Serf Life in Russia

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The pictures of serf life in Russia (as it existed before 1861) collected together in this volume are not only interesting as being what the French would call sensations vecues but are also of psychological value as being the self-revelation of the outwardly wayward, but vibratingly sensitive child soul of a little girl, brought up under almost mediaeval conditions in the middle of the nineteenth century. Old social and economic forms were crumbling away around the child, who played and dreamed, and often revolted, in the garden of the old Russian manor house. The first faint impulses of modern thought, science, and economic outlook were making themselves felt in town and university centres throughout the civilised world. Steam and electricity were already beginning to undermine stealthily the fortresses of the old order.