Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Social Divisions in Imperial Russia


Russian society was strictly divided into social classes or estates (sosloviia, cословия), separating one social group from another.  Like other European societies, this soslovie (сословие) system had existed from medieval times.  As in other European countries in the 19th Century, four basic sosloviia existed: 1) nobility, 2) clergy, 3) urban commoners, and 4) rural peasants.  The hierarchical system began at the top with the tsar and continued down to the lowest peasant.  The system had religious foundations; the tsar was given his position by god and the hierarchy was seen as established by god as well.  People felt secure knowing they had a place within society.  Raznochinet  (разночинца) was the term given to those who fell between the nobility/clergy and the peasantry (the growing middle class).  Nobility consisted of hereditary and personal nobility.  Divisions existed in the clerical class depending upon the clergyman’s specific role in his church.  Commoners were divided into many groups including honorable citizens, urban commoners, merchants, philistines, and burghers.  A special soslovie was the military.  Cossacks and other military men held their own sosloviia.

The peasant class was the largest class of all and included numerous different ranks.  Peasants were different from other classes in that they were subject to both a poll tax (Подушный оклад) and military conscription whereas members of other classes may not have been.  Single homesteaders, farmers, monastic farmers, free agriculturalists, state peasants, landowners’ peasants, appanage peasants, and ascribed peasants were all different classes among the peasantry (Крестьяне).  Some German settlers were categorized as free agriculturalists (Вольные хлебопашцы), while others identified themselves as Крестьянин, a variation on the Russian for peasant.

Each soslovie had different rights and obligations; some were subject to certain kinds of taxation, some were subject to military conscription, some were required to belong to guilds, each was required to hold different types of passports, etc.  Some classifications were allowed to travel freely while others were restricted.  Some groups were able to engage in commerce, although limitations may exist upon the characteristics of such.  Some groups were entitled to a certain degree of mobility and might change classification depending upon employment tenure, net wealth or marriage status.  Members of a soslovie might petition the tsar to modify their rights or privileges.  Thus, two sosloviia that may have been otherwise almost identical may have been subject to dissimiliar entitlements or restrictions.

Most European countries similarly classified their populations and this system provided their populace with social identity and clearly defined the peoples’ role within society.  One’s social status not only determined how he paid taxes or became employed, but it also affected his day to day life with very tangible measures.  A member of a peasant class would need to address higher class folks with a certain title and they may need to give way in traffic or don their cap when approached.  Certain classes would not have been able to legally possess arms of any sort, or achieve master status within their vocation, or would need to quit their education after achieving a certain level.  From the American standpoint, this system seems very restrictive and even inhumane, but these systems existed in European societies for centuries.

In his Russian passport (pasportnaya kniga), Andreas Ratzlaff identified Крестьянин as the soslovie to which he belonged.



-Across the Revolutionary Divide: Russia and the USSR 1861-1945, Theodore R Weeks, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.  Chapter 2


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