Emancipation of the serfs: Motives for reform Flashcards
Who was Vasily Zhukovsky to Alexander II?
His romantic poet tutor
What was the circle of progressive nobles called?
The “Party of St Petersburg Progress”
What was the name of Alexander’s aunt and brother?
Grand Aunt: Duchess Elena Pavlovna
Brother: Grand Duke Konstantin
What were the names of the influential brothers? (2)
Nikolai and Dmitry Milyutin
What did each brother do? (2) (1)
Nikolai: Ministry of international affairs; drafting the terms of the Emancipation
Dmitry: analysed the reason behind the defeat in the Crimean war
What percentage of annual expenditure went to the Crimean war?
45%
What was needed to provide labour to modernise the army?
A ‘free’ population
What were the three groups of beliefs towards emancipation? What did they want? (6)
Westernisers: serfdom should be dropped and they should imitate the west
Slavophiles: reforming serfdom but keeping the traditional peasantry ways
Nihilists: all traditions should be swept away
Between 1840 and 1844 how many outbreaks were there?
30
How did outbreaks change over the decade?
the figure more than doubled
By how much was Russia in debt?
54 million roubles
What was the thought process behind the economic motives for emancipation? (7)
- free the serfs
- greater incentive to work
- grain surplus
- money provided when exported
- invest into the Russian industry
- mobile peasantry move to towns
- lead to greater prosperity
