UNRECOGNIZED ESTATE (ODNODVORTSY OF THE CENTRAL BLACK EARTH REGION IN THE 18th – EARLY 19TH CENTURIES)

Abstract

The topic of this work is the estate of the odnodvortcy of the Central Black Earth Region of Russia. Based on the analysis of the laws published in the PSZRI and other sources, the author comes to the conclusion that in the first quarter of the 19th century the odnodvortcy represented a stable community, de facto were a special class. However, due to difficult relations with the ruling nobility, who did not want to see odnodvortcy as competitors in the struggle for land, civil service and other privileges, the government stubbornly refused to recognize them as such. Since the time of Peter the Great, proceeding from class interests, through the publication of discriminatory laws with varying intensity, it pushed the odnodvortcy towards the peasantry. In a bureaucratic way, in spite of the natural process of their development, odnodvortcy were formally ranked among the state peasants. Although, remaining service people, they served in the Landmilitia and other troops, had the right to own peasants and land, and retained their way of life. In the end, odnodvortcy in the era of the Great Reform of 1860 were included into the strata of rural inhabitants. Since the position of the odnodvortcy of the Central Black Earth Region at different times was not the same, depended on the will of the monarchs, for a better understanding of the problem different periods in their evolution were identified.