Peasant communities are the lowest levels.administrative unit. In Russia, they appeared in the XVI century, transformed for state peasants in the course of the reform of 1837-1841, for landlord serfs - after the reform of 1861. They were created at the initiative of the state, which pursued domestic political goals. The reasons for the destruction of peasant communities were also created by him.
The Russian people have communal ties among the peasants.existed before the state period. In the distant past, the peasant community was a prototype of the state, since it was in it that the main prerequisites for its emergence arose. In the process of formation and formation of the state, changes occurred in the community. At different stages of the history of our state, its value changed, which can be expressed in two points:
Having analyzed, for example, the 16th century community from thesepositions, we will see that the peasant at that time was legally free and was recognized as a “householder”, which obliged him to pull, that is, pay dues and work out the duties that would be imposed on him by the “peasant world”.
Speaking in modern legal language,the peasant community is the institution of self-government of the peasants of Russia. Several neighboring communities constituted an administrative unit - the parish. They were governed by assemblies (the world) on which the elder was elected.
With the proliferation of serfdom civilthe status of the peasants decreased significantly. In the event that the peasants were state-owned, the community that controlled the land plots played a great role in their life. For the state, the peasant proper meant nothing, even the community collected and paid taxes.
The serfs belonged to the landowners,who were fully responsible for them, there was no oversight of them by the state. The peasant community is a pure formality (in this case). All questions were decided by the feudal lord (landowner). Dying away of the peasant community.
Under the direction of Count P.D.Kiselev, the first minister of state property, was reformed the life of state peasants (1837–1841). Its main document was the law “Institutions of Rural Administration”, on its basis the peasants belonging to the state were organized into rural societies. It was still a peasant community, as was provided for general land use. It included 1500 souls. If the settlement was small, then several villages, villages or farms united in the community.
General management issues were decided by the village gathering, withhis elders were chosen by him. Rural reprisals existed in minor cases between members of the community. All significant cases considered by the court. Taxes were paid by society, not by a single peasant. The society was responsible for each of its members, that is, it carried a mutual responsibility. The peasant could not freely leave the company or sell the land allotment. Even having gone to work to resolve the gathering, he had to pay the burden. Otherwise, he was forcibly returned with the help of the police.
All the land was in common use. There were two forms of land tenure:
After the reform of 1861, unification in ruralsociety touched the landlord peasants. They united in communities, which included former serfs belonging to one landowner. The number of people in society should have been from 300 to 2000.
By decree of November 9, 1906, the Russian governmentconsciously creates political prerequisites leading to the breakdown of rural societies. In addition, there were social reasons for the destruction of the peasant community, which can be summarized as follows.
After the liberation of the peasants from serfdomthey did not receive freedom, as they were in the community and could not take the land from it. They had to pay the burden. In fact, they were in serfdom, but not from the landlord, but from the state. Dissatisfaction with the situation of the peasants in the country grew. Villagers threw their plots and fled to the cities for a better share.
After the revolutionary events of 1905, it became acutelythe question of leaving the rural society is not just a peasant, but a householder with his allotment of land, which he could dispose of at his discretion and not depend on the community. This right was granted by decree of 09/01/1906.
The political reason for the destruction of the peasant community was the situation in the country, where revolutionary events were brewing, and it was dangerous to keep the powerless rural population in large associations.
According to the draft reform, it was necessarydivide the rural society into two parts. The first part is a land company, it can be defined as a partnership that managed land owned by peasants and landowners. The second part is the society of self-government, which is a lower administrative unit, all residents and farmers of the given territory of all classes were to enter it.
The social meaning of the Stolypin reform wasto create a multitude of small peasant farms throughout the country who will be interested in the political stability of the state. But they all had to be part of territorial rural societies. The Stolypin reform was never adopted by the State Duma.
Rural societies survived untilcollectivization. The Bolsheviks, while preserving the communal use of land, took into account the positive aspects of the Stolypin reform, created a local government called the village councils.
