Authors

Andrey Gornostaev¹;  ¹ University of Toronto, Canada

Discussion

In the minds of runaway serfs in eighteenth-century Russia, the city of Astrakhan and the Lower Volga region occupied a particular place. These lands were not only full of opportunities, offering easy access to jobs as fishers, gardeners, barge haulers, or unskilled laborers, but they were also distant enough from the imperial capital of St. Petersburg to allow runaways to hide in plain sight. More importantly, they provided opportunities for individuals to attempt a change in their social estate when circumstances permitted. Drawing on sources from central and provincial archives, this paper examines the little-known story of runaway peasants in Astrakhan, focusing on their strategies of deception and the state policies that facilitated the transition of thousands of peasants out of serfdom, leading to their registration as townsfolk, state settlers, or members of other social categories. While seemingly inconsistent with the prevailing scholarly view of the Russian state as a staunch defender of the serf-owning nobility’s interests, this paper argues that the state’s flexibility—or even practical leniency—toward runaways in Astrakhan was far from exceptional. Rather, it reflected a broader population policy that persisted throughout much of imperial Russian history.