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- "Men accept servility so as to accumulate wealth."
– Étienne de La Boétie
Serfdom is a unique civic of the Russian civilization in Civilization VII.
Strategy[]
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Civilopedia entry[]
Serfdom is a form of bondage that ties people to land. When a noble acquired or sold property, the farmers who worked the land stayed with the land. In theory, serfs had no freedom to leave, but, unlike slaves, they could not be bought or sold individually. However, as the Russian economy modernized, the line between serf and slave blurred. This was not lost on Russian writers – for instance, Gogol’s “Dead Souls” followed a merchant purchasing “dead souls,” serfs who have died whose deaths had not yet been recorded.
Serfdom is not unique to Russia. It was a feature of most medieval societies, and aspects of the system were also incorporated into many agricultural societies. However, Russian serfdom was unique in that it persisted later than anywhere else in Europe, and the institution influenced many works by great Russian authors and artists; the life of the Russian serf became a lens that refracted Russian nationalism and national literature. Serfdom became a sign of the profound inequality of imperial Russia. It was the specter of a past age against which socialist and communist movements organized.
Serfdom was abolished in 1861 by Alexander II, partially in an attempt to stave off a revolution. However, the terms of emancipation were often onerous, requiring serfs to pay back the cost of their freedom at inflated rates, wasting a fair amount of goodwill.
See also[]
- Serfdom in other games
| Civilization VII Civics [edit] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Antiquity | Standard | |
| Unique | ||
| Exploration | Standard | |
| Theological | ||
| Unique | ||
| Modern | Standard | |
| Ideological | ||
| Unique | ||
| 1 Requires DLC | ||
