The Mansion and the Hut: Theft as Manifestation of “Peasant Communism with Landowner”

Abstract

possessions in the country estates both in the pre-reform and post-reform Russia. It examines axiological nuances of theft: peasants did not consider stealing from the landlord as a crime or sin. These ideas were based on a specific social-psychological system of “Us-Them”. Anyone who didn’t belong to a particular peasant community was considered a stranger or an outsider. Stealing from a stranger was not considered something reprehensible. The usual human “weaknesses”, such as greed and envy, fit into this coordinate system as well. Class antagonism was also an integral element of this system. The evaluation of one’s transgression in the course of theft depended on the status of the landowner, the possibility of stealing from neighboring landowners with the patronage or lack thereof on the part of one’s master. In their own social environment, theft was strictly forbidden. Serfs regarding themselves an integral part of the estate, proceeded from the premise: “You are ours, and we are yours!” The property of the estate was declared as if it were common. Contemporaries called such an approach “peasant communism with a landowner”. Outside the seignorial paternalism, theft was considered as a fair redistribution of master’s belongings. In the post-reform period, when serfs gained personal freedom but were tied to the estate through the obligations of redemption payments, the theft did not disappear. Peasants continued to consider the landlord’s possessions as a source of enrichment, reasoning that the master’s belongings were the result of their efforts. Consequently, they have a right to a certain part, the reasoning that didn’t eliminate the theft as a “fair” redistribution of the landowner’s property. 209 Шаповалов В. А., Шаповалова С. П. Усадьба и изба... K E Y W O R D S : theft, robbery, peasants, landowners, pre-reform and post-reform periods F O R C I T A T I O N : Shapovalov V., Shapovalova S. The Mansion and the Hut: Theft as Manifestation of “Peasant Communism with Landowner”. Etnografia. 2022. 1 (15): 207–226. (In Russ.). doi 10.31250/2618-8600-2022-1(15)-207-226 210 ЭТНОГРАФИЯ / ETNOGRAFIA. 2022. No 1 (15)