Iasak

a tribute or tax in kind paid by non-Russian peoples who engaged in hunting in the Volga Region from the 15th to 18th centuries and in Siberia from the 17th to early 20th centuries.

Furs and sometimes cattle were brought to treasury offices as payment. People who paid the iasak were regarded as citizens. The tax was determined separately for each tribe or clan. It was a land tax among the Kungur Tatars and the Bashkirs, a poll tax among several Siberian peoples, and a tax on livestock among the Yakuts.

In the 18th century a monetary tax began replacing the iasak; the new tax was introduced in the Volga Region in the 1720’s and in Siberia in 1822. The abuses that were committed by the collectors of the iasak compelled the government to regulate the collection of the tax with the help of iasak commissions. The Sibirskii Prikaz (Siberian Prikaz) was put in charge of collecting the tax, and in 1763 the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty assumed the responsibility. The iasak continued to be collected on a small scale until the February Revolution of 1917.