The Mahtra War () was a peasant insurgency at Mahtra Manor (now in

Rapla County Rapla County ( or ''Raplamaa'') is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia. It is situated in the north-western part of the country and borders Järva County to the east, Pärnu County to the south, Lääne County to the west, and Harju County to ...

, from

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

) in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

from May to July 1858. The revolt was suppressed. Fourteen peasants were wounded and seven killed in the conflict, and three later died from their wounds. The military casualties included 13 soldiers wounded and one officer killed. Sixty of 65 peasants were sentenced to death by a court martial in Tallinn. Baltic governor-general

Alexander Arkadyevich Suvorov Alexander Arkadyevich Suvorov, Prince Italiysky, Count Rymniksky (; 13 June 1804, in Saint Petersburg – 12 February 1882, in Saint Petersburg), was a Russian general, diplomat and politician. Life Education His parents were Arkadi Suvorov and ...

later reduced the sentences of 44 peasants to corporal punishment, 35 of whom were sentenced to exile in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, while the remaining 21 defendants were released.

Historical context

In the

Governorate of Estonia The Governorate of Estonia, also known as the Esthonia (Estland) Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. It was located in the northern Estonia with some islands in the West Estoni ...

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...

was abolished in 1816 (in comparison, in the whole Russian Empire it was abolished in 1861); however, the land was not redistributed among the peasants and ''

corvée Corvée () is a form of unpaid forced labour that is intermittent in nature, lasting for limited periods of time, typically only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state (polity), state for the ...

'' labor was preserved (until 1876). The March 19, 1856 manifesto of Tsar Alexander II spoke about further agrarian reforms, but the implementation was slow, and this sparked unrest, including the Mahtra revolt. The events significantly influenced the work of the committees working on emancipation of the serfs in Russia.

In culture

* Mahtra Peasant Museum (

*

Eduard Vilde Eduard Vilde ( – 26 December 1933) was an Estonian writer, a pioneer of critical realism in Estonian literature, and a diplomat. He was the author of classics such as ''The War in Mahtra'' and ''The Milkman from Mäeküla''. He was one of the ...

, ''

Mahtra sõda ''Mahtra sõda'' (The Mahtra War) is a 1902 novel by Eduard Vilde. It is the first part of a trilogy of historical novels about the peasant movements of the 1900s. The second work of the trilogy is ''Kui Anija mehed Tallinnas käisid'' (When Ani ...

'' (The Mahtra War), historical novel (1902; Russian translation: Эдуард Вильде, ''Война в Махтра'', 1950,

, publisher: Художественная литeратура и искусство) *Anatoli Garshnek, "Mahtra sõda" (The Mahtra War) (1958),

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

References

{{European Peasant Wars (19th and 20th centuries) 1850s in Estonia 19th century in the Russian Empire Rebellions against the Russian Empire Peasant revolts Conflicts in 1858 1858 in Europe 19th-century rebellions Rapla Parish Kreis Harrien Military history of Estonia Baltic rebellions