"I hear some one ask how it came about that serfdom was established.
"According to our authorities, it came from the state of the country, which was just a little better than a collection of independent principalities. The princes were cruel and despotic, and the people turbulent; murders of princes were very common; the princes could only protect themselves by organizing large body-guards, which gave each prince a small army of men around him. In course of time the officers of these body-guards became noblemen, and received grants of land. At first the peasants could move about on these estates with perfect freedom, but during the sixteenth century they were attached to the soil. In other words, they were to remain where they were when the decree was issued, and whenever the land was sold they were sold with it.
"It is said that the object of this decree was not so much in the interest of the land-owners as in that of the Government, which was unable to collect its taxes from men who were constantly moving about. Where the land belonged to the Government and not to individuals, the peasants living upon it became serfs of the Crown, or Crown peasants. Thus the Russian serf might belong to a prince, nobleman, or other person, or he might belong to the Government. Private estates were often mortgaged to the Government; if the mortgage was unpaid and the property forfeited, the serfs became Crown peasants instead of private ones.
PEASANT'S HOUSE IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA.
"There was a curious condition about serfdom in Russia, that while the man and his family belonged to the master, the land which he cultivated was his own, or at any rate could not be taken from him. The serf owed a certain amount of labor to his master (ordinarily three days out of every seven), and could not leave the place without permission. A serf might hire his time from his master, in the same way that slaves used to hire their time in America; but he was required to return to the estate whenever the master told him to do so. Many of the mechanics, isvoshchiks, and others in the large cities before the emancipation were serfs, who came to find employment, and regularly sent a part of their wages to their masters.
"Sometimes the masters were very severe upon the serfs, and treated them outrageously. A master could send a serf into exile in Siberia without giving any reason. The record said he was banished 'by the will of his master,' and that was all. A woman, a serf on an estate, who had a fine voice, came to Moscow, and found a place in the chorus at the opera-house. She gradually rose to a high position, and was earning a large salary, half of which she sent to her master. Out of caprice he ordered her back to the estate, where she resumed the drudgery of a peasant life. He refused all offers of compensation, and said his serf should do what he wished.
"Another serf had established a successful business in Moscow, where he was employing two or three hundred workmen. The master allowed him to remain there for years, taking for his compensation a large part of the serf's earnings, and finally, in a fit of anger, ordered the man home again. The man offered to pay a hundred times as much as he could earn on the estate, but the master would not listen to it, and the business was broken up and ruined.
"Things went on in this way for two or three centuries. Various changes were made in the laws, and the condition of the serfs, especially of those belonging to the Crown, was improved from time to time. At last, in 1861, came the decree of emancipation from the hands of Alexander II., and the system of serfdom came to an end.