In the

history of Russia The history of Russia begins with the histories of the East Slavs. The traditional start date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' people, Rus' state in the north in the year 862, ruled by Varangians. In 882, Prin ...

pomeshchiks () were the class of

Russian nobility The Russian nobility or ''dvoryanstvo'' () arose in the Middle Ages. In 1914, it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members, out of a total population of 138,200,000. Up until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian noble estates staffed ...

who owned a ''pomestye'' (), i.e., an estate. The term ''pomeshchik'' is commonly translated in English as "

landlord A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord appli ...

History

It terms of land ownership there used to be two major categories of land ownership. In , a sovereign (

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

or ''

knyaz A , also , ''knjaz'' or (), is a historical Slavs, Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times. It is usually translated into English language, English as 'prince', 'king' or 'duke', depending on specific historical c ...

'') could grant a piece of state-owned land to a person for his service (usually military) into personal ownership, for the term of the service or for life. Its temporary and conditional character constituted the differencer from the '' votchina'' system, whereby land ownership was hereditary. Over time the two systems blended into one under the term ''pomestye ownership''. This was finalized by

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

in his 1714 , whose main rule of law was inheritance of the real estate regardless its type by a single son, hence the name. The "single inheritance" clause was amended in 1730 by Empress

Anna of Russia Anna Ioannovna (; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much of her administratio ...

, and the only consequence of Peter's decree left was unification of ''pomestye'' and ''votchina'' types of ownership.).

References

{{reflist Russian nobility Landlords Land law Social history of Russia