The Way Things Were

The Way Things Were is a collection of stories and novellas by Ukrainian writer Marko Vovchok (Maria Alexandrona Vilinskaya-Markevich) focused around the lives of Russian and Ukrainian serfs during the last decade of slavery in the Russian Empire. These works were instrumental to the abolitionist movement, whose members - writers, poets, artists, and political activists - eventually succeeded in bringing about the Emancipation reform of 1861 and ending six centuries of serfdom. Marko Vovcho...