The problem of peasant land ownership in the Russian historical thought in the second half of the nineteenth century

The problem of peasant land ownership in the Russian historical thought in the second half of the 19th century became the key topic of public debate in connection with preparation and holding of the peasant reform of 1861. National historiography determined that the peasant understanding of property was based on the labor principle and, most importantly, peasants were not involved in the system of the state civil law. The originality of land relations in Russia was that together with peasant ownership there developed a kind of a peasant concept of land ownership and of the land law. The peasant psychology in Russia has always been ruled by the idea of land belonging to God and, therefore, the society in general. The notion ''property'' as well as its synonyms almost never occur in relation to land in official documents in the middle of the 19th century. The Slavophiles identified land belonging to people with its belonging to the state. Land belongs to the Russian people thus to the state as its external representative. Being the property of the entire Russian people it must be used without privatizing. The Westerners recognizing the existence of peasant land ownership in Russia tried to bring Russia closer to the West. In their further judgments they come to a conclusion that Russia has no individuals, public or private law identical to the European. The discrepancies between the Westerners and the Slavophiles were in different understanding of the role of the state in Russia. For Westerners the state property is the belonging of land to the institution above the people. The Slavophiles interpreted the state property as national, and the state law - as people's right to land. After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, land was given not to individual farmers but rural communities. Community ownership was not private ownership. All alloted land was like a fund which was to serve as the material basis to solve the state tasks, i.e. to provide for the living of the peasantry. If a family (household) died out the whole farm and the land went back to the rural community. While the family existed its members jointly used the land they were given. There was no one to bequeath and inherit: in fact the householder was not the owner of the farm and the property. The Senate's decisions of November 3, 1897 pointed out that rural communities and peasant households are recognized as legal entities being owners of strips of land. The conclusion from this was that as legal entities own land strips they cannot be subject to the will. A land strip given to a peasant could not become his property. Thus, both the Slavophiles and the Westerners shared an opinion that land ownership was concentrated in the hands of the state. Moreover, the government did not seek to enhance the transition of land to the private property of peasants. The problem today is controversial and has not been given due attention in the works of researchers.

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