Volok (unit)

Volok (Lithuanian: valakas, Polish: włóka, Russian: Волока) was a late medieval unit of land measurement in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland and later, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was equal, on average, to 21.368 hectares (52.80 acres) in Lithuania or to 17.955 hectares (44.37 acres) in Poland.[1] It was subdivided into 30 or 33 morgens.[2]

Volok was also a unit that determined taxation and other duties to the state.[2] Previously, taxes and duties were based on the number of households (see, for example, 1528 census of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that recorded households as a measure of military duty) or number of horses/bulls needed to work the land. Such system was not exact: households varied greatly in size and in wealth. Therefore, the introduction of voloks marked an important transition to taxes based on area (width times length).[2]

In Lithuania, it was introduced during the Volok Reform that began in 1547. Officially, voloks were abandoned as a unit after the emancipation reform of 1861, but survived in everyday use until the introduction of the metric system in 1921.[3]