Russian Class Dichotomy

Russian class differences and a lack of social mobility had permeated Russia by the late 19th century. The lack of a strong middle class created a dichotomy between extreme poverty and extreme wealth. The institution of serfdom, similar to that of the Feudal Era, lasted far longer than it had in most countries globally until the reign of Alexander II when he gave the imperial command that ended serfdom and freed 22.5 million people in 1861. The Edict of Emancipation was written not too long before Ilya Yefimovich Repin, the Ukrainian realist painter, painted his iconic Barge Haulers on the Volga. While the Russian author Dostoevsky would later comment: “Not one of [the barge haulers] shouts to the viewer from the painting: “Look how miserable I am and how great a debt you owe to your people!” [...]and by no means are they thinking about their social condition (Parker, 26).” In contrast the painting itself is a clear social commentary and this grand oil on canvas is rooted in the growing discontent in pre-reform Russia in both general and artist societies. In addition to the shock Russia was enduring over the loss of serfdom, many artists’

There was also Ilka “the sailor (the first in the line-up),” the young man who is evidently not accustomed to the harness yet is Larka, there is a tall Greek man and even a soldier in boots. Each of the eleven haulers were intended to be a generalization of the work force of pre-reform Russia. The barge haulers or burlaks were all envisioned to be individuals, the “strap provides the unifying element of their common labor (Parker, 24).” Initially, Repin had planned to paint this with images of “elegant Sunday picnickers (Valkenier, 86),” however his associate Vasilev “found this juxtaposition of light and dark, wealth and poverty, leisure and toil, much too explicit (Valkenier, 86),” and Repin yielded and put his focus on the