… rich landowners were given a free reign to treat their workers as they wished. Many were cruel masters who operated in the knowledge that the peasants had little choice but to carry on in their employ, or leave and suffer a potentially worse fate. __ Serfdom in the 14th Century

Sometimes the clock runs backward, against conventional wisdom. A barbaric past, the world of serfs and lords, comes back to life as if it had never been away.



Revival of Feudalism, the Spirit of the Serf Re-Emerges

. “The signs of feudalism with its monarchical spirit, with the revelry of the bosses of all levels and the conversion of the rest of the population into a mass of individuals reduced to the lowest status already were visible a long time ago.” __ Feudalism Victorious

It began in earnest in the 13th century, alongside the devastation that flowed in the wake of the Golden Horde.

The timeline of Russian serfdom stretches for an incredible 800 years and in the main, was the backdrop for unspeakable hardship and suffering. … With many thousands of Russian peasants becoming homeless, those that survived were forced to settle on the land of wealthy Russian landowners and the feudal system began to take hold. __ http://historyofrussia.org/russian-serfdom/

Russian serfs were officially emancipated in 1861, but it took several decades for most of the vestiges of serfdom to fade. With the Bolshevik Revolution and the USSR, most observers believed that Russia had eradicated serfdom forever.

But somehow the lords had transformed into “high party officials,” and the peasants were transformed into factory workers. The elites drew their privileges from government and party positions and associates. The serfs were expected to serf on in silence.

With the fall of the communists, many had hoped that a new era of rule of law and social mobility might be created — perhaps not all at once, but over time. But the “spirit of the serf” continued to reside in the souls of most Russians still dwelling inside the tragic nation, devastated by over 70 years of tragic misallocation of effort and resources.

And little by little, the world of feudal lords and serfs has re-emerged.

“But now feudalism has won out also in people’s souls. Whether this will last a long time or not is uncertain, but for the time being it is the case.” Ordinary Russians sees themselves as fit only to be ordered about and those “in the upper classes” as their appropriate “masters.” They don’t have to be told this again and again, Shelin says. The Russian people “know it themselves,” and they in general accept what the masters decide without question. “The tsar decides with whom to fight and how to fight. That is now our affair,” they feel. “And the deaths of soldiers is something entirely different than the deaths of ordinary people. And in fact, the two must not be compared.” __ http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.nl/2015/12/putins-russia-on-way-to-complete-and.html

Russia has experienced several significant out-migrations, that have significantly changed the genomic complement of the Russian core.

A sizable wave of ethnic Russians emigrated in the wake of the October Revolution of 1917 and Civil War of 1917-1922. They became known collectively as the White émigrés. This emigration is also referred to as the “first wave”, even though previous emigrations had taken place, as it was comprised the first emigrants to have left in the wake of the communist revolution, and because it exhibited a heavily political character. A smaller group of Russians, often referred to by Russians as the “second wave” of Russian emigration, left during World War II. They were refugees, Soviet POWs, eastern workers, or surviving veterans of the Russian Liberation Army and other anti-communist armed units who had served under the German command and evaded forced repatriation. In the immediate postwar period, the largest Russian communities in the emigration settled in Germany, Canada, the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia. At the beginning of the 1990s, Russia experienced one of the most dramatic periods in its history; as a result, the former administrative Russian republic of the Soviet Union became a separate sovereign state. The collapse of the USSR resulted in an upsurge of international migrations to Russia, and the overwhelming number of them involve population movements between Russia and other post-Soviet states.[2] Israel and Germany received the largest shares of Russian-speaking immigrants (Israel, predominantly Jews; Germany, predominantly ethnic Germans and Jews) in the 1990s, because of incentives provided by the governments of both countries. __ Russian Diaspora Wikipedia

A “fourth wave” of emigration from Russia began in 2012, accelerated throughout 2014, and continues today. Over the past century, Russia has lost the best of its best to out-migration. Putin’s policies promise to promote the process to the furthest limit.

What Putin Is Doing to Russia’s Future

“It is well known that only the upsurge in military production is keeping Russian industry afloat, even while it wastes precious resources needed for moving the economy forward,” he wrote. …. The only certainty in the Russian economy these days appears to be that ordinary Russians will continue to suffer. One of the most popular investment vehicles in the country today is a derivative tied to the rate of inflation that rises in value as the already punishing inflation rate increases. __ Putin’s Outrage

Note that at the same time that Putin bemoans the collapse of the USSR, he commits his government to the same policies that led to that collapse. Not an ounce of legitimate strategy in the man’s entire body — only strained bundles of tactics combined with an fanatical — but very common — spirit of impulse and grievance.

The situation in Russia is not just bad, but downright ugly. The main reason for the poor state of the Russian economy is the lack of an effective system for protecting property rights. The gradual dismantling of state institutions led first to a decline in investments, then to a sharp drop beginning in 2013, and finally to massive capital flight, with economic growth slowing to a halt by mid-2014. __ http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/economy-slows-amid-investment-woes/552348.html

In other words, Putin has taken Russia back down the road to serfdom, with Putin himself as tsar and his close cronies as lords. And clearly, “Lords are meant to lord, and serfs are meant to serf.”

Kremlin officials are putting a brave and bluff face on their hopeless predicament. They claim they are ready to face oil prices near $40 bbl “for the next seven years.” Seven years? Not likely.

Russia has already been forced to sell China one of its most advanced military weapons system. This should tell you more about Russia’s strategic geopolitical situation than any number of official Kremlin pronouncements, Russian troll factory productions, or breathless Russophilic echo-choirs. Just as it has done so many times in the past, China will reverse engineer the SU-35 and sell the copy on world markets in competition with Russia… Russia is rapidly becoming China’s bitch.

… China has become a major trading partner of Russia. As a result Chinese businesses with Russian dealings have been advised by their government to use the rubles they are paid for goods to buy Russian assets, which are finding far fewer other foreign buyers because of the Russian economic crises. This Chinese aid comes with strings, mainly in terms of Russia agreeing to sell more military tech (design and manufacturing methods) to China. __ Russia Counting the losses

But to a serf, does it really matter who the lord happens to be? Having revived the “inner serf” within the souls of so many Russians, the serfs can continue to serf under Chinese overlords — as they once did under Mongolian / Tatar masters.

As for the “little serfer girls,” they have been sold as trade goods for centuries, and the trade continues under Putin.

Until Russian women are liberated from the declining former empire, they will never be able to fulfill their potential as women and mothers. Good Russian men are almost impossible to find.

__ https://alfinnextlevel.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/can-russian-women-be-saved/

The out-smuggling of Russian serfer girls to be sold into sexual slavery, is too profitable for the Kremlin lords to curtail.

Putin’s Kremlin friends continue to demonstrate that Russian girls — and the Russian people still under their control — can be “slaved.” But can they be “saved?”

Businesspeople in Russia have long complained that Russian officials abuse such inspections to extract bribes, and Kremlin critics accuse Putin of presiding over an economy built to benefit insiders with connections among the political elite.

__ Putin Part of Problem

Corruption at the top of the Ministry of Justice has been exposed to all the world. Putin ignores the bloody stain, and Russian serfs collectively let out a big yawn — then pour another glass of cheap vodka.

… restoring the system for protecting property rights and improving the business climate in Russia requires the political willpower to implement major political reforms, starting with the establishment of an independent judiciary and finishing with allowing the media to operate independently and launching a full-scale fight against corruption. If the Russian authorities make real moves in that direction, the economy will snap back. If they don’t, capital flight will persist and the economy will continue to stagnate. __ Can Russia be Saved?

The key to saving little serfer girls for fulfilling lives as women, mothers, and wives, is to emancipate them from the barbarous environment of slavery, trafficking, and hopelessness in which they have become enmeshed — by forces both outside and inside themselves.

Immigration policies in Europe and the Anglosphere should be changed to block low-IQ, culturally hostile newcomers — and to prioritise the inflow of intelligent young women of child-bearing age. This would help correct the dysgenic decline taking place in western countries, and it would allow the emancipation of little serfer girls to live and love in liberty.

More:

Russia, most startlingly, has fallen from being just over a $2 trillion economy in 2013 to a $1.2 trillion economy in 2015 (by contrast, Texas had a GDP of just over $1.72 trillion in 2015). Equally, Brazil has fallen from being just under a $2.4 trillion economy in 2013 to slightly larger than Texas in 2015 at $1.8 trillion in 2015. __ Da BRICS dey Crumbling

Russia’s retreat to serfdom was predicted by the writers of this blog back in 2004 (before the Al Fin blogs), when it became clear that Putin was turning away from a “rule of law” policy, back to a corrupt top-down feudalism. Bad governments arise from dysfunctional populations. Sometimes they can’t help it. Sometimes they can, but won’t.

Tatarstan is breaking away, which may signal the beginning of the end of empire. Tuva is likewise moving away from the centre. “Ethnic Russian” serfs are crowding into the cities of western Russia, while Siberia and the Far East are losing their Russian character.

NATO is not going anywhere

Russia’s new budget brings Russia closer to doom

The fatal disease lives in the heart of Russians — that is what Putin should be dealing with, not Syria-Georgia-Ukraine-Moldova-Kazakhstan-Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania-Turkey-Iran-Venezuela-Africa-Japan and all the other business of the tsar of the empire.

A serf has few prospects in life, with cheap spirits providing the greatest comfort, along with tobacco, heroin, and ultimately a cold death.