2.2.Domestic affairs

Frederick the Great wrote, about 1776: « Of all the neighbors of Prussia, Russia merits most attention, as being the most dangerous; it is powerful and near. Those who in future will govern Prussia will like me, be forced to cultivate friendship of these barbarians." Always, in thinking of Russia, we most remember its size. Under Catherine the Great it included Esthonia, Livonia, Finland (in part), European Russia, the northern Caucase and Siberia. Its area expanded from 687000 to 913000 square kilometers in the eighteen century; its population grew from thirteen millions in 1711 to thirty million in 1790. In 1722,97.7 per cent of the Russian population was rural; in 1790, still 96.4 per cent; so slow was industrialization. In 1762 all but ten per cent of the people were peasant, and 52.4 per cent of these were serfs. Half of the land was owned by some 100,000 nobles, most of the rest by the state or the Russia Orthodox Church, some by semi- free peasants still owning services and obedience to local lords. A landlord's wealth was reckoned by the number of his serfs, so Count Peter Cheremetyev was 140,000 serfs rich. The 992,000 serfs of the Church were a main part of her wealth, and 2,800,000 serfs tilled the lands of the Crown in 1762. The noble provided military leadership and economic organization; he was usually exempt from military service, but offered it in hopes of favors from the government. He had judiciary rights over his serfs, he could punish them, sell them, or banish them to Siberia; normally, however, he allowed his peasants to govern their internal affairs through their village assembly. He was obliged by law to provide seed for his serfs, and so maintain them through periods of dearth. A serf might achieve freedom by owner's consent. Free peasants could buy and own serfs; some of these freemen, called kulaki, dominated village affairs, lent money at usurious rates and exceeded the lords in exploitation and severity. Master and man alike were a tough breed¹, strong m frame and arm and hand; they were engaged together in the conquest of the soil, and the discipline of the seasons lay heavy upon them both. Sometimes hardships were beyond bearing. Repeatedly we hear of serfs in great number deserting their farms and losing themselves in Poland or the Urals or the Caucasus; thousands of them died on the way, thousands were hunted and captured by soldiery. Every now and then peasants rose in armed revolt against masters and government, and gave desperate battle to the troops. Always they were defeated, and survivors crept back to their tasks. Some serfs were trained to arts and crafts, and supplied nearly all the needs of their masters. At a feast given to Catherine II (the Comte de Ségur tells us) the poet and the composer of the opera, the architect who had built the auditorium, the painter who decorated it, the actors and actress in the drama, the dancers in the ballet, and the musicians in the orchestra were all serfs of Count Cheremeryev. In the long winter the peasants made the clothing and the tools they would need in the coming year. Town industry was slow in developing, partly because every home was a shop, and partly because difficulties of transportation usually limited the market to the producer's . vicinity. The government encouraged industrial enterprises by offering monopolies to favorites, sometimes by providing capital, and it approved participation by nobles in industry and trade. An incipient capitalism appeared in mining, metallurgy, and munitions, and in factory production of textiles, lumber, sugar, and glass. Entrepreneurs were permitted to buy serfs to man their factories; such "possessional peasants," however, were bound not to the owner but to the enterprise; a governmental decree of 1736 required them, and their descendants, to remain in their respective factories until officially permitted to leave. In many cases they lived in barracks, often isolated from their families. Hours of labor ran from eleven to fifteen per day for men with an hour for lunch. After 1734 "free" — non-serf — labor increased in the factories, as giving more stimulus to the workers and more profits to the employer. Labor was too cheap to favor the invention or application of machinery; but in 1748 Pulzunov used a steam engine in his ironworks in the Urals.⁸