The first form of social organization of people in the era of the primitive system was the clan community. This is an association of consanguineous relatives who lived in the same territory and all together were engaged in the management of a common household. It was characterized by the cohesion and unity of all its representatives. People worked for the common good, and property was collective. But parallel to the process of division of labor and separation of agriculture from cattle breeding, an additional product appeared . This was the reason for the division of the clan community into families. Collective property began to be redistributed between families in parts. This led to the emergence of private property, which accelerated the decomposition of the clan and the formation of the neighboring community, in which family ties were no longer the main ones.
The neighboring community (also called rural, territorial or peasant) is a settlement of people who are not tied by blood ties, but they occupy a certain limited territory, which is processed collectively. Each family member in the community is entitled to a portion of the community property.
People no longer worked together. Each family had its own plot of land, arable land, tools, livestock. However, on the land (forest, pastures, rivers, lakes, etc.) there was still community property.
The neighboring community has become an organization included in society as a subordinate element that performs only part of the social functions: the accumulation of production experience, the regulation of land tenure, the organization of self-government, the preservation of traditions, the administration of worship, etc. People cease to be tribal beings for whom community membership was all-embracing; they become free.
Depending on the characteristics of the combination of private and collective principles, the Asian, antique and German neighboring communities are distinguished.
Eastern Slavs passed to the neighboring community in the 7th century. It persisted for a very long time, since measures were taken by the authorities to do this. The community restrained the processes of ruin of the peasants. The practice of redistributing land gave the poor a chance to get a plot that had previously been fertilized by their wealthy neighbors. Mutual responsibility forced the wealthier peasants to pay taxes for the poor villagers. In addition, there was a forced crop rotation, which did not allow those who became rich to farm on their own discretion, forcing them to focus on neighbors.
All this restrained the natural processes of stratification of the peasants: some could not get rich, while others could not get completely ruined. However, the neighboring community could not change the objective laws of development. She was only able to temporarily delay the decomposition of peasant society.
From the point of view of agricultural development, its existence was also a negative phenomenon. By the middle of the 19th century, it was necessary to change something. The abolition of serfdom was the first powerful blow to the community. Peasants were allowed to enter into legal contracts, contracts and other obligations. Freed from addiction, they were allowed, on an equal basis with others, to conduct trade, open factories, enroll in workshops, engage in crafts, etc. But even now, the authorities were not ready for the complete liquidation of the community.
She was a tool for collecting taxes, kept the peasants in the village, preventing them from going to the cities. The authorities also believed that the rural community was necessary in order to prevent the ruin of the peasants, who could turn into a "ulcer of proletariat", which could become a threat to the regime. Therefore, in Russia such a community lasted much longer than it could under conditions when its decomposition was not artificially restrained in the course of capitalist development. It was finally eliminated only in the 20th century, as a result of the Stolypin reform.