Sloboda

Sloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement". The status of "sloboda" varied over the time and territory. Initially the settlers of a sloboda were freed from various taxes and levies for various reasons, hence the name. Many slobodas were settled in newly colonized lands, particularly, by Cossacks, freedom from taxes being an incentive for colonization. Some slobodas were parts of a city.

By the first half of the 18th century this privilege was abolished, and slobodas became ordinary villages, shtetls, townlets, suburbs.

The term is preserved in names of various settlements and city quarters. Some settlements were named just thus: "Sloboda", "Slobodka" (diminutive form), "Slabodka", "Slobidka" (Ukrainian).

Similar settlements existed in Wallachia and Moldavia, under the name slobozie/slobozia.

See also