Territory and population of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. The territory and population of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century in the Ideal city in the first half of the 19th century

The most important feature of the socio-economic development of Russia in the first half of the 19th century. (or, as they say, in the pre-reform years, until 1861) was a progressive process of decomposition of the feudal-serf system. The beginning of this process can be attributed to the second half of the 18th century; it began to manifest itself more clearly in its last thirty years. In the depths of the serf system during this period, new capitalist relations developed.

Modern domestic historiography abandons the previously existing interpretation of the crisis of the feudal-serf system as a time of complete decline. Along with crisis phenomena (regressive processes occurring in the landowner village, based on serf labor), a noticeable development of the productive forces was also observed. True, it occurred primarily on the basis of small-scale and capitalist production.

Agriculture

In the conditions of an agrarian country, these processes were most clearly manifested in the agricultural sector. Feudalism as a whole is characterized by feudal ownership of land (by the landowner or the feudal state) in the presence of a small peasant farm, which had its own land plot and other means of production and was included in the economic structure of the feudal lord's economy. At the same time, the economy was of a subsistence nature, and the coercion was non-economic (the personal dependence of the peasant on the landowner); the low routine level of technology used was also characteristic of this method of production.

Russia, with its practically unlimited natural and human resources, developed in the first half of the 19th century. very slowly. Height commodity-money relations, which aroused the interest of landowners in increasing the profitability of their farms, while reducing the corvee form of exploitation, inevitably led to the expansion of the landowner’s own arable land. This could happen either due to the plowing of other lands (forests, mowing, etc.), or due to the reduction of peasants' land plots. In the first case, this often led to a disruption in the existing balance in the structure of the land, a reduction in the number of livestock (and, as a consequence, a decrease in the amount of fertilizer applied to the fields). In the second, the economy of the peasant economy was undermined. In Russia in the first half of the 19th century. There were cases when landowners generally took away land from their peasants, transferring them to monthly rations (“mesyachina”). The peasants were not interested in the results of their labor, which caused a drop in their productivity. In percentage terms, the number of corvee farms not only did not decrease, but even increased somewhat.

In the quitrent farms, increased exploitation led to an increase in the size of the quitrent, which, moreover, was increasingly collected by landowners in cash. The sharp increase in the size of quitrents forced peasants to get off the land and look for work on the side, which also lowered the level of agricultural production.

The serf economy of this period was characterized by the impoverishment of the peasantry, the growth of the debt of peasant farms to the landowners, who accepted chronic forms. In lean years, which systematically recurred in Russia, these farms turned out to be completely helpless and constantly teetered on the brink of ruin.

The situation was no better on the landowners' farms. Funds received Russian nobility from the exploitation of their peasants, they rarely invested in the economy, were thoughtlessly wasted and thrown away. By 1859, according to S.Ya. Borovoy, 66% of serfs in Russia were mortgaged and remortgaged with credit institutions (in some provinces this figure reached 90%).

Capitalist elements in agriculture developed very slowly. This was due, first of all, to the fact that huge tracts of land that belonged to landowners and the treasury were actually excluded from commodity circulation. The land fund on which capitalist farms could develop turned out to be very limited (the land was rented or occupied land in colonized regions). However, despite the crisis, Russian agriculture developed during this period. The forward movement was especially noticeable at the end of the 18th - first third of the 19th century. Modern historians explain this by the fact that the feudal economic system has not yet completely exhausted its capabilities.

Although the gross grain harvest during this period increased by approximately 1.4 times, these successes were achieved mainly by extensive methods - by increasing the sown area. The southern and southeastern steppe regions were developed: the region of the Don Army, Southern Ukraine (according to calculations by V.K. Yatsunsky, the area under arable land increased more than three times). It is important to note that the South of Russia was becoming an area of ​​intensive colonization; free enterprise developed here at a faster pace, and grain was exported through the Black Sea ports. Cultivated areas in the Middle and Lower Volga regions expanded, but local grain went mainly to the domestic market. History of Russia XIX - early XX centuries. / Ed. V.A. Fedorov. - M.: Zertsalo Publishing House, 1998.

The yield of grain crops was still extremely low, in normal years it amounted to 2.5-3 (for one grain of sowing 2.5-3 grains of the harvest), agronomic techniques were very undeveloped (the traditional three-field system prevailed: spring - winter - fallow , in the forested areas of the north and north-west of the country, shifting agriculture was widespread, and in the steppe zone - fallow farming). However, attempts to increase agricultural production were observed more and more often during this period. Agricultural machinery was imported to Russia from abroad, and local inventions also appeared (the peasant Alekseev’s flax raking machine, Khitrin’s haymaking machine), which were exhibited at agricultural exhibitions. Agricultural societies were created that took measures to boost agriculture. However, within the country, all these measures were very insignificant. According to the latest calculations, only 3-4% of landowners showed interest in such improvements; they were much less common among peasants.

Cities and citizens in the first half of the 19th century. LESSON PLAN 1. Development of cities in the province 2. Changes in the appearance of cities 3. Officials and nobles 4. Bourgeois and merchants 1. Development of cities in the province

Morshansk? regional center of the Tambov region, located in the northern part of the Oka-Don Plain, 90 km north of Tambov. Population? 49 thousand people (2001). It was first mentioned in 1623 as the village of Morsha, which belonged to the Ryazan bishops. The Mordovian population of Morsha converted to Christianity in the 17th century and was assimilated by Russian settlers. Morshansk received city status in 1779. Until the mid-1870s, Morshansk was considered the largest commercial and industrial center of the Tambov province.

Trinity Cathedral (1836-1857) ? almost an exact copy of the Transfiguration Cathedral

The architectural monuments of Morshansk include the Trinity Cathedral (1836-1857)? an almost exact copy of the Transfiguration Cathedral, built in St. Petersburg according to the design of the architect V.P. Stasov. Near Morshansk, in the village of Novotomnikovo, the Vorontsov-Dashkov estate (18-19 centuries) has been preserved; the oldest stud farm in Russia, Novotomnikovsky, famous for breeding Oryol trotters, operates here.

The Morshansk Local History Museum is interesting for its collection of Russian antiquities of the 16th-17th centuries, a collection of Russian and Western European paintings, unique exhibits on the history and ethnography of the Mordovians, materials on the history of the city and the life of its natives, the sculptor E. A. Lanceray, the astronomer A. A. Mikhailov. Hockey player and football player Vsevolod Bobrov was born in Morshansk.

Administrative reforms of the late 18th century. led to the emergence of new cities: Morshansk, Kirsanov, which grew out of large palace villages. The development of plans for regular urban development, which began under Catherine II, made it possible to change the architectural appearance of Tambov cities. They acquire geometric clarity and completeness with smooth rectangular blocks. Although even in the provincial center wooden buildings predominated, stone architecture decisively made its way not only in religious, but also in civil architecture. Of the 1,541 private houses, 661 buildings were already built of stone.

It stood out with its appearance among other cities in Tambov. In the 20s - 30s years XIX V. here were the administrative buildings of the provincial government, the treasury and criminal chambers, the district court, public charity, and the post office. There was a public school, a theological seminary, a battle school, and a guest house with shops. Kozlov successfully competed with Tambov. It housed the administrative buildings of the district and zemstvo court, magistrate, orphan and verbal court, treasury, Gostiny Dvor, gardening board, district school, and city hospital. Of the 2,067 philistine houses, 71 buildings were built of stone.

The remaining cities of the province were much smaller in size and appearance. Thus, in Morshansk there were only 743 philistine houses, of which 112 were already made of stone.

estate E.A. Andreevskaya, from the middle of the 19th century - a boarding house for noble children, from 1870 - a provincial women's gymnasium.

3.Officials and nobles

Class composition of the urban population of the Tambov province in 1859 and 1897.

Sex ratio 1859-1897 Literacy and education rates in 1897 by class

The nobles played a decisive role in political life southern Russian city, retaining command positions in local government bodies in their hands. They participated to a lesser extent in the economic life of cities, preferring to invest money in the acquisition of new lands. It was the traditional urban classes: merchants, townspeople, guilds and honorary citizens (the so-called “urban inhabitants” according to Catherine II’s 1785 Charter for Cities), and not peasants, who determined the social appearance of Tambov cities in the second half of the 19th century, i.e. .To. they made up more than half of the urban population until the end of the 19th century.

It was the traditional urban classes: merchants, townspeople, guilds and honorary citizens (the so-called “urban inhabitants” according to Catherine II’s 1785 Charter for Cities), and not peasants, who determined the social appearance of Tambov cities in the second half of the 19th century, i.e. .To. they made up more than half of the urban population until the end of the 19th century.

• The bourgeoisie belonged to the lower classes. They paid the poll tax, supplied recruits to the army, performed stationary and travel duties, and participated in public works. Without paying all the taxes, the tradesman had no right to leave the city, even on his own business.
• Merchants had more permissions: to conduct trade, incl. and large, they did not pay the poll tax. But corporal punishment remained for them; they were subject to conscription.
• By occupation, townspeople and merchants were primarily traders, and secondarily industrialists and artisans

By the beginning of the 19th century. Russia was a huge continental country that occupied a vast area of ​​Eastern Europe, Northern Asia and part of North America (Alaska and the Aleutian Islands). During the first half of the 19th century. its territory increased from 16 to 18 million square meters. km due to the annexation of Finland, the Kingdom of Poland, Bessarabia, the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and Kazakhstan. According to the 1st revision (1719), there were 15.6 million people of both sexes in Russia, according to the 5th (1795) - 37.4 million, and according to the 10th (1857) - 59.3 million. (without Finland and the Kingdom of Poland). Natural population growth in the first half of the 19th century. was about 1% per year, and the average life expectancy was 27.3 years, which was generally typical, as foreign demographic calculations show, for “the countries of pre-industrial Europe.” Low performance life expectancy was determined by high infant mortality and periodic epidemics. More than 9/10 of the Russian population lived in rural areas. The number of cities over half a century increased from 630 to 1032. Many cities were actually large villages, whose residents were engaged in agriculture on the lands allocated to the cities, partly in trade and small crafts. Administratively, the European part of Russia was divided into 47 provinces and 5 regions (Astrakhan, Tauride, Caucasus, the land of the Don Army and the land of the Black Sea Army). By the middle of the 19th century. all of Russia consisted of 69 provinces and regions, each of which was divided into districts. The dominant farming system was the traditional three-field system - spring, winter, fallow. In the northern provinces of the country, with an abundance of forest land and a lack of arable land, there was a slash-and-burn farming system combined with a three-field system. The labor intensity of the work during cutting was rewarded with high yields without applying fertilizers for 3 - 6 years: it was 7 times higher than on ordinary lands. In the southern steppe regions with vast expanses of land and a relatively sparse population, a fallow-fallow system was used, when the land was used for arable land for several years in a row without applying fertilizers, and then “turned over” to fallow land for 15 - 20 years. Among agricultural crops, “gray” grains predominated: rye, barley, oats. In the central black earth provinces, in the Middle Volga region and in the southern steppe zone, a significant share was made up of wheat crops, which for the most part went for sale. Since the 40s of the XIX century. In the central provinces, potato plantings are expanding, and in the southern provinces, sugar beet plantings, which were used in sugar factories, are expanding. The most important branch of agriculture was animal husbandry. It was predominantly “natural” in nature, that is, livestock was bred mainly “for home use” and not for sale. Commercial livestock farming took place in the Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Tver, Vologda and Novgorod provinces. In the first half of the 19th century. The plantings of industrial crops (flax, hemp, tobacco, etc.) are being expanded, and a fruit-shift system with grass sowing is being introduced, replacing the traditional three-field system. Technically more advanced agricultural implements and mechanisms are being introduced - threshers, winnowers, seeders, and reapers.

2. Russian estates in the first halfXIX century. (Nobility, its main groups. Clergy (black and white). Merchants, Cossacks, commoners, artisans, philistines.) Economic and legal status of peasants. Feudal society is characterized by its division into classes - social groups with different rights and responsibilities, established by customs or laws and, as a rule, inherited. The class system of Russia in the first half of the 19th century. received its formalization, as mentioned earlier, at the beginning of the 18th century, when the division of the population into privileged and tax-paying classes was finally established. The highest privileged class was nobility. The nobility consisted of two categories - “hereditary nobility” and “personal nobility”. Hereditary nobility was inherited and acquired “by birth” (by origin), “by length of service” (starting from the 8th grade according to the Table of Ranks of Peter I), “by royal favor” (a royal award for any merits) and “ award of the Russian Order" (giving the right to receive noble dignity). Personal nobility acquired by length of service from rank 12 in civilian and rank 14 in military service. Hereditary nobles had the exclusive right to own serfs, the inviolability of noble dignity, exemption from compulsory service, from capitation taxes and other duties, exemption from corporal punishment, an advantage in rank promotion, in obtaining education, a monopoly on the most profitable industrial productions (for example, a monopoly on distilling) , free travel abroad. The privileged class was clergy, which was divided into black and white. Black clergy - monks and nuns (bishops were appointed from among them). White clergy - parish priests, deacons, psalm-readers. The autocracy sought to attract the most devoted churchmen to its social environment, which was dominated by the noble aristocracy. The clergy awarded with orders acquired rights of nobility. The white clergy received hereditary nobility, and the black clergy the opportunity to transfer property by inheritance along with the order. Rights: ownership of land and serfs, class self-government, exemption from taxes, conscription and corporal punishment. Under Peter I, the class status of the merchant class took shape, which initially consisted of two guilds, and since 1775 - three guilds. Merchants was exempt from the poll tax (instead, he paid a guild contribution to the treasury in the amount of 1% of the capital declared by him) and corporal punishment, and merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds (3 in total) they were also exempt from recruitment. The class status of a merchant depended entirely on his property status: in the event of ruin and bankruptcy, he lost his status. According to the Ministry of Finance, the number of merchants for 1801 - 1851. increased from 125 to 180 thousand d.m.p. In 1832, a new privileged class category was formed - honorary citizens two degrees (hereditary and personal), which were granted privileges: exemption from conscription, corporal punishment, from poll tax and other state duties . In the category of honorary citizens, whose title was inherited, included merchants of the first guild, scientists, artists, children of personal nobles and clergy who had an educational qualification. To personal honorary citizens included officials up to the 12th rank and children of the clergy who did not have educational qualifications. The bulk of the non-privileged (tax-paying) classes were peasants three main categories: state (or state), proprietary (landowner) and appanage (belonging to the royal family). Landowner peasants were the most numerous category. Another tax-paying class were philistines- personally free (former townspeople) population of cities, obliged to pay a capitation tax, serve conscription and other monetary and in-kind duties. A significant place in the social class structure of the population of Russia was occupied by the Cossacks and commoners. . Cossacks constituted a paramilitary category in which the entire male population between the ages of 18 and 50 was considered liable for military service, constituting the irregular cavalry. Carrying out military service freed the Cossacks from conscription, poll tax and other duties. Term "commoner" appeared at the beginning of the 18th century. Then these included “various ranks” of people who made up a special service group of the population, personally free, but not belonging to either the tax-paying or privileged classes. In the first half of the 19th century. a raznochinets is, first of all, an educated intellectual, a native of the philistinism, the clergy, a figure in science, literature and art. Let us note that not all raznochintsy are “figures of the advanced social movement.” The overwhelming majority of them served the throne faithfully. Russia in the first half of the 19th century. remained a feudal country, but the economic system based on serfdom and forced labor entered a stage of crisis. There was economic growth, and a lot of new things appeared in both the city and the countryside. However, new economic realities developed not thanks to, but in spite of the dominant system, encountering at every step the resistance it offered them. This was the essence of the crisis of the feudal economic system. The further, the more the feudal economic system hindered the economic development of the country. The question of the abolition of serfdom became increasingly acute. He demanded an immediate decision.