BOORS, a ,,,:neral appellation for the Russian peasantry, who are divided into two great classes, dis tinguished by the names of • vassal boors and free boors. It is necessary to observe, however, that the free peasants, though generally comprehended among the boors, both in state papers, and in the enumera tion of the people, are, in reality, a distinct • class, forming a middle link between the burghers and the vassal peasantry, to whom the name of boors prdper ly belongs. These free peasants cannot -be alienated or sold ; most of them possess immoveable property, and are left in the undisturbed possession of what they earn, provided they duly pay.their taxes, or per• form their stated tasks of labour ; they have the pri vilege of educating their children as they please; and, in abort; are as completely exempted as' their superi ors from-all authority, except that of the sovereign and the laws of the 'state. Under this class are in chided the foreign colonists who have settled in •Rns-. sia as husbandmen ; and the odnodvortzi, or one. house.owners, who possess their houses and the lands belonging to them as free property, for which they neither perform feudal services, nor give any portion of their produce.; but are compelled to furnish re cruits, to pay the poll tax, and abrock, and are ex pressly prohibited from purchasing in villages, or pos sessing vassals -as property. The •ozacks, or Cos. sacks, in all branches, Tartars, Bashkirs, Vo gulls, Kalmucks, most of the Monadic- tribes, and the inhabitants of as they have a real and heritable property in their lands, belong properly to the class of free peasants. Disbanded soldiers, who go to reside in the country, and vassals who have pur chased their freedom from their superiors, or- obtain ed it as a reward for their faithful services,-are like wise to be 'numbered in the same class. The male Russian peasantry, or those of Little Russia, hold a kind of intermediate rank between the vassal boors and those we have described, being neither so de pendent as the former, nor so free as the latter : they are attached as fixed property to the land, separately from which they can neither be aliena ted nor sold.
The vassal boors are sunk in the most abject slave ry. Disqualified from hblding any possessions of their own, they and their families are the absolute dispo. sal of their lords, by whom they may be alienated, sold, or exchanged, like any other part of their pro perty. These degraded people may be distributed into three classes,—crown boors, boors of the mines, and private boors.
In the condition of the first class, who are the vas sals of the crown, there are various gradations of ser vitude and misery. Some of them are absolute and disposable property ; others are attached to the mines, and can neither be sold, nor have it in their power to remove ; while others are merely tasked with a cer tain iortion of work, or obliged to pay a stated quantity of the produce of their labours. A stri king difference may be observed between the 'condi:. tion of the peasants of the crown, and that of the boors who belong to individuals. In general the for mer merely pay to government an abrock•or rent of about five rubles at an average ; and as they cer tain that it will never be raised, they have every en couragement to exert themselves for the improve ment of their fields, or the amelioration of their con dition. Mriny of these are in such comfortable cit. cumstancei, that they might almost forget their state of vassalage; did not the crown possess, and some. times exert, the power of granting them away.
The crown boors are distinguished by various de nominations, according to their respective employ ments, or•to particular circumstances in their condi tion. Eight distinct kinds of crown boors, are men. tioned in the-laws and ukases of Russia : empire boors, who belong neither to the court, nor the nobility; nor to the monasteries;. but are members or burghers of the-empire ; imperial boors, who belong to the monarch personally, or rather to the court ; boors of the -black plough, -who inhabit great part of northern Russia, .as far as Archangel ; post boors, who, in lieu of the" abrock and other taxes, -are bound to keep post horses ; court boors, whose service and tribute go to the support of the imperial court ;• monastery boors, formerly attached to the monasteries, but now throughout Great, Little, and White Russia, uni formly. -found --under the Kameral-hofs ; economy boors, who, in Great Russia, were taken from the monasteries and churches, and made subordinate to a particular college of economy, established for that purpose, but since abolished, so that the boors are under the. Kamerahhofs;retaining however their for mer name ; and peltry tribute paying boors, who deliver their tribute in pcltry or furs. The crown boors possess one important advantage over boors of every other description, being permitted to purchase from •noblemen; villages and lands, with the vassals belonging to them.