Up from Serfdom: My Childhood and Youth in Russia, 1804-1824
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Up from Serfdom: My Childhood and Youth in Russia, 1804-1824
“A rare and powerful document. Nikitenko’s memoir should take its place next to the very best ex-slave narratives and those of untouchables in India.â€Â—James C. Scott
“An important historical account that reveals a great deal about the realities of serfdom.â€Â—Juliet Wittman, Washington Post Book World
“One of the best surviving accounts of Russian serfdom.â€Â—Blake Eskin, Lingua Franca
Aleksandr Nikitenko, born into Russian serfdom in 1804, almost miraculously gained his freedom as a young man, thirty-seven years before serfdom was abolished in the Russian Empire. His compelling autobiography--here translated into English for the first time—is one of the very few ever written by a former serf. Nikitenko describes the tragedy, despair, unpredictability, and astounding luck of his youth, bringing to life as never before the experience of a serf in nineteenth-century Russia.