Page:Historical paintings of the Slavic nations by Alfons Mucha (1921).pdf/22



battle to Thor. Then the German yoke falls on the Slavs, and with it subjugation, misery, and ruin. Art is forced to flee. Below the artistengraver seeks to find inspiration in himself and to resurrect the old Slav aspiration and feeling.

N FEBRUARY, 1861, personal liberty became the possession of the Russian people. By a manifesto of the Tzar, serfdom was abolished throughout the Russian realm. The mužik as peasant had previously been a subject of his noble proprietor, who had every right to his time, labour, and person. In return for all of this, the poor mužik received scarcely enough to subsist upon.

The ukase decreeing liberty, made of the slave a free citizen. The picture represents the square before the Kremlin of Moscow in the shadow of the cathedral of St. Vasilij. Here are gathered people from the town and from the country—those who were serfs up to that day.