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If you think your life is drudgery...

... be glad you're not a burlak.

About the word:

Burlaks were the peasant workers in old Russia who hauled the barges up and down the waterways.  They were, essentially, human mules.  For more details, see the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlak

 

About the image:

This 1969 Soviet stamp reproduces a detail from Ilya Repin's famous painting "Burlaks on the Volga"

 

 

 
COMMENTS
LatentE said at 4:07 p.m. on Jan 15, 2008:
This reminded me of the old "Low Bridge" Erie Canal song remembering the days when the Erie Canal opened up the midwest of America for trade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Bridge

I saw this hard worker today in Rose Mary Su's tabblo.

http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view_super/1045995/i22707173/

Huanglong, Sichuan, China
http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/1045995/
PaulBarfoot said at 4:17 p.m. on Jan 15, 2008:
Thanks for pointing out Rose Mary Su's picture!

re: Erie Canal - I had the same thought since I live on a hill above the old Erie Canal.
Domieb2 said at 4:22 p.m. on Jan 15, 2008:
...similiar to the burden I feel trying to please my mother-in-law... :-) Thank you for the history. Very interesting!
Andre. said at 4:39 p.m. on Jan 15, 2008:
Fav
Debdog said at 10:11 p.m. on Jan 15, 2008:
beautiful :) and fascinationg piece of history :)

OH DOMIE!!! LOL!!!!!!!! :)
SterlingGray said at 9:50 p.m. on Jan 16, 2008:
A very sad and interesting history.
Candlepower said at 12:30 p.m. on Jan 29, 2008:
Good heavens that was awful. How long ago?
PaulBarfoot said at 1:16 p.m. on Jan 29, 2008:
From the 1600s up through the Bolshevik Revolution.
Mirella said at 3:23 p.m. on Jul 8, 2008:
Ciao, I saw the painting in Petersburg's Museum: it is moving and a symbol of russian people suffering . Repin is a fantastic painter of reality. Thanks
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