Abolition of serfdom in Mikhailovskoye: Pushkins’ Pskov estate under the reform of February 19, 1861

Abstract

The article considers the situation in the Pskov estate owned by A. S. Puskin’s children after the abolition of serfdom. Based on the archival documents and research publications, the author describes some elements of the peasant reform and its economic consequences in this estate. Such a micro-level perspective allows not only to better understand the ideas of social-economic transformations implemented under the reform but also to fill in the unclear pages of history of Pushkin places. The author focuses on changes in the peasant landownership and use, which had a significant impact on the peasant economy as the key factors of agricultural production, and on some results of land redistribution. The pre-reform differentiation of peasant farms in per capita provision with convenient land was leveled under the reform, and the estate indicator approached the uyezd and province average. The author also considers the importance of personal qualities and decisions of representatives of the nobility - landowners whose management practices affected local conditions of former serfs and their adaptation to the new economic realities: the personality of the landowner was important for the peasant position in the post-reform era.