Free people (Russian Empire)

By a decree of October 20, 1783, "free people" were given "freedom to choose the kind of life that they want," except for the serfdom . But since in most cases this was not done by them, a special estate was formed of them by itself, which was put in a special salary .

In the Ostseey provinces, the class of free people was destroyed in 1847, and free people of that region were ranked among urban and rural societies on a common basis. The estate of free people stayed much longer in the former Polish provinces.

By a decree of February 23, 1799, immigrants from Caesarea ( Austria ), Prussia, and other lands that had settled in Lithuania since ancient times (from the 17th century) were assigned to this class. Such a definition of free people as foreign immigrants also passed into the Code of Laws of 1857 (v. IX, Art. 699). In fact, the origin of these people is extremely diverse, and the story is confused.

In the Lithuanian Territory

When the capitation tax was introduced in the Lithuanian Territory , at the end of 1795, a general census or revision was made for the first time, moreover, nothing was explained about free people in the forms published for this purpose, but it was said only to mark them as such or “earthlings” according to the audit fairy tales, and about "come from Russia" to submit special murals. This order gave rise to a wide variety of interpretations.

Indigenous serf lands, which had never, never before, nor later used their will, and truly free people who had the right to transfer from one land to another, also fell into the category of free people. The latter included mainly foreign immigrants and "Russian people who moved from Russia and other places to the Polish provinces, referred to as Lipovans ." But these free people very soon turned into serfs.

Enslavement in Lithuania

First of all, in 1799, the Lithuanian provincial government, "in the prevention of abuse and unrest", ordered to restrict the freedom of those of foreign immigrants who lived on landowners' land under contracts. It announced that they can only change places within the same district (county), and established a kind of St. George’s Day (“not before and not later than the month of April”) to transfer, after contract terms, from one land to another.

Then, to put an end to the analysis of a huge number of cases of Lipovans , a decree was issued on April 9, 1806, which ordered that those of Lipovans “who settled on the lands of the owners without written conditions, having entered the state of the peasants and are still in it, should be left forever ascribed to the land by farmers, along with other possessive peasants. " The landowners were not slow to take this decree in order to turn free people into serfs, all the more so since 1812 they had to pay a capita charge for free people in a much larger amount than for serfs. And since no written conditions were ever concluded with any of the Lipovans and other free people, according to the revision tales of 1811 and 1816. almost all free people were recorded by the landowners among their serfs.

Free people almost completely disappeared, although as far back as 1807, up to 106,467 male souls were counted in one of Vilna province . The specially established audit commissions were entrusted with finding these free people; the work started, especially quickly after 1837, but the commission did not follow any exact rules of the commission. In 1840, free people assigned to cities were included in urban societies on a common basis; those settled on state-owned or own lands were included in the category of state peasants, and for free people sitting on land owned, a Regulation was published on May 23, 1847, which was included in the Code of Laws of 1857, according to which relations between landowners and free people should be specified in detail in written agreements concluded for a period of not less than 6 and not more than 12 years.

The landowner did not have the right to drive a free man from the ground and evade the conclusion of a contract. The owner of the land on which the free man was sitting was responsible for the proper serving of taxes ; without his permission, a free man could not leave his place of residence. But free people were not considered serfs . If they refused to conclude or renew the contract, they could move to other lands, or be assigned to another free state.

In fact, the Regulation of 1847 remained a dead letter. Free people had no idea of ​​the rights granted to them; contracts, if they were concluded, then for one formality only, for averting eyes to the authorities. The landowners stubbornly continued to regard free people as serfs; such they were in reality.

When in 1857 there were rumors about the liberation of the peasants, with the obligatory allocation of land to them, the attitude of the landowners towards the free people sought by the government suddenly changed. To preserve the whole land, they began to recognize as free people the very peasants whose serfdom they had so insisted on before, transferred them to the urban estates, even offered money, if only they left. This explains the rules of July 25, 1864, by which all free people were divided into two categories:

• to the 1st category were assigned free people ranked after this estate after November 20, 1857,
• to the 2nd - those who belonged to this estate or were reckoned to it before that time.

Free people of the 1st category were determined to be considered serfs; after liberation, they were endowed with land on a par with the latter.

Free people of the 2nd category with regard to the rights of the state were also equated with the peasants, but with their land system, other principles were adopted. The rules on July 25, 1864 recognized their right to use their plots for only 12 years, on a rental right; the landowners were obliged to conclude written agreements with free people about this; after a 12-year period, the landlords could refuse to rent them, and they had to leave.

In 1877, the landlords found that the mandatory 12-year lease period expired by the rules expired and began to court to evict free people from their lands. When enforcing court decisions, the police met stubborn resistance on the part of the evicted, especially where she had to deal with entire villages of free people; in several cases, even the promotion of military force was required; but this did not lead to the goal. At that time, an order was issued by the Ministry of the Interior (dated March 16, 1878), explaining that, under the rules of 1864, written agreements must be concluded between landowners and free people, and that the day the contract was concluded should be considered the starting point of a 12-year lease . And since in most cases written agreements have not yet been concluded, the question of free people for 10-12 years has been delayed.

Law of 1882 for the Northwest Territory

The need to streamline the situation of free people, who in the early 1880s was considered up to 100,000 revision souls , was finally caused by the law of June 3, 1882, which applies only to free people of the North-Western Territory . They were given the choice of either buying out the land they occupied, or renting them for 6 years. In the first case, 85% of the selling price was issued by the government in the form of a redemption loan, and the remaining 15% was paid by the buyer, with the right to installments for 6 years, in equal parts annually. The selling price is either uniform for the whole province , or different for counties ; rents were determined on the same basis. For those who rented the land for 6 years, the right to further rent it existed only on the basis of general civil laws, that is, with the consent of the landowner and on the conditions established by mutual agreement. The redemption of the land in ownership terminated all the rights of free people to use other land of the landowner; but for the deprivation of the right to graze cattle on the lands of the latter, a discount was made on the sale price, in the amount of not more than 10%. If the land occupied by a free man caused obvious harm or embarrassment to the landowner, the latter was entitled to replace it with another land of corresponding dignity, and such land could even be bought by the landowner on the side. If, for the allocation of plots to free people, a landowner who does not have other land ownership should have less than 100 acres, then the allocation is not made at all. The enforcement of the law is entrusted to the county leaders of the nobility, together with world mediators. The deadline for the declaration by free people of the desire to buy the land or rent it for 6 years was appointed April 23, 1885 . Those of the free people who did not want to either buy the land in the property or rent it for 6 years should leave the land they occupied by April 23, 1886. Those free people who have not yet expired mandatory under the rules of 1864 of contracts or decrees of world intermediaries that replaced contracts, it was granted to redeem their land at the end of these terms, but the law of March 21, 1888 added that they should have declared their desire to redeem before January 1, 1891, by the same law March 21, 1888 is right la 1882 were extended to the free people of South-western edge .

• Smirnov N. “Free people of the Western provinces and legalizations relating to their organization” (Kovno, 1885).
• Yanovsky A.E. Free people // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.