Culture and Society

As time went on in Russia peasants began to lose their freedom and nobles began to lose power and influence over society. A class called the service nobility was formed, these were people who held the tsar's land on the condition that they would serve in the tsar's army. Eventually all of the nobility became "service nobility". Peasants fled torward conquered territories in the east and south and formed outlaw armies known as cossacks. Once Ivan the Terrible died, peasants and cossacks called for a tsar who would restore their freedom and lighten taxes. Nobles crushed this rebellion. Peasants continued to call for freedom.