The establishment of serfdom in Russia is disputed by various historical schools with a gap in dates of about fifty years. Someone is leaning towards 1649, the so-called “Cathedral Code” created by the Romanovs, someone considers the date 1592, when the free transition of peasants from one landowner to another, Yuryev’s Day, to be canceled, to be more correct.
How did A.N. Radishchev
The evaluation of serfdom has always been under strict censorship supervision. Under these conditions, A.N. Radishchev was not afraid to print a book he wrote at home and, most importantly, to distribute it. For us, she seems relatively harmless, but Catherine II took her as a riot, equal to Pugachevsky.
Radishchev faced the death penalty, which was replaced by exile. Only the death of Catherine II and the coming to power of Paul I rescued him from her. He was in exile for six years, and then he was sent to his own village, which was in Borovsky district, and where he spent his childhood.
Summary of the chapter "Lyuban"
This is the third stop of Alexander Nikolaevich after leaving. He rode in the summer and saw by the road, very close to a plowman, who has in his hands the oldest tool of labor - plow. And he plows in the hot time of the day when everyone wants to hide from the scorching sun. It works carefully, soho turns surprisingly easy.
And the holiday is a day in which it is not supposed to work, Sunday. And a traveler found out from a conversation with a peasant that he worked for the master all six days. Even he gives the horse rest, harnessing it and harnessing the second, rested, and he works without a break. He and everyone else are on corvee, not on quitrent. A conversation on the road begins with a brief summary of Lyuban, the chapter on hard peasant work, which has no end.
Dues and corvee
The corvée is the work of a bonded peasant subordinate only to the arbitrariness of his fiancée. As much as the landowner wants, so much will the peasant work for him, for he is a wordless slave who does not have any rights.
A quitrent is a cash payment to a peasant master. On a quitrent, a peasant could even go to town to work, but to bring his master a certain amount. This is a lighter burden, but not every landowner wanted to use it.
In some cases, in especially greedy landlords the rent was combined with corvee. You need to know these points when reading the summary of Lyuban.
Continued conversation
From the conversation it turns out that the peasant's day in work for the gentleman passes until night. All evening serfs carry hay to the master’s yard. But this is not enough. Women and girls should also work for the owner - go to the forest for berries and mushrooms. Already a brief summary of the chapter "Lyuban" makes it possible to learn about the inhuman tension in which the gentlemen keep the peasants. It also turns out that the peasant has three small sons and three daughters, and to feed them you have to work at night - there is no other time.
Another version of the torment of the peasant
For the master, the serf, of course, will not work so hard, and this is right, because no one will appreciate it and will not pay anything and will not say thank you. This was directly said by the plowman. Read the full and summary of Lyuban. But the bar figured out how to squeeze all the strength out of people. They rent out villages.
They take the money from the tenant, and he tries his best to leave more for himself and take everything from the peasants crumbs. And no one to complain. As the narrator put it, “they tear off the skin,” leaving nothing to people. That's what torment gentlemen thought of, tells the summary of "Lyuban".
And what the law says
First of all, peasants, as everyone knew at that time, were divided into state and landowners. Treasury was easier. They paid the prescribed amount, and did not demand more from them, and the lord's - as much as the landlord wanted.
And no law applies to them. They are “dead” before him, as the traveler put it. Such are the inhabitants of Luban. A peasant confronts the law only if he threatens society. Then he is a villain, and he must be judged. But the landowner has not written the law. Including in the village of Lyuban, a summary of the story about which is considered here.
What the traveler condemned himself for
He left the plowman, who, although he did not complain about the bitter fate, but did not take it for granted, and thought about how he behaved with his coachman Petrushka. He hit him because the coachman did not have time to help him get dressed. And the traveler became unbearably ashamed that he raised his hand to the one who does not dare to respond blow to blow. In these thoughts, he drove to the next post station.
This concludes the summary of the chapter "Lyuban" Radishchev. But the journey itself has just begun, and many more inhumane things that can awaken the formidable power of the people will be seen by the author on his way. He will pay a heavy price for this description, but his destroyed books will go hand-written. No arbitrariness of authority has power over a word that carries truth and freedom.