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The Third Statute of Lithuania abolished slavery in 1588. [1]
Serfdom or baudžiava ( Lithuanian for 'to punish') which is, in turn, derived from Lithuanian bausmė (punishment) on the territory of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, continued to exist throughout Rzeczpospolita period and later under the rule of Russian empire until Emancipation reform of 1861.
From the 14th century onward (about the same time ethnic Lithuania was converted from paganism to Christianity), the feudal system had been imposed on the vast majority of the population, mainly by Polish nobles, who along with Polish clergy, imposed Christianity on the Baltic tribes. In the second half of the 16th century the Volok Reform has destroyed the remnants of peasant land ownership, consolidated its feudal monopoly, separated the classes of nobles and peasants (serfs); peasant land became the property of the grand duke. Peasants turned into serfs made up more than 1/2 of all Lithuanian peasants. [2] The landowners in Lithuania at that time were often foreigners – Polish, German, Russian, and some Polonized or Russianized Lithuanians. Polish language and culture became high culture, subordinating Lithuanian language and culture much as ethnic Lithuanians were subordinated by feudal bondage or serfdom. Serfdom was, by definition, a form of land bondage: essentially, slavery to the feudal noble in the form of unpaid labor on the lands of his estate. Serfs were legally bonded to the land, so whoever owned the land "owned" them. Such bondage continued generation after generation, with serfs subject to whipping, even torture or murder, at the whim of nobles and their estate managers. [3] 18th century in the last third of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the process of modernization of society began, in 1791 May 3 that trend was reflected in the adopted constitution, but further spontaneous development was stopped by the conquerors and Third Partition of 1795. [4] In 1795, after the annexation of Lithuania (without Užnemunė and Klaipėda region) to Russia, serfdom became more difficult. Peasants began to be sold without land. Peasants had to perform the heavy duty of Rekrut. In Western Europe serfs, unlike slaves,could not be bought, sold, or traded individually though they could, depending on the area, be sold together with land. Serfs in Eastern Europe or kholop as called in Russia, by contrast, could be traded like regular slaves, could be abused with no rights over their own bodies, could not leave the land they were bound to, and could marry only with their lord's permission. [5] Government officials spoke only Russian. After unsuccessful Lithuanian uprisings against the Russians in 1830 and 1831, [6] whose activists were executed or exiled to Siberia: "The rebels' landholdings were parceled out to court favorites and other Russians in a far-reaching colonization process that led to a large Russian influx". [7] Lithuanian serfs were not freed until a decree by the Russian czar in 1861. But that declaration, much like the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation in the U.S., was not accompanied by land reform. In short, freed Lithuanian serfs were not granted their own version of "40 acres and a mule," so their only resort, if remaining in Lithuania, was to continue to work on post-feudal estates for starvation wages, and to largely remain subject to the rough "justice" of still powerful, neo-feudal lords. Available education to Lithuanians was limited – books and newspapers in Lithuanian language were prohibited due to Lithuanian press ban from 1864 until 1904 [8] as a form of repression after unsuccessful January Uprising.
In 1918, after much struggle and First World War, Lithuanians had opportunity to gain independence. Act of Independence of Lithuania was signed by the Council of Lithuania on February 16, 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. This was the first time in several hundred years that Lithuanians had a free choice of occupations and began entering trades, professions and commerce.
The szlachta were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and, as a social class, dominated those states by exercising political rights and power. Szlachta as a class differed significantly from the feudal nobility of Western Europe. The estate was officially abolished in 1921 by the March Constitution.
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century.
The Nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or Greater Lithuanian szlachta was historically a legally privileged hereditary elite class in the Kingdom of Lithuania, Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth consisting of Lithuanians from Lithuania Proper; Samogitians from Duchy of Samogitia; following Lithuania's eastward expansion into what is now Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, many ethnically Ruthenian noble families (boyars); and, later on, predominantly Baltic German families from the Duchy of Livonia and Inflanty Voivodeship. It traced its origins via Palemonids to Polemon II of Pontus.
The emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, was the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire.
Folwark is a Polish word for a primarily serfdom-based farm and agricultural enterprise, often very large.
The term serf, in the sense of an unfree peasant of tsarist Russia, meant an unfree person who, unlike a slave, historically could be sold only together with the land to which they were "attached". However, this stopped being a requirement by the 19th century, and serfs were practically indistinguishable from slaves. Contemporary legal documents, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants. While another form of slavery in Russia, kholopstvo, was ended by Peter I in 1723, the serfdom was abolished only by Alexander II's emancipation reform of 1861; nevertheless, in times past, the state allowed peasants to sue for release from serfdom under certain conditions, and also took measures against abuses of landlord power.
A kholop was a type of feudal serf in Kievan Rus' in the 9th and early 12th centuries. Their legal status in Russia was essentially the same as slaves. They were sold as any other property of their master until the emancipation reform of 1861. The term kholop was excluded from official use in 1724, but it remains in vernacular use as a type of insult.
The Serfdom Patent of 1 November 1781 aimed to abolish aspects of the traditional serfdom system of the Habsburg monarchy through the establishment of basic civil liberties for the serfs.
The Volok Reform was a 16th-century land reform in parts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The reform was started by Grand Duchess Bona Sforza in her possessions to increase the revenues of the state treasury but soon was expanded statewide and was copied by other nobles and the Church. The reform increased effectiveness of agriculture by establishing a strict three-field system for crop rotation. The land was measured, registered in a cadastre, and divided into voloks. Volok became the measurement of feudal services. The reform was a success in terms of the annual state revenue that quadrupled from 20,000 to 82,000 kopas of Lithuanian groschens. In social terms, the reform and the accompanying Third Statute of Lithuania (1588), promoted development of manorialism and fully established serfdom in Lithuania which existed until the emancipation reform of 1861. The nobility was clearly separated from the peasants which severely limited social mobility.
Veldamas was a form of landownership in the early stages of Lithuanian serfdom. The term describes a peasant family with its land and other belongings granted by the Grand Duke of Lithuania to his loyal followers, usually as a reward for military service. The peasant retained ownership of his property, including land, but owed taxes and levies imposed by the noble. Veldamas was a middle stage between laukininkas and a serf. The term veldamas is derived from Lithuanian word veldėti, valda and means "to rule something". East Slavic texts loaned the word as велдомы. The term gradually disappeared after the Volok Reform in 1557, but it was still used in Postilė by Mikalojus Daukša (1599) to denote a subordinate.
Šeimynykštis was a class of patriarchal slaves, who did the same job and lived under the same conditions as his master and family, in the early Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They had no personal freedoms and were completely dependent on the master. Unlike kaimynas, šeimynykštis did not rent land and earn their living independently. Rather, they were members of the noble's household.
From the 1680s to 1789, Germany comprised many small territories which were parts of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Prussia finally emerged as dominant. Meanwhile, the states developed a classical culture that found its greatest expression in the Enlightenment, with world class leaders such as philosophers Leibniz and Kant, writers such as Goethe and Schiller, and musicians Bach and Beethoven.
The Galician Peasant Uprising of 1846, also known as the Galician Rabacja, Galician Slaughter, or the Szela uprising, was a two-month uprising of impoverished Austrian Galician peasants that led to the suppression of the szlachta uprising and the massacre of szlachta in Galicia, in the Austrian Partition zone, in early 1846. The uprising, which lasted from February to March, primarily affected the lands around the town of Tarnów.
Abolition of serfdom in Poland occurred over a period of time. At the end of 18th century a reform movement in Poland resulted in the Constitution of May 3, 1791 which took the peasantry under protection of state. Full abolishment of serfdom was enacted by the Proclamation of Połaniec on 7 May 1794, but it was also short-lived as Poland got partitioned by her neighbours in 1795, beginning first 12 years of Polish inexistence as an independent state (1795-1807) and later another 103 years (1815-1918). In the 19th century various reforms on Polish territories were taking place. Namely in all three of the Austrian partition, Prussian partition and the Russian partition. Serfdom was abolished in Prussia in 1807, in Austria in 1848, in Russia in 1861. Despite these facts 7 May 1794 remains the date serfdom was abolished in Poland.
Serfdom in Poland existed on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland during the rule of the Piast dynasty in the Middle Ages. It continued to exist in various forms until late in the 14th century when it was supplanted by the institution of serfdom, which has often been considered a form of modified slavery.
Serfdom in Poland became the dominant form of relationship between peasants and nobility in early modern Poland during the 16th-18th centuries, and was a major feature of the economy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, although its origins can be traced back to the 12th century.
While slavery has not been widespread on the territory of what is now Russia since the introduction of Christianity in the tenth century, serfdom in Russia, which was in many ways similar to contemporary slavery around the world, only ended in February 19th, 1861 when Russian Emperor Alexander II issued The Emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Emancipation of state-owned serfs occurred in 1866.
Serfdom has a long history that dates to ancient times.
State peasants were a special social estate (class) of peasantry in 18th–19th century Russia, the number of which in some periods reached half of the agricultural population. In contrast to private serfs, state peasants were considered personally free, although their freedom of movement was restricted.
The Government reforms imposed by Tsar Alexander II of Russia, often called the Great Reforms by historians, were a series of major social, political, legal and governmental reforms in the Russian Empire carried out in the 1860s.