Serfdom in Russia Polish provinces. In 1857, 6.79% of serfs were domestic, landless servants who stayed landless after 1861. Only Polish and Romanian domestic serfs got land. 90% of the serfs who got larger plots were in Congress Poland where the Tsar wanted to weaken the . The rest were in the barren north and in Astrakhan. In the whole Empire, peasant land declined 4.1%, 13.3% outside the ex Polish zone and 23.3% in the 16 black earth provinces. These redemption payments were not abolished till January 1, 1907. A 2018 study in the "American Economic Review" found "substantial increases in agricultural productivity,
Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 C1R officially announced that they would internally select the artist and song that would represent Russia. On 19 February, Dina Garipova and the song "What If", composed by Gabriel Alares, Joakim Bjornberg and Leonid Gutkin, were selected to represent Russia. "What If" was presented to the public on 24 February during the C1R television newscast "Vremya". After the presentation of the song, several media outlets reported the possibility of plagiarism of several previously released songs: "Skin on Skin" originally recorded by Sarah Connor, "Pozwól życ" originally recorded by Gosia Andrzejewicz, "All Over The World" originally recorded by Brian Kennedy and