Short answers, pulled from the story.
Those who had been serfs among the Russian peasantry were officially emancipated in 1861. The proportion of serfs within the empire had gradually decreased from 45 percent at end of eighteenth century to 37.7 percent in 1858.
The word peasant derives from the 15th-century French word pays meaning one from the countryside or outlying administrative district. This term ultimately traces back to the Latin pagus which described a rural district.
Relative positions improved greatly after the Black Death reduced medieval Europe's population in the mid-14th century. Survivors gained more land while labor became scarce throughout the region leading to demands for wages and alternative compensation forms.
Via Campesina claims to represent about 200 million farm-workers globally under its International Peasant's Movement label. The United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas in 2018.
Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861 despite ongoing decline before emancipation occurred. Many peasants remained in areas where family had farmed generations after emancipation allowing buying and selling lands traditionally held by peasants.