This treatise discusses the success and failure,gains and losses of the reform of Russian serf system 140 years ago,and brings forward a new explanation on the from-above-to-below mode of the reform.

Except Athen and Roma,there universally were the serf system and subsidiary relations in the ancient world,not the slave system.

One is the serfdom which hindered the migrations of village labors; another is the lagging agriculture productivity that couldn t release a great deal of village labors from the soil.

The feudal serfdom hindered seriously the migration of village labors, whether moving to towns or shifting to non - agriculture industries in the medieval England.

The Western European serfdom is one kind of economic forms in Western European feudal socie- ty,and it was suitable for the self-sufficient manorial economy.

After servant system reform in 1861,Russian dictatorial system transformed into capitalist monarchy system fast.

The shaping of Russian serfdom underwent a protracted his torical process, which resulted from a combination of the feudal lords imposing serfdom as individuals with the making of the statute of serfs by the state.