Figure 1.--This is an illustration of a serf girl from a Soviet-era children's book. I do not know the book or who the illustrator was. We know that some land owners made serf boys wear iron collars like this which were called "rogatka". I think it was left common for girls. The collars made it difficut for the girls to lay down or sleep pn the job.

We know less about serf girls. They presumably were assigned a variety of domestic chores. There was also agricultural jobs assigned them. Here we suspect that the type of jobs were quite simlar to those assigned slve women in America. Differences probably reflected the crops grown more than any basis difference in appeoach or status. Russian landowners often focused on grains while American plantations focused on cotton. We do know that girls were usually not shepherds. This was probably because boy shepherds were out in areas where seep or cattle were grazing by themselves which was probably seen as unsafe for girls. Attractive serf girls were commonly chose as house servants. The same occured in America, although here light skin was a factor. A problem that serf girls faced was the ability of male landowners to abuse them. The illustrator here shows a serf girl wearing an iron collar (rogatka). We suspect this was more common for boys because girls tend to be less rebelious and more obident, but we have no actual sources indicating how common this was.

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Created: 8:03 PM 3/10/2008
Last updated: 8:03 PM 3/10/2008