The Meshchanstvo in Nineteenth-Century Russia

Abstract

Despite the Great Reforms of Emperor Alexander II and the rapid industrial and commercial growth of the late nineteenth century, Russia's lower urban class, known as the meshchanstvo, remained largely unaffected by cultural change.

Notes

English translation © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2008 “Voprosy istorii.” “Meshchanstvo v Rossii v XIX v.,” Voprosy istorii, 2008, no. 2, pp. 3–20. Translated by Liv Bliss.Lidiia Vasil'evna Koshman, Doctor of History, is a senior research associate in the Moscow State University Faculty of History. This article was made possible by financial support from the Russian Scientific Fund for the Humanities (Grant no. 06-01-00494a). Translation reprinted from Russian Studies in History, vol. 55, no. 2. doi: 10.1080/10611983.2016.1200353

^1. N.P. Druzhinin, Meshchane, ikh polozhenie i nuzhdy (Moscow, 1917), p. 7.

^2. A.G. Rashin, Naselenie Rossii za 100 let (1811–1913) (Moscow, 1956), p. 119; Statisticheskie tablitsy o sostoianii gorodov Rossiiskoi imperii (Prilozheniia) (St. Petersburg, 1852); G.I. Shreder, “Gorod i gorodovoe polozhenie 1870 g.,” in Istoriia Rossii vXIX v., vol. 4 (St. Petersburg, 1908), p. 5; Obshchii svod po imperii rezul'tatov razrabotki dannykh Pervoi vseobshchei perepisi naseleniia 1897 g., vol. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1905), pp. 160–63.

^3. P.G. Ryndziunskii, “Pravitel'stvennaia reglamentatsiia gorodoobrazovatel'nykh protsessov v pervye poreformennye desiatiletiia,” in Russkii gorod, pt. 6 (Moscow, 1983), p. 163.

^4. “M. Gor'kii i sovetskie pisateli. Neizdannaia perepiska,” in Literaturnoe nasledstvo, vol. 70 (Moscow, 1963), p. 393.

^5. N.A. Berdiaev, O russkoi filosofii, pt. 1 (Sverdlovsk, 1991), pp. 26–27.

^6. V.A. Bukharev and B.S. Akkuratov present a passable summary of similar views in their “Antimeshanskii kompleks otechestvennoi kul'tury,” in Istoriia Rossii XIX–XX vekov. Novye istochniki ponimaniia (Moscow, 2001), pp. 190–206.

^7. Druzhinin, Meshchane, ikh polozhenie i nuzhdy, p. 7.

^8. V. Zombart, Burzhuaziia (Moscow, 1994), p. 83.This book, which is based on West European and American materials, was first published in 1913 [as Der Bourgeois: Zur Geistesgeschichte des modernen Wirtschaftsmenschen—Trans.]

^9. M. Ossovskaia [Maria Ossowska], Rytsar' i burzhua (Moscow, 1987). This work draws from West European literature.

^10. N.V. Shelgunov, “K molodomy pokoleniiu,” in Revoliutsionnyi radikalizm v Rossii: vek deviatnadtsatyi (Moscow, 1997), p. 104.

^11. Notable exceptions are the works written by Pavel Grigor'evich Ryndziunskii and Adol'f Grigor'evich Rashin on the problems of urban citizenship and demography, which examine the legal condition and size of the meshchanstvo in the urban population. See P.G. Ryndziunskii, Gorodskoe grazhdanstvo doreformennoi Rossii (Moscow, 1958); and Rashin, Naselenie Rossii.

^12. A. Shilkina, “Meshchane,” Byloe, 1992, no. 8; V.V. Zakharova (V. Shilkina), “Meshchanskoe soslovie v poreformennoi Rossii” (author's abstract of Candidate's diss., Moscow, 1998); A.N. Zorin et al., Ocherki gorodskogo byta dorevoliutsionnogo Povolzh'ia (Ul'ianovsk, 2000).

^13. Manfred Hildermeier, “Was war das MešČanstvo? Zur rechtlichen und sozialen Verfassung des unteren städtischen Standes in Rußland,” Forschungen zur osteuropäische Geschichte, 1985[, no. 36, pp. 15–53]; Hildermeier, Bürgertum und Stadt in Rußland, 1760–1870 (Cologne, 1986).

^14. The Russian word meshchanin is of Polish origin. A mieszczanin is the resident of a town (miasto). See M. Fasmer, Etimologicheskii slovar' russkogo iazyka, 4 vols., vol. 2 (Moscow, 1986). Moscow's Meshchanstvo Quarter [sloboda] had been populated by immigrants from Russia's Polish territories in the late seventeenth century, but the significance of the ethnic factor gradually waned and the term meshchane began being applied to townsfolk in general.

^15. See Nakaz imperatritsy Ekateriny II, dannyi Komissii o sochinenii proekta Novogo ulozheniia, ed. N.D. Chechulin (St. Petersburg, 1907), chap. 16. On “the middling sort of people,” see “Zhalovannaia gramota na prava i vygody gorodam Rossiiskoi imperii,” Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii 1 [PSZ-1], vol. 22, 21 April 1785, no. 16188, article 77.

^16. Ibid. Virtually the same formulation is found in the Digest of Laws [Svod zakonov, SZ], 1899, vol. 9, sect. 3, article 502, although in the latter, the phrasing “are registered in the tax rolls” [v oklad zapisany] is replaced with “are registered in the meshchanstvo” [zapisany v meshchanstvo].

^17. See N.M. Korkunov, Russkoe gosudarstvennoe pravo (St. Petersburg, 1908); G.V. Vernadskii, Ocherk istorii prava Russkogo gosudarstva XVIII–XIX vv. (Moscow, 1998); and V.N. Latkin, Uchebnik istorii russkogo prava perioda imperii (Moscow, 2004).

^18.Nakaz imperatritsy Ekateriny II, chap. 16. Remarkably, many former wards of the Moscow Foundling Home were registering in the meshchanstvo associations in the district towns of Moscow Province, even in the postreform period.

^19. M.M. Speranskii, Proekty i zapiski (Moscow/Leningrad, 1961), p. 188. In this case, Speranskii was using the term “villagers” [poseliane] to mean state peasants.

^20. L.O. Ploshinskii, Gorodskoe ili srednee sostoianie russkogo naroda v ego istoricheskom razvitii ot nachala Rusi do noveishikh vremen (St. Petersburg, 1852).

^21.SZ, vol. 9: Zakony o sostoianiiakh (St. Petersburg, 1857), section 3. The same interpretation of “the middling sort” of city dwellers and townsmen appears in the 1899 Digest of Laws (“In this sense, to the station of urban residents… belong honorable citizens, merchants, meshchane and people of the precincts, artisans and members of craft corporations [tsekhovye]”) (SZ, vol. 9 [St. Petersburg, 1899], section 3, article 503).

^22.Materialy dlia geografii i statistiki Rossii, sobrannye ofitserami General'nogo shtaba, vol. 20, pt. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1868), p. 262. The Digest of Laws indicates that “by ‘members of craft corporations’ is implied master craftsmen, journeymen, and apprentices [mastera, podmaster'ia i ucheniki] enrolled in a craft corporation to ply their artisanry; they are divided into perpetual and temporary; to the former belong meshchane who have joined the craft corporation” (SZ, vol. 9 [St. Petersburg, 1857], section 3, article 429).

^23.PSZ-1, vol. 20, no. 14275; vol. 22, no. 16188, article 114.

^24.PSZ-1, vol. 22, no. 16188, article 68; SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg, 1857), section 3, article 424: Notes; Sistematicheskii sbornik zakonov i raz''iasneniia o meshchanskikh upravleniiakh (Kherson, 1914). In his Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great-Russian Language, which was published in the 1860s, Vladimir Dal' interprets the concept of meshchanin thus: “A city dweller or townsman of the lowest ranking, subject to the poll tax and liable to be sent a-soldiering [podlezhashchii soldatstvu]” (Tolkovyi slovar' zhivogo velikorusskogo iazyka, vol. 2 [Moscow, 2000], p. 373).

^25. In 1867 to 1916, the general population of European Russia grew by 89 percent, and the urban population by 288 percent. See Istoricheskaia geografiia SSSR (Moscow, 1973), p. 199. And while the urban population increased by approximately 120 percent in fifty-two years (1811–63), the following thirty-five years (1863–97) saw an increase of almost 100 percent. See Rashin, Naselenie Rossii, pp. 86, 87.

^26. I.A. Gan, O nastoiashchem byte meshchan Saratovskoi gubernii (St. Petersburg, 1860), p. 22. The great diversity of societal sources from which the meshchanstvo might gain new members was documented in the Digest of Laws (SZ, vol. 9 [St. Petersburg, 1857], section 3, articles 463–63; vol. 9 [St. Petersburg, 1899], section 3, articles 561–62).

^27. Central Historical Archive of Moscow (TsIAM), f. 852: “Meshchanskii starosta Serpukhova,” op. 1, dd. 1, 2, 8, 13, 17; op. 2, dd. 22, 54 (calculations mine—L.K.).

^28.SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg, 1899), section 3, article 578. According to a law in force in 1811, meshchane were “not prohibited from transferring into the calling of peasant” if they lived in a district town or state settlement [kazennoe selenie, a village inhabited by state peasants—Trans.], pursued no artisanry, commerce, or small industry, and were farmers (PSZ-1, vol. 31, no. 24517).

^29. TsIAM, f. 852, op. 1, d. 20, ll. 1–57.

^30. In 1903, 303 requests (41 rejected); in 1904, 231 (24); in 1905, 179 (14); and in 1913, 63 (3). Even in 1917, the Meshchanstvo Board reviewed twenty-five requests, three of which (submitted in November) were rejected. A fee of approximately 100 rubles was levied on each requestor (TsIAM, f. 5: “Moskovskaia meshchanskaia uprava,” op. 1, d. 260 [calculations mine—L.K.]).

^31. TsIAM, f. 852, op. 1, d. 1, 1883 g., ll. 30, 32; f. 726, op. 1, 1879 g., d. 13, l. 25; f. 725, op. 1, 1887 g., d. 12, l. 8; f, 827, op. 1, 1885 g., d. 23, l. 1.

^32. TsIAM, f. 852, op. 2, d. 58, ll. 16, 18.

^33. TsIAM, f. 2: “Kupecheskoe otdelenie Moskovskogo gradskogo obshchestva,” op. 1, d. 70, ll. 4, 6, 9, 15, 17, 230 (calculations mine—L.K.).

^34. From the 1880s to the 1910s, thirteen individuals transferred from the meshchanstvo to the merchantry, and four merchants became meshchane in Serpukhov; from 1880 to the 1890s, seven were “discharged from the meshchanstvo into the merchantry,” while eight merchants unable to declare a sufficient amount of capital entered the meshchanstvo in Pavlovo-Posad; in 1897, four meshchane joined the merchantry and two merchants were recruited to the meshchanstvo in Dmitrov; and in 1881 and 1892, three meshchane declared capital sufficient to qualify as merchants in Egor'evsk.

^35. TsIAM, f. 6: Moskovskaia remeslennaia uprava, op. 1, d. 2, ll. 1–260 (calculations mine—L.K.).

^36. Ia. Abramov, “Zabytoe soslovie,” Nabliudatel', 1885, no. 1, p. 269.

^37.PSZ-1, vol. 22, no. 16188, articles 80–91.

^38.SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg, 1899), section 3, articles 568–69.

^39. Ryndziunskii, Gorodskoe grazhdanstvo, p. 43; TsIAM, f. 725, op. 1, 1857 g., d. 6, l. 7.

^40. Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), f. 1287: “Khoziaistvennyi departament MVD,” op. 29, d. 14, ll. 84, 97.

^41. D. L'vov, Promyslovyi nalog i metody ego ustanovleniia v zapadnoevropeiskikh gosudarstvakh i Rossii (Kazan, 1878), pp. 200–209.

^42. TsIAM, f. 2048: “Meshchanskaia uprava Dmitrova,” op. 1, d. 3, l. 2; d. 5, l. 3.

^43. TsIAM, f. 726, op. 1, 1873 g., d. 2, l. 75.

^44.SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg, 1857), section 3, articles 533–34: Note.

^45. TsIAM, f. 852, op. 2, d. 54, ll. 48, 51, 59 ob.; d. 1, ll. 67–67 ob.; f. 827, op. 1, d. 31, ll. 2 ob., 6 ob.; d 11, l. 20; f. 6, op. 1, d. 2, l. 186.

^46. P.P. Genzel', Promyslovoe oblozhenie v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1900), p. 78; Istoriia oblozheniia v Rossii. IX–XX vv. (Moscow, 2008), p. 141.

^47.PSZ-3, vol. 26, sect. 1, no. 28392.

^48. Ibid.

^49. Druzhinin, Meshchane, ikh polozhenie i nuzhdy, pp. 5, 6, 7.

^50. The three components of Russia's legal system at the time, in Nikolai Mikhailovich Korkunov's opinion, were custom, law, and precedent. See his Istoriia pravovoi mysli (Moscow, 1998), p. 18.

^51. The passport system had been introduced in 1719 to combat the runaway serf problem.

^52.PSZ-2, vol. 7, no. 5284.

^53. P. Mullov, Istoricheskoe obozrenie pravitel'stvennykh mer po ustroistvu gorodskogo obshchestvennogo upravleniia (St. Petersburg, 1864), p. 119; PSZ-2, vol. 17, no. 12769.

^54.SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg, 1857), section 3, article 577.

^55.SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg, 1899), section 3, articles 514–15: Appendices.

^56. K.A. Pazhitnov, Gorodskoe i zemskoe samoupravlenie (St. Petersburg, 1913), pp. 33, 36, 37, 42.

^57. Druzhinin, Meshchane, ikh polozhenie i nuzhdy, p. 9.

^58. “Meshchanskoe soslovie v Moskve v 1845 g.,” Zhurnal Ministerstva vnutrennikh del, 1847, pt. 17, no. 1, p. 76.

^59. Ia. Abramov, “Meshchane i ‘gorod,’” Otechestvennye zapiski, 1883, vol. 267, no. 3, “Sovremennoe obozrenie,” p. 2.

^60. “Meshchanskoe soslovie v Moskve v 1845 g.,” pp. 82, 83, 85; Abramov, “Zabytoe soslovie,” p. 271.

^61.SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg, 1857), section 3, article 551: Note.

^62.PSZ-1, vol. 39, no. 30115, chap. 8.

^63.PSZ-2, vol. 1, no. 458.

^64. RGIA f. 17, op. 1, 1809 g., l. 44; Vedomosti o manufakturakh za 1812 g., 1813 g., 1814 g. (St. Petersburg, 1814–16); Spisok fabrikantam i zavodchikam Rossiiskoi imperii, pts. 1–2 (St. Petersburg, 1833) (calculations mine—L.K.); L. Samoilov, Atlas promyshlennnosti Moskovskoi gubernii (Moscow, 1845); S.A. Tarasov, Statisticheskoe obozrenie promyshlennosti Moskovskoi gubernii (Moscow, 1856) (calculations mine—L.K.).

^65. Samoilov, Atlas promyshlennosti; Tarasov, Statisticheskoe obozrenie promyshlennosti (calculations mine—L.K.).

^66. “Meshchanskoe soslovie v Moskve v 1854 g.,” p. 78.

^67. Zakharova, Meshchanskoe soslovie poreformennoi Rossii, p. 11.

^68. P.A. Orlov and S.G. Budagov, Ukazatel' fabrik i zavodov Evropeiskoi Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1894) (calculations mine—L.K.).

^69.Istoricheskie zapiski, 1955, vol. 54, p. 247.

^70. Druzhinin, Meshchane, ikh polozhenie i nuzhdy, pp. 10, 15.

^71. In 1882 Dmitrov, for example, the communal fees “from every meshchanstvo soul” included “20 kopecks for the support of the poor and for medical attention in a poor hospital; 6 kopecks in payment to the Treasury for clothing and footwear issued by it to, and for the feeding of, meshchane transportees; 15 kopecks for delinquent payments owed by deceased and poor meshchane; 15 kopecks for aid to feed aged and juvenile meshchane.” In addition, moneys were levied for the upkeep of elders from the meshchane and for clerical expenses. Every taxable meshchanstvo soul still had to come up with a total of 66 silver kopecks to satisfy “the public needs” (TsIAM, f. 827, op. 2, d. 6, l. 21 ob.).

^72. Abramov, “Meshchane i ‘gorod,’” p. 272.

^73. TsIAM, f. 840, op. 1, d. 56, l. 3; f. 1719, op. 1, 1875 g., d. 1, ll. 8–9.

^74.SZ, vol. 9 (St. Petersburg 1857), section 3, article 522.

^75. N.A. Rubakin, Rossiia v tsifrakh (St. Petersburg, 1912), p. 124. In 1905, across the fifty provinces of European Russia, the urban estates owned private property in the form of land—the merchants and honorable citizens, some 13,000,000 desiatinas and the meshchane, 3,700,000 desiatinas [approximately 35,000,000 and 10,000,000 acres, respectively—Trans.] (ibid., p. 121).

^76.Ekonomicheskoe sostoianie gorodskikh poselenii Evropeiskoi Rossii v 1861–1862 gg., parts 1–2 (St. Petersburg, 1863). The percentages have been calculated by taking all the included towns and cities (232) as the baseline of 100 percent (calculations mine—L.K.).

^77. Abramov, “Meshchane i ‘gorod,’” p. 2; P. Aksel'rod, “Po povodu novogo narodnogo bedstviia,” Rabotnik, 1898, nos. 5–6, p. 24.

^78. Abramov, “Meshchane i ‘gorod,’” p. 2; S.A. Priklonskii, Ocherki samoupravleniia zemskogo, gorodskogo, sel'skogo (St. Petersburg, 1886), p. 279.

^79. See B.N. Mironov, Sotsial'naia istoriia Rossii perioda imperii, vol. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1999), p. 310.

^80. Abramov, “Meshchane i ‘gorod,’” p. 3.

^81. TsIAM, f. 852, op. 2, d. 43, ll. 1, 1 ob., 5.

^82. Abramov, “Meshchane i ‘gorod,’” pp. 6, 20, 21.

^83. TsIAM, f. 726, op. 1, d. 41, l. 1; f. 725, op. 1, 1891 g., d. 34, ll. 40–41. The outcome of this dispute is unclear from the documents found in d. 34.

^84. TsIAM, f. 5, op. 2, d. 26, ll. 3, 6, 14.

^85. See L.V. Milov, Velikorusskii pakhar' i osobennosti rossiiskogo istoricheskogo protsessa (Moscow, 2006).

^86.Statisticheskie tablitsy (St. Petersburg, 1852), Appendices.

^87. A.G. Rashin, “Gramotnost' i narodnoe obrazovanie v XIX i XX vv.,” Istoricheskie zapiski, 1951, vol. 37, pp. 73, 75. Meshchane, merchants, and people of miscellaneous ranks are here placed into a single societal group constituting the “urban estates.”

^88.Otchet o sostoianii i deistviiakh [imperatorskogo] Moskovskogo universiteta za 1835 g.; 1860 g., ved. V; 1880 g., p. 103: table; 1906 g., pt. 1, p. 340; 1913 g., pt. 1, ved. 6 (calculations mine—L.K.).

^89. Rashin, “Gramotnost' i narodnoe obrazovanie,” p. 78; A.E. Ivanov, Vysshaia shkola v Rossii v kontse XIX–nachale XX v. (Moscow, 1991), pp. 268, 272, 274.

^90. G.N. Ul'ianova, “Ischeznuvshii srednii klass (retsenziia na sbornik statei Russia's Missing Middle Class),” Voprosy istorii, 1999, no. 2, p. 169; Rubakin, Rossiia v tsifrakh, pp. 96, 99–100; N.A. Ivanova and V.P. Zheltova, Soslovno-klassovaia struktura Rossii v kontse XIX–nachale XX v. (Moscow, 2004), pp. 261, 262.

^91. Priklonskii, Ocherki samoupravleniia zemskogo, p. 306.

^92. E.N. Andreev, Shkol'noe delo v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1882), p. 21.

^93. S.V. Dmitriev, Vospominaniia (Yaroslavl, 1999), pp. 261, 275.

^94. N.V. Shelgunov, Ocherki russkoi zhizni (St. Petersburg, 1895), col. 1082.

^95. Dmitriev, Vospominaniia, pp. 121, 127.

^96. Manuscript Research Department, Russian State Library (NIOR RGB), f. 178, no. 5488.3, l. 13; no. 5488.2, ll. 10, 36 ob.

^97. NIOR RGB, f. 178, no. 5488.2, ll. 37–37 ob.

^98. A.V. Tereshchenko, Byt russkogo naroda, pt. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1848), p. 422.

^99. [TsIAM], f. 827, op. 1, d. 33, l. 38 ob.

^100.Opyt istorii gorodskikh obyvatelei v Vostochnoi Rossii, pt. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1868), p. 1.

^101. See V.M. Bukharev, “Provintsial'nyi obyvatel' v kontse XIX–nachale XX v.,” in Sotsial'naia istoriia: Ezhegodnik, 2000 (Moscow, 2000), p. 33.