Inventory Regulations

(Rules for the Administration of Landed Estates According to Inventories Approved for Them), clauses defining the extent of allotments and obligations of the seignorial (pomeshchich’ie) peasants in the southwest provinces of Russia. The regulations were sanctioned by Nicholas I on May 26, 1847, and supplemented on Dec. 29, 1848. Originally they preserved peasant ownership of land allotments as of the beginning of the enforcement of the regulations. Later a “standard” size was established for the allotment, with the surplus land passing to the pomeshchik (landlord). The regulations established the legal terms under which the peasants were to work to pay for the allotments and for the use of pastures and forests. By the introduction of the regulations, the government sought to weaken the influence of the local pomeshchiki, mostly Poles, and simultaneously to prevent, to some degree, the peasants from being dispossessed from their land.