Did Russia ever have a FEUDAL society?

[battleknight24]

I do know that for many years, until 1861, Russia had Serfs, but did they ever have a feudal society similar to that of Japan (until the 19th Century) or that of Western European countries during the Middle Ages?


Peace,

[supernova]

1. Wiki is fun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire#Society

In a word, yes.

[Redstone]

2. When did they ever NOT have one?

Redstone

[DarkTirade]

3. I think the question was about 'feudal', not 'futile'.

:P

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. That was totally my first thought, too - "When they did NOT?"

And not even a good one, either. Russia is great at forcing people into lives of misery. They couldn't even rise to the level of emancipation and peasant rights that England managed, and in England it was still shit.

[Redstone]

5. Even under communism, and under the current thugocracy, yes...if you're on a low

rung of the ladder there, you're just as effectively fucked, for your whole life, as you would have been in the time of ol' Pete or Cathy.

And I'm not just saying this because I detest Russians. It's true.

Redstone

[CatholicEdHead]

8. Exactly

[JVS]

6. *snort* Yeah. Its vestiges lasted into the 1920's

:rofl:

[rockymountaindem]

7. Yes, and it was even worse than the typical concept of feudalism in the west

Peasants, even whole villages, could be bought and sold among the nobility. Peasants were used for labor, tax farming, etc, and endured restrictions on their movements, family lives and nearly every aspect of their existence.

[Silver Swan]

9. Yes

I remember a college history class, where we discussed the fact that Russia had a feudal system throughout the 19th century.

But the USA had slavery until the 1860's.

So who was worse?