Mesiachina

an allowance issued by a landlord to serfs who had been deprived of their land holdings and forced to perform corvee. The mesiachina consisted of food and clothing issued once a month, and its amount varied, sometimes being no more than a subsistence ration. The peasants given such an allowance were called mesiachniki; they worked the manor land six days a week, using the landlord’s implements. The mesiachina was the harshest form of serfdom. In the 18th century it was rarely encountered, mainly on small estates with a shortage of land. In the first half of the 19th century it spread to the Ukraine, Byelo-russia, and the chernozem and steppe regions of Russia. During the crisis of serfdom, landlords tried to adapt their estates to the demands of the market by enlarging the manor plowland at the expense of the peasants’ land. In depriving the peasants of implements and other means of production, the mesiachina only exacerbated the crisis of the serf economy.