Serfdom is a labor system under which most European agricultural workers lived during the Middle Ages. The term "serf" is derived from the Latin word "servus", meaning servant or slave. Most people are familiar with the term "slave" and when it is spoken of, nearly all people think back to the southern United States involving the African Americans. But in Russia, a different, more lenient form of this was called serfdom. Serfdom was the fundamental institution of feudal Russia. This involved a class of peasants known as serfs. Serfdom was distinguished by the severely limited civil and economic rights of the peasants (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, v23, p.361). These serfs had been legally bound to the land they worked on and were owned by manorial lords. In my readings, I have come across much information on serfdom in Russia and have come to a question; was the treatment of serfs really justified?.
Not all serfs experienced the same conditions in Russia. Nonetheless, the conditions which serfs had to live in were not anything I would like to experience. Housing for serfs were not favorable. It consisted of a very confined hut not quite adequate for an entire family. The floors consisted of dirt and the hut lacked any foundation. In the winter, the main room was barely heated enough and therefore, they needed roommates; domestic foul and young livestock shared the hut with the serfs during four months out of the year for extra warmth. This created unsanitary living conditions. Since the weather was cold and warmth was hard to come by, the hut was closed up all winter and the air had become stale and it smelled of animal waste. Some of the stoves in the huts were made of clay and did not have chimney's and therefore, the hut would become smoky and sooty. This was an extreme health hazard for the serfs. Physicians claimed this was the cause of blindness in the peasants (Hoch, p.60). The huts were so tiny that there was no room for beds.