Slaves Not Serfs
Lindsey Hughes on a comprehensive survey of early modern labour conditions in Russia
Slavery in Russia, 1450-1725 by Richard Hellie
776 pp. (University of Chicago Press, 1982)
The late institution (1649) and abolition (1861) of serfdom have long been viewed as major manifestations of Russian 'backwardness'. Richard Hellie's Enserfment and Military Change in Muscovy (1971) revealed much about the mechanics of its development, and now the same author comes up with the first comprehensive study of 'one of the world's most unusual slave systems', a phenomenon quite distinct from serfdom which may have encompassed 10 per cent of the Muscovite population.
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