From the LinkedIn page of Volodymyr Kukharenko

Mar 21, 2023

Yes, slavery existed in other countries too. But the big difference is that in other countries the slaves were foreigners taken in wars, raids, and by trade, while in Moskovia they enslaved THEIR OWN people. That practice existed in Golden Horde and Moskovia, where all people were the property, some were just of a higher level than others.

Moskovia did not have “normal” feudalism like Europe or Japan, where vassals had much independence and sometimes were fighting each other, and the power of the supreme ruler was limited. Moskovites all surrendered to Khan or Tsar.

Formally serfdom was abolished only in 1861. But in reality, even in the Soviet era it still existed. Millions of people were taken to concentration camps and were used as slaves. Apart from that, do you know that villagers in USSR could not leave their place of residence and did not have passports until 1974! That was just 5 years before I was born, so my grandparents (and parents when they were kids) were practically serfs. In 1960ties my grandma worked not for money but for so-called “workdays”. They just recorded the number of days you worked and were giving you some basic goods. That was not much different from slavery.

In Ukraine slavery was not a cultural norm, but a suppression. In 17th century, every Ukrainian village controlled by Hetmanat (the government of those days) had schools, and slavery was gone centuries before that. But in 2nd half of 18th century Catherine 2nd closed all schools and introduced serfdom for Ukrainians. There were many bloody revolts against that, with the cruelest suppressions. But it has not become a cultural norm, Ukrainians always resisted it all the time, while Russians were sort of used to it.  I won’t list all revolts here, but there were many, with millions of victims. Ukrainian peasants did not want to give their land kolkhoz (state-owned farm), Russians did it much more easily, so millions of Ukrainians were starved to death in 1933. Ukrainians are cursing Stalin for all he has done, and Russians are still building monuments to him.

And this made a difference in 21st century. In 2013, when Ukrainian president Yanukovich ordered to beat students for protesting against turning from EU to Russia, the country exploded, and hundreds of thousands of people were on the streets next day. It was a pre-programmed centuries-old reaction of Ukrainian society on such oppression. In Russia beating people by police led to them being scared and unable to resist. That is also a pre-programmed unconscious reaction of society, a cultural tradition of submission.

So do not expect Russians to revolt or oppose massively. It won’t happen, and a few brave exceptions will not drive the masses. Like people, nations have their own patterns of behavior that are formed by the past and are triggered automatically even if you do not remember the events.