Russian history, religion, folklore, and literature are the rife worth suffering. The plight of Anna Karenina, the submissiveness of serfs in the 16th and 17th centuries, ancient religious tracts emphasizing humility as 'the mother of virtues, ': and the current economic upheavals wracking the country are a few semitones for what The Slave Soul of Russia identifies as a veritable cult of suffering, centuries In the making. Here, for the first time, a compelling portrait of the Russian people's psychology.