The Manifesto of three-day corvee or An Imperial Edict Forbidding Sunday Labor by Serfs (russian: link=no, Манифест о трёхдневной барщине от 5 апреля 1797 года) was issued by the Russian emperor Paul I on April 16, 1797 as a first ever legal attempt at extending the rights of Russian

serfs 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, which developed ...

. The document prohibited use of corvee labour on Sundays by landowners, the State and the Court, prescribing that the rest of the week should be divided in half between the landowners' requests and peasants' own needs, theoretically restricting landowners' command over labour use to just three days in a week.

External links

Paul's manifesto forbidding Sunday labor by serfs, April 5, 1797
– text translated into English. {{Russia-hist-stub 1797 in law 18th century in the Russian Empire 1797 in the Russian Empire * Three-day corvee 1797 documents Reform in Russia