For the Common Good and Their Own Well-Being

<p>Every subject of the Russian Empire had an official legal place in society marked by his or her social estate or <em>soslovie</em>. These <em>sosloviia</em> (noble peasant merchant and many others) were usually inherited and defined the rights opportunities and duties of those who possessed them. They were also usually associated with membership in a specific geographically defined society in a particular town or village. Moreover although laws increasingly insisted that every subject of the empire possess a <em>soslovie</em> "for the common good and their own well-being" they also allowed individuals to change their <em>soslovie</em> by following a particular bureaucratic procedure. The process of changing soslovie brought together three sets of actors: the individuals who wished to change their opportunities or duties or who at times had change forced upon them; local societies which wished to control who belonged to them; and the central imperial state which wished above all to ensure that every one of its subjects had a place and therefore a status. This book looks at the many ways that soslovie could affect individual lives and have meaning then traces the legislation and administration of <em>soslovie</em> from the early eighteenth through to the early twentieth century. This period saw a shift from soslovie as above all a means of extracting duties or taxes to an understanding of <em>soslovie</em> as instead a means of providing services and ensuring security. The book ends with an examination of the way that a change in <em>soslovie</em> could affect not just an individual's biography but the future of his or her entire family. The result is a new image of soslovie as both a general and a very specific identity and as one that had persistent meaning for the Imperial statue for local authorities or for individual subjects even through 1917.</p>