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7/1/2025, 10:34:13 AM
>Finally, it is important to see the eastern slave trade in its proper context. To think of the Muscovites and Poles as nothing more than victims of the Tatars is to radically distort the truth. Muscovy, in particular, was frequently complicit, and the institution of slavery flourished for many years within its borders. This was a matter of special significance when it comes to explaining how it was possible for Finns to find their way to the Crimean market, for the truth is that they were mostly seized and sent there by Russians. The northern town of Novgorod – known during the middle ages as Novgorod the Great in deference to its wealth and power – was a key centre of the slave trade in this region, and the men of Novgorod are known to have mounted numerous raids into Karelia with the explicit purpose of capturing exotic Finnish children. Prisoners taken in this region were so valuable, indeed, that after the incorporation of the Khanate of Astrakhan into the growing Muscovite empire, the son of its former khan was permitted to lead two expeditions through Muscovy to launch raids in Karelia (1555 and 1577), while Shah Abbas of Persia sent delegations that managed to acquire three Finnish girls in Moscow and 30 more in Kazan.
>Life for forest Finns. This 1893 oil painting by Eero Jarnefelt is a late representation of an age-old way of life that had probably changed little since the days that Tatars from Astrakhan travelled half way across west Asia to raid the country for blonde children.
>Life for forest Finns. This 1893 oil painting by Eero Jarnefelt is a late representation of an age-old way of life that had probably changed little since the days that Tatars from Astrakhan travelled half way across west Asia to raid the country for blonde children.
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