Yeah. The fact is that the abolition of serfdom (that is, slavery) was carried out by the upper classes. There was no giant anti-serfdom popular movement forcing them to do so. Obviously the upper classes were interested in doing it, or they wouldn't have done it, but they did so without being forced into it by the people they were liberating.
--- On Sat, 10/10/09, Matthias Wasser <matthias.wasser at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> These don't contradict each other.
>