In the vertical context of the class structure, as well as in the class structure of feudal society, the peasants formed the most numerous and at the same time lower layer of the social hierarchy. It was impossible to determine the exact number (especially during the initial period of the class structure formation) in the Polish lands divided into sections, due to the lack of statistical data. We will therefore discuss the final period of the peasant reform, which ended in 1865-1870. We associate the abolition of serfdom with the development of capitalism in agriculture and the formation of a new social structure with its classes and strata. Russian statistics compiled in the early 70s of the XIX century help us here. It takes into account the social division of the population. At that time, 75% of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Poland were peasants .1 According to the next general population census (1897), there are only data on people who worked in agriculture. They accounted for 56.5%. This not very good criterion for determining the number of peasants was also used in Prussian and Austrian statistics; sometimes it was supplemented by the explanation that this was a population "living on agriculture". Despite the inaccuracies, the data on persons engaged in and living in agriculture are closer to the actual number of peasants than those obtained on the basis of information on persons who lived in the countryside, which significantly overestimate the number of peasants. After the peasant reform, the number of peasants fell throughout the Polish lands, but in each part of the divided country - to a different extent. In this respect, the Kingdom of Poland took the first place, with a large number of its peasant population emigrating overseas (to both parts of America) and to European countries, including a small percentage to Russia proper. This movement manifested itself already in the 70s of the XIX century, and in the 90s and on the eve of the First World War, ... Читать далее