ince of Samara
in 1872 I found some interesting traditions regarding this
pretender. Though nearly a century had elapsed since his
death (1775), his name, his personal appearance, and his
exploits were well known even to the younger generation. My
informants firmly believed that he was not an impostor, but
the genuine Tsar, dethroned by his ambitious consort, and
that he never was taken prisoner, but "went away into
foreign lands." When I asked whether he was still alive,
and whether he might not one day return, they replied that
they did not know.

Meanwhile Peter III. had been succeeded by his consort, Catherine II. As
she had no legal right to the throne, and was by birth a foreigner, she
could not gain the affections of the people, and was obliged to court
the favour of the Noblesse. In such a difficult position she could not
venture to apply her humane principles to the question of serfage. Even
during the first years of her reign, when she had no reason to fear
agrarian disturbances, she increased rather than diminished the power of
the proprietors over their serfs, and the Pugatchef affair confirmed
her in this line of policy. During her reign serfage may be said to have
reached its climax. The serfs were regarded by the law as part of the
master's immovable property*--as part of the working capital of the
estate--and as such they were bought, sold, and given as presents** in
hundreds and thousands, sometimes with the land, and sometimes without
it, sometimes in families, and sometimes individually. The only legal
restriction was that they should not be offered for sale at the time of
the conscription, and that they should at no time be sold publicly
by auction, because such a custom was considered as "unbecoming in a
European State." In all other respects the serfs might be treated
as private property; and this view is to be found not only in the
legislation, but also in the popular conceptions. It became customary--a
custom that continued down to the year 1861--to compute a noble's
fortune, not by his yearly revenue or the extent of his estate, but
by the number of his serfs. Instead of saying that a man had so many
hundreds or thousands a year, or so many acres, it was commonly said
that he had so many hundreds or thousands of "souls." And over these
"souls" he exercised the most unlimited authority. The serfs had no
legal means of self-defence. The Governme