Alexander II's domestic reforms Flashcards
Why does J.N. Westwood think Alexander II carried out reforms?
Westwood thinks Alexander intentionally reformed so that Russians got greater freedoms and could live better lives
J.N Westwood quote on Alexander II’s reforms
‘with the possible exceptions of Khrushchev and Gorbachev, no Russian ruler brought so much relief to so many of his people as did Alexander II, autocratic and conservative though he was’
What was Alexander II’s one minor change to the offices of government?
In 1861 he replaced the Personal Chancellery of his Imperial Majesty with a Council of Ministers
Limitations of Zemstva
- The regime was unresponsive to their demands and Liberal members questioned the ‘administrative monopoly of officialdom’
- district and provincial Zemstva both dominated by the nobility
- Creation of Zemstva diverted reformist nobility away from wanting changes to central government
What does Orlando Figes (Revisionist) claim?
opposition to Alexander II occurred logically as a result of his reforms:
- the Zemstva led to the Populist movement
- Populists splintered into ‘People’s Will’ which turned to ‘assassinating government officials in the hope that, if they weakened the autocracy, the peasants would join them in the revolt’
- Four attempts were made to assassinate the tsar
When was the Tsar assassinated?
1st March 1881
What does Geoffrey Hosking think?
It wasn’t inevitable that the reforms plus the failures of the Populists led to his assassination as ‘going to the people’ wasn’t actually unsuccessful as Figes argues, instead it resulted in many peasants being encouraged to ‘share some of the radicals’ ideas, for example about egalitarianism in landholding’.
Alexander II’s quote on abolishing serfdom
‘it is better to begin abolishing serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish itself from below’ -1856
Conditions of the Emancipation Edict 1861
- all privately owned serfs freed, state ones emancipated in 1866.
- Freed serfs could own property, run their own commercial enterprises and marry whomever they wished
- Nobles had to hand over land to peasants
- State provided compensation to landowners
- Redemption payments paid over a 49 year period at six per cent interest
Fact to illustrate how emancipation was bad for landowners?
By 1905, the land owned by the nobility had been reduced by about 40 per cent.
Why were the peasants unhappy with the edict?
- They received less land on average then they had been farming before the emancipation
- They were allocated poorer-quality land
- Peasants struggled to earn enough to meet redemption payments
- Financial difficulties exacerbated by rural poll taxes
- Controlling Mir and principle of subsistence farming meant they had no incentives
Peter Oxley on the impact of the Edict on the Peasants
‘The peasants now had less land than they had before, and were having to pay a redemption tax higher than the land was worth.’
How does John Hite argue the military reforms were ineffective?
in 1 877 the Russian army struggled to defeat ‘weak Turkish troops’ and in 1904-5 was beaten by Japan
What caused the Polish rebellion of 1863?
- Access to land
- Proposed policies of the Polish leaders, Gorchakov and Wielopolski
- Role of the Catholic Church in Polish Society
Alexander II’s policies in Poland, start of the Russification process.
- Alexander II tried to compromise with the Poles by allowing them to frame their own land reform
2, Extremists in Poland opposed the proposals, rebellion erupted and the peasants divided their allegiance - Rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed in 1864
- Tsar imposed reforms which benefited the majority of peasants to the detriment of nobility
