Pozhiloe

Pozhiloe 

in the 15th to 17th centuries a payment made by Russian peasants when they left their lord’s estate. A peasant’s payment and departure had to be within one week before or after the autumn feast of St. George. The pozhiloe was first mentioned in the Code of Law of 1497 (art. 57). The full payment—1 ruble for open-field holdings and a half ruble for wooded holdings— was required if a departing peasant had lived on a feudal estate for four years. Only one-quarter of the pozhiloe was to be paid after a one-year stay, one-half after a two-year stay, and so forth. The Code of Law of 1550 (art. 88) increased the payment by 2 altyns (6 kopeks) and specified that it was to be assessed on the peasant household as a whole. The practice ceased in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when the peasant’s right to leave his lord was revoked.