Quote:
Originally Posted by aka123
And the thing why serfdom comes up relating to Russia, is that in Russia serfdom lasted so much longer than in the rest of the Europe.
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In fact, not really much at all. As Wikipedia says: Feudalism itself decayed and effectively disappeared in most of Western Europe by about 1500. It lingered on in parts of Central and Eastern Europe as late as the 1850s. Russia finally abolished serfdom in 1861.
However, even when the original feudal relationships had disappeared, there were many institutional remnants of feudalism left in place. Historian Georges Lefebvre explains how at an early stage of the French Revolution, on just one night of 4 August 1789 France abolished the long-lasting remnants of the feudal order. It announced, "The National Assembly abolishes the feudal system entirely."
Without debate the Assembly enthusiastically adopted equality of taxation and redemption of all manorial rights except for those involving personal servitude — which were to be abolished without indemnification. Other proposals followed with the same success: the equality of legal punishment, admission of all to public office, abolition of venality in office, conversion of the tithe into payments subject to redemption, freedom of worship, prohibition of plural holding of benefices.... Privileges of provinces and towns were offered as a last sacrifice.
Originally the peasants were supposed to pay for the release of seigneurial dues; these dues affected more than a fourth of the farmland in France and provided most of the income of the large landowners. The majority refused to pay and in 1793 the obligation was cancelled. Thus the peasants got their land free, and also no longer paid the tithe to the church.
P.S. The florida clown confuses slavery with feudalism - a typical victim of the US education system.