Dublin Core
Title
For Water
Subject
Russian Peasantry and Former Serfs
Description
The photograph shown here is of a shack-like building in a village outside of Moscow called Bakshandino. Someone can be seen carrying water on their shoulder. This person looks to be a pre-teen girl, but it is difficult to be sure due to the quality of the image. Based on the title of this photograph, it can be assumed that the water is the reason this person came here. It is likely that this person had to, on multiple occasions, walk to and from here to fetch water so that others in her village would have water.
The photo was taken a couple decades following the emancipation of serfs throughout Russia in 1861. While this meant that a large population of Russians were no longer bonded, they were kept in a peasantry status afterwards by means of taxes and other economic disadvantages that made survival more difficult than it had been before, when they were bonded. The contrast between wealth distribution among former serfs and other members of Russian society is evident by observation: Peasants often stayed in and used shacks like these in their lives, while those on the other side of the line had elaborate, beautiful and comfortable buildings for homes.
Ultimately, this photograph is one bit of insight into why Russian peasantry would come to align themselves with the ideology of Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto, though written for another nation and another society, points out the divide of a capitalist economy as a whole “into two great classes directly facing each other”. This same divide is evident when this photograph is taken in contrast to images of Russian landlords’ homes, which were much cozier and more expensive in comparison. It is this same disparity that was the basis for Marx’s writing, for Vladimir Lenin’s call to action and ultimately for the great revolution of 1917. Thus, in the modern understanding of Russian history, a picture of a peasant carrying water from a shack holds so much more significance than it may have had when the photograph was taken.
The photo was taken a couple decades following the emancipation of serfs throughout Russia in 1861. While this meant that a large population of Russians were no longer bonded, they were kept in a peasantry status afterwards by means of taxes and other economic disadvantages that made survival more difficult than it had been before, when they were bonded. The contrast between wealth distribution among former serfs and other members of Russian society is evident by observation: Peasants often stayed in and used shacks like these in their lives, while those on the other side of the line had elaborate, beautiful and comfortable buildings for homes.
Ultimately, this photograph is one bit of insight into why Russian peasantry would come to align themselves with the ideology of Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto, though written for another nation and another society, points out the divide of a capitalist economy as a whole “into two great classes directly facing each other”. This same divide is evident when this photograph is taken in contrast to images of Russian landlords’ homes, which were much cozier and more expensive in comparison. It is this same disparity that was the basis for Marx’s writing, for Vladimir Lenin’s call to action and ultimately for the great revolution of 1917. Thus, in the modern understanding of Russian history, a picture of a peasant carrying water from a shack holds so much more significance than it may have had when the photograph was taken.
Creator
William Carrick
Source
MAMM / MDF
https://russiainphoto.ru/sources/1/
https://russiainphoto.ru/sources/1/
Date
1870-1878
Contributor
Christopher Hamrick
Relation
https://russiainphoto.ru
Format
JPEG image