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{{short description|Serf in the medieval Slavic states of Central and East Europe}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}}
{{Early Slavic status}}
A '''smerd''' ({{langx|orv|смердъ|smerdǔ}}) was a free [[peasant]] and later a [[feudal]]-dependent [[serf]] in the [[medieval]] Slavic states of [[East Europe]]. Sources from the 11th and 12th centuries (such as the 12th-century ''[[Russkaya Pravda]]'') mention their presence in [[Kievan Rus']]  and [[Poland]] as the ''smerdones''. Etymologically, the word ''smerd'' comes from a common Indo-European root meaning "ordinary man" or "dependent man".<ref name="urlThe Peasant in Nineteenth-century Russia - Wayne S. Vucinich, John Shelton Curtiss - Google Książki">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LlVYJaLBDMYC&q=Smerd+serfdom&pg=PA221 |title=The Peasant in Nineteenth-century Russia - Wayne S. Vucinich, John Shelton Curtiss - Google Książki |format= |isbn=9780804706384 |accessdate=|last1=Vucinich |first1=Wayne S. |last2=Curtiss |first2=John Shelton |year=1968 |publisher=Stanford University Press }}</ref>{{Disputed inline|Etymology issue|date=February 2022}}

In Kievan Rus', ''smerdy'' were peasants who gradually lost their freedom (partially or completely) and whose [[legal]] status differed from group to group. Unlike [[slave]]s, they had their own [[property]] and had to pay [[fine (penalty)|fines]] for their delinquencies, legally the ''smerds'' never possessed full [[rights]]; killing of a ''smerd'' was punished by the same fine as killing of a ''[[kholop]]'' (similarly to a slave). The property of the deceased was inherited by the ''[[knyaz]]'' (prince). The ''Russkaya Pravda'' forbade torturing ''smerds'' during court examination without consent of the ''[[knyaz]]''.

During the 12th and the 13th centuries a number of sources mention the ''smerdy'' while narrating events in [[Halych-Volynia]] and in [[Novgorod]]. It appears that during this period the term ''smerd'' encompassed the whole rural population of a given region. Sources of the 14th and 15th centuries refer to ''smerds'' of Novgorod and [[Pskov]] as peasant-[[proprietor]]s, who possessed lands collectively (communes) or individually and had the right to freely alienate their own allotments. However, their personal freedom was limited: they were forbidden to seek a new master or princely [[patronage]]. The ''knyaz'' could not accept complaints from ''smerds'' against their master. Also, ''smerds'' had to provide labor services and to pay tribute (''dan''') to the benefit of the city as a collective feudal master.

In Russia from the 14th century the word ''smerd'' as a denotation for peasants and other commonfolk was replaced with the word ''krestyanin'' (''[[:ru:Крестьянин|крестьянин]]''), meaning [[peasant]]. The change was connected to the dying out of [[Slavic paganism]] by that time, as well as to the [[Islam]]ization of the [[Golden Horde]] under [[Öz Beg Khan]] (ruled 1313–1341), which fostered the rise of Christian self-identification in the vassal Russian lands that were under [[Mongol yoke]].

The old word ''smerd'' continued to be used in a pejorative meaning, often in a situation when a lord spoke to dependent people or even to lesser nobles. Also the word acquired a meaning of "one who stinks", with the related verb '''smerdet' '' (''смердеть'' or ''śmierdzieć'', to stink).<ref>https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B4#Russian
 {{User-generated source|date=June 2022}}</ref>{{Disputed inline|Etymology issue|date=February 2022}}

== See also ==

* [[Villein]]
* [[Serfdom in Russia|Serfdom]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3004260?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents The Smerd in Kievan Russia]
* [http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Smerdy "Smerdy" in The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition]

[[Category:Society of Kievan Rus']]
[[Category:Peasants]]
[[Category:Economy of Kievan Rus']]
[[Category:Polish farmers]]


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