Pskov peasants and the special features of economic land use in the North-West Russia in the XIV-XV centuries
The article is devoted to the study of socio-economic and property-legal status of certain categories of rural and urban population of the Pskov state (hireling, izornik, smerd), their involvement in the economic system of land use during the XIV-XV centuries. Drawing on data from various sources, the authors show how the changing economic conditions and trade resulted in a change in the forms of labor employment. The transition to semi-subsistence farms led to a need for hired labor, which has been applied not only oriented to the external market structures, but also in the organization of work within rural and urban communities. The taking of farm lands and crushing household's land became the reverse side of this process. Simultaneously it increased the role of the lease institution that embodies the traditional farming practices of the agrarian economy and largely displayed character occurred in the farms of labor-intensive processes. The legally free status was common feature of the groups of the population, as well as involvement in the pre-capitalist agrarian exploitation, various forms of which were based on economic coercion.