Emancipation Flashcards
Why was agriculture unstable?
Weather
The lack of skilled and educated workers - serfs hadn’t studied agriculture so could not farm effectively
What did the prohibited movement of peasants mean could not be set up?
Factories, mining industrialising etc
What did serfdom doom the economy to?
Agriculture
What did the discussions for the emancipation revolve around?
Whether serfs should be freed with land
How much land each household should get
How it would be paid for
Amount of compensation given to landowners
If the nobility should retain judicial and economic control over former serfs
How many serfs compared to whole population?
75 million, 100 million population
What was created in 1859 to turn the recommendations into legislation?
An Editing Commission
When were the 22 Emancipation Statutes declared?
19 February 1861
Sunday after lent - grateful to Tsar who is rewarding them after giving something up
Main terms of the emancipation
Serfdom abolished
Serfs legally free to marry, travel, vote and trade
Peasants could keep houses and land around it but have to buy the other strips they had worked on
Redemption payments over 49 years for the land
Peasants controlled by Mir
Mir power strengthened
Nobles still police
Landowners compensated for land in government bonds but not for loss of rights over serfs
How many serfs were involved?
23 million
What did the huge variation between regions mean?
Different provinces emancipated serfs at different times, some not until 1890 so the final transfer of land took a long time
How long was the transitional period during which the obligations to the land owner remained the same as they had been under serfdom?
2 years
Why could peasants not be sold or sent to other estates etc despite having obligations to the land owner?
Legally free
Why was there a two year transitional period?
To allow time to work out the amount of land in each area that should be handed over to the peasants and how this should be done
Who worked out the amount of land allocated per peasant?
Local committees but the stock of land was given to the village and the village community actually allocated parcels of land to individual peasants
When would peasants own the land?
After the last redemption payment had been made
Why did peasants receive less land than before?
Supply of affordable, good quality land available to peasants was limited to the strips allocated to them which were difficult to maintain and get good yield
As a result of the allocation of land, what did peasants have to do to make ends meet?
Work as hired labour on nobles remaining land for most of the year
Why did the peasants pay more for the land?
Landowners received above market value for the land they were handing over so the high valuation meant peasants paid more for it
Why could the landowners keep the best land for themselves?
They could decide which part of their holdings they would hand over