The monograph examines the history of the northern village, the production activity of the peasantry of the European North of Russia from the 15th century. until the abolition of serfdom. The author outlined the processes of settlement and agricultural development of the region, land security, the development of agricultural culture and the level of agricultural production, the property and social status of various categories of state, as well as palace-specific and landowner peasants, their contribution to the settlement and development of the Urals and Siberia. An analysis of the commonalities and features of agrarian relations made it possible to identify the time, conditions and circumstances of the origin and development in the bowels of feudalism of those components that, in the words of V. I. Lenin, constituted the "true Russian" essence of the "agrarian question" in Russia of the capitalist period. The appendix for the first time publishes the results of office descriptions of the northern provinces, the district results of audit accounting, materials on yields and other documents.