The emancipation of the serfs

Question 1

Emancipation

Answer 1

Freeing from bondage

Question 2

Enlightened despotism

Answer 2

A system of government in which an all-powerful ruler granted domestic reforms in order to benefit his people

Question 3

How many serfs did Alexander II emancipate(freed)and when?

Answer 3

• emancipated 51 million serfs in 1861

Question 4

Why did he get the nickname ‘tsar liberator’ ?

Answer 4

-created change through emancipation of Serfs and other series of reforms (the army,local government, judiciary,education,publishing and elsewhere)

Question 5

Alexander’s reforms were mainly intended to

Answer 5

Maintain tsarist authority

Question 6

Evaluation: Alexander’s reforms actually did what?

Answer 6

Weakened faith in the tsar as being capable of ending effective change, ultimately created a desire for ‘popular participation in government’

Question 7

What influenced the emancipation? (War)

Answer 7

The defeat in the Crimean war (1853-56)

Question 8

Reasons for emancipation (tutor)

Answer 8

• views on serfdom shaped by his romantic poet tutor Vasily Zhukovsky + Alexander’s own travel around Europe

Question 9

Reasons for emancipation (family)

Answer 9

his brother (grand duke konstantin) and aunt (grand duchess elena Pavlovna) all committed to abolition of serfdom for some time

• other Enlightened bureaucrats (e.g milyutin brothers)

Question 10

Alexander milyutin(1818-72)

Answer 10

-influential voice in ministry of international affairs
-largely responsible for drafting terms of emancipation edict

Question 11

Dmitry Alekseyevich milyutin (1816-1912)

Answer 11

• earned reputation as military scholar
  -analysed reasons behind Russia defeat in Crimean war , obvious choice for Alexander II’s minister of war from 1861 to 1881
  -made count in recognition of his services for military reform
  -serfdom=morally wrong

Question 12

Positives of emancipation (economics motive)

Answer 12

Free peasants
Greater incentive to work
Grain surplus
Export of grain providing money for landowners/state
Investment in industry within Russia
Mobile peasantry moving to towns to work in industry
Greater prosperity

Question 13

Reforms + changes by Alexander (political prisoners)

Answer 13

-released political prisoners
- pardoned decemberists (group involved in a plot to assassinate his father)

Question 14

Reforms + changes by Alexander (control)

Answer 14

• relaxed controls on censorship
  -lessens restrictions on foreign travel and uni entrance
• cancelled tax debts and restored some rights of Poland and Catholic Church

Question 15

The Emancipation Edict, 1861

Answer 15

-initially only applied to privately owned serfs, state serfs received their freedom in 1866