The strangest taxes in Russian history

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Russians paid for washing in a home bath, for growing a beard, and even for refusing to have children. And this is far from all the taxes that ordinary citizens had to face.

1. Collection from the bath

In the old days, people washed in paid public (then they were called commercial) baths and - oh, horror - the owners of these baths did not share their income with the state. Peter I decided to fix this, and in 1704 introduced a tax on both commercial and ordinary baths in residential buildings.

Boyars, according to the decree, had to pay three rubles a year, nobles and merchants who received income from baths more than 50 rubles a year - a ruble a year. From the rest of the citizens who had baths at their homes, they took 15 kopecks a year. This is a lot - then only one ruble could buy about a hundred chickens.

It was also costly to break or burn down the already built baths - the law required a penalty of 5 rubles to be paid for this. The collection from the baths lasted for half a century, it was canceled only in 1755.

2. Beard money

A small copper token with a beard and a real register of bearded men are standard items in Tsarist Russia after 1705. It was then that Peter I introduced one of the largest taxes for those who refused to shave their beards.

Peter I decided to introduce a tax on beards after his trip to Europe - in his opinion, the Russians were supposed to be as similar as possible to the Europeans, and those were no longer wearing beards at that time.

All city dwellers had to shave off their beards and mustaches. Those who didn't want to change their image paid for facial hair. The tax for some especially wealthy merchants was higher than the rest - as much as 100 rubles a year. Servants at the court, as well as merchants with an average income, officials and artisans with beards paid 60 rubles per year. Coachmen and cabbies paid the least - 30 rubles a year.

The tax was also paid to bearded peasants - 1 kopeck was taken from them for entering the city. In the villages, they could not shave their beards. The exceptions were priests and deacons, the decree did not apply to them.

The cities also kept records of men with beards who paid taxes - each was recorded in a separate book, and a small token was issued as an identification beard mark.

The tax was abolished only in 1772 during the reign of Catherine II, but she also retained the ban on wearing beards and mustaches for officials, military and courtiers.

3. Penalty for murder

In Ancient Rus from the end of IX there was a monetary fine for murder, which was called "vira", according to the Explanatory Dictionary of Efremova.

According to the code of laws of that time, the murderer of a simple free man could avoid blood feud by paying a fine in favor of the prince in the amount of 40 hryvnias, according to the code of ancient Russian laws "Russian Truth". It was a lot of money - this amount could buy two dozen cows, writes "Profile". The murder of a man serving in the princely administration cost more - as much as 80 hryvnia. The murder of a wife caught in treason, as well as serious injuries, cost less, only 20 hryvnia.

If the killer could not be found, then the fine was paid by the local community organization, the line, which monitored the crime in the territory where the corpse was found.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia reports that this tradition continued in the 16th century, but Efremova's dictionary claims that the virus was stopped much earlier, in the 13th century.

4. Tax on shows

Since 1918, any entertainment and entertainment event has been taxed, be it theater, cinema or circus. This is stated in the text of the letter of the People's Commissariat of the State Charity of the RSFSR - one of the ministries of the Provisional Government, which appeared during the 1917 revolution.

The tax was levied for each ticket sold - from 10 to 80 kopecks if the ticket was more expensive than 50 kopecks, and 1/3 of the ticket price if the ticket cost more than 10 rubles. In the 1920s, 80 kopecks could buy 1 kg of sugar, 1 kg of boiled sausage or 4 kg of bread. Considering that the tax was collected for each ticket, the organizers paid a lot of money in total.

Tickets costing less than 50 kopecks were also subject to a “charity fee” of 5 kopecks.

The money received from the tax went to help the disabled, the elderly, children, orphans and other citizens in need, the letter said.

Beginning in 1942, the tax was paid by the organizers of all paid events, including lectures, concerts, dance evenings, sports, horse races, etc. For each type of event, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established its own percentage of gross proceeds from ticket sales - from 5 to 55%, for non-payment the organizers were threatened with a fine of 100 rubles. Lectures on Marxist-Leninist education, amateur circles, as well as events for military personnel, for children under 16 (except for film shows) and for the disabled were exempted from the tax.

In 1948, 100 rubles could only buy two bottles of vodka, but already in 1956 it was possible to afford 3 kg of red caviar or 4 bottles of vodka, and in 1965 - a ticket to a camp on the Black Sea coast.

The tax decree was canceled only in 1975, with the exception of cinemas - they continued to pay 55% of gross proceeds from ticket sales.

5. Tax on childlessness

Starting in October 1941, it was more profitable for a Soviet person to carry out military service, marry a military man, get a secondary or higher education, be a pensioner or even be recognized as childless - everyone else, married and single without children, had to pay a tax on childlessness, the decree read Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

The employer withheld the tax directly from the salaries of workers and employees. With a salary of less than 150 rubles a month, the tax was five rubles, with a salary more than this amount - 5% of the salary. Collective farmers and owners of their own peasant farms paid a tax of 100 rubles a year.

In 1944, the tax was raised to 6% of wages; it was paid by men from 20 to 50 years old and women from 20 to 45 years old. Even having children did not save them from taxes - with one child, Soviet citizens paid 1% of their monthly income, and with two, 0.5%.

After the Great Patriotic War, there were almost no men left in the villages, women had no one to marry and therefore few children were born. If the family was nevertheless created, but there were no children in it, then the collective farmers had to pay up to 150 rubles a year, at the birth of the first child, the payment was reduced to 50 rubles, after the second to 25, and only, starting with the appearance of the third child in family, it was not taxed. Also, the tax was not applied to those who for health reasons could not have children, to citizens whose children died, were listed as dead or disappeared during the Great Patriotic War.

When children were adopted, the childlessness tax was canceled. In the event of the death of the child, the obligation to pay the tax was returned. If the child was born into an unregistered family, then only the mother was exempted from payment. In 1952, the tax for collective farmers and low-income families was abolished.

From 1975 to 1985, in the USSR, five rubles could buy 25 loaves of white bread, 50 kg of potatoes, or at least 5 times to dine in the dining room - with soup, a hot dish, salad and compote with a bun.

The tax for other citizens was canceled only in 1992 after the collapse of the USSR.

During the tax period, the population of the USSR grew from 97 million in 1946 to 148 million in 1992. The money collected from taxes went to the union and republican budgets, they were spent on helping mothers with many children and building orphanages.

Russian public organizations and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church still offer to return the tax on childlessness, but the Russian government does not support such ideas - according to them, such a measure has not helped the growth of demographics for a long time.