“To compound Boris’ troubles, famine swept Russia. The year 1601 was very bad; 1602 was even worse; and 1603 was completely frightful. The tsar responded to the crisis with energy and exceptional generosity, opening food distribution center, curbing speculators, and giving tax relief. His openhanded compassion for his people earned him the sobriquet Boris the Bright-souled. In the end his efforts backfired, and many of his once grateful subjects began to revile his name. Thousands of peasants had uprooted themselves and flocked to the cities for the free food, causing the supplies to run out and upsetting the whole economy. Now Boris was forced to issue decrees forbidding peasants to leave the land and giving more control over them to the large landowners. The whole system of serfdom was given its major reinforcement under Boris. Just as the enclosure of the commons by the great landowners was, in the main, foisted on the English countryside during the confused years after the death of Henry VIII, so in Russia bondage was clamped on the peasants by piecemeal and obscure enactments in the troubled times after Ivan IV.”
The Tragic Dynasty: A History of the Romanovs by John Bergamini (emphasis mine)
So, when the government tries to fix a problem by giving stuff away for free, everyone flocks to take advantage of it, supplies run out just generally making everything worse, and we end up with stricter laws? Weird.
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