Overview

In 1649 a Code of Laws was issued in Moscow completing, at least in law, the process of enserfment of the Russian peasantry. This book illustrates this process with fifty-six documents of the twelfth to seventeenth centuries. They relate mainly to the central and northern area of European Russia known, in the sixteenth century, as Muscovy. An introductory note prefaces each document, placing it in context and giving its source. An introduction partly contributed by Professor Rodney Hilton discusses enserfment in Eastern and Western Europe and explains why these particular documents were chosen. There is a glossary explaining the main technical terms found in the text. The book deals with a topic of major historical importance and makes a collection of documents, often of intrinsic interest, accessible to English readers.