The history of the Russian state goes back to the old times. And from there many of the winged expressions came to our speech. Therefore, to this day, we remember King of the Pea, Trishka with his caftan, "all Ivanovskaya." And here is another phraseology, however, a little less used now, but very, very interesting.
Definition of expression
The expression is "reserved summers". How can it be understood by modern native speakers? Let us turn to the distant past. 16 century, the era of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. It was at this time that the "reserved summers" appeared. In 1581 Grozny conducts a census of the population. On the one hand, he is motivated by the desire to strengthen his power at the expense of loyal nobles, bestowing on them treasury, lands and villages with peasants. On the other hand, in the 1970s and 1980s, the national economy fell sharply in Russia. And it is important for Grozny to identify the extent of the damage. Then the tsarist government, on his instructions, began to introduce reserved summers. This is nothing more than a ban on the peasants to leave one landlord-master to another. According to the Codex of 1497, after the completion of field work, on Yuryev's day (November 26), the peasants could escape from particularly furious hosts to other, more humane. The decree "Zapovednye leta" deprived them of such an opportunity. The beginning of Ivan Vasilyevich in the field of enslavement of the people continued Fedor Ioannovich, banning in 1592-93 the peasants' separation from their villages. By the way, on the basis of this event, an exclamation was born: "Here's to you, grandmother, and Yuryev's day!"
Etymology
So, the unofficial year of the introduction of the reserved years is 1581. The official year is 1592. The name of the concept is associated with the word "commandment", meaning "law", "covenant", "order", "compulsory execution". It is interesting that historians did not find in the annals, charters and other documents of the Ivan the Terrible's epoch separate texts about the "forbidden years" - those years when inhabitants of the countryside, subject to the nobility, were selected to leave for another village or even a city. Researchers know only references to royal decrees. But why do they think that the official introduction of protected years is associated with the very end of the 16th century - from 1592-93? And all because after this date there is not even a reference to the decree.
Strengthening serfdom
What does all this mean in the long run? First, thanks to the "scribal books", ie, the census, a more or less detailed, clear picture of the residence of peasants in the state appeared. This contributed not only to the establishment of order in the country, but also gave rise to an intensification of the feudal regime. The peasants could now be attributed to a permanent place of residence according to the information received, and if someone fled from the landowner, it was easy to establish who owned it. Thus, the noble owners of the serfs were formally established, and the legislative basis for the consolidation of commoners for feudal lords appeared. In the end, the rules of reserve years have become generally accepted. And the concept gradually went into oblivion, remaining only as a figurative, winged expression. And now it is perceived as a synonym for something ancient, old-fashioned, as an antonym of modernity.