Museum complex

BILL OF SALES OF WIFE OF THE MAJOR E.P.LOPATIN TO WIFE OF THE CIVIL SERVANT OF 6 TH GRADE A.V.TERENTYEV OF HER SERFS, FROM BUZULUK DISTRICT ILINSKY AND LASKSREVO VILLAGES, ANDREI ALEKSEEV AND...

Russian Empire
July 14, 1827
Original, stamp paper, ink, handwriting
Receipt: purchased from S.Semenov, 1935
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«Bill of sales of wife of the major E.P.Lopatin to wife of the civil servant of 6 th grade A.V.Terentyev of her serfs, from Buzuluk district Ilinsky and Lasksrevo villages, Andrei Alekseev and yard man Nikolay Andreyev with families and property sold without land for resettlement».
Presented Bill of sales of 1827 is a typical document illustrating the complete absence of rights of the serfs. The serfs were actually a full property of their landlords, who were able to take away all serfs’ property; to transfer them to yard/home servants; to sell them or pledge; to give them as a gift, together with their families or separately. The law provided punishment only for the death of a serf from the landlord’s torture.
By 1827, sale and purchase of serfs without land were not limited to anything other than the prohibition to trade them 3 months before the recruitment period (1766), which, however, did not apply to the elderly and young, and in case of confiscation or sale of estates at auction (1771, 1797). In beginning of XIX Century was forbidden to advertise the sale of serfs without land (1801); to sell serfs at fairs (1808); to issue a Certificate of authority for sale of serfs alone (single) and without land.
In the 1830–1840-ies some more decisive actions to limit serfdom have been made, however, all attempts to regulate these or the other particulars of serfdom, did not prevent it to remain both legally and de facto, until the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.

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