Search

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Romanian provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia experienced a series of modernising reforms, some of them concerning the agrarian regime. The enforcement of the Organic Statues in the 1830s attempted to reform the political and economic life of the principalities, but it favoured the big landowners, at the expense of the peasantry. The agrarian reform enacted in 1864 put an end to serfdom and granted the right to own land to former corvée peasants. It was soon followed by the appropriation for the newlyweds, a law that offered land to newly married peasants in order to settle them in low populated rural areas. Population growth triggered a new demand for agricultural land because the big landowners still controlled approximately two thirds of the arable land. As a result, in 1881 and 1889 the state passed two laws concerning the sale of public domains to the peasantry, attempting to improve their standard of living. This article focuses on the process of rural colonisation, which took place at the end of the nineteenth century after the sale of state-owned estates to the peasants. Using data extracted from official statistics the article analyses, from a spatial point of view, the creation of a series of new settlements in low populated but fertile regions of the country. Finally, the article investigates how, at that time, this rural colonisation was perceived by peasants, politicians and rural sociologists.

This paper examines the long-run economic consequences of Russian serfdom. Employing data on the intensity of labor coercion just prior to emancipation in 1861, we document that a 25 percentage point increase in historical serfdom (1 SD) reduces household expenditure today by up to 17%. We then provide evidence on the persistence of this relationship by studying city populations over the period 1800 to 2002. Exploring mechanisms, our findings suggest that less urban agglomeration and slower industrial development in areas with a greater degree of serfdom perpetuated the negative effects of forced labor before, during, and after the Soviet period.

The article explores the creation and the functioning of rural societies in Belarus after the abolition of serfdom. Considerable focus is given to the definition of differences between the terms «rural society» and «peasant community». Territorial differences in the activities of rural societies in Belarus are noted and their formal and informal structure is highlighted. The object of the study is the peasantry of Belarus in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. The subject of the study is the regularities and features of creation and existence of rural communities in Belarus in the post-reform period. The choice of the object and subject of the study is determined by the importance of peasantry in the population structure and the principal role of peasantry in the processes of social transformation and modernisation in Belarus in the 1860–90s. The goals of the study are to determine the roles and functions of rural society in Belarus after the abolition of serfdom by identifying the differences between the terms «society» and «community»; to investigate the official structure of rural society in Belarus; and to depict the informal influence of society and public opinion on peasant life.

1840’lı yıllarda Saint- Petersburg’ta faaliyet gösteren Petraşevski topluluğu, Rus edebiyatı ve felsefesine önemli katkı sağlar. Öğrenci, memur, şair, düşünür, tüccar ve asker gibi farklı mesleki alanlardan gelen topluluk üyeleri, çarlık ve serflik sistemini şiddetle kınar. Petraşevski üyeleri ütopik sosyalist görüşlerini, temel olarak Fransız düşünür François Marie Charles Fourier ve Rus düşünür Vissarion Grigoryeviç Belinski’nin edebî ve siyasî kuramları üzerinden geliştirirler. Üyeler, her cuma akşamı topluluk lideri Mihail Vasilyeviç Butaşeviç-Petraşevski’nin Petersburg’taki evinde bir araya gelerek güncel, sosyal, siyasî, edebî, dinî ve felsefî meseleleri tartışırlar. Petraşevski üyeleri mevcut yönetimi devirmek için plan yaparlar. Topluluğun en önemli propaganda araçlarından birisi şiirdir. Petraşevski şairleri, şiir vasıtasıyla çağdaş ve özgürlükçü fikirlerini halka benimsetmeyi amaçlar; fakat Çar I.Nikolay’ın baskıcı yönetimi şairlerin eylem ve söylemlerini kısıtlar. Petraşevski şairleri Aleksey Pleşçeyev ve Dmitriy Ahşarumov şiirlerinde özgür, bağımsız, adil, eşit ve mutlu bir geleceğin hayallerini kurarlar. Sergey Durov’un şiirlerinde ise yaşadığı dönemdeki memnuniyetsizlik, hayal kırıklığı, pesimizm, çaresizlik ve umutsuzluk ön plana çıkar. Petraşevskilerin eserlerinde gerçekçi bir üslupla yer alan sosyal, siyasî ve düşünsel olgular dönem Rusya’sının tarihine tanıklık etmesi bakımından önem arz eder. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışmanın amacı Petraşevski topluluğunun gelişim ve dağılım süreci, Petraşevski üyelerinin siyasî, edebî ve felsefî görüşlerini ele almak ve sözü geçen Petraşevski şairlerinin eserlerini incelemektir. İnceleme, betimleyici ve tarihsel yöntem kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, Petraşevski şairlerinin çarlık ve serflik karşıtı şiirlerinin Rusya’da dönemin özgürlükçü ve sosyalist siyasî ideolojilerine ve 1840’lı yıllarda adalet arayışındaki aydın gençlerin zorlu mücadelelerine ışık tuttuğu saptanmıştır., The circle of Petrashevsky, getting into the act in 1840s in Petersburg, makes a notable contribution to Russian literature and philosophy. The members of the circle, composed of different professional fields like student, officer, poet, writer, philosopher, merchant and soldier, vociferously condemn the system of tsardom and serfdom. The members of Petrashevsky develop their utopian socialist views majorly on the theories of the French philosopher François Marie Charles Fourier and the Russian philosopher Vissarion Grigorevich Belinsky. Meeting up every Friday night in the house of the circle leader Mikhail Vasilevich Butashevich-Petrashevsky in Petersburg, the members discuss current social, political, literary, religious and philosophical issues. The members of Petrashevsky circle plan to overthrow the existing regime. One of the most important propaganda organs of the circle of Petrashevsky is poetry. The poets of Petrashevsky aim to infuse their modern and liberal thoughts into the public; however, Tsar Nicholas I’s authoritarian government restricts poets’ actions and discourse. The Petrashevsky poets Aleksei Pleshcheyev' and Dmitry Achsharumov dream of an independent, equal, a fair and happy future in their poems. In Sergei Durov’s poems, dissatisfaction, disappointment, pessimism, desperation and hopelessness towards his period come into prominence. The social, political and ideational cases in the works of Petrashevsky with a realistic style have importance in terms of the fact that they bear witness to that period of Russian history. In this context, the aim of this study is to discuss the development and the disbandment of the circle of Petrashevsky, the political, literary and philosophical views of the members of Petrashevsky and to analyze the works of the aforementioned Petrashevsky poets. The analysis was made by using historical and descriptive method. In conclusion, it is detected that the Petrashevsky poets’ poems, opposed to the tsardom and serfdom, shed light on the liberal and socialist political ideologies of that period in Russia and the uphill struggle of the enlightened youth seeking justice in 1840s.

The Society of Arkhangelsk Doctors was founded in 1863 and was one of the first public medical organizations in Russia. The main reason for the differences from medicine in other Russian provinces was the lack of serfdom and rural medicine in the North. The Society has been active for 55 years. Immediately after the revolution (1917) in the Arkhangelsk province, as well as throughout Russia, the activity of the OAB was suspended. In the unique library of the Kronstadt Naval Hospital, 30 copies of the protocols and works of the Society of Arkhangelsk Doctors from 1864 to 1896 are preserved. The activities of the Society played an important role in uniting the doctors of the province, contributed to the growth of their qualifications and the development of healthcare in the Russian North.

Transylvania was part of the mediaeval Kingdom of Hungary beginning from the founding of this kingdom and until the year 1540, when, due to historic circumstances, it became for a time a separate entity. The development of private law in this historical space was therefore in the beginning in large part convergent with that of Hungary. However, having a multi-ethnic population consisting of Hungarians, Szeklers, Saxons, and Romanians, with the first three nationalities benefitting from different, autonomous forms of administrative organization, a lot is to be said of specific Transylvanian private law. This study presents those elements and sources of private law which characterized legal relationships in Transylvania beginning with the founding of the Kingdom of Hungary and until the separation of this region from Hungary due to Ottoman conquest. We examine the major sources of law, consisting of customary law, statutory law, and acts of royal power. We then present in summarized form the main characteristics and provisions of the law applicable to persons, the family, immovable and movable property but also inheritance. Some specific private law regulations applicable to Szeklers and Saxons are also presented as well as the perspective of Romanian legal literature regarding the private law applicable to Romanians.

The article deals with the historical and legal analysis of the formation and development of the state credit system in the Ukrainian lands. The article outlines the conditions and circumstances under which the organizational and legal foundations of the credit activity of banking and other state institutions were formed. During the incorporation of Ukraine into the Russian Empire, the elimination of Ukrainian statehood, and the encroachment upon the very cultural and national identity of the Ukrainians, the system of state credit actually did not exist. The attempts to create banking institutions were unsuccessful because there was niether any market formed nor money and securities in the feudal serfdom empire. The changes only took place in the course of capitalist modernization in the second half of the nineteenth century. The abolition of serfdom made available a large number of workers and the legislator faced the urgent task of creating legal foundations for the development of the credit market. The main reform was the creation of the State Bank in 1860, which, in addition to regulating money market, emission activities, made long-term loans. It was guided by the statutory statute, other regulatory legal acts. In order to promote the credit in the sphere of agriculture, in particular mortgage, the Peasant Land Bank and the State Noble Land Bank were established, which got advantages together with privately owned entities. The offices, branches and agencies of the State Bank and the branches of State Land Banks were directly active in Ukrainian provinces Their activity (and, accordingly, its legal regulation) was under the influenc of the specific features of Ukraine’s financial and economic development, namely, a much more higher pace of industrial and agricultural development than in other regions of the Russian empire. But the insufficient development of long-term crediing in Ukraine had the negative impact on that development.

A large scholarly literature exists about plans for a peasant reform in the reign of Nicholas I. However, the most important archival documents about the debates on the peasant question remain unpublished. The new book by T. V. Andreeva “The distant approaches to the Great Reform: The peasant question in Russia in the reign of Nicholas I” seeks to fill this lacuna. The book begins with a historical survey of the six government committees that were tasked with planning reforms, followed by an extensive collection of archival documents of both official and private provenance. In the debates under Nicholas I, the specific problem of serfdom was folded into the larger question of the social position of the peasants, which the government regarded as a source of both political instability and economic backwardness. The solution that officials envisioned was a reform that was comprehensive, multi-faceted, and gradual. Step-by-step, the evolution that had led to creation of serfdom from the 17th century onward was to be reversed: the landlords were gradually to lose their power over the person of the serfs, who were to be attached only to the land itself. Eventually, the serfs were to be emancipated with land; in the meantime, restrictions on the power of landlords and a comprehensive reform of the state peasants were to serve as preparatory steps. According to Andreeva, the vision of Nicholas and his advisors was too limited and conservative, and premised on the mistaken belief that it was possible to modernize the country without touching the core of the sociopolitical system.

The article analyzes the information shedding light on the attitude of representatives of the young generation of liberal-minded nobles to the personality of Alexander I, his internal and foreign policies, rumors and reports about his intentions and views. These data are drawn from sources of personal origin recently discovered and published with comments for general public access – previously unknown memoirs and letters of the Decembrist S. P. Trubetskoy, addressed to his comrade, later Senator I. N. Tolstoy. The noble liberal opposition that arose after the end of the Napoleonic wars, as new sources confirm, had a contradictory attitude towards Alexander I. On the one hand, the “liberalists” defended the need for major changes, including the abolition of serfdom and the constitution building, on the other hand, they were dissatisfied with the fact that, in their opinion, interests of nobility (first and foremost economic ones) were ignored by the authorities when designing reforms. Authentic materials of the epoch, such as the newly found letters of S. P. Trubetskoy, allow us to come to the conclusion about the ambivalent attitude of the Decembrists to the reform projects of Alexander I and the great expectations placed on the Tsar by the “liberalists”. However, at the same time the sources demostrate the growing skepticism about internal politics, fear of ill-conceived and inconsistent with the needs of the nobility transformations, such as the forced abolition of serfdom without taking into account the economic interests of nobility.

Under the current circumstances, child education is not a private matter of the family; it is a social task that is inherent in society. Therefore, the moral education of the younger generation cannot be carried out without the mutual assistance of the family and the school community.

Liberal utilitarianism is usually presented as a current of thought mostly inspired by Jeremy Bentham and other Western European thinkers, and eventually diffused in other parts of the world. This paper adopts a different approach and shows, on the one hand, how the Bentham brothers’ experiences in Russia and serfdom in particular inspired their invention of the Panopticon. The latter was not related to deviance (Foucault's interpretation), but to labor organization and surveillance. On the other hand, the interplay between utilitarianism and colonial India led Bentham, then James and John Stuart Mill, and ultimately Henry Maine to revise utilitarianism, in particular the relationship between law, labor, and political economy. In both the Britain–Russia interplay and Britain–India interplay, the tension between universalism and particularism of philosophical, social and economic categories was at work.

This paper analyzes the evolution of the institutional matrix of the GDL and establishes two stages in it. The first (pre­federative) is characterized by institutional diffusion, from the Kingdom of Poland in the first place, whereas the second is linked with the formation of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania. It is shown that, as the formed federation united societies with distinct types of dominating institutions, institutional transplantation occurred from the more economically developed country to the other. Such integration leads not only to positive implications but also to the mutation of the transplanted institutions (strengthening of serfdom during the transition to the more progressive folwark agriculture). Transfer of the Western European system of fideicommissum inheritance turned out to be an institutional pitfall since the indivisible manors – ordynacii – presented a case of a state within a state, with their owners relying on the redistributive institutions at the microlevel (within their estates) and pursuing the market institutions at the macrolevel (within the country as a whole) in order to cement their economic position.Peculiarities of the political sphere conditioned the transformation of the socio­cultural subsystem of the GDL’s institutional matrix. Roman Catholicism expanded rapidly, undermining the religious tolerance that the Grand Duchy had hitherto been known for. The elements of subsidiary ideology, coming from Poland, were understood as giving exceptional rights only to the szlachta stratum; acquisition of the golden liberties was equated with conversion to Catholicism and the use of the Polish language.The consequences of these policies were the following: Polonization and mass conversion to Catholicism among the propertied classes; widespread resentment among the worse­off, morphing into popular uprisings in the XVII century; alignment of property, confession, and language groups in the society, which moved the social inequality issue into the ethnic dimension and contributed to interethnic strife in the lands of the former GDL in the centuries to come.The absence of efficient governmental management of institutional transplantation caused an institutional crisis, which, with the political elites being disunited, was the reason for the entire social system to disintegrate.

The article is an analysis of the representations of body in selected novels authored by the Ukrainian writer, Ivan Franko, which form a part of the Galician discourses about the memory of serfdom. As the main theoretical context, the author of the article adopts Paul Connerton’s concept of the body as a medium of social memory. She pays attention to how the characters in Franko’s novels — representatives of the first generation of Ruthenian/Ukrainian intelligentsia of the peasant origin of the 1870–1890s — recreate past serf relations between the Ruthenian peasantry and Polish nobility with the help of bodily poses, gestures, and interactions. The author concludes by stating that the bodily dimension of memory about serfdom forces characters to have special control over their body. The control becomes part of the process of emancipation of own social-cum-national identity.

The purpose of the article is to outline the scale of the tossing of newborn children in sub-Russian Ukraine in the end of 19th – early 20th centuries, to determine the causes of this phenomenon, the participation of the state and the public in caring for social orphans and measures to combat this deviation. The methodology of the research is based on a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, systematization) and special-historical methods (historical-structural, constructive-genetic, historical-comparative) with the principles of objectivity, historicism, and consistency. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time in domestic and foreign historiography the problem of foundlings in the Russian Empire of the end of 19th – early 20th centuries (on the example of the sub-Russian Ukraine) is comprehensively considered, including the reasons for the throwing of children, the scale of this phenomenon is outlined, the effectiveness of state and public institutions in caring for social orphans is determined. Conclusions. Tossing children is a natural phenomenon for a society that is going through the processes of modernization and urbanization. It is based on socio-economic and psychological factors. Population growth in the Russian Empire and sub-Russian Ukraine in particular, which became possible as a result of the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the completion of the industrial revolution in the 1880s, the active development of capitalism, the spread of emancipation movements and trends in the development of Western culture in society, legal prostitution status, etc. caused the degradation of the institution of marriage and the beginning of the devaluation of the family as the basis of a patriarchal society. The overwhelming majority of mothers leaving their children to fend for themselves are rural girls who could not find a high-paying job in the city, became victims of fraudsters and gentlemen. At the end of the 19th century, local governments (zemstvos) and public organizations took an active part in the creation of orphanages. The state did not have time to centrally respond to new challenges of society and did not carry out work to prevent the throwing of children. Police work was ineffective. The high morbidity and mortality of foundlings in orphanages were caused by an unsatisfactory level of medical care and excessive bureaucratization of the state apparatus.

Pro-slavery argumentation was relatively similar both in the context of New World slavery and the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire, where a small autonomous Baltic-German minority governed ov...

This paper revisits Friedrich Hayek’s book, The Road to Serfdom, on the seventy-fifth anniversary of its publication. Though the book is well-known, its arguments are often mischaracterized. The paper traces the origins of the book, noting the various people and arguments that Hayek was responding to, and places it in the context of its times. The structure of the book is explored and some common criticisms addressed. Finally, it is shown how, after its publication, the book took on a life of its own. (JEL B25, B31, P11, P16, P21, P26)

This article offers a moral economic critique of the transition to a market economy in the post-Soviet space. In a reversal of the classical ideal of a ‘free market’ (a market free from land rent, monopoly rent and interest), neoliberalism celebrates and promotes rent extraction, sometimes over wealth creation (Hudson, 2017). In freeing markets from government regulation, neoliberalism enables powerful economic actors to extract income by mere virtue of property rights that entitle them to a stream of income from their ownership and control of scarce assets (Sayer, 2015). Neoliberalism has created and expanded the role of rent and unearned income in post-Soviet economies (Mihalyi & Szelenyi, 2017). This article will show the diversity and significance of rent in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that go beyond natural resources and illicit public and private rent-seeking. Using three case studies on finance, real estate and the judiciary in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, this article will examine how property relations, rentier activities and unearned income have been morally justified and normalized. Despite its moral legitimation, rentiership has been harmful and damaging. It has produced social inequalities and suffering, and has resulted in plutocracy and corruption.

Serfdom narratives belong to the most prominent, emotionalized, and politicized elements of Baltic history writing. We are claiming in this article that serfdom narratives, although used mainly in ...

The article is devoted to the contribution of Soviet domestic science to the study of the peasant class in the second half of the XVIII century. in the Russian Empire. The position of the peasantry in state policy is analyzed, and the scientific schools of the Soviet period specializing in the study of the system of serfdom are considered. The question is raised about the scientific achievements of Soviet historical science in the complex of using the existing approaches, scientific schools, and the system of knowledge about the development of the peasantry in the Russian Empire in the second half of the XVIII century. The study of social and economic processes of development of the peasant class during the evolution of feudal relations was the most popular topic of scientific research in Soviet historiography. The problems related to the condition of dependent peasants during the period of serfdom in tsarist Russia deserve careful study and continue to arouse interest in the works of Russian researchers.

The activity of the mining industry in the South of the Russian Empire, of which Ukraine was part at that time, is analyzed. It is noted that the rapid development of industry in the Russian Empire after the abolition of serfdom in 1861 opened up opportunities for investors to raise capital. Information is given about why Kharkiv became the center of investment life of mine owners, namely its good geographical location. Data on the number of inhabitants of the city and the number of trading institutions are provided. The stages in the formation of the mining industry of the South of the Russian Empire as a driving force for economic development in Ukraine are highlighted.The causes of weak coal sales from the Donbas and the development of the factory industry of Ukraine in the 1860s are analyzed. It is shown how these issues were resolved. In particular, mining congresses were organized to discuss and resolve these issues.It is shown how the decisions of mining congresses influenced the development of the country's economy at the end of the nineteenth century. Examples of issues discussed at these congresses are given. In particular, the congresses discussed – workers, higher and secondary specialized education, mining credit, insurance, the ratio of the mining industry to zemstvos and land taxation of enterprises of the mining industry, taxes, land relations, postal, telegraph and telephone traffic, passenger traffic in the Southern Russia area, duties, ports, marinas, navigable rivers and canals, shipbuilding and merchant shipping, export of mineral fuel abroad, construction of new railways, etc. It should be noted that the central issue discussed at almost all mining congresses was the question of tariffs, and this was not a coincidence, since it directly concerned the markets for industrialists without whom production could not be developed, and with it the intensification of the industrial revolution. Therefore, this problem, in one form or another, has arisen constantly.Information is provided on the number of such congresses, as well as on the creation of a permanent body, the Council of Miners of the South of the Russian Empire. It analyzes the so-called “coal crisis” and the role of major mining companies in the collusion. The monopolization of the market is considered. Emphasis is placed on the customs policy of the tsarist government. Speculation on temporary fuel difficulties is illustrated. It is noted that at the end of the 1890s, there were especially high rates of development of the Donbas coal industry. Special tariffs for the export of Donetsk coal abroad were introduced. Thus, in the last quarter of the 19th century, the mining and monopolization of the mining industry of the south of the Russian Empire were enlarged and monopolized. Аналізується діяльність гірничопромисловців півдня Російської імперії, частиною якої на той час була Україна. Наголошується, що бурхливий розвиток промисловості Російської імперії після скасування кріпацтва у 1861 р. відкрив можливості інвесторам для збільшення капіталу. Подано відомості про те чому саме Харків став центром інвестиційного життя гірничопромисловців. Надані дані про чисельність мешканців міста та кількість закладів торгівлі. Виокремлено етапи у формуванні гірничопромисловців Півдня Російської імперії як рушійної сили розвитку економіки в Україні. Показані причини слабкого збуту вугілля з Донбасу та розвиток фабрично-заводської промисловості України у 1860-ті. Показано, яким чином було вирішено ці проблеми. Зокрема, вказано, що саме для обговорення та вирішення цих питань було організовано з’їзди гірничопромисловців. Встановлено, яким чином рішення з’їздів гірничопромисловців впливали на розвиток економіки країни наприкінці ХІХ ст. Наведено приклади питань, що обговорювалися на цих з’їздах. Серед них: робітники, вища і середня спеціальна освіта, гірничопромисловий кредит, страхування, відношення гірничої промисловості до земств і земського оподаткування підприємств гірничозаводської промисловості, податки, земельні відносини, поштово-телеграфне і телефонне повідомлення і пасажирський рух у районі рудників і заводів півдня Росії, мита, порти, пристані, судноплавні річки і канали, суднобудування і торговельне мореплавство, експорт мінерального палива за кордон, будівництво нових залізниць і т.д. Треба зазначити, що питання тарифів обговорювалося практично на всіх гірничопромислових з'їздах. Це було не випадково, адже воно безпосередньо стосувалося ринків збуту для промисловців, без яких не могло розвиватися виробництво, а з ним й інтенсифікація промислової революції. Тому ця проблема, в тій чи іншій формі, виникала постійно. Подано інформацію про кількість таких з’їздів, а також створення постійно діючого органу – Ради з’їздів гірничопромисловців півдня Російської імперії. Здійснено аналіз так званої "вугільної кризи" та роль великих гірничопромисловців у зговорі. Розглянуто монополізацію ринку. Акцентується увага на митній політиці царського уряду, спекуляціях на тимчасових паливних труднощах. Наголошується, що на кінець 1890-х років припали особливо високі темпи вугільної промисловості Донбасу. Було запроваджено спеціальні тарифи для вивезення донецького вугілля за кордон. Таким чином в останні чверті ХІХ ст. відбулося укрупнення та монополізація гірничо-видобувальної галузі півдня Російської імперії.

This paper applies Hayek’s arguments in “The Road to Serfdom” to the case of Brazil in the first three decades of the twentieth century. We describe the Brazilian experiment under a liberal regime from 1892 and 1930 and the causes of its demise. We identify these causes as stemming from a shift in the political ideology following World War I and the breakdown of the constitutional rule of limited government. We argue that the Hayekian analysis of “The Road to Serfdom” correctly identifies these causes as stemming from an ideological and practical overreliance on government’s capacity to direct the economy.

The paper considers transformation processes going on in the Russian Imperial Army from the middle of 1850s after the diplomatic and military defeat in the Eastern (Crimean) War against the coalition of European states. The author outlines the measures undertaken by the Government and Military Ministry in order to cut down the number of personnel in military units, formation of necessary legislative background to regulate the status of a military man on vacation outside the military unit. Special attention focuses on the attempts of the Russian Army to transform the principles of regular units formation, in particular improvement of officer personnel. The paper shows the way former soldiers and officers used to be employed in civil life and how provincial and local authorities facilitated it offering them jobs in the structures of aristocratic and rural management. Imperial military forces reformation resulted in the social structure of towns, cities and villages, the increased number of former military men influenced their relations with local population.Maintenance of a big army is proved to be a sufficient expenditure from the state budget so striving to make the correspondence between quantity and costs has been of top importance. The Russian Imperial Army of the early 19th century during the reign on Nikolai the First where the number of the military and the term of their service were the priority of the army construction was an excellent example, and serfdom was a social basis. The Eastern (Crimean) War made clear that such army was not effective and the number of soldiers was not a crucial advantage in front of contemporary armament and organization of the Europeans. As a result, the number of the allies defeated the Russians. Thus, the historic practice of quick army reformation (reduction) may serve an example for the Ukrainian military forces when the external threats disappear and there arises a necessity of transformation according to up-to-date optimal models of European armies.Military conflict between the Russian Empire and European countries in the middle of the 19th century exposed the drawbacks in the Russian military forces. The vacation system and formation of emergency and reserve troops during 20-50ies were rather effective maintaining the army in the proper combat readiness and preserving its necessary number. Hence, the Crimean War disclosed several key reasons of false military strategy based on serfdom. First, weak reserves and burdensome vast number of local troops not meant for war. Second, the serfdom prevented the reduction of service terms and training enough number of the military for reserves formation. Third, during active military actions it was impossible to reduce the number of local troops by recruiting them into the army regiments as far as they were used to powerfully support the serfdom in the rears. Therefore the army reformation reflected thorough social and economic shifts in the Russian state mechanism. Anachronistic serfdom evidently backed off all spheres of life. The crucial changes in the military forces did not strengthen the defensive potential of the country but served to prepare for new conquering wars as an instrument of Russian imperial politics in the 19th century.

Le but de ce travail est de contribuer à faire connaître les raisons du conflict que suppose la rançon en recherchant ses effets à travers l'étude des charges économiques que la dite rançon, les droits de servage et autres servitudes impliquaient pour les paysans qui y étaient soumis. On y discute de l’origine des droits de servage, de son établissement sur la paysannerie des fermes, de la portée de la Sentencia de Guadalupe, qui n'affecte pas seulement les serfs, mais aussi les «autres paysans», de la casuistique légale, qui devait la payer, quelle en était le montant et dans quelle proportion elle se payait; on y parle aussi du manque d'effectivité du droit de mauvais traitements. On peut en conclure qu'en dehors des intestats et dans certains cas, rares, de la rançon, les droits de servage n'étaient lourds que pour les paysans les plus pauvres, car les paysans aisés n'étaient freinés dans leurs possibilités d'amélioration économi­que que par l'obstacle que représentait l'interdiction d'abandonner la ferme, ce qui entravait le marché de la terre et faisait perdre l'opportunité de mariages avanta­geux.

Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom has been interpreted as a general warning against state intervention in the economy.1 We review this argument in conjunction with Hayek’s later work and discern an insti...

The research featured the changes associated with the abolition of serfdom, which affected the law enforcement system of the state and, most of all, the police. In Siberia, police reforms were conducted several years after they had been introduced in the Central European part of the state. While the reforming of the police system of the Tomsk province was inevitable, the process was especially difficult for three parishes (uyezds), namely, Kuznetsky, Barnaul, and Biysk. The problem was that on these territories there were eight mining areas, or volosts: two in Barnaul (Pavlovsk and Suzun), one in the Kuznetsk (Salair), and five in Biysk (Loktev, Kolyvansk, Riddersk, Zmeinogorsk, and Zyryanovsk). The abolishment of the mining police in the mining volosts predetermined some specifics of the local police forces. In the newly emerging conditions of interaction between the authorities of the Altai mining district and Tomsk, contradictions often arose on the issues of appointment to the posts of police officials in mining villages. Each institution wanted to gain control over the population of the volosts. When municipal and district (uyezd) police had to merge together under the command of the uniform police officer, this process was also extremely painful. In the post-reform period, the tsarist government sought to adapt existing rules to new conditions. As a result, provincial audits became one of the forms of control over the activities of police officers. However, the autocracy failed to start a comprehensive reform of the police in order to relieve the burden of extrinsic functions.

Статья посвящена некоторым сторонам недостаточно изученного в историографии политического наследия кружка петрашевцев 1840-х гг. (и в особенности идеям самого М.В. Буташевича-Петрашевского) в отношении важнейшего для России николаевского времени крестьянского вопроса. В ней делаются акценты на практическую возможность использования идей этой организации в продвижении крестьянской реформы., The article is devoted to some aspects of the insufficiently studied in historiography of the political heritage of the Petrashev circle of the 1840s (and especially to the ideas of M.V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky himself) in relation to the peasant question, which was the most important for Russia in the Nicholas time. It focuses on the practical possibility of using the ideas of this organization in promoting peasant reform.

The article aims to analyse the opportunities for and limitations in using game theory in historical sociology. Selected examples of such possible applications are used :aniterated game of chicken in the case of the July Crisisof1914, which led to the outbreak of World War I,and the dilemma of the prisoner, with an asymmetric arrangement between players, for understanding the relations between peasantand feudal lord in the serf economy system. Both examples serve to show theusefulness of game-theory models as tools enabling an understanding of pastreality as a consequence of human decisions and not merely the realisation oftheir intentions. At the same time, the author emphasises that modelling thepast in itself is only one of the stages of understanding history, and one that justlike the others (collecting data and creating narratives) is an interpretative actiondependant on the knowledge and competence of the researcher. Artykuł stawia sobie za cel analizę możliwości i ograniczeń wykorzystywania w socjologii historycznej teorii gier. Posługuję się wybranymi przykładami takich możliwych zastosowań: iterowanej gry w cykora w przypadku kryzysu lipcowego z 1914 r., który doprowadził do wybuchu I wojny światowej oraz dylematu więźnia o asymetrycznym układzie między graczami dla zrozumienia relacji między chłopem a panem feudalnym w systemie gospodarki pańszczyźnianej. Oba przykłady służą temu, by pokazać przydatność modeli teoriogrowych jako narzędzi pozwalających zrozumieć rzeczywistość przeszłą jako wypadkową ludzkich decyzji, a nie wyłącznie realizację ich intencji. Podkreślam jednocześnie, że samo modelowanie przeszłości to tylko jeden z etapów rozumienia historii, który tak samo jako pozostałe (zbieranie danych, tworzenie narracji) jest działaniem interpretacyjnym zależnym od wiedzy i kompetencji badaczki lub badacza.

Статья посвящена комплексному исследованию исторического опыта государственного регулирования оптовой торговли в России первой половины XIX века. Особое внимание уделено становлению и развитию отдельных форм оптовой торговой деятельности – ярмаркам и биржам, а также деятельности органов управления торговлей. Выделены и охарактеризованы особенности ярмарочной торговли в исследуемый период. Автор приходит к выводу, что правительство видело своими задачами регулирование исключительно вопросов сроков и форм проведения наиболее крупных по своему охвату населения ярмарок Российской империи, а также предоставление участникам информационной поддержки о времени и местах их проведения. Делается вывод, что эволюция и совершенствование форм оптовой торговли дали толчок и способствовали появлению бирж. Автором делается акцент на ведущей роли государства в организации биржевой торговли. Сделан вывод о том, что в торговых отношениях Российской империи первой половины XIX в. данный вид оптовой торговой деятельности не являлся прогрессивным и в полной мере отвечающим потребностям экономического развития страны., The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the historical experience of state regulation of wholesale trade in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. Particular attention is paid to the formation and development of certain forms of wholesale trade activities fairs and exchanges, as well as the activities of trade management bodies. The features of fair trade in the study period are identified and characterized. The author comes to the conclusion that the government saw its tasks as regulating only the timing and forms of holding the largest fairs in terms of coverage of the population of the Russian Empire, as well as providing participants with information support about the time and place of their holding. It is concluded that the evolution and improvement of the forms of wholesale trade gave impetus and contributed to the emergence of exchanges. The author focuses on the leading role of the state in the organization of exchange trading. It is concluded that in the trade relations of the Russian Empire in the first half of the XIX century. this type of wholesale trading activity was not progressive and fully met the needs of the country's economic development.