Kholop

A kholop (холо́п) was a type of feudal serf (dependent population) in Kievan Rus' in the 9th and early 12th centuries. Their legal status in Russia was close to that of slaves. They were sold as any other property of their master until the emancipation reform of 1861. The official term "kholop" was phased out in 1724, but remains in use as a type of insult. The word kholop was first mentioned in a chronicle for the year of 986. The word is cognate with Slavic words translated as "man" or "boy" (Ukrainian: хлопець (khlopets), Polish: chłopiec, Bulgarian: хлапе/хлапак). Chlap/chlop (pronounced khlap/khlop) is a synonym for "man" in Slovak (chlapec thus being the diminutive). Such transitions between the meanings "young person" and "servant" (in both directions) are commonplace, as evident from the English use of "boy" in the sense of "domestic servant". The Russkaya Pravda, a legal code of the late Kievan Rus', details the status and types of kholops of the time. In the 11th to 12th centuries, the term referred to different categories of dependent people and especially slaves. A kholops master had unlimited power over his life, e.g., he could kill him, sell him, or pay his way out of debt with him. The master, however, was responsible for a kholops actions, such as insulting a freeman or stealing. A person could become a kholop as a result of capture, selling oneself, being sold for debts, after having committed crimes, or through marriage to a kholop. Until the late 15th century, the kholops represented a majority among the servants, who had been working lordly lands. Some kholops, mainly house serfs, replenished the ranks of the princely servants (including those in the military) or engaged themselves in trades, farming, or administrative activities. Throughout the 16th century, the role of the kholops in the corvée economy had been diminishing due to the increasing involvement of peasant exploitation (see Russian serfdom). At the turn of the 16th century, the service class kholops (служилое холопство, sluzhiloye kholopstvo) began to emerge and spread across the country.