The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants, the term for an unfree peasant in the Russian Empire, krepostnoi krestyanin (крепостной крестьянин), is translated as serf.
Serfdom became the dominant form of relation between peasants and nobility in the 17th century, and it was abolished by a decree issued by tsar Alexander II. Serfdom only existed in central and southern areas of the Russian Empire. It was never established in the North, in Urals, and in Siberia.
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“In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)