Три тяжкие доли имела судьба,
И первая доля: с рабом повенчаться,
Вторая - быть матерью сына раба,
А третья - до гроба рабу покоряться,
И все эти грозные доли легли
На женщину русской земли.

Three hard parts of her destiny,
First misfortune is to marry a slave,
Second misfortune is to mother a slave,
Third - to submit to a slave till death,
And all these cruel misfortune befell
On the woman of the Russian land

Slavery is a part of the Russian society. To understand Russia you need to understand the hierarchical and coercive nature of this society. And Russian slavery is compounded by the history of rebellion and violence...  the pattern of slavery and rebellion manifests itself, albeit in a somewhat transformed state, in the psychological makeup of a modern Russian, and especially of a modern Russian woman, for women tend to be conservative force in a society. Don't associate with Russians without giving a thought to the role of slavery and submission in the history of their society and the psychological makeup of individual modern Russians.