The basic system is much older than that, but it is just a slight variation on the European feudal peasant system. Instead of share-cropping the serfs provided labor in the estate’s fields and received a portion of the common serf land to grow their own crops. The common land was very similar in organization to the Soviet collective farm, which is why there was no great peasant revolt in Russia. The village elder was know called commissar and nothing much changed. It was in the Ukraine and Belarus which didn’t have the serf system that all of the problems developed for the Soviets. They actually had family farms in that area of the Empire.
The big change under the Romanovs, the 17th century and later, was the shift in power to the land owner from the original agreements with the founding boyars. The serfs had guaranteed rights, and the landowners had obligations to the serfs, under the original system, but the Romanovs kept shifting power the landowners. The most important right was the St. George’s Day buy out. If a serf cleared all of their debts, and paid a set price to the landowner on St. George’s Day, the serf advanced in society and was freed from the estate. Inflation made the price of the buy out rather cheap as time went on, and the serfs were free to make as much as they wanted on their own time. All they owed was their labor.
In the end, the St George’s Day buy out was eliminated, and unrest grew, that eventually led to the emancipation as a hope that it would put a damper on 19th century unrest. But that too, was tilted heavily in favor of the landowners, so it did not help prevent the problems from growing, with the bonus of beggering the landowners as they couldn’t get the workers needed to work their fields. It apparently didn’t occur to anyone that by reducing the amount of land available for the former serfs, you reduce the number of former serfs who could remain in the area to work.
The Romanov line wasn’t known for its intellectual capacity. In fairness, their “agricultural reform” wasn’t quite as bad as Khrushchev’s, but it was a close thing.
]]>Note that I’m not a Russia scholar nor claim to be, just recalling some things I read while investigating why Russia was the first country in the world to ever have a Communist revolution and why it turned out to be such an abysmal failure at achieving the fundamental goals set out by Marx and Lenin… and yes, the “freeing” of the serfs in the late 19th century to replace it with a sharecropping-type system (similar to what happened in the American South at that exact same time) certainly had a lot to do with it, since it freed the serfs’ masters from the necessity of caring for their chattel and resulted in horrific conditions for many of the serfs, who were willing to embrace anybody or anything that offered relief…
– Badtux the History Penguin
]]>It is in the interest of the wealthy to have the economy fail so they can pick over the bones.
]]>This, BTW, is more how medieval serfdom worked than anything. The serfs weren’t “really” the property of their lords. But it didn’t matter, because all the land was owned by the lords, and the only way to grow food for survival was to sharecrop the lords’ lands. When the former Confederates re-invented this system for the American South after the American Civil War (a system that lasted until WW2 destroyed it), they were simply re-implementing a strategy that the thugs who were European “royalty” had invented centuries before — just seize all the assets at gunpoint from “bankrupt” peasants, and voila, instant serfs.
– Badtux the Serfing USA Penguin
]]>It’s all about stealing any and all assets that the “lower classes” own, to turn them into share croppers, which is much better than slavery, because you don’t have your money tied up in the worthless lives of the workers.
]]>Oh wait, here I go with that reality stuff again… must mean I’m not a Very Serious Person. Well… err… yes. I’m a penguin, duh!
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
]]>He and his crew are going to push us into a deflationary spiral, just as has happened to Ireland, even though there is no need to do it. Following the low tax / no regulation path of the Republicans is how we got into this mess, so it damn sure isn’t going to get us out.
If his people could read they would understand that the deficit belongs to Reagan, and the two Bushes, and avoid their policies like the plague they were.
]]>Our boy Obama, who is in the pockets of those lobbyists, knows that when jobs return (without any specific jobs program, which his bosses are violently against), they will be paid at the level of workers in India and China.
Although they may be making higher salaries than we at that time.
And, thus, why make any efforts at all?
Other than propaganda noises, of course.
After all, he’s already signaled that he’s more than satisfied to be a one-term President. And he did pass the Romney Health Care bill for them, didn’t he?
Love ya,
S
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