The Slave Soul of Russia

The Slave Soul of Russia PDF

Author: Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 0814774822

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Why, asks Daniel Rancour-Laferriere in this controversial book, has Russia been a country of suffering? Russian history, religion, folklore, and literature are rife with suffering. The plight of Anna Karenina, the submissiveness of serfs in the 16th and 17th centuries, ancient religious tracts emphasizing humility as the mother of virtues, the trauma of the Bolshevik revolution, the current economic upheavals wracking the country-- these are only a few of the symptoms of what The Slave Soul of Russia identifies as a veritable cult of suffering that has been centuries in the making. Bringing to light dozens of examples of self-defeating activities and behaviors that have become an integral component of the Russian psyche, Rancour-Laferriere convincingly illustrates how masochism has become a fact of everyday life in Russia. Until now, much attention has been paid to the psychology of Russia's leaders and their impact on the country's condition. Here, for the first time, is a compelling portrait of the Russian people's psychology.

I Was a Slave in Russia

I Was a Slave in Russia PDF

Author: John Noble

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781445643731

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Amberley's new series of Eyewitness Accounts bring history, warfare, disaster, travel and exploration to life, written by the people who could say, 'I was there!'

Unfree Labor

Unfree Labor PDF

Author: Peter KOLCHIN

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 535

ISBN-13: 0674039718

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Two massive systems of unfree labor arose, a world apart from each other, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The American enslavement of blacks and the Russian subjection of serfs flourished in different ways and varying degrees until they were legally abolished in the mid-nineteenth century. Historian Peter Kolchin compares and contrasts the two systems over time in this magisterial book, which clarifies the organization, structure, and dynamics of both social entities, highlighting their basic similarities while pointing out important differences discernible only in comparative perspective. These differences involved both the masters and the bondsmen. The independence and resident mentality of American slaveholders facilitated the emergence of a vigorous crusade to defend slavery from outside attack, whereas an absentee orientation and dependence on the central government rendered serfholders unable successfully to defend serfdom. Russian serfs, who generally lived on larger holdings than American slaves and faced less immediate interference in their everyday lives, found it easier to assert their communal autonomy but showed relatively little solidarity with peasants outside their own villages; American slaves, by contrast, were both more individualistic and more able to identify with all other blacks, both slave and free. Kolchin has discovered apparently universal features in master-bondsman relations, a central focus of his study, but he also shows their basic differences as he compares slave and serf life and chronicles patterns of resistance. If the masters had the upper hand, the slaves and serfs played major roles in shaping, and setting limits to, their own bondage. This truly unprecedented comparative work will fascinate historians, sociologists, and all social scientists, particularly those with an interest in comparative history and studies in slavery.

The Black Russian

The Black Russian PDF

Author: Vladimir Alexandrov

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2013-03-05

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0802193765

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The “altogether astonishing” true story of a black American finding fame and fortune in Moscow and Constantinople at the turn of the 20th century (Booklist, starred review). The Black Russian tells the true story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, a man born in 1872 to former slaves who became prosperous farmers in Mississippi. But when his father was murdered, Frederick left the South to work as a waiter in Chicago and Brooklyn. Seeking greater freedom, he traveled to London, then crisscrossed Europe, and—in a highly unusual choice for a black American at the time—went to Russia. Because he found no color line there, Frederick settled in Moscow, becoming a rich and famous owner of variety theaters and restaurants. When the Bolshevik Revolution ruined him, he barely escaped to Constantinople, where he made another fortune by opening celebrated nightclubs as the “Sultan of Jazz.” Though Frederick reached extraordinary heights, the long arm of American racism, the xenophobia of the new Turkish Republic, and Frederick’s own extravagance brought his life to a sad close, landing him in debtor’s prison, where he died a forgotten man in 1928. “In his assiduously researched, prodigiously descriptive, fluently analytical” narrative (Booklist, starred review), Alexandrov delivers “a tale . . . so colourful and improbable that it reads more like a novel than a work of historical biography.” (The Literary Review). “[An] extraordinary story . . . [interpreted] with great sensitivity.” —The New York Review of Books

American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination

American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination PDF

Author: Amanda Brickell Bellows

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2020-04-17

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1469655551

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The abolition of Russian serfdom in 1861 and American slavery in 1865 transformed both nations as Russian peasants and African Americans gained new rights as subjects and citizens. During the second half of the long nineteenth century, Americans and Russians responded to these societal transformations through a fascinating array of new cultural productions. Analyzing portrayals of African Americans and Russian serfs in oil paintings, advertisements, fiction, poetry, and ephemera housed in American and Russian archives, Amanda Brickell Bellows argues that these widely circulated depictions shaped collective memory of slavery and serfdom, affected the development of national consciousness, and influenced public opinion as peasants and freedpeople strove to exercise their newfound rights. While acknowledging the core differences between chattel slavery and serfdom, as well as the distinctions between each nation's post-emancipation era, Bellows highlights striking similarities between representations of slaves and serfs that were produced by elites in both nations as they sought to uphold a patriarchal vision of society. Russian peasants and African American freedpeople countered simplistic, paternalistic, and racist depictions by producing dignified self-representations of their traditions, communities, and accomplishments. This book provides an important reconsideration of post-emancipation assimilation, race, class, and political power.

I Found God in Soviet Russia

I Found God in Soviet Russia PDF

Author: John H. Noble

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2019-12-06

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1839741058

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I Found God in Soviet Russia, first published in 1959, is a profoundly moving account of author John Noble's religious epiphany while confined in a brutal Soviet prison following World War II. The book also recounts Noble's harrowing survival of the massive Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, where he and his family took shelter in the cellar of their home (which was partially destroyed during the raid). Following World War II, Noble, along with his father, were arrested in East Germany and held in several prison camps in Germany including the infamous Nazi-era Buchenwald. Noble is eventually transferred to Vorkuta in far northern Russia where he works in a coal mine. Sustained by his faith and devotion to God, Noble recounts his experiences, stories of his captors and fellow inmates, and the deep faith shown by many of the other prisoners. Of special note is a chapter devoted to three nuns who, as punishment for refusing to work, were placed outdoors in sub-zero weather in only lightweight-clothing. Miraculously, the nuns came through the ordeal without frostbite and were thereafter excused from work details. Following an imprisonment of nearly 10 years, Noble was eventually released to the West, and would go on to lecture about his experiences for the remainder of his life. I Found God in Soviet Russia complements the author's other book entitled I Was a Slave in Russia, which details the day-to-day life in the Soviet gulag.

American and Russian Alliance of 1858

American and Russian Alliance of 1858 PDF

Author: R.E. Sutherland M.ED.

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2002-01-23

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1469716127

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Who was the American child that was adorned with jewels by the Russian Czaritza in 1860? How did the empty South Carolina Fort Sumter become occupied on Christmas Eve in 1861? What did the southern slaves actually say about slavery? This historical fiction explores the heretofore hidden facts about a relationship between Russia and America surrounding the time period before and after the Civil War. In 1858, after a whirlwind romantic third marriage, the southern politician from South Carolina, Francis W. Pickens, was sent to serve as the American Minister to Russia. His Texan wife, Lucy, bonded with the Russian Czar's wife to form a relationship that directly influenced history as the Civil War unfolded in the United States. Throughout the story, a lazy slave boy from Pickens' plantation grows up and accompanies the couple to Russia. The facts in the story have been documented and the sources are available in the bibliography of the book. This simple historical novel should inspire everyone to revisit the present understanding of the events that caused the Civil War, the bloodiest war fought in American history.

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