The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1845-11-25
THE RUSSIAN SERFS-THEIR CON-
DITION-THEIR NUMBER.


In work recently published, entitled the
White Slave, a full idea can be gathered of
the serf system, which prevades the Russian
empire. The number of beings embraced
within its folds, is not less than forty-three
millions of souls. The Emperor himself, is
the proprietor of twenty-one milIionS-or, in
other words, he owns more slaves than we
have people in the twenty-eight states of our
Union. One can thus imagine the colossal
personal power of such monarch He is
undoubtedly the most extensive possessor of
serfs ofany despot that ever existed. Genghis
Khan or Tamerlane, would not compare.with
Nicholas. 1t is also said that he is continual
ly augmenting this vast number by confsca-
tons, and by forclosing mortgages on money
loaned, or fine eXacted on the estates ofhis
nobility, In this way, if his successors
steadily pursue the same policy, they may
monopolize nearly all the serfs in that vast
empire. Since the days of Peter the Great.
the accumulation of serfs on the imperial
domain, has gone on in an extraordinary ratio,
The number has advanced from two or three
millions, to twenty-one millions. In this
connection it is proper to state, that though
the Emperor is nominally despot over every
soul in Russia, both serf and master, embrac-
ing an aggregate of sixty millions, yet he is
restrained by certain laws and usages, from
treating all as serfs. His twenty millions
are peculiarly the chattels of his will, with
all of whom he can do as his pleasure or
caprice may dictate.
1t has frequently been stated that the SER
fage of Russia was different from the slavery
of the South, in that the serf could only be
transferred with the soil, and that therefore
you could not buy the one without being en-
cumbered by the other, which to a certain
extent was clog 10 the selling of human be-
ings; but this is not so Though the law is,
that no serf could be sold without the estate
|, TO which he belonged" this is evaded by
selling land in the desert wasters of Russia,
which is not really worth penny an acre,
and attaching" as they call it, the serf or
serfs to this " newly carved estate," and thus
the sale would be legal
1t is also said that the Emperor Furnishes,
with the greatest severity, all infractions of
the regulations which he was established for
the benefit of the serf, but most strangely
these punishments do not lead to the en-
franchisement of the serf. Not in the least.
; The Emperor puts a ronnd fine on the Of
fender, and if he cannot pay, he then con-
fscates the estate and brings it within the
imperial domain, and thus adds to the num-
ber of his own serfs. This circumstance
shows that the very laws which he is alleged
to have made for their eventual enfranchise-
ment, but transfers the slaves from the hands
of the nobility to those of the Emperor
This, in our opinion, does not weaken the
serf system of Russia, though it may mod
ify the severity with which he suffers on the
estates of the nobility.
The serfs of Russia are supposed (hough
this tradition is disputed) to be the descen-
dants of Surr, who founded the Syrian en-
pire of Ninevah After its overthrow, his
descendants spread to the West, into modern
Russia and Poland, where they increased and
multiplied. But then incursion upon incurs-
ion came upon them like an avalanche.--
The Scythan, the Goth, the Hun, the Mogul
and finally the Tartar, swept over that vast
region of Eastern Europe, still keeping the
original inhabitants, who are probably called
Slavi or Slavodian, from which the name
slave seems clearly derived) in bondage,
where they continue at this day, even after
lapse of two thousand years.
This is certainly a more remarkable con-
;, tinuation of serfdom in one race than has
existed even in Africa. Notwithstanding