonged to?

11. How did relations develop between the classes of peasants and feudal lords?

12. What is serfdom?

13. Remember, from which word did the name of feudalism and the estate of feudal lords come from?

14. In the Middle Ages, the peasants did not own land, but at the end of the ancient era, many peasants had land (in Rome, many released slaves received land, among the Germans the land belonged to peasant communities). Think and name several ways in which the peasants lost their land, and the feudal lords received it.

.
(History reference).

The population of a state may consist either of various ethnographic groups, or of one nation, but in any case it consists of different social unions (classes, estates).
estate- a social group that occupies a certain position in the hierarchical structure of society in accordance with its rights, duties and privileges enshrined in custom or law and inherited.

in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, which determined the provisions of the estates, continues to operate. The law distinguished four main classes:

nobility,
clergy,
urban population,
rural population.

The urban population, in turn, was divided into five groups:

honorary citizens,
merchants,
workshop craftsmen,
tradesmen,
small proprietors and working people, those. employed

As a result of the class division, society was a pyramid, at the base of which were broad social strata, and at the head was the highest ruling stratum of society - the nobility.

Nobility.
Throughout the XVIII century. there is a process of strengthening the role of the nobility as the ruling class. Serious changes took place in the very structure of the nobility, its self-organization and legal status. These changes took place on several fronts. The first of these consisted in the internal consolidation of the nobility, the gradual erasure of differences between the previously existing main groups of service people “in the fatherland” (boyars, Moscow nobles, city nobles, boyar children, residents, etc.).

In this regard, the role of the Decree on Uniform Heritage of 1714 was great, eliminating the differences between estates and estates and, accordingly, between the categories of nobility that owned land on patrimonial and local rights. After this decree, all noble landowners had land on the basis of a single right - real estate.

There was also a big role Tables of ranks (1722) finally eliminated (at least in legal terms) the last remnants of parochialism (appointments to positions “according to the fatherland”, i.e. the nobility of the family and the past service of the ancestors) and at the one who becamefor all nobles, the obligation to start service from the lower ranks of the 14th class (ensign, cornet, midshipman) in the military and naval service, collegiate registrar - in the civil service and consistent promotion, depending on their merits, abilities and devotion to the sovereign.

It must be admitted that this service was really difficult. Sometimes a nobleman did not visit his estates for most of his life, because. was constantly on campaigns or served in distant garrisons. But already the government of Anna Ivanovna in 1736 limited the term of service to 25 years.
Peter III Decree on the liberties of the nobility of 1762 abolished compulsory service for the nobles.
A significant number of nobles left the service, retired and settled on their estates. At the same time, the nobility was exempted from corporal punishment.

Catherine II, during her accession in the same year, confirmed these noble liberties. The abolition of the obligatory service of the nobility became possible due to the fact that by the second half of the 18th century. the main foreign policy tasks (access to the sea, the development of the South of Russia, etc.) had already been resolved and there was no longer any need for extreme exertion of the forces of society.

A number of measures are being taken to further expand and confirm noble privileges and strengthen administrative control over the peasants. The most important of them are the Establishment for the management of the provinces in 1775 and Letter of commendation to the nobility in 1785

By the early 20th century, the nobility continued to be the ruling class, the most cohesive, the most educated, and the most accustomed to political power. The first Russian revolution gave impetus to the further political unification of the nobility. In 1906, at the All-Russian Congress of Authorized Noble Societies, the central body of these societies was created - Council of the United Nobility. He had a significant influence on government policy.

Clergy.
The next privileged estate after the nobility was the clergy, which was divided into white (parish) and black (monasticism). It enjoyed certain estate privileges: the clergy and their children were exempted from the poll tax; recruiting duty; were subject to ecclesiastical court according to canon law (with the exception of cases “according to the word and deed of the sovereign”).

The subordination of the Orthodox Church to the state was a historical tradition rooted in its Byzantine history, where the emperor was the head of the church. Based on these traditions, after the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700, Peter 1 did not allow the election of a new patriarch, but first appointed Archbishop Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan as locum tenens of the patriarchal throne with a much smaller amount of church power, and then with the creation of state colleges, among them was formed An ecclesiastical college composed of a president, two vice presidents, four counselors, and four assessors to manage church affairs.

In 1721 the Theological College was renamed into Holy Governing Synod. A secular official was appointed to oversee the affairs of the Synod - Chief Prosecutor of the Synod subordinate to the Attorney General.
The synod was subordinated to the bishops who headed the church districts - dioceses.

After creation Synod, the lands were again returned to the church and the church was obliged to maintain part of the schools, hospitals and almshouses from its income.

The secularization of church property was completed by Catherine II. By decree of 1764, the church began to be financed from the treasury. Its activities were regulated by the Spiritual Regulations of 1721.

Reforms of church administration were carried out not only in the Orthodox Church, but also in Muslim. To manage the Muslim clergy in 1782 was established Muftiate. The head of all Muslims of the Russian Empire - the mufti was elected council of high Muslim priests and was approved in this position by the empress. In 1788, the Muslim Spiritual Administration (later transferred to Ufa) was established in Orenburg, headed by a mufti.

Urban population.
Posadskoye, i.e. the urban trade and craft population constituted a special estate, which, unlike the nobility and clergy, was not privileged. It was subject to the “sovereign tax” and all taxes and duties, including recruitment duty, it was subject to corporal punishment.

Urban population in the first half of the XIX century. divided into five groups: honorary citizens, merchants, craftsmen, burghers, small proprietors and working people, i.e. employed.
A special group of eminent citizens, which included large capitalists who owned capital over 50 thousand rubles. wholesale merchants, owners of ships from 1807 were called first-class merchants, and from 1832 - honorary citizens.

Philistinism- the main urban taxable estate in the Russian Empire - originates from the townspeople of Moscow Russia, united in black hundreds and settlements.

The burghers were assigned to their urban societies, which they could leave only with temporary passports, and be transferred to others with the permission of the authorities.

They paid a poll tax, were subject to recruitment and corporal punishment, did not have the right to enter the state service, and upon entering the military service did not enjoy the rights of volunteers.

Petty trade, various crafts, and work for hire were allowed for the townspeople. To engage in craft and trade, they had to enroll in workshops and guilds.

The organization of the petty-bourgeois class was finally established in 1785. In each city they formed a petty-bourgeois society, elected petty-bourgeois councils or petty-bourgeois elders and their assistants (the councils were introduced from 1870).

In the middle of the XIX century. the townspeople are exempted from corporal punishment, since 1866 - from the soul tax.

Belonging to the bourgeois class was hereditary.

Enrollment in the philistines was open to persons obliged to choose a way of life, for state (after the abolition of serfdom - for all) peasants, but for the latter - only upon dismissal from society and permission from the authorities

The tradesman was not only not ashamed of his estate, but was even proud of it...
The word "philistine" - comes from the Polish word "misto" - a city.

Merchants.
The merchant class was divided into 3 guilds: - the first guild of merchants with a capital of 10 to 50 thousand rubles; the second - from 5 to 10 thousand rubles; the third - from 1 to 5 thousand rubles.

honorary citizens divided into hereditary and personal.

Rank hereditary honorary citizen was assigned to the big bourgeoisie, children of personal nobles, priests and clerks, artists, agronomists, artists of imperial theaters, etc.
The title of personal honorary citizen was awarded to persons who were adopted by hereditary nobles and honorary citizens, as well as those who graduated from technical schools, teacher's seminaries and artists of private theaters. Honorary citizens enjoyed a number of privileges: they were exempted from personal duties, from corporal punishment, etc.

Peasantry.
The peasantry, which in Russia accounted for over 80% of the population, practically ensured the very existence of society with their labor. It was it that paid the lion's share of the poll tax and other taxes and fees that ensured the maintenance of the army, navy, the construction of St. Petersburg, new cities, the Ural industry, etc. It was the peasants as recruits that made up the bulk of the armed forces. They also conquered new lands.

Peasants made up the bulk of the population, they were divided into: landowners, state possessions and appanages belonging to the royal family.

In accordance with the new laws of 1861, the serfdom of the landlords over the peasants was abolished forever and the peasants were declared free rural inhabitants with the empowerment of their civil rights.
Peasants had to pay a poll tax, other taxes and fees, gave recruits, could be subjected to corporal punishment. The land on which the peasants worked belonged to the landowners, and until the peasants redeemed it, they were called temporarily liable and carried various duties in favor of the landowners.
The peasants of each village who emerged from serfdom united in rural societies. For the purposes of administration and court, several rural societies formed a volost. In the villages and volosts, the peasants were granted self-government.

COSSACKS AS A MILITARY ESTATE WERE ABSENT IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THE MATERIAL

I FILL THIS GAP WITH MY MODERATOR'S INSERT

COSSACKS

military estate in Russia in the 18th - early 20th centuries. In the XIV-XVII centuries. free people who worked for hire, persons who carried out military service in the border areas (city and guard Cossacks); in the XV-XVI centuries. beyond the borders of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian state (on the Dnieper, Don, Volga, Ural, Terek), self-governing communities of the so-called free Cossacks (mainly from fugitive peasants) arose, which were the main driving force of the uprisings in Ukraine in the 16th-17th centuries. and in Russia XVII-XVIII centuries. The government sought to use the Cossacks to guard the borders, in wars, etc., and in the 18th century. subjugated him, turning him into a privileged military class. At the beginning of the XX century. there were 11 Cossack troops (Don, Kuban, Orenburg, Transbaikal, Tersk, Siberian, Ural, Astrakhan, Semirechensk, Amur and Ussuri). In 1916 the Cossack population was over 4.4 million people, over 53 million acres of land. About 300 thousand people fielded in the 1st World War

By the middle of the 19th century, in addition to merchants, breeders, bankers, there appeared in cities new intelligentsia(architects, artists, musicians, doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers, etc.). The nobility also began to engage in entrepreneurship.

The peasant reform opened the way for the development of market relations in the country. A significant part of the business was the merchant class.

The industrial revolution in Russia at the end of the 19th century. turned entrepreneurs into a significant economic force in the country. Under the powerful pressure of the market, estates and estate privileges are gradually losing their former significance....

The Provisional Government, by its Decree of March 3, 1917, abolished all class, religious and national restrictions.

The so-called "Old Regime" in France (that is, the one that existed before the revolution) divided society into three estates: the first (priests), the second (aristocrats) and the third (communes).

The duties of the First Estate included: registering marriages, births and deaths, collecting tithes, exercising spiritual censorship of books, performing moral police duties and helping the poor.

The clergy owned 10-15% of the land in France; they were not taxed.

The total number of the First Estate in 1789 was estimated at 100 thousand people, of which about 10% belonged to the higher clergy. The system of succession to the eldest son that existed in France led to the fact that younger sons often became priests.

The second estate was the aristocracy, and, in fact, the royal family, with the exception of the monarch himself. The nobility was divided into "cloak aristocrats", representing justice and civil service, and "sword aristocrats".

The number of aristocrats was about 1% of the population; they were exempted from labor service for road construction, as well as from a number of taxes, in particular, the gabel (tax on salt), and the traditional taglia tax.

The special privileges of aristocrats included the right to wear a sword and the right to a family coat of arms. Also, aristocrats collected taxes from the third estate, relying on the traditional feudal system.

The third estate consisted of all the French who were not included in the first two estates, and represented the bourgeoisie, workers and peasants. Representatives of this estate were obliged to pay taxes, and in 1789 they accounted for about 96% of the population.

Three estates are mentioned in the work "Customs of the Bovezi Region".

In particular, in the section "Chapter 45. On refusals, easements, etc.," it is said in three states:

“It should be known that the people of our age are aware of three states. The first is significant.

The second is the state of people who are free by origin, born of a free mother; those who can and should rightly be called nobles.

But not all free men are nobles, and there is a great difference between the rights of nobles and other free men, for nobles are those who descend in a straight line from kings, dukes, earls, or knights; and this nobility goes along the direct paternal line, but by no means along the maternal line; for it is quite clear that no one, even if his mother is a noblewoman, can become a nobleman (unless there is a special royal favor), unless his father is a nobleman. But things are different with the free state, since this state comes from the mother, and every person born of a free mother is free. . .

If 1452. We have spoken of two states, noble and free; the third state of people is serfdom. And in this state, not all people are in the same position: there are different conditions of serfdom. For some of the serfs are so subordinate to their lords that these lords can dispose of all their property, have (over them) the right of life and death, can keep them in prison as they please - for guilt or without guilt - and to no one for they are not accountable except to God.

Others are treated more gently, for during their lifetime the lords cannot demand anything from them, unless they are guilty, except for their chinches, rents and duties, usually paid by them for their serfdom (servitude). And (only) when they die or marry free women, all their property - movable and immovable - goes to the lords. For he who marries a free woman or a woman from another lordship must pay a ransom at the discretion of the lord.

And if a (serf) dies, he has no other heir than the lord, and the serf's children get nothing unless they pay the ransom to the lord, as outsiders would do. This last custom, of which we have spoken, is called among the serfs of Bovesi the "dead hand" and "marriage price" (formariages). We will keep silent about other serfdoms in foreign lands, for our book tells about the customs in Bovezi.

It is also stated that in France “they are treated more humanely, because, subject to the payment of rents to their lords and a special tax collected from each family (chevages), they can go to serve and live outside the jurisdiction of their lords.”