Challenge: No Eurasian State (i.e. no Russia/USSR/Mongol empire descendant)

RGB, Elfwine,
thank you. Sorry I stopped posting in this thread. I did not think it was that difficult to find anything relevant to the topic in English.

But there are some places where anyone can get any book s/he likes. Including books about the discussed matter and see who is right and who is wrong.

I'm not sure if this is any good or not (discovered it the other day): http://www.ditext.com/blum/blum-con.html

Only part of it is available online, but the real problem is that the book is fifty years old - so it could be relying on now disproven information.

Generally speaking, finding books in bookstores on Russian history (or anything east of Germany, really) is not easy.
 
Sorry for not answering for so long.
Concerning a book you found – looks like it’s very general( so there would hardly be a lot of information about Ivan Grozniy era ). It’s a bit outdated also – there were major discoveries in 1970s (Писцовые книги – Piscovie Knigi) and in the end of 1980s ( Синодник - Sinodnik).
But if you are interested in the topic you should begin your research with something and such a broad book is good for a fresh start.
You should though be aware of recent findings in climatology – in 1560-1570s there was local minimum in year mean temperature. So when Ivan IV started Livonian War he( and all his advisors) was sure that Russia has the power to deal with its neighbors – Russia was a flourishing state and possessed enough resources to do it. But this temperature minimum made a large portion of Russian lands not warm enough to plant wheat. So this lead to agricultural overpopulation, great famine and finally to sufficient population decrease.
Previously it was believed to be the result of oprichnina but these findings make such a statement doubtful
 
Sorry for not answering for so long.
Concerning a book you found – looks like it’s very general( so there would hardly be a lot of information about Ivan Grozniy era ). It’s a bit outdated also – there were major discoveries in 1970s (Писцовые книги – Piscovie Knigi) and in the end of 1980s ( Синодник - Sinodnik).
But if you are interested in the topic you should begin your research with something and such a broad book is good for a fresh start.
You should though be aware of recent findings in climatology – in 1560-1570s there was local minimum in year mean temperature. So when Ivan IV started Livonian War he( and all his advisors) was sure that Russia has the power to deal with its neighbors – Russia was a flourishing state and possessed enough resources to do it. But this temperature minimum made a large portion of Russian lands not warm enough to plant wheat. So this lead to agricultural overpopulation, great famine and finally to sufficient population decrease.
Previously it was believed to be the result of oprichnina but these findings make such a statement doubtful

Interesting.

Thanks for the information.
 
Before Sudebnik 1550 the peasant's didn't have the right to leave non state ( e. g. boyar's and church) land.
So, you insist that serfdom (krepostnoe pravo) was in Russia before 1550 and Sudebnik set the peasants free, don't you?
So we've got kind of abolishon of serfdom(krepostnoe pravo) in 1550? Are you sure about it?


Unfortunately after the death of Ivan IV there was no strong ruler in Russia for a long time so boyars could retake almost lost positions in the state which led to Sobornoe Ulozhenie(1649) – enforcing serfdom in Russia by the time when most European countries began its abolishment.
I will translate something from a Russian history book.
If you know Russian you can download this book
M.M. Shevchenko 'History of serfdom in Russia (krepostnichestvo)' Russia 1981
page 89-90

"To the end of 1570-s in the moment of almost total bankrupcy of economy of the country the competition (struggle) for labour (peasants) reached it's climax. Landlords tried everything not to loose their peasants. As a rule it was small and medium gentry (pomeschiki) who were loosers in this game. The lands of big landlords (boyars and especially monastery abbeys) were more economically stable. They were strong enough not only to keep their own peasants but they could attract a lot of peasants on a grand scale from other lands. And it was done without observing the "Yurjev Denj" and without paying proper payments to former lanlords.
So the government took measures in the two last decades of the 16-th century. The essence of these was prohibition of the right of the peasants to leave their masters and further development of serfdom (krepostnichestvo) of peasants."


So we see that boyars profited from the right of the peasants to change their landlords. So we can not blame them for serfdom in Russia. :)
(Sorry for poor translation. it is a nighttime and i am in a hurry:)

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