A farm laborer, a laborer is a very common name for rural workers in the days of pre-revolutionary Russia and the Soviet period. In the Novgorod dialect, they were called "Cossack" and "Cossack", in the southern regions - "mercenary" and "mercenary." Who are farm laborers? What does this concept mean? What is the history of its origin? This will be discussed in the article.
Meaning of the word “farm laborer”
In the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, Efremova gives two definitions for the term:
- This is a hired laborer in agriculture;
- hired worker (most often used in colloquial speech).
In the dictionary of Ozhegov, a definition is given: it is a hired worker employed in agriculture by landowners or kulaks.
Ushakov’s dictionary defines the expression “who is a farm laborer” - this is an agricultural worker employed by a fist or landowner for physical labor on the farm.
The meaning of the concept according to Dahl's dictionary: this is an employee in the village, for the implementation of field work. “Going to farm laborers” means going to work for strangers.
From this term came the same root words:
- hired labor (labor) - which means hard physical labor;
- hired labor - hard wage labor;
- to be hired - to be hired;
- farm labor - occupation, condition, rank of man.
In the dictionary of Efron and Brockhaus, the term means among the Tatars - single. So in ancient Russia were called single and peasants who did not have their own economy, who were forced to work with others for a fee or for maintenance. Such people were also called lobsters, teperies, and companions. Currently, in Russian these terms are lost and practically do not apply, only the name "laborer" remains, which is used to refer to a person of peasant origin working for others.
Origin of the concept
There is a version that the word "laborer" comes from the Tatar word "idle". And indeed, until the 17th century, single peasants who worked for others were called on the territory of Russia.
According to another version, the word "laborer" came from the Turkic word "batyr" - this is a peasant who is engaged in hard physical labor, works for hire with a landowner or a wealthy fist.
There is another version according to which the word came from the Turkic “badrak”, so called in the XV-XVI century, stocky, strong warriors from the guard of the Crimean khans, who came from the Polovtsian tribes and did not have their allotments. After the formation of the Crimean Khanate, they became a privileged military estate.
In the 19th century, laborers were called people who were forced to work and get hired by the household.
Over time, the concept began to designate a disenfranchised employee and replaced the word “hiring”, which was used in the southern part of Russia.
Who is the farm lab worker now? Nowadays, the term in its primary meaning is practically not used in Russian speech, it is used only for the name of a person, usually of peasant origin, who works as an employee, or who is engaged in hard physical labor, and which represents cheap labor.
Instead of a conclusion
So what is a farm laborer? This is a person who is an employee in the agricultural sector in pre-revolutionary Russia and the USSR, often poor, deprived of land and property. This is a peasant who is engaged in hard physical labor, receiving a salary or working for maintenance.