Author: Pozen, M. P.
Title: Bumagi Po Krestianskomu Delu (Papers on the Abolition of Serfdom)
Description: Dresde (Dresden): Bruno Wienecke, 1864. Hardcover. First edition; 8 1/2 x 5 1/2; pp. [7], VI-XX, [2], 1-331, [3]; rebound in late 19th century (?), pebbled black cloth over boards; gilt title in English to spine; a few punctures from insect damage on back board along spine; minor spotting to cloth; mild to moderate foxing to pages; very good- condition. Mikhail Pavlovich Pozen (1798 - 1871) was a decorated Russian statesman and a large landowner, who served at the Ministry of Public Education, the Ministry of State Domains, and the Ministry of War. He supervised and co-crafted the Code of Military Laws at the time. He was also on Alexander II's last Secret Committee and presented the Tzar with detailed plans for the abolition of serfdom. According to those plans, landowners would retain ownership of peasants’ allotment lands and, although peasants would be denied the right to redemption, the latter would be granted use of the lands in return for mandatory, obligatory services. Despite that, he held a conservative position and was said to had been opposed to the reform. Pozen wrote the current book as a direct rebuttal to those anti-reform allegations. In it he included official papers, notes, correspondence, journal articles, etc. including material from his own archives and spanning the period of 1856 until 1864, in order to prove that, in his own words: "I was forced to publish them, because of lies and slander, with which my enemies had tried to overshadow my part in the great and holy to all Russian people affair - the abolition of serfdom. Ill.: 0. 2.

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