Peasants “On the Run”: State Control, Fugitives, Social and Geographic Mobility in Imperial Russia, 1649-1796
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PEASANTS “ON THE RUN”: STATE CONTROL, FUGITIVES, SOCIAL AND GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA, 1649-1796 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Andrey Gornostaev, M.A. Washington, DC May 7, 2020 Copyright 2020 by Andrey Gornostaev All Rights Reserved ii PEASANTS “ON THE RUN”: STATE CONTROL, FUGITIVES, SOCIAL AND GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA, 1649-1796 Andrey Gornostaev, M.A. Thesis Advisers: James Collins, Ph.D. and Catherine Evtuhov, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the issue of fugitive peasants by focusing primarily on the Volga-Urals region of Russia and situating it within the broader imperial population policy between 1649 and 1796. In the Law Code of 1649, Russia definitively bound peasants of all ranks to their official places of residence to facilitate tax collection and provide a workforce for the nobility serving in the army. In the ensuing century and a half, the government introduced new censuses, internal passports, and monetary fines; dispatched investigative commissions; and coerced provincial authorities and residents into surveilling and policing outsiders. Despite these legislative measures and enforcement mechanisms, many thousands of peasants left their localities in search of jobs, opportunities, and places to settle. While many fugitives toiled as barge haulers, factory workers, and agriculturalists, some turned to brigandage and river piracy. Others employed deception or forged passports to concoct fictitious identities, register themselves in villages and towns, and negotiate their status within the existing social structure. Although officially unwilling to tolerate illicit migration, the Russian state often exhibited pragmatism and flexibility in practice, changing the status of runaway peasants who worked at important commercial sites in the Urals and Astrakhan or who defended the country’s frontiers. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates how the issue of peasant flight influenced not only the process of state formation but also relations between different members of early modern Russian society. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could not have been completed without the support and assistance of many people and institutions in Russia and the United States. Georgetown University provided a stimulating intellectual environment over the past several years, and I am grateful to the faculty and students who helped me develop as a scholar and an instructor. First and foremost, I am indebted to my dissertation advisers, Catherine Evtuhov and James Collins, whose expertise, continuous guidance, and encouragement, and were critical to the successful completion of this project. My other committee members, David Goldfrank and Joanne Rappaport, provided numerous suggestions allowing me to hone my arguments further. This dissertation greatly benefited from the Department of History’s current and former graduate students. Our stimulating discussions during the Russian History Dissertators Workshop helped me clarify my writing, thinking, and ideas, and I am thankful to all its participants: Simon Belokowsky, Phil Kiffer, Abby Holekamp, Stanislav Tarasov, Thom Loyd, and Paula Chan. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Alan Roe, Patrick Dixon, Armen Manuk-Khaloyan, and Maria Telegina, who read different chapters and provided insightful comments. The funding I received from several sources was indispensable for this project. The Cosmos Scholar Grant provided by the Cosmos Club Foundation funded the early stage of my archival work. Over the years of writing, the Department of History at Georgetown University generously supported my progress through teaching and research fellowships and the Piepho Dissertation Research Grant. Awarded by the Georgetown’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Dissertation Research Travel Grant enabled me to undertake additional archival work in Moscow. iv I had the opportunity to present parts of this project at conferences, seminars, and invited talks in the United States, Germany, and France. The German Historical Institute in Moscow funded my participation in 10the International Conference in Strasbourg, which was organized by the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia in 2018. The same year, I presented a dissertation chapter at the East Coast Russian History and Culture Workshop at Princeton University. In Bonn, Germany, I had the pleasure to discuss another chapter during the workshop on slavery and other forms of asymmetrical dependency in early modern Russia. In 2020, I was fortunate to be awarded the Davis Travel Grant to take part in the 50th annual convention, hosted by the Association for Slavic and East European Studies. I am thankful to the panelists, participants, and commentators who encouraged me to think comparatively and offered feedback that strengthened the arguments of this dissertation. I am indebted to the numerous archivists and librarians who facilitated my research. I owe special thanks to my colleagues at RGADA, Olga Kosheleva and Evgenii Akel’ev, who were always ready to provide advice and answer my questions. Viacheslav Zhukov assisted with clarifications on RGADA’s repositories and timely delivery of archival records. The staff of archives in Perm, Astrakhan, and Nizhnii Novgorod and libraries in Moscow created a welcoming environment and willingly offered their expertise. I appreciate the incredible work of the interlibrary loan staff at Georgetown University, who assisted me in acquiring a number of necessary secondary readings. Last but not least, I would not have completed this project without the immense support of my relatives and friends. I am particularly grateful to Tony Nesky, who encouraged me to apply to Georgetown in the first place and provided moral and editing support over the years of my studies. Emin Aliev and Andrei Kuznetsov welcomed me with warms whenever I arrived in v Moscow. My parents, Viktor and Valentina, and my sister, Anna, helped me maintain a positive outlook and often reminded me that I should not forget the reasons that brought me to academia in the first place. Most importantly, my loving wife, Valeriya Minakova, patiently endured the entire process, read numerous drafts, and always knew what to say to rekindle my interest in the project and passion for history. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Controlling Mobility and Searching for Fugitives between 1649 and 1796 ............... 23 Chapter 2. The Compromising State: Peasant Migration and the Policy of Exceptions .............. 87 Chapter 3. Living on the Run: Escape, Work, and Return ......................................................... 143 Chapter 4. Runaways in Provincial Courts ................................................................................. 198 Chapter 5. Deception as a Way into a New Life......................................................................... 237 Chapter 6. From Runaways to Brigands ..................................................................................... 279 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 310 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 316 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 0.1 Map of the Volga-Urals Region, Mid-18th Century ................................................... 13 Figure 3.1 Leontii Ivanov's Family Tree .................................................................................... 183 Figure 5.1 A Counterfeit Passport Given to Trofim Ignat’ev in 1752 ........................................ 260 Figure 5.2 A Counterfeit Passport Given to Iakov Kandakov .................................................... 262 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Population Decline between 1719 and 1742................................................................. 61 Table 3.1 Instance of Group and Solitary Flight in the Mid-Volga Region, 1710-1770 ............ 159 Table 3.2 Serf Flight from Arzamas District, 1787-1811 ........................................................... 159 Table 6.1 Brigands’ Plundering between Pereyaslavl’-Zalessky and Nizhnii Novgorod .......... 301 ix INTRODUCTION On January 29, 1649, the Assembly of the Land (Zemskii sobor) completed deliberations and editorial work on the Sobornoe Ulozhenie, which was to become the primary law code of Russia for almost two hundred years. The final version was drafted and accepted in just over six months, and two editions of 1,200 copies each went into circulation by the end of the year. Not only did the Ulozhenie constitute an impressive compilation of provisions from foreign and Russian legal codices, but it also included a significant number of newly drafted provisions, designed to respond to the changes in Muscovy’s social, economic, and political climate. In total, twenty-five chapters, further split into 967 articles, addressed different issues including, but not limited to, blasphemy, military service, populated estates, monetary fees, townsmen’s status, taverns, prisoners, and brigandage. Crucially, in 111 articles, the Ulozhenie paid close attention to the legal position of the peasantry within