4 ms·

Hope I don't get downvoted to hell, but I guess it's remarkable that Russia had serfdom until mid 19th century because by then it was well established that whit

• notyourday 7y ago
  Not only that but one's net worth was largely a derivative of the number of serfs one owned. I highly recommend reading "Dead Souls" -- it is a fantastic novel about that period.
  • hamilyon2 7y ago
    Dead souls is a gem.
• coldtea 7y ago
  >because by then it was well established that white people shouldn't enslave, or attach to land, other white people. Well, you'd be surprised. A large part of Europe (Germany, Austria, etc) halted serfdom only a few decades before Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom#Dates_of_emancipation_from_serfdom_in_various_countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom#Dates_of_emancipation_...
• wongarsu 7y ago
  > because by then it was well established that white people shouldn't enslave, or attach to land, other white people That's not how Europe works. Virtually everyone around here is "white". That doesn't prevent racism, it's just racism against Gypsies, or Albanians, or Itelmens, or Jews, or now (often white) muslims. And of course in Europe we had a big thing for using class differences instead of using race differences as our justification for such things as serfdom.