On Slaves and Bacha - Vasily Vereshchagin, 1883

Translation of the Legendary Russian Painter's Writings on the Slave Trade and Pederasty in Central Asia

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Sale of a Child-Slave - Vasily Vereshchagin, 1872

Translator’s Introduction

Below is a translation of an excerpt from Vasily Vereshchagin’s memoir “Очерки, наброски, воспоминания” (Essays, Sketches, Memoirs), chapter 3 “Из Путешествия по Средней Азии” (From a Journey around Middle Asia) published in 1883. The book in original Russian can be read and downloaded here. My translation is from a version in modernized Russian (post-1917 reform). The source can be found here.

Vasily Vereshchagin is best known today for his realist paintings of Asia and the Balkans. He traveled throughout Central Asia, India, Japan, and accompanied the Russian Army during the 1877-1878 Russian-Ottoman War, where Russia liberated much of the Christian Balkans, including Romania and Bulgaria. His most prominent work is his “Turkestan Series” of paintings. In 1867 Vereshagin was invited by General Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann to accompany his army during its campaigns to conquer the settled oasis cities of Central Asia. Most notably, Vereshchagin was present during Russia’s defense of Samarkand in 1868, where a mere 750 Russian soldiers held out against thousands of Central Asians besieging the city’s citadel. The natives attacked repeatedly and broke through the citadel’s wall in multiple locations, but failed to defeat the citadel’s defenders. After several days, von Kaufmann returned and broke the siege.

By the Fortress Wall. "Let Them Enter" - Vasily Vereshchagin

The events in the text below occur in the city of Tashkent, today’s capital of Uzbekistan. Vereshcagin outlines the generally dynamics of the slave trade in Central Asia, such as the role of the nomadic Turkmen in procuring slaves and what the market for slaves is like. He also very interestingly seems to link the inferior position of women in Central Asian sedentary society to pederasty and the bacha phenomenon. What Vereshchagin observes here is not dissimilar to what existed in Ancient Greece, where men did not really have meaningful erotic relationships with their wives, and instead a form of pederasty was prevalent. Vereshchagin only details the mens’ complete infatuation with the bacha boy and leaves out anything sexual. Likely, he purposefully glossed over information that would scandalize literary society of his time.

This custom still exists in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, although in the latter it is suppressed to an extent by the Taliban. The whole phenomena of “bacha”, and its normality as Vereshchagin describes, highlights how the world of tradition is endlessly varied in terms of customs and ways of life. Anyone who has read Herodotus would understand this already, and it is worth emphasizing that modernity has had a powerful homogenizing affect. This is not to say that everything “trad” is necessary good, but simply to point out that the pre-modern would was certainly more interesting, one could say.

Additionally, in Vereshchagin’s writings, a sense of Europe’s “civilizing mission” in its colonies can be easily detected. I even thought Vershchagin sounds almost English in some paragraphs, as Russia’s banning of the slave trade, as well as Vereshchagin’s moral condemnation of it, is all very similar to the British Royal Navy’s efforts to do the same, and with similar moral justifications. This sense of an emancipatory mission in the world only intensified under the Soviet Union. The same sentiments that were present during the Russian Empire as a part of a Christian ethos were merely altered with the coming of the socialist ethos. In this sense, the Soviet Union did not represent break from the past, but a refinement and continuation of it. And the same dynamic has occurred in the West as well. As the Anglophone West secularized increasingly in the past few decades, its sense of a global humanitarian mission only intensified as well.

A bit of radicalism can even be detected when Vereshchagin talks about how not only the slaves feel freer, but all kinds of “poor and oppressed” are beginning to rise up thanks to Russia’s humanitarianism. Despite what is usually imagined about Imperial Russia as a brutal despotism, in reality a growing sense of compassionate humanitarianism was growing within the hearts of Russia’s literary society during the final century of the empire. This is especially seen in the philosophy of Tolstoy, and is very apparent in the text below. In hindsight, none of this proved beneficial for the Russians. This compassion only served to make the ruling class effectively impotent and unable to defend itself. When faced murderous revolutionary forces, those describes by Dosteovsky in his book “Demons”, the Russian nobility was unable to act and prevent the coming catastrophe. If the late-Tsarist regime had been even 1/1000 as murderous as the Bolsheviks, everything would have been prevented. By the 1900’s the Russian Imperial state even lacked the fangs to effectively imprison hardened revolutionaries, let alone execute them. Many of these revolutionaries, such as Stalin among others, easily escaped from their Siberian exile, where they lived in a fair deal of comfort, and returned to continue their revolutionary efforts.

Nor was this compassion received with gratitude. Only a few decades after Vereshchagin wrote the words below, the Bolsheviks rose to power, leading the “poor and oppressed”, and together they mercilessly exterminated the Russian nobility. Contrary to whatever liberally-minded Russians had hoped for, the former slaves rose up and slaughtered the soft-hearted liberals who had helped them “breathe more freely”. This humanitarianism by Vereshchagin and others like Kerensky did nothing but serve as an ice breaker, clearing the way for the more hardened Bolsheviks to seize power. The soft-hearted and feckless will always give way to the more fanatic, the more zealous, simply because the former lacks the moral fortitude to stand their ground. This has been a bit of a digression, but its important to understand what happened to the Russian Empire and the noble class that Vereshchagin belonged to, and why it happened. The compassion of the Russian nobility served them poorly.

Vasily Vereshchagin

On Bacha and Slaves

To begin, a few words about the slave caravan-sarais¹ and the trade of slaves. It is true, that neither slave caravan-sarais nor the slave trade still exist in Tashkent. Nevertheless to say something about this, I think, is not superfluous or without interest. The buildings for this trade in the cities of Middle Asia² are laid out similar to all caravan-sarais; only they are separated into a greater number of small rooms, with a separate door for each. If the courtyard is large, then in the middle will be a canopy for animals. Also there, corrupt people are placed, and the unreliable are tied to the wooden posts of the canopy. Anyone kept in these courtyards will usually have a crowd jostling around them; those who want to buy, those who stare.

Camel in the Courtyard of Caravanserai - Vasily Vereshchagin

Buyers will ask the merchandise: what can it do? what crafts does it know? and etc. Then the buyer will lead the for-sale slave to a small room and there with the owner they examine whether there are any bodily shortcomings or illnesses. For the most part young women are not presented in the courtyard, and can be seen in a small room and are not examined by the buyer, but by an experienced elderly female healer.³ 

Prices per person, naturally, are different depending on the time and whether there is more or less of the product at market. Usually around autumn this trade increases in volume. In the city of Bukhara for example, around this time in each of the ten caravan-sarais, as I was told, from 100 to 150 people are exhibited for sale at any given time. Since most of Central Asia’s slaves are Persians from the border, delivered to market by the Turkmen, the luck or misfortune of the Turkmen in their hunting exploits along the Persian frontier determines the price of slaves in Khiva, Bukhara, and in Kokand. But sometimes wars and the inevitable enslavement of prisoners, if they are not Muslim Sunnis⁴ (otherwise, they sell all the prisoners from the defeated side as slaves), can significantly change prices: in such cases people will go for a very cheap price – for a few tens of rubles,⁵ sometimes even for ten rubles.  

Generally, men go on sale for much less than women, because the Turkmen will hunt and sell men and mostly keep the women for themselves. A beautiful young woman costs a very expensive price, up to 1000 rubles and more.

Pretty boys also go for a good price: there is a huge demand for them in all of Middle Asia. I have been told stories of former Persian slaves about how small they were when they were captured by the Turkmen: one in the fields at work together with father and brothers, another simply on the street of their village in the middle of the day with the powerless howls and cries of the cowardly population powerless to stop it. And I heard stories of their subsequent wanderings, the transfer of these unfortunates from the hands of the robber-Turkmen to the hands of slave traders and from there to the homes of those who buy them. These stories are extremely sad, and one cannot but rejoice that thanks to Russian invention this dirty pool was cleaned out. 

The influence of Russia on the slave trade can be describe in the three most important facts: first, a general decrease number of slaves because whenever a country is joined to Russia⁶ the slaves are made free; secondly, a general decrease in demand for new slaves because in all of these newly acquired countries there is no longer any selling of slaves, and in cities such as Tashkent, Khojand, Samarkand and others, the sale of slaves was not small; and thirdly, this trade has greatly decreased in volume and in all neighboring barbarian states of Middle Asia according to a simple and not unreasonable assumption, that Russia can make a visit⁷ to each of them either today or tomorrow, and since every one of them knows that Russia will mercilessly free their slaves, all purchases and sales of this kind have taken on an unreliable and thankless look.

But not only do slaves breathe more freely now it is said: all kinds of poor and oppressed are  starting to boldly look in the eyes of lords, nobles and the powerful, who feel no small amount of embarrassment.

And another type of slave, which is not named in any textbooks out of shame, but which none the less represents the worst kind of slavery – mothers, wives, daughters of Middle Asian savages. Do they not experience the same slow, but irresistible influence on their position and the fate as the kafir (“kafir” – non-believer) laws and all kafir methods?⁸ Without a doubt, yes; it is enough to listen to the cautious, but bitter complaints, which pour out in conversation with my host in his house, the old aksakal.⁹ “The last days are coming!” – he says, waving his hands around desperately. “What’s that?” – “Yes as it is! What else more is there to expect, and the man did not teach his wife: you will be beaten – he is scared that she will leave to the Russians…” Indeed, as not to be embarrass an Asian, when his own wife, his object, rightly acquired, legally enslaved, begins to claim his rights of some kind and first of all the right not to be beaten at will! As not to get upset about such a split and as not to guess the perpetrators of all of this heresy!... 

Woman in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1920’s

O, the undeserved humiliation of eastern women, has already been spoken about by many travelers, and I will not repeat these commonplaces here. I will only say, that the fate of women in Middle Asia, speaking generally, is a sadder fate than her sisters in more western countries, such as Persia, Turkey and others. Lower, than the latter, her civil status is even more unthinkable and rejected by her husband-ruler, were physical activities are even more limited to those of mere animals. Sold from the cradle to a man, undeveloped, taken as an unreasonable child, she, even in sexual relations, does not live a full life, because she is not allowed to become a conscious adult and soon grows old, crushed morally by the role of being a female and the physical work of being a pack animal. All intellectual movements, all developments can therefore only be manifestations in the lowest levels of the human mind –intrigue, gossip and so on. Therefore, there is nothing to be surprised about, that they intrigue, gossip… Such an extremely humiliating position of women is mainly the reason, for the existence of an abnormal phenomena, which is known locally as “bacha”, which is uncomfortable to explain. 

Pretty boys usually became bacha-dancers, starting at the age of 8, and sometimes older. From the hands of parents who are unscrupulous about their method of obtaining money, the child falls into the hands of one, or two, or multiple lovers of their beauty, often swindlers, who with the help of the elderly who have ended their career as dancers and singers themselves, they teach the boy this art like they are a pet, and once learned they are groomed, dressed like a doll, pampered, cherished and offered up for money in the evenings to those who wish for public performances. 

Portrait of a Bacha - Vasily Vereshchagin

They perform “Tamasha”¹⁰ almost every day in public or in a house in the city, and often, before the fast of the main holiday of bayram, when most of the weddings occur. Then all over town the banging of tambourines in heard, cries and rhythmic claps, to the beat of singing and dancing of the bacha. Having a few acquaintances in the city, I requested S. A. to arrange a “tamasha” and eventually, late in the evening, upon notifying me that the presentation was prepared and soon to begin, we, accompanied by a few people, went to his house.

At the entrance of the house we found many different kinds of peoples. The yard was full. Only in the middle there remained a large open circle, with some sitting on the ground, all looking towards the stage. People had gathered in all of the doorways, around the gallery, on the roof (on the roof were mostly women). On one side of the circle were musicians elevated on a platform – with a few large tambourines and small drums; around these musicians, at the honorary place, we were seated, which was unfortunate for our ears. The yard was illuminated by a huge oiled torch, alight with a powerful red flame, which together with the dark-azure starry night sky, had an amazing effect on the stage. 

Dutar-player - Vasily Vereshchagin

 “Come over here”, - whispered to me by one Sart¹¹ acquaintance, winking his eyes, as this is done at the suggestion of some kind forbidden fruit. “What is it, what for?” – “Let’s see, how they dressed the bacha”. In one of the rooms, with a door open to the yard, was, for the sake of modesty, closed to an elected few, mostly horary locals, respectfully surrounding the bacha, a pretty boy, dressed up for presentation. He was transformed into girl: his long hair was tied up in a few finely woven braids, brightly colored silk handkerchief covered his head, and above his forehead a bright red bandage was wrapped around his head. A mirror was held up before the bacha, into which he looked coquettishly the entirely time. A fat Sart held up a candle, others reverently, barely breathing (I am not exaggerating), looked at the operation and considered it an honor to help him when something needed to be fixed or held. At the end, the toilet boy underlined his eyebrows and eyelashes, slapped his face a few times - signes de beauté¹² - and he, truly transformed into a girl, headed out to meet his audience, and was greeted loudly with friendly cries of approval.

Bacha and his Admirers - Vasily Vereshchagin

The bacha was quiet, he slowly began walking around; he rhythmically, to the beat of the quietly echoing tambourine and claps of the spectators, gracefully curving body, playing with hands and shaking his head. His eyes, large, beautiful, black, a pretty mouth with a defiant expression that was too immodest at times. The happiness of the viewers, to which the bacha addressed with such meaningful looks and smiles, melted from this pleasure and in repayment for flattering attention accepted a humiliating pose, attached to their face a servile, sweet expressions. “My joy, my heart”, - exclaimed both sides. “Take my life, - shouted to him, - she is nothing before one of your smiles” and so on. Now the music picked up and got louder; following her, the dancer got livelier; legs – bacha danced barefooted – they began to make agile, quick movements; hands spinning like snakes; the tambourines were pounded more often, more loudly; more quickly did the bacha spin, as those hundreds of eyes barely managed to track his movements; at the end, with a reckless crackling of music and frantic exclamation by the spectators who followed the final figure, after which the dancers, refreshed by a bit of tea, and again quietly walked around the stage, smoothly waving his hands, giving out smiles and throwing right and left his gentle, languishing, crafty looks.

Extremely interesting musicians; with increasing rhythm of the beat of the dance even more the spectators became enthusiastic, and in the most powerful places they even jumped from their knees into a squatting position as the musicians violently tore on their already loud instruments. The bacha-girl was replaced by the bacha-boy, the general character of the dancers changed little from before. The dance is replaced by singing, that is monotonous, uniform, and in most part sad! In the song, longing and sadness go along with sweet, unsatisfied, depressed but enthusiastic love. Very rarely love and happiness serve as the themes of these songs, and while listening locals get upset and sometimes cry.

Most interestingly, although the event is informal and not open for all, the official presentation only begins when the singing and dancing is finished. Here begins the entertainment of the bacha, which lasts for some time – the entertainment is very strange for those unfamiliar with the local manners and customs. I enter the room during one of these backroom scenes and I find such a picture: at the wall proudly sits the small bacha: their nose held high and eyes squinting, he looks around arrogantly, consciousness of his dignity; across from him along the walls is everyone in the room sitting, one next to another, crossed-legged and on their knees, the Sarts of different types, different sizes and ages – young and old, small and tall, thin and fat – all, burying their elbows into their knees and possibly bend over, looking affectionately at the bacha; they follow his every movement, catching his sight, listening to his every word. The happy one, which the boy honors with his sight and even more so with words, responds with the most respect. Who will have the honor to submit something to the bacha, a tea cup or something else. This is done by doing nothing more than crawling on one’s knees up to the boy to present the gift. The boy accepts all of this for granted, and no thankfulness is expressed for this.   

I said above, that the bacha is often kept by several persons: ten, fifteen, twenty; all vying with each other trying to please the boy; their last money is spent on gifts for him, often forgetting about their families, their wives children, they end up becoming needy, and starving.  

1. A hotel or hostel for caravans, their drivers and merchants

2. Russians often refer to Central Asia as “Middle Asia”, while Xinjiang/Chinese Turkestan is called Inner Asia. The Western term Central Asia has become more common in recent years

3. знахарка

4. Muslims cannot enslave their co-religionists, but Sunnis can enslave Shia. This explains why Persians are enslaved, as they are mostly Shia

5. Russian currency

6. “присоединенной к России”

7. Or in other words, invasion and conquest

8. What exactly is meant here is unclear. Possibly Vereshchagin means women are treated the same as non-Muslims

9. Aksakal means “white-beard”. Refers to an elder

10. Name for public performances

11. “Sart” is a generic term for the settled population of Central Asia

12. “signs of beauty”