Customary Law and Property Devolution among Russian Peasants in the 1870s

Abstract

munity. The predominantly multiple family household of the Russian peasantry in the pre- and post-Emancipation periods functioned both as an economic component of the commune and as a welfare institution which supported the elderly, infirm, and conjugal units disrupted by high mortality rates, conscription levies, and flows of migratory labour. Until other institutions could be created the multiple family household was destined to remain the norm among the Russian peasantry. An examination of property devolution among Russian peasants in the 1870s reveals: (1) the flexibility of the system, which perpetuated not only the multiple family household, but the simpler nuclear structure as well; (2) the continuity in inheritance patterns over the nineteenth century despite Emancipation; and (3) the influences of the written law upon customary law. Attention will be focused upon the devolution of property: although the general pattern of patrilineality excluded women from inheritance, women had their own inalienable property in the form of a dowry or personal possessions which devolved to their children or reverted back to their kin groups. This article, based largely on volost' (district) court cases for the central and northern provinces of Moscow, Iaroslavl', Tambov, and Novgorod,1 seeks to redress the imbalance of modern historical literature which, in its concentration on the commune and Russia's economic backwardness, has largely ignored property devolution patterns among Russian peasants.2 Normally only passing attention (and that largely negative) is given to the peasants' partible inheritance system despite the