Smerdi – zapomenutý termín raně středověké slovanské společnosti

The term “smerd” is a word of Indo-European origin that is found in medieval sources in Kievan Rus, medieval Poland, and in the territories of the Polabian Slavs. Smerds are specified as peasants belonging to a prince who had their own property, families and land. This term was frequently used until the 13th century, and in some of parts of Slavonic territory, such as Novgorod, Pskov and the East Region of the Polish-Lithuanian Union we can still encounter it as late as the 15th and 16th centuries. Smerds most likely represented the third estate of Slavonic society, which according to Indo-European tripartite ideology secured welfare and prosperity.