In the nineteenth century, Russia was a European power but in many ways it was trapped in the past. Twenty-two million Russians were serfs, still owned by aristocratic landlords as they had been ...

He advocates serfdom and says that it was the main "staple" holding Russia together in the 19th century. He subsequently justifies his argument by saying that serfdom is beneficial for the serfs.

The emancipation of the serfs in Russia in 1861 was part of a series of liberal reforms that aimed to modernise that vast country and usher in an industrial age. But that progressive political ...