Rank peasants

Rank peasants (rangovi seliany, rangovi pospolyti). Peasants who lived on rank estates in the Hetman state and Slobidska Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were obligated to perform various duties for the estate holder, including tilling, harvesting, hay mowing, and timber cutting, and had to pay rent in agricultural products. Their duties were increasingly onerous and by the 18th century they approached the conditions of serfdom. After the abolition of the autonomy of Left-Bank Ukraine on 14 May 1783, most rank peasants became serfs, and the minority became state peasants.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]