Otchychi

Otchychi. A special category of peasants in 15th- and 16th-century Ukraine, Muscovy, and Lithuania. They were peasants who had lived on the same parcel of land for many generations. With the introduction of serfdom they were often the peasants who were enserfed first, by being deprived of the right to move from their land.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]