Famine in Russia

1594

A devastating famine struck parts of Muscovy after successive crop failures, and grain prices soared. Peasant flight from estates accelerated, eventually contributing to the tsarist government's tightening of serfdom laws. Russia's deepening rural crisis was preparing the ground for the chaos of the Time of Troubles. The famine's severity contributed to social unrest that erupted into the Time of Troubles within a decade.