State peasants (Russian: Государственные крестьяне, gosudarstvennye krestiane) were a special social estate (class) of peasantry in 18th–19th century Russia, the number of which in some periods reached half of the agricultural population.
In contrast to private serfs, state peasants were considered personally free, although their freedom of movement was restricted.
The number of state peasants increased due to several factors: the confiscation of church lands (huge estates of the Russian Orthodox Church) by Catherine II, additional conquered territories (the Baltic States, the Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, the Caucasus), and the former serfs of the confiscated estates of the gentry of the Commonwealth, among others.
This process (transition of runaway serfs to the category of state peasants on the colonized areas) was implicitly encouraged by the imperial Government.
Additionally, from the nobility came suggestions to eliminate the estate of state peasants, requesting the passage of the state-owned land to private hands.
A staunch opponent of serfdom, Kiselev believed that freedom should be introduced gradually, "to destroy slavery by itself and without disruption of the state."
Despite the gradual transformation, they still encountered resistance because landlords feared that the release of government serfs would give a dangerous example to their private possessory of peasants.
Kiselev intended to regulate the allotments and obligations serfs and partly subordinate them to the Ministry of State Property, but this outraged landowners and was not implemented.
Payments were calculated for 49½ years, and in some cases had to be made before 1931, but were canceled on 1 January 1907 as part of the Stolypin agrarian reform under the influence of the revolution in 1905.