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Serfdom, Emancipation, and Off-farm Labour Mobility in Tsarist Russia

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  • Steven Nafziger

Abstract

Serfdom is the most well known institutional feature of Russia under the Tsars, but its empirical implications for growth and development have rarely been explored. This paper investigates whether the legacy of serfdom affected labour mobility in the Russian countryside after Emancipation in 1861. I detail the structure of the reforms that ended serfdom and transferred property to the former serfs, and show that these measures did result in smaller land endowments, higher obligation levels, and possibly stronger communal restrictions than other groups of peasants faced in the post-Emancipation period. Drawing on a unique panel dataset of representative villages in Moscow province, I show how these differences were related to the scope of mobility out of agriculture between former serf and non-serf villages after 1861. Although the results suggest some persistence of constraints on labour mobility among former serfs, the observable differences in off-farm labour market activity largely disappear by 1900, despite persistent differences in land endowments between former serfs and non-serf peasants.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Nafziger, 2012. "Serfdom, Emancipation, and Off-farm Labour Mobility in Tsarist Russia," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 1-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rehdxx:v:27:y:2012:i:1:p:1-37
    DOI: 10.1080/20780389.2012.682377
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrei Markevich & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2018. "The Economic Effects of the Abolition of Serfdom: Evidence from the Russian Empire," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1074-1117, April.
    2. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Francesco Cinnirella & Oded Galor & Boris Gershman & Erik Hornung, 2017. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6423, CESifo.
    3. Kufenko, Vadim & Khaustova, Ekaterina & Geloso, Vincent, 2022. "Escape underway: Malthusian pressures in late imperial Moscow," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Francesco Cinnirella & Oded Galor & Boris Gershman & Erik Hornung, 2017. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6423, CESifo.
    5. Buggle, Johannes C. & Nafziger, Steven, 2018. "The slow road from serfdom: Labor coercion and long-run development in the former Russian Empire," BOFIT Discussion Papers 22/2018, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    6. Maria Waldinger, 2015. "The economic effects of long-term climate change: evidence from the little ice age," GRI Working Papers 214, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    7. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Battista Severgnini & Paul Sharp, 2018. "The introduction of serfdom and labour markets," Working Papers 0140, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    8. Alexander Opitz, 2018. "“Comrades, Let's March!”.† The Revolution of 1905 and its impact on financial markets," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(1), pages 28-52.
    9. Abdul-Wadood Moomen & Pierre Lacroix & Michela Bertolotto & David Jensen, 2020. "The Drive towards Consensual Perspectives for Enhancing Sustainable Mining," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Elena Korchmina & Mikołaj Malinowski, 2024. "How extractive was Russian Serfdom? Income inequality in Moscow Province in the early 19th century," Working Papers 0266, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).

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