Mir

Mir (Russian): a rural peasant village or community. In Russia before the modern reforms, the serfs of the Crown and those of some nobles lived in Mirs, where they elected their village assembly or council responsible for the collection of rent and taxes. When serfdom was ended in 1861, the government reimbursed the land-owning nobles and assigned title to some of the land to the Mirs which were required to make long term payments to the government. The land was thus owned in common by the peasants of the Mir, each of whom was assigned a plot of land to farm. The village assembly elected an elder who administered tax collections and from time to time allocated the commonly owned land among those entitled to farm it. The system failed to sustain the growing population and was abolished in 1906.

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