Up from Serfdom: My Childhood and Youth in Russia, 1804-1824

“A rare and powerful document. Nikitenko’s memoir should take its place next to the very best ex-slave narratives and those of untouchables in India.”—James C. Scott

“An important historical account that reveals a great deal about the realities of serfdom.”—Juliet Wittman, Washington Post Book World

“One of the best surviving accounts of Russian serfdom.”—Blake Eskin, Lingua Franca

Aleksandr Nikitenko, born into Russian serfdom in 1804, almost miraculously gained his freedom as a young man, thirty-seven years before serfdom was abolished in the Russian Empire. His compelling autobiography--here translated into English for the first time—is one of the very few ever written by a former serf. Nikitenko describes the tragedy, despair, unpredictability, and astounding luck of his youth, bringing to life as never before the experience of a serf in nineteenth-century Russia.