Conflicts and litigation between odnodvortsy and landowners of the Oryol province at the end of the XVIII - first half of the XIX centuries

Abstract

Introduction. In the presented work, the author made an attempt to analyze the materials of court proceedings between odnodvortsy and landowners of the Livensky district of the Oryol province during the period under study as an example of the struggle of the corporate organization of a odnodvortsy community against large landowners. An important feature of this phenomenon was not only the related position of the odnodvortsy community, but the interrelation of individual clans within rural society and their defense of common interests before patrimonial owners and landowners from the general class of former service people. Materials and methods. This work is the result of a study of legal and judicial materials dating back to the last quarter of the 18th – first half of the 19th centuries. The main sources for this study were court proceedings in the Livensky district and Yeletsk district courts. The main methodology is based on the use of general historical approaches in the study of the social model of behavior of the odnodvortsy social group in defending private and general corporate interests. Results. The materials of the trials between the odnodvortsy and landowners of the region under study provided very important and valuable information about the mentality of the odnodvortsy and their attitude towards large landowners who came from the general stratum of the service population of the Central Black Earth Region in the 17th century. Odnodvortsy initiated litigation with their neighboring landowners in cases where the latter came from the service population and once had common or adjacent properties with the ancestors of odnodvortsy. Land conflicts began to arise en masse only in the first half of the XIX century, which indicated the future depletion of the fund of free agricultural land. Conclusion. The study of land conflicts between odnodvortsy and landowners of the Livensky district of the Oryol province helped to reveal the mental attitudes of these class groups and determine the general social aspirations of the local population in resolving pressing issues. The majority of odnodvortsy felt common roots with local small landowners, who historically went back to the class of the service population of the 17th century. Thus, in most cases it was a showdown within the former one class group of the population, which over time significantly stratified, both in property terms and in the field of social status.