Pripisnye Krestiane

(assigned peasants), a segment of the feudally dependent Russian population in the 17th to mid-19th centuries that was obligated to work in factories and plants owned by the crown or by private individuals in place of paying quitrent or a poll tax.

In the late 17th century and especially in the 18th century, the government often assigned state peasants to factories in the Urals and Siberia in order to support heavy industry and supply it with a cheap and permanent labor force. These peasants were usually assigned to the factories for an indefinite period of time, in other words, for life. They remained the formal property of the feudal state, but in practice the industrialists exploited and punished pripisnye krest’iane as if they owned them. The hard conditions under which these peasants worked resulted in attempts to escape, disturbances, and uprisings.

In the late 18th century, the state ceased the practice of assigning peasants to factories. Under the Ukase of 1807 peasants assigned to the Ural mining industries were freed from compulsory labor in the factories. At the beginning of the 19th century pripisnye krest’iane, designated as “indispensable workers” (nepremennye rabotniki), were included in the category of posessionnye krest’iane (possessional peasants), which was eliminated in 1861–63 when serfdom was abolished.