2 - Reforms

Question 1

Motives for Reform/Influences on Alexander II

Answer 1

> His tutor, Zhukovsky, brother, Grand Duke Konstantin
Earlier travels around the empire
Enlightened bureaucrats/intelligentsia
Increased peasant uprisings
Defeat/impact of Crimean War

Question 2

Emancipation Edict, 1861
Applied to privately owned serfs immediately & state serfs from 1866

Answer 2

> Serfs granted freedom & land allotment
Landlords compensated by gov
Freed serfs had to pay “redemption payments” over 49 years to the gov for the land
Had to remain within the mir till paid
Mir distributed allotments, controlled farming & taxes

Question 3

Local Government Reforms
1864-70

Answer 3

Elected local councils (zemstvo) replaced the rights & obligations of serf owning gentry.
+ Chosen through “electoral colleges”
+ Composed of men who understood locality
+ Had powers to improve public services, develop industrial projects & give poor relief
+ 1870 Dumas set up in towns
- Power limited, no control over taxes
- Voting system favoured nobles
- Provincial Governors appointed officials, responsible for law & order & could overturn zemstvo decisions
- Meetings often used to debate

Question 4

Judiciary Reforms
1864

Answer 4

+ Equality before the law, innocent until proven guilty, could employ lawyer
+ Criminal cases heard before barristers & jury, jury selected from lists of property owners, Tsar appointed Judges, improved training & pay
+ Local Justices of the Peace elected by the zemstvo every 3 years, politically independent
+ Courts open to public & recordable
- Articulate lawyers criticised the regime
- Juries sometimes acquitted due to sympathy = New decree political crimes to have special procedures

Question 5

Education Reforms 1863-4

Answer 5

> Basic skills needed due to emancipation
Min of Edu: Golovnin 1862-7
+ Uni could govern themselves
+ Zemstvo not Church responsible for schools
+ Primary & Secondary education extended
+ Schools open to both sexes & all classes
+ Numbers attending increased
- More radical thinkers = 1866+ gov control reasserted

Question 6

Military Reform
1874-5

Answer 6

> Min of War, Milyutin, reorganisation = improved efficiency & reduced cost
+ Conscription compulsory for all classes 21+, but service reduced
+ Punishments less severe
+ Better provisioning, medical care & education
+ New command structure & better training for non-noble officers
+ Modern weaponry introduced
- Rich found substitutes
- Officer class still mainly aristocratic
- Still problems of supply/leadership

Question 7

Other Reforms

Answer 7

+ 1858-70 press censorship relaxed
+ Growth in books published,1855 = 1020, 1894 = 10961
+ Attempts to remove corruption in the Church
+ Some reforms for Jews/ethnic minorities
- 1870+ control tightened
- 1870s Church reform stopped
- 1863 Polish Rebellion = lenient treatment reversed