Chapter 2

Question 1

How many serfs did Alexander II emancipate in 1861?

Answer 1

51 million

Question 2

What social motives may Alexander II have had by emancipating the serfs?

Answer 2

On the influence of his tutor, Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander’s travels around the Empire, and the influence of Duke Konstantin and the Milyutin brothers

Question 3

What was the name of the circle of the progressive nobles?

Answer 3

Party of St Petersburg Progress

Question 4

How may the serfs have influenced emancipation?

Answer 4

The increase in peasant uprisings may have influenced Alexander II

Question 5

What factor, however, was the main catalyst for emancipation?

Answer 5

The humiliation and inefficiences of the Crimean War

Question 6

What reforms marked the very beginning of Alexander’s reign?

Answer 6

He released political prisoners, pardoned the Decemberists and relaxed censorship

Question 7

How were privately owned serfs treated differently during emancipation?

Answer 7

Privately owned serfs were emancipated in 1861, while state serfs received freedom in 1866

Question 8

What were redemption payments?

Answer 8

Money in exchange for their freedom, which were to be paid over 49 years, and still meant they stayed in the mirs

Question 9

What were volosts?

Answer 9

A series of peasant communities consisting of several villages of hamlets, between 200 and 3000 people

Question 10

How did kulaks benefit from emancipation?

Answer 10

They built up extra land or sold their allocations, often obtaining passports to improve their living standards

Question 11

How did many peasants feel cheated by emancipation?

Answer 11

The small allotments were increasingly divided and the mirs were too traditional

Question 12

What percentage of the peasantry produced a surplus?

Answer 12

Only 50%

Question 13

What factors led to violent outbreaks in the countryside?

Answer 13

Loss of former benefits, restrictions on travel, redemption payments and resentment of kulaks

Question 14

What were the military reforms introduced by Dmitry Milyutin?

Answer 14

Conscription was made compulsory for all classes, service was reduced to 25 years, punishments were less severe, medical care was established, modern weaponry was introduced, military colleges were set up and mass-army education campaigns

Question 15

How successful were the military reforms?

Answer 15

While these were significant improvements, problems of supply and a largely aristocratic leadership continued

Question 16

What were zemstvas?

Answer 16

A system of elected local councils at district and provincial levels. Nobility mostly dominated

Question 17

What powers were zemstvas given under Alexander II?

Answer 17

To improve public services, develop industrial projects and administer poor relief

Question 18

In what ways were the zemstvas powers limited?

Answer 18

They had no control over state and local taxes and provinicial governors not only took control of law and order, but could also overturn zemstvo decisions

Question 19

How was the new judiciary system modelled on the west?

Answer 19

There was a single system of local, provincial and national courts, the accused was presumed innocent until proven guilty, criminal cases were heard before barristers and a jury and courts were opened to the public and freely reported

Question 20

How was the new judicary system flawed?

Answer 20

Lawyers often criticised the regime, new juries often acquitted the guilty out of sympathy

Question 21

In what ways did the judiciary system remain the same throughout the Empire?

Answer 21

Trial by jury was never established in Poland, and church and military courts were excluded from the reforms

Question 22

How did education change under Alexander Golovnin?

Answer 22

Universities could appoint their own staff, power was transferred to the zemstva, primary and secondary schools were extended, schools were no longer based on class or sex

Question 23

How did these educational reforms threaten the regime?

Answer 23

The new independence increased the number of radical and militant thinkers

Question 24

How did Alexander II initially relax censorship?

Answer 24

Restrictions on publishers were reduced, foreign publications could be permitted and newspapers could now comment on the government

Question 25

How much did the number of books grow by from 1855 to 1894?

Answer 25

From 1020 in 1855 to 10,691 in 1894

Question 26

How did Alexander II attempt to reform the church?

Answer 26

He attempted to eliminate corruption within the Russian Orthodox Church but his later reign removed these changes