AII: EMANCIPATION & REFORM

Question 1

What was the first act in Alexander II’s series of “Great Reforms”?

Answer 1

Emancipation of 50 million serfs.

Question 2

Why did the social structure of Russia do nothing for the nobility? (P)

Answer 2

Nobels income fell and were still dependent on serfs.

Question 3

What happened to the population of Russia in the first half of the 19th century? (E)

Answer 3

Doubled.

Question 4

What were Alexander II’s own views about serfdom?

Answer 4

Serfdom was morally wrong according to Alexander’s liberal education. In order for modernisation to happen the serfs had to be emancipated.

Question 5

What date was the emancipation signed and published?

Answer 5

3rd March 1861.

Question 6

How did the Crimean War make Alexander emancipate the serfs?

Answer 6

Realised that Russia has to industrialise and develop.

Question 7

What was the total number of Russian deaths as a result of the Crimean War?

Answer 7

374,600

Question 8

What group thought that the serf system was morally wrong?

Answer 8

The intelligentsia.

Question 9

What were the three traditional belief of the Tsars?

Answer 9

Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationality.

Question 10

How were politics threatened by serfs?

Answer 10

Serf riots had become more frequent since the 1840s.

Question 11

What is the famous quote from Alexander II regarding serfs political threat?

Answer 11

“Better to abolish from above, than have it forced upon us from below.”

Question 12

How did the serfs overall feel about their emancipation?

Answer 12

Perplexed. Most were illiterate and relied on semi-literate serfs to translate the announcement.

Question 13

How many incidents of peasant riots were there in the four months following the publication of the emancipation in March 1861?

Answer 13

647.

Question 14

Who was Anton Petrov? What did he do?

Answer 14

Semi-literate and caused confusion by interpreting the emancipation incorrectly.

Question 15

Why were the serfs worse off than before?

Answer 15

They had to pay redemption payments.

Question 16

Who was the legislation prepared by? Why did this cause further confusion?

Answer 16

Educated bureaucrats. Written from a theoretical and abstract point of view, adding to the confusion.

Question 17

Who replaced the control of the landowners in the eyes of the serfs?

Answer 17

The Mir.

Question 18

Where did the redemption payments go?

Answer 18

Swallowed up by debts owed by noblemen.

Question 19

From 1861-1905, how much did noblemen’s land fall?

Answer 19

Fell by 42%.

Question 20

What happened to bonds paid by the government?

Answer 20

Depreciated in value.

Question 21

How was the social status of the noblemen decreased?

Answer 21

Had to sell off land as it became unprofitable.

Question 22

Who benefited from the emancipation more? Serfs or Nobels?

Answer 22

Nobels.

Question 23

Give a change in censorship rules under Alexander II.

Answer 23

1865: The ministry of the interior produced a new set of rules to guide writers and editors. Editors no longer had to get approval for their texts.

Question 24

Give a change in education under Alexander II.

Answer 24

1870: The first schools to offer girls non-vocational education were authorised.

Question 25

Give a change in the university system under Alexander II.

Answer 25

The state exempted the poor from university fees, and by 1859, two-thirds of students at Moscow University were exempt.

Question 26

What new courts opened under Alexander II?

Answer 26

Open courts and peasant courts (volost)

Question 27

Give a change in the military under Alexander II.

Answer 27

Every man over 20 could be conscripted.

Question 28

How much did the industrial workforce expand by 1887?

Answer 28

860,000 to 1,320,000 by 1887.

Question 29

What form of local government was created in 1864?

Answer 29

Zemstov

Question 30

What was created that implied some democracy?

Answer 30

The Zemstva.

Question 31

Give a strength of the Zemstva.

Answer 31

Could feedback regional issues back to central government and to an extent challenge the policies of the Tsar.

Question 32

Give a limitation of the Zemstva.

Answer 32

By 1917 there were still 37 provinces that were without a Zemstva.

Question 33

What year was the Duma set up?

Answer 33

1870

Question 34

What did the revenue from redemption payments go to?

Answer 34

Nobility’s debt repayments.

Question 35

What had happened to the land owned by the nobility by 1905?

Answer 35

Had fallen by 42%.