The abolition of serfdom in Russia, also known as the Peasant Reform. The essence of the reform was as follows. The landowner’s authority over the peasant as a person was abolished. He could no longer sell, resettle, transfer to household service those peasants who had previously belonged to him, punish them at his own discretion, or interfere in their family and domestic relations. The peasants received a land allotment that, on average, was smaller than their pre-reform plot. Until the transition to redemption payments, peasants had to perform specific obligations for the allotment assigned to them and, for the first 9 years, had no right to renounce the allotment. For the lands included in the peasant allotment, landowners were issued, after the reform, a kind of bond—redemption certificates.
1 Kopeck 1861.
WM (Warsaw Mint).
