The Social Organisation of the Rural Population of Southern Russia in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

This article considers the social organisation of the Russian rural population in the seventeenth century in order to clarify the peculiarities of the development of Russia along a “Muscovite national path”. Social organisation was closely connected with the structure of daily life in the Middle Ages and the modern era. During the former, social identity was an important part of human life, defining the forms of behaviour. Within the framework of class groups, a person realised their attitudes, values, and principles. However, in terms of the behavioural aspects of practices of everyday life, it is also important to consider the social organisation of the population, a flexible form enabling people to adapt to the surrounding conditions. With reference to a substantial number of documents, this study considers the social organisation of the rural population of Southern Russian. The social organisation of the rural population took various forms, such as family communities, clans, communes, villages, local groups of settlements, stans, and uyezds (also functioning as administrative units). From a military perspective, the service class population of the region was merged into military corporations (service “cities”). The social organisation of the rural population depended on external circumstances but, more importantly, community interests prevailed over private interests when it came to common tasks: war or ploughing the land. These are important indicators of life in the village and made it easier for people to adapt to the difficulties and external conditions which existed in the country’s southern regions in the seventeenth century.