On the old Roman villas, the workers were largely made up of slaves. When the Germanic people took over the areas, the same slaves would naturally become serfs.
There were a number of cases when hordes running through old Roman territories cause migrations of free agricultural workers into cities. Those who did not have the food they were required to bring for their support in case of siege were often put into a position of selling themselves into slavery. Many of the serfs might have been descended from these people.
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She expanded serfdom.
Alexander II
Czar Alexander II freed the serfs in his empire in 1742. While they were freed, they were still very poor and still worked in terrible conditions.
It would possibly depend upon your definition of "Serfdom", but I believe the 1917 revolution and subsequent overthrow of the Tsar effectively ended Serfdom in Russia by any definition. The pre-revolutionary Russian economy was heavily dependent on free labour, which was augmented by exiled prisoner labour. Earlier attempts at freeing the Serfs during the Romanov Dynasty ended in unpleasantness and the Serfs not being freed.
The Rise of Nations.