The Charter recognized that the gentry owned their landed estates outright and enjoyed the guarantee of civil rights.
Proprietary serfs constituted at the time approximately one-half of the country's population.
Since the tsarist authorities neither laid down any rules governing the powers of the landlords over their serfs nor intervened on the serfs' behalf, they effectively surrendered sovereignty over one-half of the country's population to private interests.
"[1]The Charter recognized the corps of nobles in each province as a legal corporate body and stated the rights and privileges bestowed upon its members.
The charter was divided into an introduction and four sections: Notable rights given to the Gentry via the charter include being exempt from taxation, controlling the economic gains of their serfs, being exempt from corporal punishment, allowing them the right to assembly, and allowing them to be tried in their own courts.