What classes were in the 19th century. Estates in the Russian Empire

From the creation of the Russian centralized state and up to 1917, there were estates in Russia, the boundaries between which, as well as their rights and obligations, were legally determined and regulated by the government. Initially, in the XVII-XVII centuries. in Russia there were relatively numerous estate groups with a poorly developed corporate organization and not very clear distinctions between themselves in rights.

Later, in the course of Peter the Great's reforms, as well as as a result of the legislative activity of the successors of Emperor Peter I, especially Empress Catherine II, the estates consolidated, the formation of estate-corporate organizations and institutions, and inter-class partitions became clearer. At the same time, the specifics of Russian society were wider than in many other European countries, the possibility of transition from one estate to another, including raising the estate status through the civil service, as well as the widespread inclusion of representatives of the peoples who entered Russia into the privileged estates. After the reforms of the 1860s. class differences began to gradually smooth out.

All estates of the Russian Empire were divided into privileged and taxable. The differences between them consisted in the rights to civil service and rank-and-file production, the rights to participate in public administration, the rights to self-government, the rights to court and serving sentences, the rights to property and commercial and industrial activities, and, finally, the rights to receive education.

The class position of each Russian subject was determined by his origin (by birth), as well as his official position, education and occupation (property status), i.e. could vary depending on promotion in the state - military or civil - service, receiving an order for official and out-of-service merits, graduating from a higher educational institution, the diploma of which gave the right to move to the upper class, and successful commercial and industrial activities. For women, an increase in class status was also possible through marriage with a representative of a higher class.

The state encouraged the inheritance of professions, which was manifested in the desire to provide an opportunity to receive special education at the expense of the treasury, primarily for the children of specialists in this field (mining engineers, for example). Since there were no rigid boundaries between the estates, their representatives could move from one estate to another: with the help of service, awards, education, or the successful conduct of any business. For serfs, for example, to send their children to educational institutions meant a free state for them in the future.

The functions of protecting and certifying the rights and privileges of all classes belonged exclusively to the Senate. He considered cases on the proof of the class rights of individuals and on the transition from one state to another. Especially many cases were postponed in the fund of the Senate for the protection of the rights of the nobility. He considered the evidence and asserted the rights to nobility and the honorary titles of princes, counts and barons, issued letters, diplomas and other acts certifying these rights, compiled coats of arms and armorials of noble families and cities; was in charge of the affairs of the production for length of service in civil ranks up to the fifth grade inclusive. Since 1832, the Senate was entrusted with the assignment to honorary citizenship (personal and hereditary) and the issuance of relevant letters and certificates. The Senate also exercised control over the activities of noble deputy assemblies, city, merchant, petty-bourgeois and crafts societies.

Peasantry.

The peasantry, both in Muscovite Rus and in the Russian Empire, was the lowest taxable class, which constituted the vast majority of the population. In 1721, various groups of the dependent population were united into enlarged categories of state (state), palace, monastery and landlord peasants. At the same time, former black-mowed, yasak, etc. fell into the category of state-owned. peasants. All of them were united by feudal dependence directly on the state and the obligation to pay, along with the poll tax, a special (at first four hryvnia) tax, equated by law with the owner's duties. Palace peasants were directly dependent on the monarch and members of his family. After 1797 they formed the category of so-called appanage peasants. The monastic peasants after secularization formed the category of the so-called economic (because until 1782 they were subordinate to the Collegium of Economy). Not fundamentally different from the state, paying the same duties and managed by the same government officials, they stood out among the peasants for their prosperity. Both the peasants themselves and the serfs fell into the number of the owner (landlord) peasants, and the position of these two categories in the 18th century. so close that all differences disappeared. Among the landlord peasants there were arable peasants, corvee and quitrent, and yard peasants, but the transition from one group to another depended on the will of the owner.

All peasants were attached to their place of residence and their community, paid a poll tax, and sent recruiting and other natural duties, were subject to corporal punishment. The only guarantees of the landlord peasants from the arbitrariness of the owners was that the law protected their lives (the right of corporal punishment belonged to the owner), since 1797 the law on the three-day corvee was in force, which formally did not limit the corvee to 3 days, but in practice, as a rule, applied. In the first half of the XIX century. there were also rules prohibiting the sale of serfs without a family, the purchase of peasants without land, etc. For the state peasants, the opportunities were somewhat greater: the right to transfer to the tradesmen and write to the merchants (if there is a certificate of dismissal), the right to resettle, to new lands (with the permission of the local authorities, with little land).

After the reforms of the 1860s. the communal organization of the peasantry was preserved with mutual responsibility, the prohibition to leave the place of residence without a temporary passport and the prohibition to change the place of residence and enroll in other estates without dismissal from the community. The poll tax, abolished only at the beginning of the 20th century, their jurisdiction in petty cases to a special volost court, which retained, even after the abolition of corporal punishment under general law, the rod as a punishment, and in a number of administrative and judicial cases - land chiefs. After the peasants received the right to freely leave the community and the right to private ownership of land in 1906, their class isolation decreased.

Philistinism.

Philistinism - the main urban taxable estate in the Russian Empire - originates from the townspeople of Moscow Russia, united in black hundreds and settlements. The philistines were assigned to their city societies, which they could leave only with temporary passports, and transfer 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 (uprava 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.

Guild (artisans).

Guilds as corporations of persons engaged in the same craft were established under Emperor Peter I. For the first time, a guild organization was established by the Instruction to the Chief Magistrate and the rules on registration in workshops. Subsequently, the rights of the guilds were clarified and confirmed by the Craft and City Regulations under Empress Catherine II.

Guilds were given a pre-emptive right to engage in certain types of crafts and sell their products. To engage in these crafts by persons of other classes, they were required to temporarily register in the workshop with the payment of appropriate fees. It was impossible to open a craft institution, keep workers and have a sign without registering in the workshop.

Thus, all persons enrolled in the workshop were divided into temporary and eternal workshops. For the latter, belonging to a guild meant at the same time class affiliation. Full guild rights had only ever-shop.

After spending 3 to 5 years as apprentices, they could sign up as apprentices, and then, after submitting a sample of their work and having it approved by the guild (craft) board, they could become masters. For this they received special certificates. Only masters had the right to open establishments with hired workers and keep apprentices.

Guilds belonged to the number of taxable estates and were subject to poll tax, recruitment duty and corporal punishment.

Belonging to the guilds was assimilated at birth and upon entry into the guild, and was also passed on by the husband to his wife. But the children of the guilds, having reached the age of majority, had to be enrolled as apprentices, apprentices, masters, otherwise they would become philistines.

The guilds had their own corporate class organization. Each workshop had its own council (in small towns, since 1852, workshops could unite with subordination to the craft council). The guilds elected artisan heads, guild (or management) foremen and their comrades, apprentices elected and attorneys. Elections were to take place annually.

Merchants.

In Moscow Russia, merchants stood out from the general mass of townspeople, divided into guests, merchants of the Living Room and Cloth Hundreds in Moscow and the "best people" in the cities, and the guests constituted the most privileged top of the merchant class.

Emperor Peter I, having singled out the merchant class from the general mass of citizens, introduced their division into guilds and city self-government. In 1724, the principles for attributing merchants to one or another guild were formulated: guilds that trade in petty goods and all sorts of food supplies, handicraft people of all kinds of skills and others like that; others, namely: all vile people who are hired, in menial jobs and the like, although they are citizens and have citizenship , except between noble and regular citizens are not listed. "

But the guild structure of the merchants, as well as the city self-government bodies, acquired its final form under Empress Catherine II. On March 17, 1775, it was established that merchants with a capital of more than 500 rubles should be divided into 3 guilds and pay to the treasury 1% of the capital declared by them, and be free from the poll tax. On May 25 of the same year, it was clarified that merchants who declared capital from 500 to 1,000 rubles should be registered in the third guild, from 1,000 to 10,000 rubles in the second, and more than 10,000 rubles in the first. At the same time, "the declaration of capital is left for voluntary testimony on the conscience of everyone." Those who could not declare for themselves a capital of at least 500 rubles did not have the right to be called merchants and enroll in a guild. In the future, the size of the guild capital increased. In 1785, for the 3rd guild, a capital was set from 1 to 5 thousand rubles, for the 2nd - from 5 to 10 thousand rubles, for the 1st - from 10 to 50 thousand rubles, in 1794, respectively, from 2 to 8 thousand rubles, from 8 to 16 thousand rubles. and from 16 to 50 thousand rubles, in 1807 - from 8 to 10 thousand rubles, from 20 to 50 thousand and more than 50 thousand rubles.

The letter of rights and benefits to the cities of the Russian Empire confirmed that "who declares more capital, he is given a place before those who declare less capital." Another, even more effective means of inducing merchants to declare capital in large amounts (within the limits of the guild norm) was the provision that in government contracts "trust" affects the extent of the declared capital.

Depending on the guild, the merchants enjoyed various privileges and had various rights to trade and crafts. All merchants could pay the appropriate money instead of recruiting. The merchants of the first two guilds were exempted from corporal punishment. Merchants of the 1st guild had the right to foreign and domestic trade, the 2nd - to internal, the 3rd - to petty trade in cities and counties. Merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds had the right to travel around the city in pairs, and the 3rd - only on one horse.

Persons of other classes could register in the guild on a temporary basis and, paying guild duties, retain their class status.

On October 26, 1800, the nobles were forbidden to enroll in the guild and enjoy the benefits assigned to one merchant, but on January 1, 1807, the right of the nobles to enroll in the guild was restored.

On March 27, 1800, to encourage merchants who distinguished themselves in trading activities, the rank of commerce adviser was established, equated to the 8th class of the civil service, and then manufactory adviser with similar rights. On January 1, 1807, the honorary title of first-class merchants was also introduced, which included merchants of the 1st guild, conducting only wholesale trade. Merchants who had wholesale and retail trade at the same time or held farms and contracts were not entitled to this title. First-class merchants had the right to travel around the city, both in pairs and in quadruplets, and even had the right to visit the court (but only in person, without family members).

The manifesto of November 14, 1824 established new rules and benefits for the merchants. In particular, for the merchants of the 1st guild, the right to engage in banking, enter into government contracts for any amount, etc. was confirmed. The right of merchants of the 2nd guild to trade abroad was limited to 300,000 rubles. per year, and for the 3rd guild such trade was prohibited. Contracts and buyouts, as well as private contracts for merchants of the 2nd guild, were limited to the amount of 50 thousand rubles, banking business was prohibited. For merchants of the 3rd guild, the right to start factories was limited to light industry and the number of employees up to 32. It was confirmed that a merchant of the 1st guild, engaged only in wholesale or foreign trade, is called a first-class merchant or merchant. Those engaged in banking could also be called bankers. Those who spent 12 years in a row in the 1st guild received the right to be awarded the title of commerce or manufactory adviser. At the same time, it was emphasized that "monetary donations and concessions under contracts do not give the right to be awarded ranks and orders" - this required special merits, for example, in the field of charity. Merchants of the 1st guild, who had been in it for less than 12 years, also had the right to ask for their children to be enrolled in the civil service as chief officer children, as well as for their admission to various educational institutions, including universities, without dismissal from society. . Merchants of the 1st guild received the right to wear the uniforms of the province in which they were registered. The manifesto emphasized: "In general, the merchants of the 1st guild are not revered as a taxable state, but constitute a special class of honorable people in the state." It was also noted here that the merchants of the 1st guild are obliged to accept only the positions of city heads and assessors of the chambers (judicial), conscientious courts and orders of public charity, as well as deputies of trade and directors of banks and their offices and church elders, and from the choice to all other public positions have the right to refuse; for merchants of the 2nd guild, the positions of burgomasters, ratmans and members of shipping massacres were added to this list, for the 3rd - city elders, members of six-voice dumas, deputies at different places. For all other city posts, the townspeople were to be elected, if the merchants did not wish to accept them.

On January 1, 1863, a new guild system was introduced. Trade and trade became available to persons of all classes without registration in the guild, subject to payment of all trade and trade certificates, but without class guild rights. At the same time, wholesale trade was assigned to the 1st guild, and retail trade to the 2nd. Merchants of the 1st guild had the right to engage in wholesale and retail trade everywhere, contracts and deliveries without restrictions, the maintenance of factories and factories, the 2nd - to retail trade at the place of recording, the maintenance of factories, factories and craft establishments, contracts and deliveries in the amount of no more than 15 thousand rubles. At the same time, the owner of a factory or factory with machines or more than 16 employees had to take a guild certificate of at least the 2nd guild, joint-stock companies - the 1st guild.

Thus, belonging to the merchant class was determined by the value of the declared capital. Merchants' children and unseparated brothers, as well as merchants' wives, belonged to the merchant class (they were recorded on one certificate). Merchant widows and orphans retained this right, but without engaging in trade. Merchant children who had reached the age of majority had to re-register in the guild for a separate certificate upon separation or transferred to the burghers. Unseparated merchant children and brothers were to be called not merchants, but merchant sons, etc. The transition from guild to guild and from merchants to philistines was free. The transfer of merchants from city to city was allowed provided that there were no arrears in guild and city fees and that a certificate of discharge was taken. Entry of merchant children into the civil service (except for the children of merchants of the 1st guild) was not allowed if such a right was not acquired by education.

The corporate class organization of the merchants existed in the form of merchant elders and their assistants elected annually, whose duties included maintaining guild lists, taking care of the benefits and needs of the merchants, etc. This position was considered in the 14th grade of the civil service. Since 1870, the merchant elders were approved by the governors. Belonging to the merchant class was combined with belonging to honorary citizenship.

honorary citizenship.

The category of eminent citizens includes three groups of citizens: those who have merit in the elective city service (not included in the civil service system and not included in the Table of Ranks), scientists, artists, musicians (until the end of the 18th century, neither the Academy of Sciences nor the Academy of Arts were included in the Table of Ranks system) and, finally, the top of the merchant class. Representatives of these three, heterogeneous, in fact, groups were united by the fact that, not being able to achieve public service, they could claim certain class privileges personally and wished to extend them to their offspring.

Eminent citizens were exempted from corporal punishment and recruitment duty. They were allowed to have country yards and gardens (except for settled estates) and travel around the city in pairs and quadruplets (the privilege of the "noble estate"), it was not forbidden to have and start factories, factories, sea and river vessels. The title of eminent citizens was inherited, which made them a pronounced class group. The grandchildren of eminent citizens, whose fathers and grandfathers carried this title impeccably, upon reaching 30 years of age, could ask for the nobility.

This class category did not last long. On January 1, 1807, the title of eminent citizens for merchants was abolished "as mixing heterogeneous virtues." At the same time, it was left as a distinction for scientists and artists, but since by that time scientists were included in the system of public service, giving personal and hereditary nobility, this title ceased to be relevant and practically disappeared.

October 19, 1831, in connection with the "analysis" of the gentry, with the exclusion of a significant mass of the petty gentry from among the nobles and their registration in single-palaces and urban estates, those of them, "who apply in any scientific occupations" - doctors, teachers, artists, etc., as well as having legalized certificates for the title of lawyer, "to distinguish themselves from those engaged in petty-bourgeois trade or in the service and other lower occupations" received the title of honorary citizens. Then, on December 1, 1831, it was clarified that among the artists, only painters, lithographers, engravers, and so on should be included in this title. carvers on stones and metals, architects, sculptors, etc., who have a diploma or a certificate from the Academy.

The Manifesto of April 10, 1832 introduced a new class of honorary citizens throughout the empire, divided, like the nobles, into hereditary and personal. The number of hereditary honorary citizens included children of personal nobles, children of persons who received the title of hereditary honorary citizen, i.e. born in this state, merchants awarded the titles of commerce and manufactories-advisers, merchants awarded (after 1826) one of the Russian orders, as well as merchants who spent 10 years in the 1st guild or 20 years in the 2nd and not falling into bankruptcy. Persons who graduated from Russian universities, artists of free states, graduated from the Academy of Arts or received a diploma as an artist of the Academy, foreign scientists, artists, as well as trading capitalists and owners of significant manufacturing and factory establishments, even if they were not were Russian subjects. Hereditary honorary citizenship could complain "for differences in the sciences" to persons who already have personal honorary citizenship, persons with doctoral or master's degrees, students of the Academy of Arts 10 years after graduation "for differences in the arts" and foreigners who accepted Russian citizenship and who have been in it for 10 years (if they have previously received the title of personal honorary citizen).

The title of hereditary honorary citizen was inherited. The husband communicated honorary citizenship to his wife if she belonged by birth to one of the lower classes, and the widow did not lose this title with the death of her husband.

Approval of hereditary honorary citizenship and the issuance of charters for him were entrusted to Heraldry.

Honorary citizens enjoyed freedom from the poll tax, from recruitment duty, from standing and corporal punishment. They had the right to participate in city elections and be elected to public positions not lower than those to which merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds are elected. Honorary citizens had the right to use this name in all acts.

Lost honorary citizenship in court, in case of malicious bankruptcy; some rights of honorary citizens were lost when enrolling in craft workshops.

In 1833, it was confirmed that honorary citizens were not included in the general census, and special lists were kept for each city. In the future, the circle of persons who had the right to honorary citizenship was specified and expanded. In 1836, it was established that only university graduates who had received a degree at the end of their studies could apply for personal honorary citizenship. In 1839, the right to honorary citizenship was granted to artists of the imperial theaters (1st category, who served a certain period on stage). In the same year, pupils of the highest commercial boarding school in St. Petersburg received this right (personally). In 1844, the right to receive honorary citizenship was extended to employees of the Russian-American Company (from the estates that did not have the right to public service). In 1845, the right to hereditary honorary citizenship of merchants who received the orders of St. Vladimir and St. Anna was confirmed. Since 1845, civil ranks from the 14th to the 10th grade began to bring hereditary honorary citizenship. In 1848, the right to receive honorary citizenship (personal) was extended to graduates of the Lazarev Institute. In 1849, doctors, pharmacists and veterinarians were added to honorary citizens. In the same year, the right to personal honorary citizenship was granted to graduates of gymnasiums to the children of personal honorary citizens, merchants and townspeople. In 1849, personal honorary citizens received the opportunity to enter military service as volunteers. In 1850, the right to be awarded the title of personal honorary citizen was given to Jews who were on special assignments under the governor-general in the Pale of Settlement ("learned Jews under the governors"). Subsequently, the rights of hereditary honorary citizens to enter the civil service were clarified, and the range of educational institutions, the completion of which gave the right to personal honorary citizenship, was expanded. In 1862, technologists of the 1st category and process engineers who graduated from the St. Petersburg Technological Institute received the right to honorary citizenship. In 1865, it was established that from now on, merchants of the 1st guild are elevated to hereditary honorary citizenship after staying in it "in a row" for at least 20 years. In 1866, the right to receive hereditary honorary citizenship was granted to merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds, who bought estates in the Western provinces for at least 15 thousand rubles.

Representatives of the top citizens and clerics of some peoples and localities of Russia were also ranked as honorary citizenship: Tiflis first-class mokalaks, residents of the cities of Anapa, Novorossiysk, Poti, Petrovsk and Sukhum, on the proposal of the authorities for special merits, zaisangs from the Kalmyks of Astrakhan and Stavropol provinces, not having ranks and owning hereditary aimaks (hereditary honorary citizenship, those who did not receive personal citizenship), Karaites who held the spiritual positions of gahams (hereditary), ghazans and shamases (personally) for at least 12 years, etc.

As a result, at the beginning of the XX century. hereditary honorary citizens by birth included the children of personal nobles, chief officers, officials and clergy, bestowed with the orders of St. Stanislav and St. Anna (except for the 1st degrees), children of clergymen of the Orthodox and Armenian-Gregorian confession, children of church clerks ( deacons, sextons and psalmists), who completed the course in theological seminaries and academies and received academic degrees and titles there, the children of Protestant preachers, the children of persons who have impeccably served for 20 years as the Transcaucasian sheikh-ul-Islam or the Transcaucasian mufti, Kalmyk zaisangs, not having ranks and owning hereditary aimaks, and, of course, the children of hereditary honorary citizens, and personal honorary citizens by birth included those adopted by nobles and hereditary honorary citizens, widows of church clerks of the Orthodox and Armenian-Gregorian confessions, children of the highest Transcaucasian Muslim clergy, if their parents performed impeccable service in t 2 years, zaisangs from the Kalmyks of the Astrakhan and Stavropol provinces, who have neither ranks nor hereditary aimaks.

Personal honorary citizenship could be requested for 10 years of useful activity, and after staying for 10 years in personal honorary citizenship, hereditary honorary citizenship could also be requested for the same activity.

Hereditary honorary citizenship was awarded to those who graduated from some educational institutions, commerce and manufactory advisers, merchants who received one of the Russian orders, merchants of the 1st guild who had been in it for at least 20 years, artists of the imperial theaters of the 1st category who had served for at least 15 years, fleet conductors who have served for at least 20 years, Karaite gahams who have been in office for at least 12 years. Personal honorary citizenship, in addition to the persons already mentioned, was received by those who entered the civil service during production in the rank of 14th class, who completed the course in some educational institutions, were dismissed from the civil service with the rank of 14th class and received a chief officer upon retirement from military service ranks, managers of rural handicraft workshops and masters of these institutions after serving, respectively, 5 and 10 years, managers, masters and teachers of technical and handicraft training workshops of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, who have served 10 years, masters and master technicians of lower craft schools of the Ministry of Public Education , who also served at least 10 years, artists of the imperial theaters of the 1st category, who served 10 years on stage, fleet conductors who served 10 years, persons with navigational ranks and sailed for at least 5 years, ship mechanics who sailed for 5 years, honorary guardians Jewish educational institutions who have held this position for at least 15 years, "scientists e vrei under the governors" for special merits after serving for at least 15 years, masters of the imperial Peterhof Lapidary Factory, who served for at least 10 years, and some other categories of persons.

If honorary citizenship belonged to a given person by birthright, it did not require special confirmation; if it was awarded, a decision of the Department of Heraldry of the Senate and a letter from the Senate were required.

Belonging to honorary citizens could be combined with being in other classes - the merchants and the clergy - and did not depend on the type of activity (until 1891, only entering some workshops deprived the honorary citizen of some of the advantages of his title).

There was no corporate organization of honorary citizens.

Aliens.

Aliens were a special category of subjects within the law of the Russian Empire.

According to the Code of Laws on States, foreigners were divided into:

* Siberian foreigners;

* Samoyeds of the Arkhangelsk province;

* nomadic foreigners of the Stavropol province;

* Kalmyks, nomadic in the Astrakhan and Stavropol provinces;

* Kirghiz of the Inner Horde;

* foreigners of Akmola, Semipalatinsk, Semirechensk, Ural and Turgai

areas;

* foreigners of the Turkestan region;

* non-native population of the Transcaspian region;

* highlanders of the Caucasus;

The "Charter on the management of foreigners" divided foreigners into "sedentary", "nomadic" and "vagrant" and, according to this division, determined their administrative and legal status. The mountaineers of the Caucasus and the non-native population of the Transcaspian region (Turkmen) were subject to the so-called military-people's administration.

Foreigners.

The appearance of foreigners in the Russian Empire, mainly from Western Europe, began as early as the time of Muscovite Russia, which needed foreign military specialists to organize "foreign regiments". With the beginning of the reforms of Emperor Peter I, the migration of foreigners becomes massive. As of the beginning of the XX century. a foreigner wishing to enter the Russian citizenship, had to first pass the "placement". The newcomer filed a petition addressed to the local governor about the purpose of the placement and the nature of his occupation, then a petition was submitted to the Minister of the Interior for acceptance into Russian citizenship, and the reception of Jews and dervishes was prohibited. In addition, any entry into the Russian Empire of Jews and Jesuits could be carried out only with the special permission of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs and Finance. After a five-year "settlement" a foreigner could obtain citizenship by "rooting" (naturalization), and receive full rights, for example, the right to join merchant guilds, acquire real estate. Foreigners who did not receive Russian citizenship could enter the civil service, but only "on the academic side", in mining.

Cossacks.

The Cossacks in the Russian Empire were a special military estate (more precisely, a class group) that stood apart from the others. The estate rights and obligations of the Cossacks were based on the principle of corporate ownership of military lands and freedom from duties, subject to compulsory military service. The class organization of the Cossacks coincided with the military. Under elective local self-government, the Cossacks were subordinate to the wax atamans (military ataman or nakazny), who enjoyed the rights of the commander of the military district or the governor general. Since 1827, the heir to the throne was considered the supreme ataman of all Cossack troops.

By the beginning of the XX century. in Russia there were 11 Cossack troops, as well as Cossack settlements in 2 provinces.

Under the ataman, a military headquarters operated, in the field the atamans of departments (on the Don - district ones) were in charge, in the villages - the village atamans elected by the stanitsa gatherings.

Belonging to the Cossack class was hereditary, although formally, registration in the Cossack troops for persons of other classes was not excluded.

During the service, the Cossacks could reach the ranks and orders of the nobility. In this case, belonging to the nobility was combined with belonging to the Cossacks.

Clergy.

The clergy was considered a privileged, honorary class in Russia in all periods of its history.

The rights, basically similar to the Orthodox clergy, were used in Russia by the clergy of the Armenian Gregorian Church.

Regarding the class affiliation and special class rights of the Roman Catholic clergy, due to the obligatory celibacy in the Catholic Church, there was no question.

The Protestant clergy enjoyed the rights of honorary citizens.

Clerics of non-Christian confessions either received honorary citizenship after a certain period of performance of their duties (Muslim clergy), or did not have any special class rights, except for those that belonged to them by birth (Jewish clergy), or enjoyed the rights stipulated in special provisions on foreigners (Lamaist clergy).

Nobility.

The main privileged class of the Russian Empire was finally formed in the 18th century. It was based on the privileged class groups of the so-called "serving ranks in the homeland" (ie, by origin) that were in Muscovite Russia. The highest of them were the so-called "duma ranks" - duma boyars, okolnichie, nobles and duma clerks, and belonging to each of the listed estate groups was determined both by origin and by the passage of the "state service". It was possible to reach the boyars by serving, for example, from the Moscow nobles. At the same time, not a single son of a duma boyar began his service directly from this rank - he first had to visit at least the stolniks. Then came the ranks of Moscow: stewards, lawyers, Moscow nobles and residents. Below the Moscow ones were the city ranks: elected nobles (or choice), children of the boyar courtyards and children of the boyar policemen. They differed among themselves not only in "fatherland", but also in the nature of the service and property status. Duma ranks headed the state apparatus. Moscow officials carried out court service, made up the so-called "sovereign regiment" (a kind of guard), were appointed to senior positions in the army and in the local administration. All of them had significant estates or were endowed with estates near Moscow. The elected nobles were sent in turn to serve at the court and in Moscow, and also served "distant service", i.e. went on long trips and carried out administrative duties far from the county in which their estates were located. Boyar yard children also carried out long-distance service. The children of the boyar policemen, due to their property status, could not carry out long-distance service. They carried out police or siege service, making up the garrisons of their county towns.

All these groups differed in that they inherited their service (and could move up in it) and possessed hereditary fiefdoms, or, upon reaching adulthood, were assigned estates, which were a reward for their service.

The intermediate class groups included the so-called service people according to the instrument, i.e. recruited or mobilized by the government into archers, gunners, zatinshchiks, reiters, spearmen, etc., and their children could also inherit the service of their fathers, but this service was not privileged and did not provide opportunities for hierarchical elevation. For this service, a monetary reward was given. Land (during the border service) was given to the so-called "vopchie dachas", i.e. not in the estate, but as if in a communal possession. At the same time, at least in practice, their ownership by serfs and even peasants was not ruled out.

Another intermediate group were clerks of various categories, who formed the basis of the bureaucratic machine of the Moscow state, who were recruited into the service voluntarily and received monetary rewards for their service. Service people were free from taxes that fell with all their weight on taxable people, but none of them, from the city son of a boyar to a Duma boyar, was exempt from corporal punishment and at any moment could be deprived of their rank, all rights and property. service" for all service people was obligatory, and it was possible to get rid of it

only for diseases, wounds and old age.

The only title available in Muscovite Russia - the prince - did not give any special advantages, except for the title itself, and often did not mean either a high position in the ranks or large landed property. Belonging to service people in the fatherland - nobles and boyar children - was recorded in the so-called dozens, i.e. lists of service people compiled during their reviews, analysis and layout, as well as in the data books of the Local Order, which indicated the size of the estates given to service people.

The essence of Peter's reforms in relation to the nobility was that, firstly, all categories of service people in the fatherland merged into one "noble gentry estate", and each member of this estate from birth was equal to everyone else, and all differences were determined by the difference in position on the career ladder, according to the Table of Ranks, secondly, the acquisition of the nobility by the service was legalized and formally regulated (the nobility gave the first chief officer rank in military service and the rank of 8th class - collegiate assessor - in civil service), thirdly , each member of this estate was obliged to be in the public service, military or civil, up to old age or loss of health, fourthly, the correspondence between military and civilian ranks, unified in the table of ranks, was established, fifthly, all differences were finally eliminated between estates as a form of conditional possession and fiefdoms on the basis of a single right of inheritance and a single duty to serve. Numerous small intermediate groups of the "old services of the people" were deprived of their privileges by one decisive act and assigned to the state peasants.

The nobility was, first of all, a service estate with the formal equality of all members of this estate and a fundamentally open character, which made it possible to include in the ranks of the estate the most successful representatives of the lower classes in public service.

Titles: the original princely title for Russia and the new ones - count and baronial - had the meaning of only honorary generic names and, apart from the rights to title, did not provide any special rights and privileges to their bearers.

The special privileges of the nobility in relation to the court and the order of serving punishments were not formally legalized, but rather existed in practice. The nobles were not exempted from corporal punishment.

With regard to property rights, the most important privilege of the nobility was the monopoly on the ownership of populated estates and householders, although this monopoly was still insufficiently regulated and absolute.

The realization of the privileged position of the nobility in the field of education was the establishment in 1732 of the gentry corps.

Finally, all the rights and advantages of the Russian nobility were formalized by the Charter to the nobility, approved by Empress Catherine II on April 21, 1785. This act formulated the very concept of the nobility as a hereditary privileged service class. It established the procedure for acquiring and proving the nobility, its special rights and benefits, including freedom from taxes and corporal punishment, as well as from compulsory service. This act established a noble corporate organization with local noble elected bodies. And Catherine's provincial reform of 1775 somewhat earlier secured the right of the nobility to elect candidates for a number of local administrative and judicial posts.

The charter granted to the nobility finally secured the monopoly of this class on the possession of "serf souls". The same act for the first time legalized such a category as personal nobles. The basic rights and privileges granted to the nobility by the Letter of Complaint remained, with some clarifications and changes, in force until the reforms of the 1860s, and for a number of provisions until 1917.

Hereditary nobility, by the very meaning of the definition of this class, was inherited and thus acquired by the descendants of the nobles at birth. Women of non-noble origin acquired the nobility when they married a nobleman. At the same time, they did not lose their noble rights when they entered into a second marriage in the event of widowhood. At the same time, women of noble origin did not lose their noble dignity when they married a non-nobleman, although children from such a marriage inherited their father's estate.

The table of ranks determined the procedure for acquiring nobility by service: achieving the first chief officer rank in military service and the rank of 8th class in civilian service. On May 18, 1788, it was forbidden to assign hereditary nobility to persons who received the military chief officer rank upon retirement, but did not serve in this rank. The Manifesto of July 11, 1845 raised the bar for achieving nobility by service: from now on, hereditary nobility was assigned only to those who received the first headquarters officer rank (major, 8th class) in military service, and the rank of 5th class (civilian) in the civil service

adviser), and these ranks had to be received in active service, and not upon retirement. Personal nobility was assigned in military service to those who received the rank of chief officer, and in civilian service - ranks from the 9th to the 6th class (from titular to collegiate adviser). From December 9, 1856, the hereditary nobility in military service began to bring the rank of colonel (captain of the 1st rank in the navy), and in civilian service - a real state adviser.

The charter granted to the nobility pointed to another source of acquiring noble dignity - the awarding of one of the Russian orders.

On October 30, 1826, the State Council decided in its opinion that "in disgust from misunderstandings about ranks and orders, to the persons of the merchant class most graciously bestowed" henceforth such awards should be brought only by personal, and not hereditary nobility.

On February 27, 1830, the State Council confirmed that the children of officials of non-nobles and clergy who received orders, born before the award of this award to their fathers, enjoy the rights of the nobility, as well as the children of merchants who received orders before October 30, 1826. But according to the new the statute of the Order of St. Anne, approved on July 22, 1845, the rights of the hereditary nobility were relied only on those awarded the 1st degree of this order; by decree of June 28, 1855, the same restriction was established for the Order of St. Stanislav. Thus, only among the orders of St. Vladimir (except for merchants) and St. George all degrees gave the right to hereditary nobility. From May 28, 1900, only the Order of St. Vladimir of the 3rd degree began to give the right to hereditary nobility.

Another restriction on the right to receive nobility by order was the procedure by which hereditary nobility was assigned only to those awarded orders for active service, and not for non-official distinctions, for example, for charity.

A number of other restrictions periodically arose: for example, the prohibition to rank among the hereditary nobility the ranks of the former Bashkir army, awarded with any orders, representatives of the Roman Catholic clergy, awarded the Order of St. Stanislav (Orthodox clergy were not awarded this order), etc. In 1900 Persons of the Jewish confession were deprived of the right to acquire nobility by ranks in the service and the award of orders.

Grandchildren of personal nobles (i.e., descendants of two generations of persons who received personal nobility and were in the service of at least 20 years each), the eldest grandchildren of eminent citizens (a title that existed from 1785 to 1807) to reaching the age of 30, if their grandfathers, fathers, and they themselves "retained eminence impeccably", as well as - according to tradition, not legally formalized - merchants of the 1st guild on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of their company. So, for example, the founders and owners of the Trekhgornaya manufactory, the Prokhorovs, received the nobility.

Special rules were in effect for a number of intermediate groups. Since the impoverished descendants of ancient noble families (under Emperor Peter I, some of them were enrolled in single palaces in order to avoid compulsory service), who had letters of nobility, were also among the one-palace residents, on May 5, 1801, they were given the right to find and prove the noble dignity lost by their ancestors . But already after 3 years it was customary to consider their evidence "with all severity", while observing that people who had lost it "for guilt and serving out of service" were not admitted to the nobility. On December 28, 1816, the State Council recognized that proof of the presence of noble ancestors for the one-palace is not enough, it is also necessary to achieve nobility through service. To do this, those from one palace who provided evidence of their origin from a noble family were given the right to enter military service with exemption from duties and promotion to the first chief officer rank after 6 years. After the introduction in 1874 of universal military service, the odnodvortsam was granted the right to restore the nobility lost by their ancestors (if there is appropriate evidence, confirmed by the certificate of the noble assembly of their province) by entering military service as volunteers and receiving an officer rank in the general order provided for volunteers.

In 1831, the Polish gentry, who had not formalized the Russian nobility since the time of the annexation of the Western provinces to Russia by presenting the evidence provided for by the Letter of Complaint, was recorded as a single-palace or "citizen". On July 3, 1845, the rules on the return of the nobility to the single-palaces were extended to persons belonging to the former Polish gentry.

When new territories were annexed to Russia, the local nobility, as a rule, was included in the Russian nobility. This happened with the Tatar murzas, Georgian princes, etc. For other peoples, the nobility was achieved by obtaining the appropriate military and civil ranks in the Russian service or Russian orders. So, for example, the noyons and zaisangs of the Kalmyks roaming in the Astrakhan and Stavropol provinces (the Don Kalmyks were recorded in the Don Army and they were subject to the procedure for obtaining nobility adopted for the Don military ranks), upon receiving orders, enjoyed the rights of personal or hereditary nobility according to the general situation . The senior sultans of the Siberian Kirghiz could ask for hereditary nobility if they served in this rank for three three-year elections. Bearers of other honorary titles of the peoples of Siberia did not have special rights to the nobility, if the latter were not assigned to any of them by separate letters or if they were not promoted to ranks that bring nobility.

Regardless of the method of obtaining hereditary nobility, all hereditary nobles in the Russian Empire enjoyed the same rights. The presence of a title did not give the holders of this title any special rights either. The differences were only depending on the size of real estate (until 1861 - populated estates). From this point of view, all the nobles of the Russian Empire could be divided into 3 categories: 1) nobles who are included in the genealogical books and own real estate in the province; 2) nobles, included in the genealogical books, but do not own real estate; 3) nobles not included in genealogical books. Depending on the size of real estate ownership (before 1861 - on the number of serf souls), the degree of full participation of nobles in noble elections was determined. Participation in these elections and, in general, belonging to the noble society of a particular province or county depended on being included in the genealogical books of one or another province. The nobles who owned real estate in the province were subject to recording in the genealogical books of this province, but the entry into these books was carried out only at the request of these nobles. Therefore, many nobles who received their nobility through ranks and orders, as well as some foreign nobles who received the rights of the Russian nobility, were not recorded in the genealogical books of any provinces.

Only the first of the categories listed above enjoyed the full rights and benefits of the hereditary nobility, both as part of noble societies, and separately belonging to each person. The second category enjoyed in full the rights and benefits that belonged to each person, and the rights in the composition of noble societies to a limited extent. And, finally, the third category enjoyed the rights and advantages of the nobility assigned to each individual, and did not enjoy any rights as part of noble societies. At the same time, any person from the third category could, at will, at any time move to the second or first category, while the transition from the second category to the first and vice versa depended solely on the financial situation.

Each nobleman, especially not an employee, had to be recorded in the genealogical book of the province where he had a permanent place of residence, if he owned any real estate in this province, even if this property was less significant than in other provinces. Nobles who had the necessary property qualification in several provinces at once could be recorded in the genealogical books of all those provinces where they wished to participate in the elections. At the same time, the nobles who proved their nobility by their ancestors, but who did not have any real estate anywhere, were entered in the book of the province where their ancestors owned the estate. Those who received the nobility by rank or order could be entered in the book of the province where they wished, regardless of whether they had real estate there. The same rule also applied to foreign nobles, but the latter were entered into genealogical books only after they had been previously submitted to the Department of Heraldry. The hereditary nobles of the Cossack troops were entered: the Don troops in the genealogical book of this army, and the rest of the troops - in the genealogical books of those provinces and regions where these troops were located. When the nobles of the Cossack troops were included in the genealogical books, their belonging to these troops was indicated.

Personal nobles were not included in genealogical books. The genealogical book was divided into six parts. The first part included "kinds of the nobility paid or actual"; in the second part - the families of the military nobility; in the third - the clans of the nobility acquired in the civil service, as well as those who received the right of hereditary nobility according to the order; in the fourth - all foreign births; in the fifth - titled births; in the sixth part - "ancient noble noble families".

In practice, persons who received the nobility by order were also recorded in the first part, especially if this order complained outside the usual official order. With the legal equality of all nobles, regardless of which part of the genealogical book they were recorded in, the entry in the first part was considered less honorable than in the second and third, and together the first three parts were considered less honorable than the fifth and sixth. The fifth part included families that had the Russian titles of barons, counts, princes and most serene princes, and the barony of the Ostzey meant belonging to an ancient family, the barony granted to the Russian family - its originally humble origin, occupation in trade and industry (barons Shafirovs, Stroganovs, etc. ). The title of count meant a particularly high position and a special imperial favor, the exaltation of the family in the XVIII - early. XIX centuries, so that in other cases it was even more honorable than princely, not supported by the high position of the bearer of this title. In the XIX - early. XX centuries the title of count was often given at the resignation of a minister or as a sign of special royal favor to the latter, as a reward. This is the origin of the county of the Valuevs, Delyanovs, Witte, Kokovtsovs. By itself, the princely title in the XVIII - XIX centuries. did not mean a particularly high position and did not talk about anything other than the antiquity of the origin of the family. There were much more princely families in Russia than counts, and among them there were many Tatar and Georgian princes; there was even a family of Tungus princes - the Gantimurovs. The title of the most serene princes testified to the greatest nobility and high position of the family, distinguishing the bearers of this title from other princes and giving the right to the title "your lordship" (ordinary princes, like counts, used the title of "lordship", and the barons were not given a special title) .

The sixth part included clans, the nobility of which was a century old at the time of the publication of the Charter, but due to the insufficient certainty of the law, when considering a number of cases, the hundred-year period was calculated by the time the documents for the nobility were considered. In practice, most often the evidence for inclusion in the sixth part of the genealogical book was considered especially meticulously, at the same time, the entry into the second or third part did not meet (if there was appropriate evidence) any obstacles. Formally, the entry into the sixth part of the genealogical book did not give any privileges, except for one single one: only the sons of nobles recorded in the fifth and sixth parts of the genealogical books were enrolled in the Page Corps, the Alexander (Tsarskoye Selo) Lyceum and the School of Law.

Evidence of the nobility were considered: diplomas for the award of noble dignity, coats of arms granted from monarchs, patents for ranks, evidence of the award of the order, evidence "through letters of commendation or commendation", decrees for the award of lands or villages, layout for noble service by estates, decrees or letters of award their estates and patrimonies, decrees or letters on granted villages and patrimonies (even if later lost by the family), decrees, orders or letters given to a nobleman for an embassy, ​​envoy or other parcel, evidence of the noble service of ancestors, evidence that the father and grandfather "led a noble life or a state or service similar to a noble title", supported by the testimony of 12 people, whose nobility is beyond doubt, bills of sale, mortgages, in-line and spiritual about a noble estate, evidence that father and grandfather owned villages, as well as evidence " generational and hereditary, ascending from son to father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. above, as much as they can and wish to show" (genealogies, generational paintings).

The first instance for considering evidence of nobility was the noble deputy meetings, which consisted of deputies from county noble societies (one from the county) and the provincial marshal of the nobility. The noble deputy assemblies considered the evidence presented against the nobility, kept the provincial genealogical books and sent information and extracts from these books to the provincial governments and the Department of Heraldry of the Senate, as well as issued certificates for entering noble families into the genealogy book, issued lists from the protocols to the nobles at their request , according to which their family is included in the genealogical book, or certificates of nobility. The rights of the noble deputy assemblies were limited by the inclusion in the genealogical book of only those persons who had already irrefutably proved their nobility. Elevation to the nobility or restoration to the nobility was not within their competence. When considering evidence, the nobility's deputy assemblies did not have the right to interpret or explain the laws in force. They were supposed to consider the evidence of only those persons who own or owned real estate in a given province themselves or through their wives. But retired military or officials who chose this province as their place of residence upon retirement, deputy meetings could freely enter into the genealogical books themselves upon presentation of patents for ranks and certified service or formulary lists, as well as metrical certificates approved by spiritual consistories for children.

Genealogical books were compiled in each province by the deputy assembly together with the provincial marshal of the nobility. The county leaders of the nobility compiled alphabetical lists of the noble families of their county, indicating each nobleman's name and surname, information about marriage, wife, children, real estate, place of residence, rank and being in the service or retired. These lists were submitted signed by the county marshal of the nobility to the provincial. The deputy assembly was based on these lists when entering into the genealogical book of each kind, and the decision on such an entry should be based on irrefutable evidence and taken by at least two-thirds of the votes.

Determinations of deputy assemblies were submitted for revision to the Department of Heraldry of the Senate, except for cases of persons who acquired the nobility in the order of service. When sending cases for revision to the Department of Heraldry, the noble deputy assemblies had to ensure that the pedigrees attached to these cases contained information on each person about evidence of his origin, and metric certificates were certified in the consistory. The Department of Heraldry considered cases of nobility and genealogical books, considered the rights to noble dignity and the titles of princes, counts and barons, as well as to honorary citizenship, carried out the issuance of letters, diplomas and certificates for these rights in the manner prescribed by law, considered cases of change surnames of noblemen and honorary citizens, compiled a coat of arms of noble families and a city coat of arms, approved and compiled new coats of arms of the nobility and issued copies from coats of arms and genealogies.

"RUSSIAN TYPES".

In the Russian Empire, there were the strictest written and unwritten rules for wearing clothes by all subjects - from courtiers to peasants from the most remote villages.

Any Russian person by hair and clothes could distinguish a married peasant woman from an old maid. One glance at the tailcoat was enough to understand who is in front of you - a representative of the upper strata of society or a tradesman. By the number of buttons on his jacket, one could unmistakably distinguish a poor intellectual from a highly paid proletarian.

Even in the most remote peasant settlements, the trained eye of a connoisseur could, by the smallest details of clothing, determine the approximate age of any man, woman or child he met, their place in the hierarchy of the family and the village community.

For example, village children up to four or five years of age, without distinction of gender, had only one piece of clothing all year round - a long shirt, by which it was possible to establish without any problems whether they were from a wealthy family or not. As a rule, children's shirts were sewn from cast-offs of the child's older relatives, and the degree of wear and the quality of the material from which these things were sewn spoke for themselves.

If the child was wearing trousers, then it could be argued that the boy was over five years old. The age of a teenage girl was determined by outer clothing. Until the girl was of marriageable age, the family did not even think of sewing any fur coats for her. And only when preparing their daughter for marriage, the parents began to take care of her wardrobe and jewelry. So, seeing a girl with uncovered hair, with earrings or rings, one could almost unmistakably say that she was from 14 to 20 years old and her relatives were well-to-do enough to arrange her future.

The same was observed in guys. They began to sew their own - to measure - clothes at the time of grooming. A full-fledged groom was supposed to have pants, underpants, shirts, a jacket, a hat and a fur coat. Some decorations were not forbidden, such as a bracelet, an ear ring, like the Cossacks, or a copper, or even an iron likeness of a signet on a finger. A teenager in his father's shabby fur coat showed with all his appearance that he was not yet considered mature enough to prepare for marriage, or that his family was doing very neither shaky nor roll.

Adult residents of Russian villages were not supposed to wear jewelry. And the peasants everywhere - from the northernmost to the southernmost provinces of the Russian Empire - flaunted in the same trousers and belted shirts. Hats, shoes and winter outerwear spoke most of all about their status and financial situation. But even in the summer it was possible to distinguish a wealthy man from an insufficient one. Fashion for trousers, which appeared in Russia in the 19th century, by the end of the century had also penetrated into the outback. And wealthy peasants began to wear them on holidays, and then on weekdays, and put them on over ordinary trousers.

Fashion also touched men's hairstyles. Their wearing was strictly regulated. Emperor Peter I ordered to shave his beard, leaving it only to peasants, merchants, petty bourgeois and clergy. This decree remained in force for a very long time. Mustaches until 1832 could only be worn by hussars and lancers, then they were allowed to all other officers. In 1837, Emperor Nicholas I strictly forbade officials to wear a beard and mustache, although even before that, persons in the public service rarely wore a beard. In 1848 the Sovereign went even further: he ordered to shave the beard of all the nobles without exception, even those who did not serve, seeing, in connection with the revolutionary movement in the West, in the beard I would accept freethinking. After the accession of Emperor Alexander II, the laws were softened, but officials were allowed to wear only sideburns, which the Emperor himself flaunted. However, a beard with a mustache from the 1860s. became the property of almost all non-serving men, a kind of fashion. Since the 1880s beards were allowed to be worn by all officials, officers and soldiers, however, individual regiments had their own rules on this matter. Servants were forbidden to wear beards and mustaches, with the exception of coachmen and janitors. In many Russian villages, barbering, which Emperor Peter I introduced by force at the beginning of the 18th century, gained popularity a century and a half later. Guys and young men in the last quarter of the 19th century. beards began to be shaved, so that thick hair on the face became a hallmark of elderly peasants, which included men over 40 years old.

The most common peasant costume was the Russian caftan. The peasant caftan was very diverse. Common to him was a double-breasted cut, long floors and sleeves, a chest closed to the top. A short caftan was called a half-caftan or half-caftan. The Ukrainian semi-caftan was called a scroll. Caftans were most often gray or blue in color and were sewn from cheap nanke material - coarse cotton fabric or canvas - handicraft linen fabric. They girdled the caftan, as a rule, with a sash - a long piece of fabric, usually of a different color, the caftan was fastened with hooks on the left side.

A variation of the caftan was the undershirt - a caftan with ruffles at the back, which is fastened on one side with hooks. The undershirt was considered a more fine attire than a simple caftan. Dapper sleeveless undercoats, over short fur coats, were worn by wealthy coachmen. Wealthy merchants also wore a coat, and, for the sake of "simplification", some nobles. Sibirka was a short caftan, usually blue, sewn to the waist, without a slit at the back and with a low standing collar. Siberians were worn by shopkeepers and merchants. Another kind of caftan is azyam. It was sewn from thin fabric and was worn only in summer. Chuyka was also a kind of caftan - a long cloth caftan of a careless cut. Most often, the chuyka could be seen on merchants and philistines - innkeepers, artisans, merchants. A homespun caftan made of coarse, undyed cloth was called a sermyaga.

The outerwear of the peasants (not only men, but also women) was an armyak - also a kind of caftan, sewn from factory fabric - thick cloth or coarse wool. Wealthy Armenians were made from camel wool. It was a wide, long, free-cut robe, reminiscent of a dressing gown. Armenians often wore coachmen, putting them on in winter over sheepskin coats. Much more primitive than the coat was the zipun, which was sewn from coarse, usually homespun cloth, without a collar, with sloping floors. Zipun was a kind of peasant coat, protecting from cold and bad weather. Women also wore it. Zipun was perceived as a symbol of poverty. However, it should be borne in mind that there were no strictly defined, permanent names for peasant clothing. Much depended on local dialects. Some identical items of clothing were called differently in different dialects, in other cases, different items were called by the same word in different places.

Of the peasant hats, a cap was very common, which certainly had a band and a visor, most often of a dark color, in other words, an unshaped cap. The cap, which appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, was worn by men of all classes, first landowners, then philistines and peasants. Sometimes caps were warm, with earmuffs. Ordinary working people, in particular coachmen, also wore tall, rounded hats, nicknamed buckwheat hats - by the similarity of the shape with the then-popular flatbread baked from buckwheat flour. Any peasant hat was disparagingly called shlyk. At the fair, the peasants left their hats to the innkeepers as a pledge, in order to redeem them later.

Rustic women's clothing from time immemorial was a sundress - a long sleeveless dress with shoulder straps and a belt. In the southern provinces of Russia, the main items of women's clothing were shirts and ponevs - skirts made of fabric panels sewn on top. From the embroidery on the shirt, the connoisseurs could unmistakably determine the county and village where the woman in brides prepared her dowry. The Ponevas talked about their owners even more. They were worn only by married women, and in many places, when a girl came to woo, her mother put her on a bench and held a ponytail in front of her, persuading her to jump into it. If the girl agreed, then it was clear that she accepted the marriage proposal. And if an adult woman did not wear a cape, it was clear to everyone that this was an old maid.

Each self-respecting peasant woman had up to two dozen ponevs in her wardrobe, more precisely, in a chest, each of them had its own purpose and was sewn from appropriate fabrics and in a special way. There were, for example, everyday ponevs, ponevs for great mourning when one of the family members died, and ponevs for small mourning for distant relatives and in-laws. The ponevs were worn differently on different days. On weekdays, during work, the edges of the poneva were plugged into the belt. So a woman who wore an untucked poneva on hard days could be considered a lazy person and a loafer. But on holidays it was considered the height of indecency to poke a poneva or walk in everyday life. In some places, women of fashion sewed satin bright stripes between the main panels of the poneva, and this design was called a diaper.

From women's hats - on weekdays a warrior was worn on the head - a scarf wrapped around the head, on holidays a kokoshnik - a rather complex structure in the form of a semicircular shield over the forehead and with a crown at the back, or a kiku (kichka) - a headdress with projections protruding forward - “horns ". It was considered a great shame for a married peasant woman to appear in public with her head uncovered. Hence, “goof off”, that is, disgrace, disgrace.

After the liberation of the peasants, which led to the rapid growth of industry and cities, many villagers were drawn to the capitals and provincial centers, where their idea of ​​clothing changed radically. In the world of men's, more precisely, gentleman's clothing, English fashions reigned, and the new townspeople tried to at least to a small extent resemble members of the wealthy estates. True, at the same time, many elements of their clothing still had deep rural roots. Particularly hard parted with clothes from the former life of the proletarians. Many of them worked at the machine in the usual kosovorotka shirts, but over them they put on a completely urban vest, and the trousers were tucked into decently tailored boots. Only workers who had long lived or were born in the cities wore colored or striped shirts with the turn-down collar that is now familiar to everyone.

Unlike the indigenous inhabitants of the cities, people from the villages worked without taking off their hats or caps. And the jackets in which they came to the factory or plant were always removed before starting work and were very cherished, since the jacket had to be ordered from a tailor, and it cost quite a lot of money to "build" it, unlike trousers. Fortunately, the quality of fabrics and tailoring was such that the proletarian was often buried in the same jacket in which he had once married.

Skilled proletarians, primarily metalworkers, at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. earned no less than novice representatives of the free professions - doctors, lawyers or artists. So the poor intelligentsia faced the problem of how to dress in order to be different from highly paid turners and locksmiths. However, this problem soon resolved itself. The dirt on the streets of the working outskirts did not encourage people to walk around in their master's coats, and therefore the proletarians preferred to wear cropped jackets in spring and autumn, and short fur coats in winter, which the intelligentsia did not wear. In the northern summer, which the wits not for nothing called a parody of the European winter, the workers wore jackets, preferring models that better protect against wind and dampness and therefore fasten as high and tightly as possible - with four buttons. Soon, no one, except for the proletarians, acquired or wore such jackets.

The way in which the most skilled workers and masters who managed the workshops stood out from the factory masses was also interesting. Electricians and machinists of factory power plants, whose specialty implied the presence of a small but serious education, emphasized their special position by wearing leather jackets. Factory craftsmen went the same way, who complemented the leather outfit with special leather headdresses or bowlers. The latter combination seems rather comical to the modern eye, but in pre-revolutionary times, this way of designating social status, apparently, did not bother anyone.

And the vast majority of proletarian dandies whose families or loved ones continued to live in the villages preferred clothes that could make a splash when the proletarian returned to visit the village. Therefore, ceremonial bright silk blouses, no less bright vests, wide trousers made of gleaming fabrics, and most importantly, creaky accordion boots with numerous folds, were very popular in this environment. The so-called hooks were considered the height of dreams - boots with solid, rather than sewn-on limbers, which cost more than usual and helped their owner in every sense of the word to throw dust in the eyes of fellow villagers.

For a long time, representatives of another Russian class, who mostly came from peasants, the merchants, could not get rid of their addiction to rustic-style clothes for a long time. Despite all the fashion trends, many provincial merchants, and some metropolitan ones, even at the beginning of the 20th century. continued to wear their grandfather's long frock coats or undershirts, blouses and boots with bottle tops. This fidelity to traditions was seen not only as a reluctance to spend too much on London and Parisian delights in clothing, but also as a commercial calculation. The buyer, seeing such a conservatively dressed seller, believed that he was trading honestly and carefully, as bequeathed by his ancestors, and therefore he was more willing to buy his goods. A merchant who did not spend too much on unnecessary rags was more willing to lend money to his brothers, especially in the Old Believer merchant environment.

However, merchants who were engaged in production and trade with foreign countries, and therefore did not want to expose themselves to ridicule because of the old-fashioned appearance, completely followed all the requirements of fashion. True, in order to distinguish themselves from officials who wore fashionable black frock coats outside of service, merchants ordered gray, and most often blue frock coats. In addition, the merchants, like the working aristocracy, preferred a tightly buttoned suit, and therefore their frock coats had five buttons on the side, and the buttons themselves were chosen in a small size - apparently to emphasize their difference from other classes.

Different views on the costume, however, did not prevent almost all merchants from spending a lot of money on fur coats and winter hats. For many years, there was a custom among the merchants to wear several fur coats, putting one on top of the other, to demonstrate their wealth. But by the end of the XIX century. under the influence of his sons, who received a gymnasium and university education, this wild custom began to disappear little by little, until it disappeared.

In those same years, among the advanced part of the merchant class, a special interest arose in tailcoats. This type of costume, which since the beginning of the XIX century. worn by the aristocracy and its lackeys, did not give rest not only to merchants, but also to all other subjects of the Russian Empire who were not in public service and did not have ranks. Tail coat in Russia was called a uniform for those who are not allowed to wear a uniform, and therefore it began to spread widely in Russian society. Tailcoats, which later became only black, at that time were multi-colored and until the middle of the 19th century. served as the most common attire of wealthy citizens. Tailcoats became obligatory not only at official receptions, but also at private dinners and festivities in any wealthy house. It became simply indecent to get married in anything other than a tailcoat. And in the parterre and boxes of the Imperial Theaters without tailcoats have not been allowed since ancient times.

Another advantage of tailcoats was that, unlike all other civilian costumes, they were allowed to wear orders. So it was absolutely impossible to show off the awards that merchants and other representatives of wealthy classes from time to time were given without a tailcoat. True, those who wanted to dress in a tailcoat were in for a lot of pitfalls, on which they could ruin their reputation once and for all. First of all, the tailcoat had to be sewn to order and sit on its owner like a glove. If the tailcoat was rented, then the connoisseur's eye immediately noticed all the folds and protruding places, and the one who tried to appear as someone he was not was subjected to public condemnation, and sometimes expulsion from secular society.

There were many problems with the selection of decent shirts and vests. It was considered bad manners to wear anything under a tailcoat other than a special starched Dutch linen tailcoat. A white ribbed or patterned waistcoat was also supposed to have pockets. Black vests with tailcoats were worn only by old people, funeral participants and lackeys. The tailcoats of the latter, however, differed quite significantly from the tailcoats of their masters. There were no silk lapels on the tailcoats of the lackeys, and on the tailcoat trousers of the lackeys there were no silk stripes, which every secular person knew. Putting on a lackey tailcoat was the same as putting an end to your career.

Another danger was the wearing of a university badge with a tailcoat, which was supposed to be attached to the lapel. In the same place, tailcoat-dressed waiters in expensive restaurants wore a badge with a number assigned to them, so that customers would remember only him, and not the faces of the servants. Therefore, the best way to insult a university graduate dressed in a tailcoat was to ask what number he had on his lapel. The only way to restore honor was through a duel.

Special rules existed for other wardrobe items that were allowed to be worn with a tailcoat. Kid gloves could only be white and fastened with mother-of-pearl buttons, not buttons. Cane - only black with a tip of silver or ivory. And from the hats it was impossible to use any other than the cylinder. Hat hats, which had a mechanism for folding and straightening, were especially popular, especially when traveling to balls. Such folded caps could be worn under the arm.

Strict rules also applied to accessories, especially pocket watches that were worn in a vest pocket. The chain should be thin, elegant and not weighed down by numerous hanging trinkets and decorations, like a Christmas tree. True, there was an exception to this rule. Society turned a blind eye to merchants who wore watches on heavy gold chains, sometimes even on a pair at once.

For those who were not zealous admirers of all the rules and conventions of high life, there were other types of costume that were worn at receptions and banquets. At the beginning of the XX century. Following England, a fashion for tuxedos appeared in Russia, which began to displace tailcoats from private events. The fashion for frock coats changed, but did not pass. But most importantly, the three-piece suit began to spread more and more. Moreover, in different strata of society and representatives of different professions preferred different versions of this costume.

For example, lawyers who were not in the public service and did not have official uniforms most often appeared at court hearings in all black - a frock coat with a vest and a black tie or a black troika with a black tie. In particularly difficult cases, a sworn attorney could also be in a tailcoat. But the legal advisers of large firms, especially those with foreign capital, or bank lawyers preferred gray suits with brown shoes, which at that time was considered by public opinion as a defiant demonstration of their own importance.

Engineers who worked at private enterprises also wore three-piece suits. But at the same time, all of them, in order to show their status, wore caps that were due to engineers of the relevant specialties who were in the public service. A somewhat absurd combination for a modern look - a three-piece suit and a cap with a cockade - did not bother anyone at that time. Some doctors dressed in the same way, wearing a cap with a red cross on the band with a completely civilian suit. Those around, not with condemnation, but with understanding, treated those who could not get into the civil service and acquire what most of the population of the empire dreamed of: a rank, a uniform, a guaranteed salary, and in the future, at least a small, but also guaranteed pension.

Since Peter the Great, service and uniform have entered Russian life so firmly that it has become almost impossible to imagine it without them. The form established by nominal imperial decrees, orders of the Senate and other instances, existed for everyone and everything. Cabbers, under pain of fines, had to be on the goats of cabs in the clothes of the established sample in the heat and cold. The porters could not show themselves on the threshold of the house without the livery laid down for them. And the appearance of the janitor had to correspond to the idea of ​​​​the authorities about the guardian of street cleanliness and order, and the absence of an apron or a tool in his hands often served as a reason for complaints from the police. The established form was worn by tram conductors and carriage drivers, not to mention railway workers.

There was even a rather strict regulation of clothing for domestic servants. For example, a butler in a rich house, in order to differ from other lackeys in the house, could wear an epaulette with a tailcoat. But not on the right shoulder, like officers, but only and exclusively on the left. There were restrictions on the choice of dress for governesses and bonnies. And the nurses in wealthy families had to constantly walk in Russian folk costumes, almost with kokoshniks, which peasant women had kept in chests for several decades and were hardly worn even on holidays. In addition, the nurse was required to wear pink ribbons if she was nursing a newborn girl, and blue if she was a boy.

The unwritten rules also applied to children. Just as peasant children up to the age of four or five ran exclusively in shirts, so the children of wealthy people, without distinction of sex, wore dresses up to the same age. The most common and looked like a uniform were "sailor" dresses.

Nothing changed even after the boy grew up, and he was sent to a gymnasium, a real or commercial school. Wearing a uniform was mandatory at any time of the year, except for the summer holidays, and even then outside the city - in the estate or in the country. The rest of the time, even outside of class, a schoolboy or a realist outside the home could not refuse to wear a uniform.

Even in the most democratic and progressive educational institutions of St. Petersburg, where boys and girls studied together and where no uniform was provided, the children sat in the lessons in exactly the same dressing gowns. Apparently, in order not to irritate the authorities accustomed to uniforms too much.

Everything remained the same even after entering the university. Until the revolution of 1905, university inspectors strictly monitored the observance by students of the established rules for wearing uniforms. True, students, even following all the instructions, managed to demonstrate their social status or political views by their appearance. The uniform of the students was a jacket, under which a kosovorotka was put on. Wealthy and therefore considered reactionary students wore silk blouses, and revolutionary-minded students wore embroidered "folk" ones.

Differences were also observed when wearing full dress student uniforms - frock coats. Wealthy students ordered frock coats lined with expensive white woolen fabric, for which they were called white-lined. Most of the students did not have frock coats at all and did not participate in solemn university events. And the student uniform confrontation ended with the fact that the revolutionary students began to wear only uniform caps.

However, individual manifestations of dissatisfaction of anti-government elements did not detract from the craving of the population of the Russian Empire for uniforms, especially military and bureaucratic ones.

“The cut and styles of civilian uniforms,” wrote J. Rivosh, a connoisseur of Russian costume, “in general, were similar to the military uniform, differing from it only in the color of the material, piping (edges), the color and texture of the buttonholes, the texture and pattern of weaving shoulder straps, emblems, buttons - in a word, details. This similarity becomes clear if we recall that the basis of all civilian forms was the uniform of military officials, which itself was only a kind of officer. If the regulated military uniform in Russia dates back to the era of Emperor Peter I, then the civilian form arose much later - in the first quarter of the 19th century After the Crimean War, at the end of the 1850s, both in the army and in civilian departments, new forms were introduced, the cut of which was more in line with the fashion of those years and was more convenient. Some elements of the previous form were preserved only on formal clothes (sewing pattern, two-corners, etc.).

By the beginning of the XX century. the number of ministries, departments and departments increased significantly, new positions and specialties appeared, which were not there when the existing forms were established. A mass of centralized and departmental orders and circulars arose, introducing new forms, often establishing contradictory rules and styles. In 1904, an attempt was made to unify civilian uniforms in all ministries and departments. True, even after that, the issues of civilian uniforms remained extremely complex and confusing. The forms introduced in 1904 lasted until 1917, no longer subject to change.

Within each department, in addition, the form changed depending on the class and rank (rank) of its carrier. So, officials of the lower classes - from the collegiate registrar (XIV class) to the court adviser (VI class) - in addition to the insignia, the drawings and the placement of sewing on the dress uniform were distinguished from each other.

There was also differentiation in the details of the style and colors of the uniform between different departments and departments within departments and ministries. The difference between employees of the central departments and employees of the same departments on the periphery (in the provinces) was materialized only in buttons. Employees of the central departments had buttons with a chased image of the state emblem, that is, a double-headed eagle, and employees in the field wore provincial buttons, on which the coat of arms of a given province was depicted in a wreath of laurel leaves, above it was a crown, and below it was a ribbon with the inscription "Ryazan ", "Moscow", "Voronezh", etc.

The outerwear of officials of all departments was black or black and gray. "Of course, it was quite convenient to govern the country and the army, where the uniform could tell a lot about its owner. For example, for students of naval educational institutions - midshipmen - there were two types shoulder straps - white and black. The former were worn by midshipmen who had been trained in naval affairs since childhood, and the latter by those who got into the fleet from land cadet corps and other educational institutions. With shoulder straps of different colors, the authorities could quickly determine who and what should be in a particular campaign teach.

It was also not harmful for subordinates to know what opportunities the officer commanding them had. If he has an aiguillette and a badge in the form of an eagle in a wreath, then he is an officer of the General Staff who graduated from the academy and therefore has great knowledge. And if, in addition to the aiguillette, the imperial monogram flaunted on shoulder straps, then this is an officer of the imperial retinue, from a skirmish with which you can expect big trouble. The strip at the outer edge of the general's epaulettes meant that the general had already served his term and was retired, and therefore did not pose a clear danger to lower ranks.

During the First World War, the Russian dress code that had been established for centuries began to burst at the seams. Officials, who were blamed for inflation and growing food difficulties, stopped going to work in uniform, preferring to wear three-piece suits or frock coats. And in the form, indistinguishable from the military, put on numerous suppliers of no less numerous Zemstvo and public organizations (which were contemptuously called Zemgusars). In a country where everyone and everything is judged by form, this only increased the confusion and confusion.

In the first half of the XIX century. the entire population of the Russian Empire continued to be divided into estates, which were closed groups of the population, which differed from each other in their social status, certain rights and duties. There were privileged ("non-taxable") and unprivileged ("taxable") estates. The first included nobles, clergy, merchants, Cossacks; to the second - peasants and petty bourgeois. The nobles were the dominant privileged class of secular landowners, higher and middle civil servants. The legal registration of the nobility as an estate was finally completed by the provincial reform of 1775 and the charter to the nobility of 1785. The privileges of the nobility were confirmed, noble societies were formed, as well as provincial and district deputy meetings for the election of officials of the local administration and court, for discussing government projects and class needs. Paul I abolished these class privileges. Alexander I in the very first days of his reign hastened to restore the self-government of the nobility. Depending on the origin and degree of merit, all the nobility since the time of Peter I was divided into hereditary and personal. The title of a hereditary nobleman could be obtained by inheritance from his father, as well as as a result of awards by the supreme power and for awarding orders. Officials of the IX-XIV classes of the Table of Ranks had the right to receive personal nobility. Legally, only the hereditary nobility was the social group, which was fully covered by the privileges that distinguished the nobility into a special class. The basis of the political and economic power of this nobility was the ownership of land, serfs, and the special position that it occupied in the mechanism of state power. In 1858, there were 285,411 nobles in Russia (of which 158,206 were hereditary and 127,205 personal). The rights and privileges of the nobility were secured in the 1830s during the codification of laws. Their positions in local self-government bodies were strengthened. In districts and provinces, almost all police and judicial positions were filled by elections of noble assemblies. Measures were taken to protect the nobility from the influx of raznochintsy, as well as to preserve noble land ownership. In 1845, the classes of ranks were raised, giving the right to personal (12th for military ranks and 9th for civilians) and hereditary nobility (6th for military and 4th for civilians), it was established that only the first degrees Russian orders give the right to hereditary nobility (except for the orders of George and Vladimir, all degrees of which gave this right). Having taken the position of the social, political and state elite, the nobility began to play a leading role in the development of secular national culture. By order of the nobles, palaces and mansions were built in the capitals, architectural ensembles in estates, artists and sculptors worked. The nobles kept theaters, orchestras, collected libraries. Most famous writers, poets and philosophers belonged to the nobility. All members of the State Council, the Senate, ministers, officers of the army and navy were nobles. In general, the historical merits of the nobility to Russia were truly enormous. On the territory of Russia in the first half of the XIX century. there were various religious cults and denominations (Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity), which were provided by clerics, usually organized in church hierarchies. The dominant church in Russia was the Russian Orthodox Church, whose clergy constituted a special estate. The clergy were divided into white (clergymen, clergymen) and black (monasticism). White, in turn, was divided into diocesan, military, court and foreign. In 1825, the white clergy included 102 thousand people who served about 450 cathedral and about 24.7 thousand parish churches, about 790 prayer houses and chapels. In 377 male monasteries there were about 3.7 thousand monastics and over 2 thousand novices, in 99 women's monasteries - about 1.9 thousand nuns and over 3.4 thousand novices. Access to the clergy was closed to people from other classes. Only children of the "spiritual rank" could be clergymen. At the same time, they could not move to another estate other than the taxable one. At the end of the XVIII century. priests were exempted from corporal punishment. In terms of their economic position, the clergy varied greatly depending on their place in the church hierarchy. The standard of living of a rural parish priest was not much different from the standard of living of a peasant, and this worried the government, forcing them to seek funds to improve it. In general, the Russian clergy, professing the Christian religion, fully fit into the main national idea of ​​Russia - autocracy, Orthodoxy, nationality. The merchant class of Russia as a separate estate was divided into three guilds. Merchants of the first guild, who had large capitals, conducted wholesale domestic and foreign trade; the second guild - could conduct large-scale trade only within the Russian provinces; the third - were engaged in petty and retail trade within individual provinces, counties and volosts. In 1811, out of a total urban population of Russia of 2.7 million people, merchants accounted for 201.2 thousand, or 7.4%. It was the emerging urban bourgeoisie, a significant part of which was merchant merchants. The small number of merchants and the high degree of concentration of funds led to the fact that the scope of trade operations of large merchants was very large. Often one merchant, with the help of his clerks, traded in the markets of Siberia, and at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, and in Moscow, and in the Ukraine, and in a number of other areas of Russia equally remote from each other. Domestic wholesale trade was combined with foreign trade on the eastern and western borders of the state. The trading operations of such merchants were not specialized: they simultaneously made salt and wine deliveries, traded in bread and industrial products, etc. military service. The serving Cossacks began to take shape from the 14th century, and their activities continued in the following centuries. At the beginning of the XIX century. Alexander I approved the "Regulations of the Cossack troops", which determined the structure and order of service of each Cossack army: Don, Black Sea, Orenburg, Ural, Simbirsk, Caucasian, Azov. These provisions finally turned the Cossacks into a special military estate. From now on, a special procedure for serving military service, exemption from poll tax, from recruitment duty, the right to duty-free trade within military territories, etc. were introduced. In 1851, the Transbaikal Cossack Host was established. The heir to the throne was considered the chieftain of all troops. Stanitsa atamans were elected, which was a manifestation of democracy in their public life. In fact, the Cossacks participated in all the wars waged in the 19th century. Russia. At the end of the 50s of the XIX century. the Cossacks numbered 1.5 million people. Philistinism was included in the taxable group of estates. It consisted of the urban population - artisans, hired workers, small traders, etc. They were subjected to a high poll tax, supplied recruits and could be subjected to corporal punishment. The philistines formed a significant part of the urban population of the country. In 1811, they accounted for 35.1% of the number of Russian citizens (949.9 thousand people). A feature of the first half of the 19th century was the rapid expansion of the layer of raznochintsy. They were from various classes, educated and entered the civil service. They were replenished at the expense of the children of clergymen, philistines, merchants of the second and third guilds, officials, lower military ranks. In legal terms, raznochintsy did not have the right to own land, serfs, factories and plants, as well as engage in trade and crafts, but they could receive an education. Mental labor became a source of income for many of them. This created favorable conditions for the formation of a diverse intelligentsia. The peasantry was the largest and numerous estate in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. In the late 1950s, it accounted for 86% of the country's population. According to their legal status, the peasants were divided into three main categories: landowners, state and appanage. The most significant category of the peasantry was the landlord peasants - about 11 million male souls. The bulk of the serfs were in the central provinces of the country, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. There they made up 50% to 70% of the population. In the northern and south-steppe regions, the proportion of serfs ranged from 2% to 12%. There were no serfs at all in the Arkhangelsk province, and in Siberia there were only 4.3 thousand of them. According to the form of duty, the landlord peasants were divided into quitrent, corvée, yard and assigned to private factories and factories. The form and severity of the duty of the peasants depended on the economic conditions of the region: the fertility of the soil, the availability of arable land, the development of crafts, as well as the solvency and personality of the landowner. The position of the state peasants - 8-9 million male souls - was somewhat better than the landlords. They belonged to the treasury and were officially considered "free villagers". The bulk of the state peasants were concentrated in the northern and central provinces of Russia, in the left-bank and steppe Ukraine, in the Volga and Ural regions. This category of peasants had to pay dues to the state, and certain taxes to local authorities. The norm of land allotment for them was set at 8 acres per male soul in the provinces with little land and 15 acres in large-land provinces. In fact, this provision was not respected. In 1837, when the Ministry of State Property was created, the government tried to solve the problem of peasant land shortages by mass migrations. At the same time, a system of peasant self-government began to be introduced. Specific peasants - about 1 million souls of the male population - belonged to the imperial family. To manage them in 1797, the Department of appanages was created. For the first half of the XIX century. the number of specific peasants doubled. They settled in 27 provinces, with more than half concentrated in the provinces - Simbirsk and Samara. The duties of specific peasants included dues, monetary and natural duties. Thus, in the first half of the XIX century. Russia was a country with a rigid class organization of society. Moreover, if during the reign of Alexander I attempts were made to weaken the estate partitions, then the measures of the government of Nicholas I, on the contrary, were aimed at strengthening them. As a result, until the reforms of the 1860s. the peasantry, that is, the overwhelming majority of the country's population, was practically excluded from participation in the political and public life of the country, and had no experience of using civil rights. In general, the social structure of Russia corresponded to the medieval level of the political culture of society, its conservation was an attempt to preserve feudal relations. * * * So, in the first half of the XIX century. despite the inhibitory influence of serfdom, the socio-economic development of Russia was on the whole progressive and progressive, and the direction was bourgeois. These trends were especially noticeable in the large-scale manufacturing industry, in the appearance of the first railways and steamships, in the formation of the bourgeoisie and civilian workers. At the same time, Russia's chronic lag behind - economic, social, political, structural, technological - from the most advanced countries of Europe continued and grew. Russia's global problem is to respond to the challenge of the times, to eliminate this backlog. In the first half of the XIX century. the solution to this truly historical problem largely depended on the domestic and foreign policies of the two Russian emperors - Alexander I and Nicholas I.

In pre-revolutionary Russia of the 19th century, there were the following estates:

1) Aristocrats

Or the highest nobility - the Grand Dukes (members of the royal family), princes, counts and barons

2) Nobility

It was divided into hereditary and personal - former boyars and representatives of the lower classes who deserved the nobility.

3) Clergy

(white - priests and black - monks);

4) Estate of honorary citizens

The historical predecessor of honorary citizenship was the class of eminent citizens, allocated by Catherine II in the Charter of 1785 from the city dwellers. They were exempt from corporal punishment; they were allowed to have gardens, country yards, ride in a carriage in pairs and fours, it was not forbidden to start and maintain factories, plants, sea and river vessels.

By decree of January 1, 1807, the title of eminent citizens was abolished for the merchant class and retained only for scientists and artists. But due to the fact that belonging to the merchant class was determined only by registration in the guild, even the most respectable merchant family, which for some reason was not able to declare capital (that is, was not assigned to one or another guild), was immediately transferred to the class of philistines or rural inhabitants, and at the same time was subject to recruitment duty, and capitation salary, and corporal punishment.

The abnormality of this order of things prompted the Minister of Finance, E.F. Kankrin, back in 1827, to enter with a proposal to establish a special honorary citizenship, which was carried out by a manifesto on April 10, 1832.

5) Merchants

Those. hereditary merchants. They were divided into guild classes according to the amount of capital, the family's merits to the state and the quality of trade. There were 3 guilds in total. 1st - was considered the highest. Many came from wealthy peasants.

6) Raznochintsy (Intelligentsia)

In the exact legal sense, several groups of people belonged to the category of raznochintsy. The lower courtiers, civil servants and retired military servants who were not registered either in the merchant class or in the workshops were ranked among the raznochintsy. In everyday life, raznochintsy were called people who received an education, thanks to him they were excluded from the unprivileged taxable class in which they used to be, or could not belong to the taxable state, while they were not in active service, as a rule, they had the right to apply for grants them honorary citizenship, but did not apply for it. Raznochintsy in this sense included people from the clergy, merchants, petty bourgeoisie, peasantry, petty bureaucracy. A significant proportion of the raznochintsy were retired soldiers and soldiers' children.

7) Philistinism

Philistinism originates from the townspeople (residents of cities and towns) of the Russian state, mainly artisans, small homeowners and merchants. It is believed that the name comes from the Polish and Belarusian names of small towns - "town". Officially, the estate of the townspeople was formalized in the Charter of Letters to the cities of Catherine II in 1785. The name "petty bourgeois" in it was defined as: "town dwellers", "neuter people", small merchants and artisans. The petty-bourgeois class was lower in status than the merchant class. It was the philistines who owned most of the city's real estate. Being the main payers of taxes and taxes, the townspeople, along with the merchants, belonged to the category of "correct city dwellers".

The philistines of the city united in the "petty bourgeois society".

8) Cossacks - hereditary, consisting in the state service. It had its own privileges. It stood a step above the peasantry in the class hierarchy. In fact, it was equated with the philistines and raznochintsy.

9) Peasantry

This estate was divided into personally free odnodvortsev and chernososhnye peasants, as well as dependent on the feudal lords and serfs. The Russian peasantry in the estate system was divided into a number of categories: state peasants who lived on lands owned by the state, monastic peasants, landlord peasants, appanage peasants who lived on lands owned by the imperial family, possession (assigned peasants), assigned to certain factories, single-palaces.

10) Exiles, serfs, fugitives, shackles (prisoners), prisoners of war - not an estate. People without rights. They were at the bottom of society. They did not even have the right to move around the country. But the serfs could get freedom and become free peasants. So serfdom was completely abolished in 1861.

The formation of a domestic estate structure is characteristic of the era of "enlightened absolutism", which aimed to preserve the order in which each estate performs its purpose and function. The elimination of privileges and the equalization of rights, from this point of view, were understood as "general confusion", which should not be allowed.

The process of legal consolidation of the nobility began in the Petrine era. The “Decree on Uniform Heritage” prepared the unity of the property base of this class and specifically emphasized its official function, which became mandatory (the nobles were forced to serve),

The manifesto of Peter III "On the freedom of the nobility", confirming the special position of the nobility in society, abolished the obligatory service that burdened the nobility. It outlined new areas of application of the noble initiative (except for state and military service) - trade and industry.

The most important act that carried out the legal consolidation of the nobility was the "Charter to the nobility" (1785).

Back in 1771, as a result of the work of the established commission, a project was prepared, which later formed the basis of the "Charter of the nobility". In the project, the entire population was divided into three classes, the first of which is called "noble". The project developed the provisions of Catherine's "Instruction" on the special status and purpose of the nobility.

The privileges of the nobility were defined quite broadly: first of all, the provision of the Manifesto of 1762 “On the Liberty of the Nobility”, on the freedom of the nobles to serve, leave the service, travel to other states, and renounce citizenship, was fixed.

The political corporate rights of the nobility were established: the right to convene and participate in provincial congresses, the right to elect judges by the nobles.

“Charter of the nobility” (full title “Letter of rights and advantages of the noble Russian nobility”) consisted of an introductory manifesto and four sections (ninety-two articles).

It established the principles of organizing local noble self-government, the personal rights of nobles, and the procedure for compiling genealogical books of nobles.

Noble dignity was defined as a special state of qualities that served as the basis for acquiring a noble title. The title of nobility was considered as inalienable, hereditary and hereditary. It applies to all members of the nobleman's family.

The grounds for the deprivation of the title of nobility could only be criminal offenses, in which the moral fall of the criminal and dishonesty were manifested. The list of these crimes was exhaustive.

The personal rights of the nobles included: the right to noble dignity, the right to protect honor, personality and life, exemption from corporal punishment, from compulsory public service, etc.

The property rights of the nobility: full and unlimited ownership, the acquisition, use and inheritance of any type of property. The exclusive right of the nobles to buy villages and own land and peasants was established (the nobles had the right to open industrial enterprises on their estates, trade in the products of their lands in bulk, purchase houses in cities and conduct maritime trade.

The special judicial rights of the nobility included the following class privileges: the personal and property rights of the nobility could be limited or liquidated only by a court decision: a nobleman could only be judged by a class court equal to him, decisions of other courts did not matter to him.

The class self-government of the nobility, regulated by the “Charter of Letters”, looked like this: the nobles created a society or Assembly, endowed with the rights of a legal entity (having its own finances, property, institutions and employees). The assembly was endowed with certain political rights: it could make representations to local authorities, central institutions and the emperor on matters of "public good".

The Assembly included all the nobles who had estates in a given province. From among the county marshals of the nobility, the Assembly once every three years elected candidates for provincial marshals of the nobility. The candidacy of the latter was approved by the governor or the representative of the monarch in the province. The nobles who did not have lands and did not reach the age of twenty-five were eliminated from the elections. The rights of nobles who did not serve and did not have officer ranks were limited during elections. The nobles discredited by the court were expelled from the Assembly.

The assembly also elected assessors to the class courts of the province and police officials of the zemstvo police.

Noble assemblies and county leaders compiled noble genealogical books and resolved questions about the admissibility of certain persons as nobles (there were about twenty legal grounds for classifying them as nobility).

The letter of grant preserved the difference between the rights of personal nobility and the rights of hereditary nobility. All hereditary nobility had equal rights (personal, property and judicial), regardless of the difference in titles and antiquity of the clan. The legal consolidation of the nobility, as an estate, was completed. The rights assigned to the nobility were defined as "eternal and unchanging". At the same time, noble corporations were directly dependent on state power (registration of nobles in genealogical books was carried out according to the rules established by the state, state officials approved the candidates for elected noble leaders, noble elective bodies acted under the auspices of state officials and institutions).

The legal status of the urban population as a special class began to be determined as early as the end of the 17th century. Then the creation of city governments under Peter I (town halls, magistrates) and the establishment of certain benefits for the top of the urban population strengthened this process. Further development of trade and finance industries (as special functions of the city) required the issuance of new legal acts regulating these areas of activity.

In 1769, a draft regulation “On the neuter gender of people” or the legal status of philistinism was developed. This estate included: persons engaged in science and serving (white clergy, scientists, officials, artists); persons engaged in trade (merchants, manufacturers, breeders, ship owners and seafarers); other persons (artisans, tradesmen, working people). The "middle kind" of people had the fullness of state rights, the right to life, security and property. Judicial rights were envisaged, the right to inviolability of the person until the end of the trial, to defense in court.

The petty bourgeois were exempted from public works, they were forbidden to be transferred to a serfdom. They had the right to free resettlement, movement and departure to other states, the right to their own intra-estate court, to equipping them with houses, the right to put up a replacement for themselves in a recruiting set. The petty bourgeois had the right to own city and country houses, had an unlimited right of ownership to their property, an unlimited right of inheritance.

They received the right to own industrial establishments (limiting their size and the number of employees), to organize banks, offices, etc.

In preparing the “Letter of Letters to the Cities” (which began in 1780), in addition to the materials of the commission, other sources were used: the Guild Charter (1722), the Charter of the Deanery (1782) and the Institution for the Administration of the Province (1775), the Swedish Guild Charter and the Regulations on the Broker (1669), the Prussian Craft Charter (1733), the legislation of the cities of Livonia and Estonia. "Charter to the Cities" (full title: "Charter on Rights and Benefits to the Cities of the Russian Empire") was published simultaneously with the "Charter to the Nobility" in April 1785. It consisted of a manifesto, sixteen sections and one hundred and seventy-eight articles. The diploma secured a single estate status for the entire population of cities, regardless of professional occupations and types of activity.

This was quite consistent with the idea of ​​​​creating a "middle kind of people." The unified legal status of the urban population was based on the recognition of the city as a special organized territory with a special administrative system of management and types of occupation of the population.

Belonging to the petty-bourgeois estate, according to the legislator, is based on diligence and good morals, is hereditary, associated with the benefits that petty-bourgeoisness brings to the fatherland (belonging to petty-bourgeoisness is not a natural phenomenon, like belonging to the nobility). The deprivation of petty-bourgeois rights and class privileges could be carried out on the same grounds as the deprivation of class rights of a nobleman (a complete list of acts was also given).

The personal rights of the townspeople included: the right to protect honor and dignity, personality and life, the right to move and travel abroad.

The property rights of the bourgeoisie included: the right to own property (acquisition, use, inheritance), the right to own industrial enterprises, crafts, the right to trade.

The entire urban population was divided into six categories:

1) “real city dwellers” who have a house and other real estate in the city;

2) merchants registered in the guild (guild I - with a capital of ten to fifty thousand rubles, II - from five to ten thousand rubles, III - from one to five thousand rubles);

3) artisans who were in the workshops;

4) out-of-town and foreign merchants;

5) eminent citizens (capitalists and bankers who had a capital of at least fifty thousand rubles, wholesalers, ship owners, members of the city administration, scientists, artists, musicians);

6) other townspeople.

Merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds enjoyed additional personal rights, were exempted from corporal punishment, and could own large industrial and commercial enterprises. Eminent citizens were also exempted from corporal punishment.

The rights and obligations of artisans were regulated by intra-shop rules and the "Charter on Shops".

For urban residents, as well as for the nobility, the right of corporate organization was recognized. The townspeople constituted a "city society" and could gather for meetings with the approval of the administration.

The townspeople elected burgomasters, assessors-ratmans (for three years), elders and judges of verbal courts (for a year).

The assembly could make representations to local authorities and oversee the observance of laws. The right of a legal entity was recognized for a city society. Participation in the society was limited by the property qualification (payment of an annual tax of at least fifty rubles) and the age qualification (at least twenty-five years old).

A general city council was created in the city, which included the elected mayor and vowels (one from each of the six categories of citizens and in proportion to parts of the city).
The General City Duma formed its own executive body - a six-member City Duma from among the vowels, in whose meetings one representative from each category participated. The mayor presided.

The competence of the city duma included: ensuring silence, harmony and deanery in the city, resolving intra-class disputes, monitoring urban construction. Unlike town halls and magistrates, court cases were not under the jurisdiction of the city duma - they were decided by the judiciary.

In 1785, a project was developed for another class charter - "Rural position". The document concerned the situation only of state peasants. He asserted for them the inalienable class rights: the right to a free title, the right to own movable property, the right to acquire ownership of real estate (excluding villages, factories, plants and peasants), the right to refuse to pay illegal taxes, dues and duties, the right to engage in agriculture, crafts and trade.

Rural society received the rights of the corporation. Rural "inhabitants" could elect executive bodies of self-government in the communities, elected a class court and came out with ideas to the local administration. Deprivation of class rights could be carried out only by court.

It was supposed to divide the entire rural population, by analogy with the urban population, into six categories, taking into account the declared capital, according to the property qualification. The first two categories (with a capital of more than one thousand rubles) were exempted from corporal punishment.

The project did not become a law, but the state and legal policy towards the peasantry was clearly defined. The peasant population was subdivided into "state settlers" who belonged to the state and owned land received from the government; free peasants who rent land from the nobility or the government and who are not serfs; serfs who belonged to nobles or the emperor.

All categories of peasants had the right to hire workers, put up recruits in their place, educate their children (serfs could do this only with the permission of the landowner), engage in petty trade and handicrafts. The rights of inheritance, disposal of property, entry into obligations for the peasants were limited. State peasants and free peasants had the right to protection in court, and to full possession, but not disposal of the granted lands, to full ownership of movable property.

The serfs were completely subject to the court of the landowners, and in criminal cases - to the state court. Their property rights were limited by the need to obtain the permission of the landowner (in the field of disposal and inheritance of movable property). The landowner, in turn, was forbidden to sell peasants at "retail".

Cossacks were declared free people. They could not be converted to serfdom, they had the right to judicial protection, they could own small trading establishments, rent them out, engage in crafts, hire free people (but they could not own serfs), trade goods of their own production. Cossack foremen were exempted from corporal punishment, their homes - from standing. A uniform and special military-administrative management of the Cossack troops was established: a military office, the leadership of which was appointed by the government, and the members were elected by the Cossacks.

The development of noble property rights took place in line with the legal consolidation of this class. Even in the "Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobles" the concept of real estate was expanded, first introduced into circulation by the "Decree on Uniform Succession". Yards, factories and factories were classified as real estate.

The state monopoly on mineral resources and forests, established in 1719, was abolished in 1782, and the landlords received the right to own the forest land.

As early as 1755, a landowner's monopoly on distillation was established, and since 1787, the nobles were allowed to freely trade in bread everywhere. In this area, no one could compete with the landowners.

Differentiation of the legal forms of noble landownership is simplified: all estates began to be divided into two types - ancestral and acquired.

The order of inheritance of landowners' estates was simplified, and the freedom of the testator was expanded. In 1791, childless landlords received complete freedom to inherit property to any person, even those who were not members of the testator's clan.

The “Letter of Letters to the Nobility” secured the rights of the nobles to engage in industrial and commercial activities, opening up new prospects for the estate.

The nobles had an unlimited right of ownership to estates of any type (acquired and ancestral). In them, they could carry out any activity not prohibited by law. They were given the full right to dispose of estates, they had full power over the serfs, at their own discretion they could impose various taxes, dues on them and use them in any work.

Legislation on entrepreneurship, the formation of a capitalist economy. In the first half of the 19th century, in all sectors of the economy, the formation of capitalist relations took place. Agriculture was definitely focused on the market: its products were produced for the purpose of marketing, the share of cash quitrents increased in the structure of peasant labor and duties, and the size of the lord's plowing increased. In a number of areas, a month developed: the transfer of peasants to pay for food, while their allotments turned into a lordly plow.

An increasing number of industrial enterprises and manufactories appeared on the estates, which used the labor of serfs. There was a differentiation of the peasantry, the rich invested their capital in industry and trade.

In industry, the use of hired labor increased, the number of handicraft and small enterprises, and peasant crafts increased. In the 1830s and 1950s, manufactories turned into capitalist factories based on machine technology (already in 1825, more than half of the workers employed in the manufacturing industry were hired, mostly quitrent peasants). The demand for free labor increased rapidly.

Its replenishment could only be carried out from the peasant environment, for which it was necessary to carry out certain legal transformations into the provisions of the peasantry. In 1803, the “Decree on Free Plowmen” was adopted, according to which the landlords received the right to release their peasants into the wild for a ransom established by the landowners themselves. In almost sixty years of the decree (before the reform of 1861), only about five hundred emancipation treaties were approved and about one hundred and twelve thousand people became free cultivators.

The release was carried out with the sanction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the peasants received property rights to real estate and participation in obligations.

In 1842, the "Decree on Obligated Peasants" was issued, providing for the possibility of landowners transferring land to peasants for lease, for which the peasants were obliged to fulfill the obligations stipulated by the contract, to submit to the landowner's court. Only about twenty-seven thousand peasants living on the estates of only six landowners were transferred to the position of "obliged" peasants. Arrears were collected from the peasants through the police by the “provincial administrations”.

Both of these partial reforms did not resolve the issue of changing economic relations in agriculture, although they outlined the mechanism of agrarian reform (buyout, the state of “temporary duty”, working off), which was carried out in 1861. More radical were the legal measures taken in the Estonian, Livonian and Courland provinces: in 1816 - 1819. the peasants of these regions were freed from serfdom without land. The peasants switched to lease relations, using the landowners' land, performing duties and submitting to the landowner's court.

A measure aimed at changing serf relations was the organization of military settlements, in which, from 1816, state peasants began to be housed. By 1825 their number reached four hundred thousand people. The settlers were obliged to engage in agriculture (giving half of the crop to the state) and to perform military service. They were forbidden to trade, go to work, their life was regulated by the Military Charter. This measure could not give free hands for the development of industry, but outlined ways for organizing forced labor in agriculture, which would be used by the state much later.

In 1847, the Ministry of State Property was created, which was entrusted with the management of the state peasants: quitrent taxation was streamlined, the land allotments of the peasants were increased; the system of peasant self-government was fixed: volost gathering - volost administration - rural assembly - village headman. This model of self-government will be used for a long time both in the system of communal and future collective-farm organization, however, becoming a factor restraining the departure of peasants to the city and the processes of property differentiation of the peasantry.

New economic relations required, however, changes in the legal status of the rural inhabitants. Separate steps in this direction were made in the first half of the 19th century. As early as 1801, state peasants were allowed to buy land from landowners.

In 1818, a decree was adopted allowing all peasants (including landlords) to establish factories and plants.

The need for free hired labor made it inefficient to use the labor of sessional peasants in factories and factories: in 1840, factory owners received the right to free the sessional peasants and hire free people and quitrent peasants instead.

In the cities, in parallel with the class of philistines and guilds (masters, artisans, apprentices), the social group of "working people" began to grow.

Estates in the Russian Empire.
(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 clan 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, Peter 1, after the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700, 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 philistines were assigned to their city societies, which they could leave only with temporary passports, and transfer 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 landlords, and until the peasants bought 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.

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.

Liberty Loan of the Provisional Government.

In memory of the remarkable estates of the Russian Empire, the oldest Russian company "Partnership A.I. Abrikosova Sons" has released a collection of souvenir chocolates under the general name - "Class Chocolate".

For more information about the ASSORTMENT of the Association of AI Abrikosov Sons, see the appropriate section of the site.

.
(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 clan 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, Peter 1, after the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700, 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 philistines were assigned to their city societies, which they could leave only with temporary passports, and transfer 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 landlords, and until the peasants bought 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.