20 
PRUSSIA IX EUPOPE 
Another marked difference between eastern and western 
Europe, which also led to serfdom, arose from the ownership 
of the land, in Avestern Europe held in comparatively small par- 
cels and divided between the church, the nobles, and the people, 
Avhile in Russia the Czar, as owner of all the land, gave great 
ffracts to a few families or to religious houses, retaining the re- 
mainder ; hut these gifts were of little value Avhile the peasantry 
were allowed to roani Avherever and whenever they i)leased. 
LaAVS Avere passed to remedy tliis evil by confining the peas- 
antiy to certain parts of the countiy, and subsequently to the 
estates Avhere thcA' lived. Conscription of the serfs for the army 
Avas then introduced, the proprietor Avas made responsible for the 
entry of the conscript into the army, and from that arose the obli- 
gation of the serf to the master. As the serf could only he profit- 
ably employed on the rich black lands around Moscoav and Kief, 
the number of serfs diminished Avith the distance from the 
black zone, Avhile in the extreme north and the steppes of the 
south it never existed. They either Avorked three days in the 
week for their masters, having the rest of the Aveek for them- 
selves, or they gaA^e a corresponding portion of their crops, or 
else one-half of their Avages to their masters. It Avas by sIoav 
degrees, subsequent to 1450, that serfdom Avas established and 
the serfs became ])ersonal property. With this right of projAcrty 
came control of life and limb, and these successive changes, 
often regulated by hiAvs passed for the relief of the serf, generally 
resulted in binding his chains tighter. 
The act of emancipation in 1861 liberated 49,486,000 serfs, of 
Avhom 23,022,000 belonged to the nobles ; 23,138,000 to the state, 
and 3,326,000 to the departments. 
A portion of the land OAvned by the state and of that OAvned 
by the nobles and religious houses Avas by the act of emancipa- 
tion given to the serfs. The government paid the nobles and 
religious houses sums fixed by arbitration for the lands surren- 
dered by them, while the serfs paid the state for the land given 
to them by annual payments running over fifty years, secured by 
the land and also by the other property of the serfs. The last 
of these payments Avill not be due until the early part of the 
next century. Even noAv 40 per cent of the land is OAvned^hy 
the state, 2 per cent by the imperial family, 33 per cent by the 
peasantry, and 25 per cent by private owners. 
