Debates around animal rights in 19th-century Russia?

[David Powelstock]

And this essay by Robin Feuer Miller might be of interest:

 http://bit.ly/erC8A1 <http://bit.ly/erC8A1>



David Powelstock
Assoc. Prof. of Russian and Comparative Literature
Chair, Comparative Literature
Brandeis University



On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 1:35 PM, William Nickell <bnickell at ucsc.edu> wrote:

> Dear Amanda,
>
> Your student may be interested in reading Tolstoy's Kholstomer (Strider),
> which he wrote in 1863, just after the emancipation, though it was not
> published until later (1886).
>
> Bill Nickell
>
>
> On Apr 20, 2011, at 10:15 AM, Amanda Ewington wrote:
>
> > A student of mine had an interesting question about debates on animal
> rights
> > in 19th-century Russia.
> >
> > Does anyone out there have any information about this?
> >
> > Here's the question:
> >
> > "I had a brief contextual question about Russian culture and history. As
> we
> > have seen throughout War and Peace, there have been continual links
> between
> > humanity and some perceived connection with animal physiognomy. In the
> > opening lines of part four, Tolstoy makes this connection more explicit
> as he
> > describes: "When a man sees a dying animal, horror comes over him: that
> > which he himself is, his essence, is obviously being annihilated before
> his
> > eyes--is ceasing to be. But when the dying one is a person, and a beloved
> > person, then, besides a horror at the annihilation of life, there is a
> feeling of
> > severance and a spiritual wound which, like a physical wound, sometimes
> kills
> > and sometimes heals, but always hurts and fears any external, irritating
> > touch." (1075). While Tolstoy does seem to draw a distinction between
> harm
> > to an animal and to a human, he makes a connection explicit and blurs the
> > boundaries between the empathy for man and empathy for animals. In
> > England, leading up to the abolition of Slavery in 1833, there were
> concerted
> > efforts on the part of animal-rights activists to analogize the
> emancipation of
> > slaves with the necessity for protections against animal cruelty. Is
> there any
> > sort of similar movement or debate in Russia surrounding the end of
> serfdom
> > and a correlation with Tolstoy's seeming call for animal-rights?"
> >
> > Thank you!
> >
> > Amanda Ewington
> > (Davidson College)
> >
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