Nikolai Turgenieff, the Russian historian,
writing while the emancipation act was bearing its first fruits,
describes its workings and effects as observed by one intimately
connected with the serfs and the movement that resulted in their
freedom.
ANDREW D. WHITE
Close upon the end of the fifteenth century the Muscovite ideas of right
were subjected to the strong mind of Ivan the Great and compressed into
a code. Therein were embodied the best processes known to his land and
time: for discovering crime, torture and trial by battle; for punishing
crime, the knout and death.
But hidden in this tough mass was one law of greater import than others.
Thereby were all peasants forbidden to leave the lands they were then
tilling, except during the eight days before and after St. George's Day.
This provision sprang from Ivan's highest views of justice and broadest
views of political economy; the nobles received it with plaudits, which
have found echoes even in these days; the peasants received it with no
murmurs which history has found any trouble in drowning.
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