Fugitive Peasant Women in the XVIII c. (Based on Materials from Court Cases of the Suzdal and Shatsk Voivodeship Offices)

This study is dedicated to fate of escapee women serfs in Russia of the 18th Century. This problem was only partly revealed in the works of historians of the 19th and 20th Centuries, who wrote about the peasant getaway phenomenon in Russia of the XVII-XIX Centuries. There still was no comprehensive study of this problem. This study provides an overall account of escapes of serfs, as well as of the daily life of a peasant woman. The main goal of this study is to define reasons for escape, routes and methods of survival of run-away serf girls and women. The study of this phenomenon is at the junction of several historical disciplines: microhistory; gender history and history of everyday life. The source base for this study was provided by protocols of questioning of runaway serf women by the provincial offices of cities of Suzdal, Shatsk and Korocha. In this study, such protocols are often defined as “Selbstzeunisse”, i.e. "Self-testimonies”. This approach allows not only to clarify survival strategies of women escapees, but also to understand certain aspects of life of a peasant woman in the 18th Century: marriage; women's daily labor, pregnancy and childbirth. The author had determined that main reasons for escapes of women serfs were poverty; domestic violence and religious motives. The Escape would not make their life easier, but would rather impose new tasks: of finding a route; of getting food; of avoiding arrest; of gaining a foothold in a new place. To survive, women would often agree to work for food and shelter; and also consent to sexual relations aside marital; and would often go for deception and begging. The fugitive could live only because a breach of law by both fugitives but also by those who accepted them. Runaway women often found themselves involved into an extensive range of social relationships, because they often were employed by people of different social strata (landowners, peasants/farmers, townspeople and clergy). This particular work permits to expand our vision of life of Russian peasant women and provides a definite contribution to the study of social history of the 18th Century Russia.