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 The material basis used for the analysis of chosen topics consists of historical documents, collections of documents, as well as scholarly studies and monographs.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.

3-13

Authors: Feruza J. Tadjieva

In this article, the occurrence and specific aspects of slavery in Khiva Khanate and the essence of slavery, and its role in social and economic life are shown. The information is given based on archival documents and sources about the strong community relations in Central Asia from ancient times and the fact that slavery relations were not at their classical level but patriarchal slavery due to the long preservation of these relations. The sources of slavery are identified in the article and the main three factors that caused slavery. Data from Russian and foreign sources and domestic sources are examined to provide information on slave markets and slave prices. The role and differences of slaves belonging to such nationalities as Russian, Kazakh, Kalmyk, Iranian, Afghan, and Azari Turks in social life are mentioned. The issue of slavery in the Khiva Khanate is one of the least studied pages of the history of not only Khorezm but also Uzbekistan. There is no conclusive research on this topic. From this point of view, the issue of studying and researching this topic is of great importance in the science of history today. One of the most important aspects of the issue of slavery in the Khiva Khanate is the question of the price of slaves brought for sale from different regions. In this article, the question of the price of slaves is analyzed based on information from written sources. During the analysis of the sources of slavery in the Khiva Khanate, the issue of the nature of slavery and its place in social and economic life was scientifically analyzed and conclusions were drawn. At the same time, based on the content and essence of the article, issues of the influence of the ethnic and social origin of slaves on their prices and attitude towards slaves in Khiva Khanate were scientifically analyzed.

57-69

Authors: Artyom Yu. Peretyatko

This article analyzes how Caucasian women were represented in the record-keeping narrative of the Russian Empire in 1792–1800. The principal source relied on in the preparation of this paper is ‘The Circassian Slave Narratives’ by A.A. Cherkasov, a collection of documents on runaways from Circassia to the Russian Empire. Most of the documents under analysis were created by Russian officers (often little-educated Black Sea Cossacks) seeking to describe to their superiors cases of mountain people crossing over to the Russian side of the border. Thus, we are talking here about spontaneous testimonies, meaning the officials had not designed to describe the traditional status of women in Caucasian society. A key focus is on the lexical representation of Caucasian women in the collection’s documents spanning the period 1792–1800. Caucasian women tend to be lexically objectivized and act as an appendix to men (e.g., the border being crossed by “a mountaineer accompanied by a woman”, rather than by “a mountaineer and a mountaineeress”; the willingness to enter Russian allegiance being articulated by a male for his entire family). In a similar way are objectivized children and servants. Most mountaineeresses’ names are not even mentioned – she is just an unnamed wife of a named mountaineer. This was not the case only in one document. In the documents, Caucasian women tend to be objectivized and are not represented as a person capable of independent action. As a rule, she crosses the border in company with her father, husband, or master. An exception is widows, although these cases actually go back to the early 1800s, when the border was sometimes crossed by families headed by widows; it is with the widows that the Russian officers would communicate, not their sons (some of whom were already adults and even had children of their own). During that time, there occurs a change in the lexical representation of Caucasian women – we now come across more of them named, with one case even including a description of a woman’s physical appearance.

86-94

Authors: Anatolii V. Honcharenko

The article is devoted to the analysis of the system of punishment of slaves in the Caucasus during the second half of the XVIII – first half of the XIX centuries. The collection of documents of the State Archive of the Krasnodar Krai, published by A.A. Cherkasov, as well as memoir sources (memoirs of F.F. Tornau, Ed. Spencer, Ad. Berger, etc.) were used as sources. The methodological basis was the content analysis method, historical-system, historical-genetic and historical-semiotic methods, synthesis, as well as mathematical/statistical method. The highlanders had three categories of slaves: unautas – the personal property of the owner, pshitli – serfs, ogi – financially dependent. Punishments were applied to the first two categories. The system of punishment included a wide list of penalties, which consisted of physical violence, namely: murder, mutilation, beatings, starvation, detention in a pit. The most common punishment was beatings, the severity of which depended on the severity of the offense. Murder was a rare punishment that was used for serious violations, in particular when using or attempting to use any violence against the owner, his relatives or guests, as well as (in extreme cases) to intimidate Russian prisoners of war slaves and captured Russian deserters-slaves. Even theft and escape were not punished by murder, although they brought a loss to the owner. Mutilation as a form of punishment was usually applied to slaves who committed theft, but it was rarely practiced, since it significantly reduced the price of a slave. Keeping slaves in a pit as a form of punishment was used for prisoners of war or deserters of the Russian army during escape attempts (in anticipation of ransom) or in cases of insubordination (along with beatings). Starvation as a punishment was usually applied to escaped or obstinate slaves and was combined with the above punishment – holding in a pit. They also practiced selling for hard work or using for hard labor.

97-102

Authors: Sergei L. Dudarev, Vladimir R. Erlikh

The article is dedicated to the memory of a scientist with wide international fame, a major organizer of science, archaeologist and historian, professor at Oxford University Gocha Tsetskhladze. A native of Georgia, G. Tsetskhladze was educated in Soviet times at the University of Kharkov (Ukrainian SSR), and then studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1988, among the best Soviet graduate students, he was sent to the University of Oxford (Great Britain), where he subsequently defended his dissertation for the degree of DPhil in Classical Archeology on the topic “Cultural History of Colchis (6th–2nd Centuries BC)” under the guidance of Sir John Boardman. He worked at the universities of London, Melbourne, Oxford, taught as a visiting professor at the universities of Copenhagen, British Columbia (Vancouver), Pennsylvania, Texas, Chicago, Tbilisi, Moscow (RSHU). He made presentations at various scientific European and world conferences and congresses, advised applicants for scientific degrees. Possessing wide competence and scientific authority, G.R. Tsetskhladze was a member of the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals, including “Slavery: theory and practice”, the organizing committees of the conference, etc. He worked constantly as a field archaeologist, taking part in excavations of ancient monuments in Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, was the director of an archaeological expedition in Pessinunte (Turkey). He was the organizer of important scientific platforms for discussing materials and problems of antiquity for many scientists of the world – the journal “Ancient West & East”, as well as the International Congress on Black Sea Antiquties (Pontic Congress). Their main task is to explore the ancient civilization in its contact with the barbarian periphery in the east and west of the ecumene – from Gibraltar to Phasis. The journal and the congress are very representative both geographically and scientifically, bringing together the most competent experts in the field of antiquity from around the world, which is the best memory of the ascetic activity of the deceased G.R. Tsetskhladze.

6-13

Authors: Evgeniуa V. Kravtsova

The presented article aims to open a little-studied page in the history of Ancient Rus – the phenomenon of slavery and the slave trade in the Belarusian lands in the X−XIII centuries, in an inseparable context from the general Russian trends of socio-economic and political development. On the basis of the materials studied, the study provides a characteristic of the historiographic base corresponding to the stated problem. An article by I.M. Krasnoperov, found in the journal of the Ministry of Education, played a key role in the study «Slavery and the Slave Trade in Ancient Belarus», published in 1907 and is in essence the only scientific study that raised the issue of slavery on the example of a specific region within the framework of the Old Russian state. When analyzing the available information, gaps were identified, including those associated with sources that may become relevant for further comprehensive study and replenishment by historians. In addition, the author made attempts to trace the transformation of such concepts as servant, servant, slave and how they were perceived by contemporaries, as well as to give an answer to the question of why and in what situations sometimes these concepts could be equated to a common denominator. Attention is also paid to the value of owning «human goods» among representatives of the nobility (princes and their entourage). In connection with this provision of the article, an emphasis is placed on the acts of famous princes (especially those of Polotsk) aimed at turning the population into servitude (the activities of Vseslav the Charodey, Gleb Minsky). For a more complete understanding of the level of slavery and the slave trade in the Belarusian lands of the X–XIII centuries, information about the large centers of these phenomena is presented, as well as a description of the main directions of the slave trade (west, east and south) and what contributed to this. As a result, it was concluded that princely strife played a significant role in the development of slaveholding in Ancient Belarus. Taken together, these phenomena provoked a decline and caused enormous damage to both the population and the unity of the state, which is noticeable in the position of the Russian lands in the XIII–XIV centuries.

26-34

Authors: Ivan A. Ermachkov

The article considers the Russian official correspondence on the return of Russian prisoners from the Khiva Khanate in 1839. As sources, the author used archival documents of the State Archives of the Orenburg Region (Orenburg, Russian Federation), namely case No. 4993 "The case of 80 Russian prisoners taken out of Khiva in 1839". This case contains correspondence about the return of Russian prisoners from the Khiva Khanate. The documents are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The work is structured using the basic principles of historicism, consistency and objectivity. The chronological method is of great importance in it, which made it possible to present the official Russian correspondence in chronological order. This, in turn, made it possible to draw attention to neighboring events, for example, to similar measures to detain the Khiva caravan in 1837. In conclusion, the author states that the undertaken measure of detention of the Khiva caravans by the Orenburg governor V.A. Perovsky for the second time bore fruit, and this time, it was returned to its homeland in 1837 and in 1839 a total of 105 Russian prisoners. The correspondence on this issue was conducted at all levels, from the commandant of the fortress to informing the Russian emperor, partly the reason for this was the letter of the Khiva khan, but a more weighty reason, in our opinion, was concern for the fate of Russian subjects.

42-53

Authors: Artyom Yu. Peretyatko, Maria A. Selezneva

The article focuses on the first artistic experience of comprehending the issue of female sexual slavery in specific Don cossack literature, particularly in the store «Bulavin’s grave sin» published in 1884. Being compared with the status of the Don social thought, the story shows that N.I. Krasnov’s ideas of sexual slavery reflects the other Don author’s vision. On the one hand, the gravity of classical slavery and serfdom was underestimated in Don historiography (except for P.P. Sakharov); on the other hand, sympathy for women and a call for defending their rights are typical for many Don texts of the late 19th and the early 20th century. Therefore, a N.I. Krasnov’s philippic pathos is aimed not at classical female sexual slavery, but at any form of women’s subordination. A Turkish’s harem into a narrative is described as a more convenient place for a heroine than the house where she lives with her legal husband. Krasnov defines the status of free women on the Don in 17th century as «slave subordination», and he also shows that the proud and freedom-loving main heroine does not belong neither in Turkish word, nor in Russian one. Krasnov has shown, even though in slightly naïve form, immorality of female objectivization and depriving women of their right for feelings. The Krasnov’s story deserves attention as the first work of literature about sexual slavery and also as an original reaction to this slavery from the liberal author who has been in times of serfdom and who was quite tolerant to it.

58-65

Authors: Vladimir P. Trut

The review analyzes the collection of documents "Circassian slave narratives". Special attention is paid to the consideration of the scientific article of the author-compiler of the collection A.A. Cherkasov, which precedes its main content. The content of this collection of documents is comprehensively characterized, the important, interesting, diverse source materials presented in it are analyzed, the vast majority of which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The origin and main content of the documents included in the collection are characterized, the most important and interesting of them are considered. The scientific relevance and significance of the documents presented in the collection for further research on the problems of Russian-Circassian relations during the Caucasian War, the socio-economic development of Circassian society is determined.

3-3

Authors: Aleksandr A. Cherkasov

The report describes the establishment of the First International competition for the best research work among scientific and pedagogical staff “Slavery in the past and present”. The organizers were East European Historical Society, International Network Center for Fundamental and Applied Research (Washington, USA), and also KAD International (Effiduase-Koforidua, Eastern Region, Ghana). On December 20, 2020, the competition committee summed up the results of the competition and called the best 5 competitive works from the following countries: USA, Russia, Slovakia, Ghana.

19-36

Authors: Michal Šmigeľ

In the study we attempt to examine the changing manifestations of the Circassian slave trade in the 13th–19th centuries with the focus mainly on women as the "live goods". Caucasian women, and especially the Circassian women, represented a "special export items" in the countries of the (Eastern) Mediterranean. Their beauty has been recognized and valued for centuries by almost all travellers and discoverers of the Caucasus, and they were in great demand in the slave markets of the Middle East. These questions are examined in the study: since and to what extent the Circassians participated in the slave trade, what led to the practice of this kind of trade, how it was perceived by the objects of the trade themselves, and what were the consequences of the female slave trade. The topicality of research theme lies in its focus on the female element of the slave trade. The heuristics of the study consist of recently published documents and scientific publications which are the outcomes of the Russian and European research. Materials of personal character were also an important source of information (diaries, travelogues and publications of travellers, emissaries and researchers of the Caucasus from the 16th–19th century, especially from the period of the Caucasus War /1817–1864/). The methodological basis of the research consists of the principles of objectivity and historicism, a critical approach to the historical sources, analysis of the summary of facts and also monitoring of the studied phenomena in the context of their development and historical situation. An interdisciplinary approach was also used in studying the issue. The author concludes that since the 13th century the Circassians have adopted the mechanisms of the Black Sea slave trade and later they have penetrated the markets of the Black Sea-Mediterranean slave trade. The slave trade (and especially female slave trade) gained the largest scale in the North Caucasus in the 18th century. It was caused by the increased demand for "live goods" in the Eastern markets, especially in the Ottoman Empire. Circassian women were highly valued. Paradoxically, many Caucasian women humbly accepted the possibility of being sold into slavery. Under the Ottomans, concubinage became such a widespread phenomenon that it was even considered a kind of "sociocultural lift", a way out of poverty, a way of getting out of poor living conditions in the homeland. The slave trade in the Caucasus had negative consequences for highland societies and caused great demographic, economic, cultural and moral damage.

50-62

Authors: Artyom Yu. Peretyatko

The paper is dedicated to the problem of perception, by the Don Cossacks of 19th-beginning of 20th century, of serfdom on the territory of the Don Host. By this time traditional images of Cossack as a defender of Russian land (i.e., the denizens of this land) and/or natural advocate of democracy had already formed. Understandably, the fact of spreading of, at first, slavery, and later serfdom among Cossacks did not correspond in any way with such images, and this contradiction even moved one of the first professional Don historians, P.P. Sakharov, to write a special research dedicated to «white slavery» (his original term) on Don. However, analyzing the works of other Don authors on serfdom in the Don Host, we came to conclusion, that for Cossacks was common not the admittance of responsibility for subjugating part of Russian peasants, but, on the contrary, an idealization of the corresponding chapters of Cossack past. The majority of authors either at all did not evaluate the existence of serfdom on Don, or emphasized its relative easiness. Eventually this tendency built up, culminating in manifestation of a concept, according to which peasants consciously fled for Don to become dependents of Don officials, who established them good conditions. And even if separate instances of master’s cruelty were admitted, they were attributed to a narrow circle of Don’s high nobility, detached from the Cossack bulk. Thereby the example of Don authors’ perception of «white slavery» serves an apt illustration of how masters of dependent populace and their descendants vindicate themselves. Within the logical boundaries of most works we considered, former serfs in general mass did not suffer from their standing. And if individual authors stated the falsity of such perception, their works shortly after appearing were subjected to criticism.

74-86

Authors: Konstantin V. Taran

The article deals with the complex process of dialogue between the Russian Empire and the peoples of the Caucasus in the fight against the slave trade in the first half of the XIX century. There were used as materials the documents of the state archive of the Krasnodar Krai (Krasnodar, Russian Federation), as well as several volumes of the published collection of documents “Acts of the Caucasian Archeographic Commission”, the collection of documents of the Raevsky archive, the latest collection of documents “Circassian slave narratives” and others. Various materials of personal origin are of great importance in the research: diaries and memoirs of travelers, scouts and emissaries. The specialized military literature was also used. The work was widely used the descriptive and chronological methods, which allowed to detail the picture of the Russian administration's opposition to the slave trade of the Caucasian tribes and to consider the events in chronological order. In conclusion, we would like to note that during the entire Caucasian war, the Russian Empire tried to prevent the slave trade on the territory of the North-Western Caucasus. Already in the early XIX century, the cruising by Russian military vessels of the Black sea coast was organized. The effectiveness of Russian warships in the fight against smuggling and the slave trade was low, due to the insignificance of the Black sea squadron. In the second half of the 1830s, the Russian government began to create fortifications of the Black sea coastline, whose activities were aimed at suppressing the slave trade. However, even this measure, despite a number of positive aspects (the flight of slaves to the Russian fortresses and a significant peaceful dialogue between the Russians and the highlanders), could not end the slave trade. As a result, the raids of the mountaineers with the aim of capturing “live goods” continued in the North-Western Caucasus until 1864, up to muhajirism.

96-99

Authors: Yulia M. Lysenko

The article briefly describes the activities of the famous scientist, specialist in the medieval history of Dagestan Elena Ivanovna Inozemtseva. The author dwells in detail on her scientific and organizational activities, her contribution to the study of the institute of slavery in Dagestan, and Russian-Dagestan relations. Inozemtseva is the author of more than 100 scientific works that have been widely recognized by specialists and the scientific community and have become a significant contribution of the scientist to historical science.

4-20

Authors: Elena I. Inozemtseva

The author of the article attempts to review the existence of slavery in the late medieval period through the prism of the customary law and fundamental monotheistic religions, to cover forms of disempowerment, moral abuse and material deprivation, which characterize the socio-legal status of one of the categories of dependent population in the feudal Dagestan and adjacent domains of the Northeast Caucasus, carrying the social content of the notion “slave”.

30-35

Authors: Nikita S. Stepanenko

The author of the article, based on the documents revealed by him in the state archive of the Krasnodar Territory, cites data on the presence of runaway Cossacks and peasants in the mountains of the Northwest Caucasus in the middle of the 19th century, who, together with the mountaineers, were engaged in the capture and trafficking of people who were the same Russians, like them. The author concludes that many fugitives and deserters (Cossacks and peasants) who owned slaves in the mountains were criminals driven by criminal motives. Moreover, certain circumstances (ethnic, country, religious affiliation and kinship, etc.) were completely not taken into account by them.