Alexander II

Question 1

Timeline

Answer 1

1855 - Becomes Tsar
1856 - Treaty of Paris end Crimea
1857 - Secret committee considers emancipation
1858-59 - Tours to promote emancipation
1861 - Feb - Edict proclaimed, Mar - Becomes law
1863 - Uni statute
1864 - Zemstva judiciary reform, secondary education
1865 - Elementary statute
1870 - Dumas
1874-75 - Military reform
1880 - Peoples will
1881 - Mar - Assassinated

Question 2

Background to the period

Answer 2

• 126m by 1887
• polyglot empire, over 100 languages
• 55m serfs
• Agri-based, failure to modernize
• Theocratic Autocracy “autocracy, orthodoxy, nationality”-Nick 1

Question 3

Reforms and Emancipation

Answer 3

• Defeat in Crimea showed the need to modernize
• Serfs emancipated in 1861, free after 2yrs, 5yrs for state serfs

Question 4

Subsequent reforms

Answer 4

• Judicial reform 1864, establishing zemstva
• Military reform 1874-5, reduces time served from 25 to 6yrs, plus 9 in reserve
• Reforms led to growth of opposition, Peoples will 1880, assassinated in Mar 1881.
• 85% of serfs became landowners in 20yrs.
• 1856-78, elementary students grew from 450k to 1m
• poll tax increased 80%, 59m Rubles collected annually

Question 5

PSQs

Answer 5

• “hold on to everything.”-Nick 1
• “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for the time when it will abolish itself from below.”- Alex 2
• “revolution from above.”

Question 6

HSQs

Answer 6

• “The best prepared heir the Russian throne had ever seen.”- Cochrane
• “The courtroom was the one place in Russia where real freedom of speech prevailed.”- Setton-Watson
• “he planned to restore full power of the autocracy.”-Stephenson