2. Alexander II - the "Tsar Reformer"?

Question 1

Why did Alex II emancipate the serfs in 1861?

Answer 1

• Economic: Labour force will be free to travel to cities and make their own money. Increased capital accumulation will create a middle class + more money to tax.
• Military: More professional and motivated army
• Moral: Tsar should look after his people
• Better to reform from above than “wait for reform to come from below” (ie. uprisings)

Question 2

Why was the 1861 Emancipation Edict a failure?

Answer 2

• Ex-serfs still had to pay ‘redemption payments’ over 49 years. Until that was paid off, they remained tied to the land.
• Landowners were compensated and got the nice land (meadows, pasture, woodland)

Question 3

What were Alexander II’s military reforms under Dmitry Milyutin?

Answer 3

• Conscription for all classes
• Length of active service reduced from 25 to 15 years
• Military colony abolished
• New command structure
• Mass education to improve literacy

Question 4

In what ways were Alexander II’s military reforms limited?

Answer 4

• Nobles still dominated upper echelons of the military
• Wealthy people paid others to be their ‘substitute’
• Russia struggled to beat Turkey in 1877-78

Question 5

What were Alexander II’s local government reforms?

Answer 5

• Zemstva established, with power over public services and industrial projects.
• In 1870 dumas (town councils) were also set up

Question 6

In what ways were Alexander II’s local government reforms limited?

Answer 6

• Zemstva decisions could be blocked by provincial governor
• Zemstva had no say over taxation
• 74% were nobles due to the voting rules.
• Intelligentsia used the zemstva as an arena for criticising the regime.

Question 7

What were Alexander II’s judicial reforms?

Answer 7

• Innocent until proven guilty
• Trial by jury (jury chosen from landowners)
• Courts were open to public and cases reported by the Russian Courier
• Local, provincial and national courts

Question 8

In what ways were Alexander II’s judicial reforms limited?

Answer 8

• Juries sometimes acquitted criminals who they sympathised with
• Military and ecclesiastical courts were exempt from these reforms
• Intelligentsia used it as an arena for political discontent

Question 9

What were Alexander II’s educational reforms?

Answer 9

• Self-governing universities
• Responsibility for schooling went from church -> zemstva
• Modern schools established as an alternative to gimnaziya (traditional schools)

Question 10

In what ways were Alexander II’s educational reforms limited?

Answer 10

• After 1866 the government had to reassert control

Question 11

How did the number of primary schools change under Alexander II?

Answer 11

8,000 in 1856 to 23,000 in 1880

Question 12

How did censorship change under Alexander II?

Answer 12

• Initial relaxation of censorship. No. of books published went from 1,000 in 1855 to 1,800 in 1864.
• Growth in critical writing led to re-tightening in 1870s.

Question 13

Who was Vera Zasulich?

Answer 13

• 1878: Zasulich shot the military governor of St Petersburg.
• She was not convicted due to a sympathetic jury.
• Political crimes were then transferred to special courts.

Question 14

How many assassination attempts were there on Alexander II?

Answer 14

Five failed attempts - in 1866, 1867, 1879 (x2), 1880.

Question 15

Which group killed Alexander II and when?

Answer 15

The People’s Will in 1881.

Question 16

What was the Loris-Melikov Constitution?

Answer 16

• Loris-Melikov was Minister for Internal Affairs at the end of Alexander II’s reign.
• He relaxed censorship, abolished the salt tax and abolished the Third Section.
• The so-called ‘constitution’ proposed an elected body to debate some state decrees.
• Alexander II signed it on 13 March 1881, but was assassinated on the same day.

Question 17

How many riots were there immediately following the Emancipation Edict?

Answer 17

647 riots in 4 months

Question 18

Who was Alexander II’s tutor?

Answer 18

Romantic poet Vasily Zhukovsky. May have influenced Alexander’s perceived liberalism

Question 19

How would freeing the serfs help the economy?

Answer 19

Free peasants -> Greater incentive to work -> Grain surplus -> Export of grain provides money for landowners and state -> investment in industry within Russia -> Mobile peasantry moving to towns to work in industry -> Greater prosperity.

Question 20

What were Alexander II’s educational counter-reforms?

Answer 20

• Gave educational responsibility back to the church
• Schools had to stop teaching science
• 1871: Only students in traditional gimnazii could go to uni

Question 21

What were Alexander II’s judiciary/policing counter-reforms?

Answer 21

• Pyotr Shuvalov strengthened the police and the Third Section
• Increased persecution of minorities
• Begun show trials to deter criminals. They backfired (Vera Zasulich) and so were moved to secret courts from 1878.
• Governors-General were established with special powers to prosecute in military courts and to exile

Question 22

When did Alexander II’s eldest son die?

Answer 22

In 1865, of tuberculosis.

He then turned to his mistress, who made him stop listening to the liberals in his court.

Question 23

What was the Trial of the 193?

Answer 23

A show trial. It backfired - the jury acquitted 153 of them and the other 40 got light sentences.

Question 24

By 1878, what percentage of peasants were producing a surplus?

Answer 24

Just 50%