Fugitive peasants

'''Fugitive peasants''' (also '''runaway peasants''', or '''flight of peasants''') are peasants who left their land without permission, violating serfdom laws. Under serfdom, peasants usually required permission to leave the land they lived on.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UE8eCwAAQBAJ&q=peasant+serfdom+run+away&pg=PA98|title=Europe in the Seventeenth Century|last=Pennington|first=Donald|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|isbn=978-1317870982|page=98|language=en}}</ref>

Running away was seen as the ultimate form of passive nonviolent peasant resistance (with a peasant rebellion being on the other end of the spectrum).<ref name=C52>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cSK3DAAAQBAJ&q=fugitive+peasants&pg=PA52|title=Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance|last=Colburn|first=Forrest D.|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|isbn=978-1315491448|page=52|language=en}}</ref><ref name=Kahan>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/trent_0116402288009|url-access=registration|title=Russian Economic History: The Nineteenth Century|last=Kahan|first=Arcadius|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1989|isbn=978-0226422435|pages=[https://archive.org/details/trent_0116402288009/page/161 161]–162|language=en}}</ref> Escape was a highly effective form of resistance, as it was difficult to prevent, damaging to the landowner and difficult and costly in addressing.<ref name=C53/> It was also one of the most common form of peasant resistance, a regular occurrence in the societies with serfdom.<ref name=Kahan/> It is difficult to estimate the scale of the problem, but it was regarded as significant. In 18th-century Russia, for example, tens of thousands of runaway peasants were captured every year, but that number likely represents only a fraction of those who successfully eluded recapture.<ref name=Kahan/><ref name="Stanziani">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TGx7AwAAQBAJ&q=fugitive+peasants&pg=PA55|title=After Oriental Despotism: Eurasian Growth in a Global Perspective|last=Stanziani|first=Alessandro|publisher=A&C Black|year=2014|isbn=978-1472522658|page=55|language=en}}</ref> Jezierski described the phenomenon of fugitive peasants as commonplace in medieval Poland.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_75stIZO7WAC&q=Zbiegostwo+ch%C5%82op%C3%B3w&pg=PA43|title=Historia gospodarcza Polski|last=Jezierski|first=Andrzej|publisher=Key Text Wydawnictwo|year=2003|isbn=978-8387251710|page=43|language=pl}}</ref> In most countries with the institution of serfdom, leaving one's land was illegal. However, regulations that existed, they were often poorly enforced, disputed by various stakeholders and changed back and forth over time.

In medieval Poland, for example, there were laws against the flight of peasants, but their enforcement was usually left in the hands of the landowners.<ref name="C53" /> Escape was sometimes encouraged by other landowners, who needed labour and promised better working conditions, even if such attitude was illegal and penalised by a fine, which compounded the problem.<ref name="C53" /><ref name="R26">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDeuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26|title=Russian Peasants and Tsarist Legislation on the Eve of Reform: Interaction between Peasants and Officialdom, 1825–1855|last=Moon|first=David|publisher=Springer|year=1992|isbn=978-1349118335|page=26|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Similar problems existed in medieval Russia,<ref name="R25">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDeuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA25|title=Russian Peasants and Tsarist Legislation on the Eve of Reform: Interaction between Peasants and Officialdom, 1825–1855|last=Moon|first=David|publisher=Springer|year=1992|isbn=978-1349118335|page=25|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=af2IWot4hiYC&q=fugitive+peasants&pg=PA222|title=Land As an Economic Factor and Its Biblical Origins|last=Wenzer|first=Kenneth|publisher=iUniverse|year=2003|isbn=978-0595299812|page=222|language=en}}</ref> Ottoman Empire,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYqiAgAAQBAJ&q=fugitive+peasants&pg=PA128|title=The Urban Social History of the Middle East, 1750–1950|last=Sluglett|first=Peter|publisher=Syracuse University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0815650638|pages=127–128|language=en}}</ref> Germany,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UE8eCwAAQBAJ&q=peasant+serfdom+run+away&pg=PA101|title=Europe in the Seventeenth Century|last=Pennington|first=Donald|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|isbn=978-1317870982|page=101|language=en}}</ref> and other places. Stanziani writes about 17th-century Russia: "For a few few fugitives who were returned to their 'legitimate owners', millions of other peasants were left in their new places".<ref name="Stanziani" /> Legal cases involving runaway peasantry represented a significant part of legal proceedings in many countries, such as in the Duchy of Livonia.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s9fzDQAAQBAJ&q=run-away+peasants+-russia&pg=PA153|title=Conquest and the Law in Swedish Livonia (c. 1630–1710): A Case of Legal Pluralism in Early Modern Europe|last=Pihlajamäki|first=Heikki|publisher=Brill|year=2017|isbn=978-9004331532|page=163|language=en}}</ref>

Peasants chose to escape if they felt that they had little to lose; or suffered from heavy taxation and exploitation, theft and hunger; or wanted to avoid military conscription or religious persecution.<ref name=C52/><ref name=C53/><ref name=Kahan/> Peasants usually ran away to neighbouring provinces, and less often, to foreign countries.<ref name=C52/><ref name=C53>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cSK3DAAAQBAJ&q=fugitive+peasants&pg=PA53|title=Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance|last=Colburn|first=Forrest D.|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|isbn=978-1315491448|page=52|language=en}}</ref> However, significant differences between serfdom regimes in various countries could encourage international flight. In the 18th century the Russian serfs were escaping from Russia to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (where previously harsh conditions were improving) in significant enough numbers to become a major concern for the Russian Government sufficient to play a role in its decision to partition the Commonwealth.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last=Czajewski |first=Jerzy |date=October 2004 |title=Zbiegostwo ludności Rosji w granice Rzeczypospolitej |trans-title=Russian population exodus into the Rzeczpospolita |url=http://www.promemoria.pl/arch/2004_15/2004_15.html |url-status=dead |journal=Promemoria |issue=6/15 |issn=1509-9091 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050103164508/http://www.promemoria.pl/arch/2004_15/2004_15.html |archive-date=3 January 2005}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kimla |first=Piotr |date=2011 |title=Przywary niewolników pańszczyźnianych w XVIII-wiecznej Rzeczypospolitej w relacji Huberta Vautrina |url=http://bazekon.icm.edu.pl/bazekon/element/bwmeta1.element.ekon-element-000171365797 |journal=Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. Sectio G. Ius |language=PL |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=87–97 |issn=0458-4317}}</ref><ref name="Wagner">{{cite journal |last=Wagner |first=W.J. |date=1992 |title=May 3, 1791, and the Polish constitutional tradition |journal=The Polish Review |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=383–395 |jstor=25778591}}</ref>

In Eastern Europe, the lands of the Cossacks were seen during the Early Modern Period as a refuge for many runaway serfs.<ref name=R24>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDeuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|title=Russian Peasants and Tsarist Legislation on the Eve of Reform: Interaction between Peasants and Officialdom, 1825–1855|last=Moon|first=David|publisher=Springer|year=1992|isbn=978-1349118335|page=24|language=en}}</ref> That is reflected in a folk Russian saying "С Дону выдачи нет!" ("There is no extradition from the Don!"), in reference to Don Cossacks.

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Fugitives Category:Serfdom Category:Peasants