Disputes between the landowners and the peasantry in the Duchy of Warsaw period. Cases of Cienia and Michałów villages

Abstract

The relations between the gentry and the peasantry in the Duchy of Warsaw period show their undoubtedly transitional character. The capitalistic civil law which was imposed by France did not harmonize at all with the partially feudal realities of the Polish countryside. Napoleon abolished serfdom in Article 4 of the Constitution. Soon after, Frederick Augustus I of Saxony issued the December Decree (1807). Its significance as well as consequences, despite the wealth of the literature concerning this subject matter, are extremely difficult to define even today. In the Polish People’s Republic period, which was definitely a period of very intensive research into the issues of the exploitation of the peasants and their resistance in the feudal and bourgeoisie eras, it was claimed that the Decree abolished the shared ownership of farms and deprived the peasants of their rights (the abolition of dominium utile). These categorical conclusions were, as a rule, formulated without taking the court records into consideration. Furthermore, these records actually seem to indicate that the reality was much more complicated. The article delineates the disputes between the peasantry of two villages, Cienia and Michałów, and their landowners (or vice versa) before the Civil Tribunal of First Instance in Kalisz. It is worth mentioning that according to the peasants’ awareness as well as to judge’s opinions the December Decree did not put an end to the mutual rights and obligations between the gentry and the peasantry that had been shaped by customs and various documents which had been issued for centuries.