I naively considered that today is the only one holiday – St. Patrick’s Day. It turned out NOT. On March 17, 1861 in Russia, the last day of Maslenitsal, on Forgiveness Sunday, Alexander II published manifest to abolish slavery and it was publicly read in all churches all over Russia. I somehow remembered the year of abolishment from my school time, but of course, I forgot the date. There is almost no one talk about slavery in Russia, and nobody cares what I can’t tell about American South. It is a hot topic here and people talk about that with or without any reason. I met so many people who feel strongly guilty, even those whose relatives never even kept slaves. It is interesting, that slavery in Russia was canceled in the same year that the civil war in America started. At first I thought that maybe the war happened at first, then Alexander II decided, why should we trouble … let’s cancel it as well. But no, apparently, Russia abolished slavery first, and then a month later the Civil War started in America. In any case, Karl Marx & Co was actively watching everything what was going on, and noted that Russia and America were the last two from powerful countries, who abolished slavery.

Anyway, Happy St. Patrick’s Day and the abolition of Russian slavery to ya’ll!