Abolished, Manipulated, Marginalized: Serfdom and Slavery in Politics and Memory in Eastern Europe

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panel will address the abolition, representation and memory of serfdom and slavery in Poland, Russia and Belarus from the middle of the nineteenth century till present. Coercive forms of labor and the conditions of peasantry became an increasingly embattled issue starting from the middle of the nineteenth century in the Russian Empire and its borderland territories. Various political and ideological actors weighed in to voice their conflicting opinions of serfdom and slavery and used this debate as a vehicle for projecting broader ideas on social and political organization. Debates preceding the 1861 abolition reform produced a myth of what the Russian “serfdom” was and how it was ended. Similarly, the 1864 peasant reform in Poland triggered long-lasting contestation of its meaning and legacy. The contemporary level of interest in these once controversial issues stands in stark contrast to the nineteenth-century developments. The case of Belarus shows how historical memory evolved to drop the appeal of serfdom as relevant problem.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• Anna Smelova, Georgetown U

Papers

• Polish Countermemories against the Russian Celebrations of the 50th Jubilee of the Peasant Reform in the Kingdom of Poland (1864-1914) - Łukasz Kożuchowski, U of Warsaw (Poland)

• Unprocessed Trauma?: Serfdom in Belarusian Historical Memory - Vitali Byl, U of Bonn (Germany)

• What did Russia Abolish?: Negotiating Slavery and Serfdom in the Lead-Up to the 1861 Reform in Imperial Russia. - Stanislav Mohylnyi, U of Bonn (Germany)

Discussant

• Alison K. Smith, U of Toronto (Canada)

Session Manager

• Susan Zayer Rupp, Wake Forest U