The Development of the Serfdom System and the Emergence of the Kulaks

Year 2023, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 91 - 104, 30.05.2023

Cihan Bilgili

https://doi.org/10.58648/inciss.1273355

Abstract

Serf is the name given to a peasant who works on behalf of a landlord on the land allocated to him in the Russian Empire. In this system, which is very similar to the slave system, the most important difference between serfs and free peasants was the freedom to migrate; serfs could not permanently leave their land or village without their master's permission. Apart from that, they had to get permission from their masters to marry, change jobs or transfer their property. They were tied to the land, and when the land changed hands, the serfs entered the service of the new master. These peasants had very limited rights before the law compared to their masters. The Russian peasant was at the very center of agricultural policy during the Imperial and Soviet Union periods, starting from Moscow Russia. The serfdom system ended with the liberation of the Russian peasantry after the Land Reform of 1861, but towards the end of the 19th century a new class emerged. Thus, the Russian peasant was one of the most important elements that formed the existence of the kulaks. The relationship between these two classes is important in terms of showing how they can exist in an order.In this research, it was aimed both to reveal the situation of the Russian peasant in the serfdom system that lasted for centuries and to evaluate the emergence of the kulaks in the historical context after the Land Reform.

Keywords

Serfdom, Russia, Moscow, Kazakhstan, Kulak

Serflik Sisteminin Gelişimi ve Kulakların Ortaya Çıkma Süreci

Abstract

Serf, Rusya İmparatorluğunda kendisine tahsis edilen arazide bir nevi toprak ağası adına çalışan köylüye verilen isimdir. Kölelik sistemine oldukça benzeyen bu sistemde serfler ile özgür köylüler arasındaki farklardan en önemlisi göçme özgürlüğüydü; serfler efendilerinin izni olmadan topraklarını veya köylerini sürekli olarak terk edemiyorlardı. Bunun dışında evlenmek, iş değiştirmek veya mallarını devretmek için efendilerinden izin almaları gerekiyordu. Toprağa bağlılardı ve toprak el değiştirdiğinde serfler de yeni efendinin hizmetine giriyorlardı. Bu köylüler kanun önünde efendilerine nazaran çok kısıtlı haklara sahiplerdi. Rus köylüsü Moskova Rusya’sından itibaren İmparatorluk ve Sovyetler Birliği dönemlerinde tarım politikasının tam merkezinde yer aldı. 1861 Toprak Reformu sonrasında Rus köylüsünün özgür kalmasıyla serflik sistemi sona erdi ancak 19. yüzyılın sonlarına doğru yeni bir sınıf ortaya çıktı. Dolayısıyla Rus köylüsü kulakların varlığını oluşturan en önemli unsurlardan biriydi. Bu iki sınıf arasındaki ilişki onların nasıl bir düzen içinde var olabildiklerini göstermesi açısından önemlidir. Bu araştırmada hem yüzyıllarca süren serflik sistemindeki Rus köylüsünün durumunun ortaya koyulması hem de Toprak Reformu sonrasında kulakların ortaya çıkış sürecinin tarihsel bağlamda değerlendirilmesi amaçlandı. Bu araştırmada hem yüzyıllarca süren serWlik sistemindeki Rus köylüsünün durumunun ortaya koyulması hem de Toprak Reformu sonrasında kulakların ortaya çıkış sürecinin tarihsel bağlamda değerlendirilmesi amaçlandı.

Keywords

Serflik, Rusya, Moskova, Kazakistan, Kulak

References

• Acar, K. (2004). Başlangıçtan 1917 Bolşevik Devrimi’ne Kadar Rusya Tarihi. Nobel Yayınları. Ankara.
• Armaoğlu, F. (1997). 19. Yüzyıl Siyasi Tarihi (1789-1914). Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, Ankara.
• Ascher, A. (2002). Russia: A Short History. Oneworld Puclications, Oxford.
• Bucher, G. (2008). Daily life in Imperial Russia. Greenwood Press, London.
• Conquest, R. (1986). The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror- Famine. Oxford University Press, New York.
• Figes, O. (1996). A People’s Tragedy: Russian Revolution 1891-1924. Pimlico, Londra.
• Haxthausen, A. F. (1856). The Russian Empire: Its People, Institutions and Resources. Faire, R. (Çev.), Vol. I, Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., Oxfordshire.
• Hubbard, Leonard E. (1939). The Economics Of Soviet Agriculture. Macmillan & Co. Limited, Londra.
• Kort, M. (2008). A Brief History of Russia. Infobase Publishing, New York.
• Kravchinsky, S. S. (1888). The Russian Peasantry: Their Agrarian Condition, Social Life And Religion. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 2nd Ed., Londra.
• Kurat, Akdes N. (1987). Rusya Tarihi: Başlangıçtan 1917’ye Kadar. Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 2. Baskı, Ankara.
• Lincoln, W. B. (1982). In the Vanguard Reform: Russia’s Enlightened Bureaucrats 1825-1861. Northern Illinois University Press, lllinois.
• Polunov, A. (2005). Russia in the Nineteenth Century: Autocracy, Reform, and Social Change 1814-1914. Owen, T. C. ve Zakharova, L. (Ed.), M.E. Sharpe, New York.
• Riasanovsky, N. V. ve Steinberg, M. D. (2011). Rusya Tarihi. Dereli, F. (Çev.), İnkılap Kitabevi, İstanbul.
• Stanziani, A. (2014). Bondage: Labor and Rights in Eurasia from the Sixteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries. Berghahn Books, New York.
• Vernadsky, G. (1936). Political and Diplomatic History of Russsia. Little, Brown and Company, Boston.
• Ziegler, Charles, E. (2009). The History of Russia. Greenwood Press, 2. Baskı, California.
• Walicki, A. (2009). Rus Düşünce Tarihi: Aydınlanma’dan Marksizm’e. Şenel, A. (Çev.) İletişim Yayınları, İstanbul.
• Baş, Ahmet İ. (2017). Serflik ve Bolşevik Devrimi Arasında Çarıkov’un İstanbul Yılları. Üst, S. (Ed.), Turkish Studies, Vol. 12, Issue 26, Ankara, pp 21-40.
• Bohac, R. (1991). Everyday Forms of Resistance: Serf Opposition to Gentry Exactions, 1800-1861. Peasant Economy, Culture, and Politics of European Russia (1800-1921), Kingston-Mann, E. and Mixter T. (Ed.), Princeton University Press. pp. 236-260.
• Christian, D. (1991). The Black and The Gold Seals: Popular Protests Against The Liquor Trade on the Eve of Emancipation. Peasant Economy, Culture, and Politics of European Russia (1800-1921), Kingston-Mann, E. and Mixter T. (Ed.), Princeton University Press. pp. 261-293.
• Curtiss, John S. (1968). The Peasant and The Army. The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia, Vucinich, Wayne S. (Ed.), Stanford University Press, California, pp. 108-132.
• Crisp, O. (1959). The State Peasants Under Nicholas I. The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 37, No. 89, Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Londra, pp. 387-412.
• Domar, E. D. ve Machina, M. J. (1984). On the Profitability of Russian Serfdom. The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 44, No. 4, Cambridge University Press, pp. 919-955.
• Emmons, T. (1968). The Peasant and the Emancipation. The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia, Vucinich, Wayne S. (Ed.), Stanford University Press, California, pp. 41-71.
• Field, D. (2009). The “Great Reforms” of the 1860s. A Companion to Russian History, Gleason, A. (Ed.), Blackwell Publishing, Hong Kong, pp. 196-209.
• Fuller, William C. (2006). The Imperial Army. The Cambridge History of Russia, Vol. II, Lieven, D. (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 530-553.
• Hellie, R. (2009). Slavery and Serfdom in Russia. A Companion to Russian History, Gleason, A. (Ed.), Blackwell Publishing, Hong Kong, pp. 105-120.
• Hellie, R. (2005). The Structure of Russian Imperial History. History and Theory, Vol. 44, No. 4, Theme Issue 44: Theorizing Empire, Wiley for Wesleyan University, Connecticut, pp. 88-112.
• Hughes, L. (2009). Petrine Russia. A Companion to Russian History, Gleason, A. (Ed.), Blackwell Publishing, Hong Kong, pp. 165-179.
• Ladejinsky, W. (1934). Collectivization of Agriculture in the Soviet Union I. Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 1-43.
• Lieven, D. (2006). Russia as Empire and Periphery. The Cambridge History of Russia, Vol. II, Lieven, D. (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 9-26.
• Mace, James E. (1983). The Komitety Nezamozhnykh Selyan and the Structure of Soviet Rule in the Ukrainian Countryside, 1920-1933. Soviet Studies, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 487-503.
• Moon, D. (1992). Russian Peasant Volunteers at the Beginning of the Crimean War. Slavic Review, Vol. 51, No. 4, Cambridge University Press, pp. 691-704.
• Moon, D. (2006). Peasants and Agriculture. The Cambridge History of Russia, Vol. II, Lieven, D. (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 369-393.
• Pushkarev, Sergei G. (1968). The Russian Peasants’ Reaction to the Emancipation of 1861. The Russian Review, Vol. 27, No. 2, Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review, pp. 199-214.
• Timoshenko, V. P. (1943). The Agrarian Policies of Russia and the Wars. Agricultural History, Vol. 17, No. 4, Agricultural History Society, pp. 192-210.
• Volin, L. (1943). The Russian Peasant and Serfdom. Agricultural History, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 41-61.
• Zakharova, L. (2006). The Reign of Alexander II: a watershed?. The Cambridge History of Russia, Vol. II, Lieven, D. (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 593-616.