7 sentences with “serfdom”

In its most extreme manifestations, serfdom was essentially the same as slavery.

The institution of serfdom was consolidated amidst the chaos of the 17th century.

Russian officers came to see serfdom as fundamentally immoral and totally incompatible with any hope of progress for Russia.

The planters operated within a larger capitalist society, but the system of labour they used to produce goods - that is, slavery - was similar to systems that existed before capitalism, such as feudalism and serfdom.

Many Russian elites believed that one of the reasons Russia had lost the war was its backwardness, a backwardness that Tsar Alexander II and many others believed could not be mitigated by the serfdom that hindered the possibility of progress.

In return, the nobility received confirmation that only nobles could own land and, furthermore, that they had total control over the peasants on their lands. In essence, the already existing status of serfdom on Prussian lands was made permanent.

Thus, the tsarist state instituted serfdom in 1649 on a widespread basis, formalising what was already a widespread institution. This made peasants legally little better than slaves, forced to work the land and serve the state in war when conscripted.