Slavery: Theory and Practice

3-23

Authors: Michal Šmigeľ

The study focuses on the international aspects of the struggle against human enslavement, i.e. on the prohibition of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery in the transatlantic space in the context of the tangled events of the 19th century. The main attention is paid to the influence of abolitionist and missionary communities on public opinion. Other important issues analysed in the study are an international cooperation against the slave trade, economic changes in the transatlantic space, and the international politics of the period. The material basis used for the analysis of chosen topics consists of historical documents, collections of documents, as well as scholarly studies and monographs. General scientific methods, as well as specific research methods inherent to the historical discipline, were used in the research tasks. The struggle against slavery in the transatlantic space was analysed by author in the context of causal (cause-and-effect) relations between the world (naval) powers of the time – Great Britain, the United States, France, the Russian Empire. The partial events and conflicts were also analysed, as well as their influence on other countries and regions of the world. Finally, the author highlighted the main stages of the development of international cooperation aimed at combating the slave trade and slavery in the 19th century. The author concludes that although the driving force behind the struggle against slavery were humane motives, their realization on an international scale took place under the influence of economic factors and the needs of the “new imperialism” in the second half of the 19th century.

36-52

Authors: Artyom Yu. Peretyatko

The article is dedicated to the essay by S.N. Sevast'yanov “Ivan Vasil'evich Podurov”, describing the captivity of the Cossack officer in Middle Asia. This essay, reprinted in 1999, is assessed differently by different researchers: from “purely documentary narration” to a narrative with glaring mistakes that demonizes the “Kirgiz” (as Kazakhs were called in the Russian Empire’s tradition). Nevertheless, even though a number of authors turned to it in the 20th century (N. Zhetpisbai, T.M. Zhaplova and A.Zh. Saibulova, E.K. Sozina), none of them conducted a systematic analysis of this text. This article undertakes an attempt at such analysis, which is important for understanding how reliable in general are the descriptions of slavery in Middle Asia by the Russian pre-revolutionary amateur historians, especially by members of the Orenburg Scientific Archival Committee, of which S.N. Sevast'yanov was also a member and commanded authority. The article shows that, in his text, S.N. Sevast'yanov definitely relies on three categories of sources, none of which could be considered reliable: on the folk tales of the Orenburg Cossacks; on the stories of I.V. Chernov, who was born two years after the described events, but presumably heard about them from I.V. Podurov himself; on the manuscript of G.F. Gens, a contemporary of the events, Russian official and an amateur orientalist, who was extremely critical towards the “Kirgiz”. It is unknown whether S.N. Sevast'yanov was working with the originals of the documents about the capture of I.V. Podurov or provided them based on the manuscript of G.F. Gens. But in any case, we managed to find direct forgery in a document cited in the essay, form which information was excluded that negatively characterized Russian authorities. As a result, some data provided in the essay is based on unreliable sources, and the reliable sources are misrepresented either by the author of the essay or by those on whose descriptions of the events he was relying. Furthermore, by comparing the narrative of S.N. Sevast'yanov with archival documents it becomes evident that: 1) the image of I.V. Podurov is extremely heroized, for example, in the primary sources his heroic resistance against captors and his heavy wound are not mentioned; 2) the “Kirgiz”, on the contrary, are demonized, information presenting them from an ambiguous side was excluded (for example, the fact that they were capturing Russian officers not for ransom, but to set free the father of one of the captors); 3) nothing confirms the story reported by I.V. Chernov about the daughter of the “Kirgiz” khan falling in love with I.V. Podurov, and the image of this Muslim maiden is deprived both of any particular features (even name) and of any subjectivity. All this allows us to confidently say that the essay “Ivan Vasil'evich Podurov” does not document the events of 1820s, but translates the image of these events that formed among the Orenburg Cossacks by the end of the 19th century, which makes it a valuable source on the historical memory of the Orenburg Cossackdom.

63-74

Authors: Andrii E. Lebid

The article attempts to conceptualize the concept of «slavery» and its recurrences in the context of two stages of human rights legalization: national and international. The author notes a fairly broad semantic field of this concept, which includes practices similar to slavery: forced labour, forms of extreme labour exploitation, servitude, forced labour, compulsory labour, etc. The author analyses the formation of the semantic meaning of the concept of slavery in international human rights documents. It is argued that slavery has never been fully eradicated, although it has been condemned by the international community. The author outlines the main modern forms of slavery: bonded labour, debt slavery, child labour, human trafficking, forced marriage, and others. All these forms of slavery still exist in the modern world. The most vulnerable categories of the population suffer the most from it. It is noted that the international community has set an ambitious goal to eradicate child slavery by 2025, and by 2030 – everywhere on a global scale. This ambitious goal correlates with the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, hybrid confrontations, climate change and other global challenges impede the final elimination of all forms of slavery. All of this defines new opportunities and challenges for the international community in the fight against all manifestations of slavery and the prospects for overcoming it.

87-88

Authors: Aleksandr A. Cherkasov

On July 10, 2020, the annual international competition for the best research work “Slavery in the past and present” was established. The founders of the competition were the East European Historical Society, Cherkas Global University (Washington, USA), as well as KAD International (Effiduase-Koforidua, Eastern Region, Ghana). In 2021–2022, the 2nd and 3rd similar competitions were held, and on February 17, 2023, the 4th International Competition was announced. On December 2, 2023, on the international day for abolition of slavery, the expert commission of the competition summed up its work and selected the 5 best works. The winners represented countries such as the USA, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Slovakia and Uzbekistan. The works of the winners are published in the journal “Slavery: Theory and Practice” for 2023.