Jacob Sievers, Enlightened Reform and the Development of a "Third Estate" in Russia

When the Charter to the Towns of April 21, 1785 defined townsmen (gorodskie obyvateli, meshchane, liudi srednego roda) as all those who are long time residents in or have been born in or have settled in or own houses or buildings or land in a town,' it concluded a major reform of the laws dealing with Russia's towns and their inhabitants. Russian law had come to recognize the principle of urban citizenship defined in terms of residence and endowed with legal rights.2 There were many parallels and connections between this revision of the laws dealing with the towns and the simultaneous revision of the laws governing the nobility. Both were the result of an effort on the part of the Russian government aimed at making Russia happier, more prosperous, and more productive by bringing Russian conditions into closer accord with European models. Issued on the same day, the Charter to the Nobility and the Charter to the Towns marked the culmination of a long and complicated process by which the dvorianstvo and the posadskie liudi, two legal categories based on the traditional Russian principle of service to the state, were redefined in terms of Europe's landed nobility and its urban middle class.3

Estate · Political science · Law · Regional Socio-Economic Development Trends · Urbanization and City Planning