Never mind that a lot of Volga boats were very single-threaded.

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/belyana-russias-giant-...

You can even see the steam ships that replaced the slave in the background.

They were not the slaves, but unionized workers:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlak

AFAIU an артель artelʼ usually did not engage in collective bargaining as such, so calling it a union is not really accurate; you might compare it to a guild but I think there’s no implicaton of a monopoly on a particular trade either. The most accurate description I can think of is perhaps a cooperative combined with a mutual insurance fund.

Agree, I might've stretched It a bit. Your descriptions is more accurate.

YEp, somewhat resemblance to Teamsters

Fun fact - this was painted about 8 to 10 years after the abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire. Coincidentally, it happened two years prior to the US Emancipation Proclamation. I've wondered from time to time how linked the two events were, if at all.

they were not slaves, but something like Russian Teamsters

It's a logging framework! :D

Streaming logging framework

I hope the author is not picturing developers using his engine.

Barge hauler 4th from the back appears to be checking his messages.

"Tut tut, those poor Canadian renters..."

As an addendum - a fair portion here should be in one way or another familiar with Ilya Repin's Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (aka Zaporozhian Cossacks are Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cos...