Serfdom in Russia Great, businesses began to send serfs into those areas in an attempt to harvest their large amount of untapped natural resources Tsar Alexander I wanted to reform the system but was thwarted in this ambition. New laws allowed all classes (except the serfs) to own land, a privilege that had previously been confined to the nobility. Russian serfdom was finally abolished in the emancipation reform of 1861 by Tsar Alexander II. Scholars have proposed multiple overlapping reasons to account for the abolition, including fear of a large-scale revolt by the serfs, the government's financial needs, evolving cultural sensibilities, and the
What Was Lost by night — crowded with shoppers during the day, but empty and bleak at night. She found ideas for her book from her job in the Merry Hill Shopping Centre near Dudley in the West Midlands. "What Was Lost" was rejected by 20 agents and publishers before being accepted for publication by Tindal Street Press, a small Birmingham publisher. "What Was Lost" is a mystery story about a missing girl. It is also a portrait of a changing community over twenty years. It examines modern life's emptiness, and society's obsession with shopping. "What Was Lost" is set in the city