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I. Imperial Russia
- a. Russia’s defeat in Crimean War from Brits and French showed deficiencies behind mask of absolute power and showed even to conservatives that Russia was falling behind
- b. Tsar Alexander II, who came to power during war, focused on overhaul of Russian system
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Serfdom
- i. Serfdom= biggest problem
- 1. The continuting subjugation of peasants to land and their landlords was failing
- a. Reduced to antiquated methods of production based on serf labor, Russian landowners were pressed and couldn’t compete with foreign agriculture
- b. The Serfs, (backbone of Russian infantry) were uneducated and inexperienced with machines and weapons
- i. Peasant dissatisfactionà revolts that disrupted order
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Abolition of Serfdom
- i. March 3, 1861: Alex issued emancipation edict
- 1. Peasants could own property, marry whoever, and bring suits in court
- a. Still limited as government gave land to the peasants through purchanse from landowners, who kept the best land
- b. Russian peasants had little amounts of good land to support selvesà worsened with increase in population
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Not completely free
- 1. Not completely free as, although state compensated landowners for land given to peasants, they peasants had to repay state in long tern installments
- a. To ensure payment was made, peasants were subjected to authority of their mir, or village commune, which was collectively responsible for the land payments to the government
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Village commune
- i. In reality, the village commune, not the individual peasants, owned the land the peasants bought
- 1. Since village communes ewre responsible for payments, they didn’t want peasants to leave land
- ii. Emancipationà not free, landowning peasantry, but unhappy, land-starved peasants
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Other reforms
- i. Alexander II attempted other reforms
- 1. System of zemstvos, or local assemblies, that provided a moderate degree of self-government
- a. Reps to this were elected from noble landowners, townspeople, and peasants= property- based on system of voting gave advantage to nobles
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Zemstvos
- a. Zemstvos were given limited power to give public service, like education
- i. They could levy taxes to pay for services, but efforts disrupted by bureaucrats, who feared any hint of self-government
- 1. Hope of liberal nobles and other social reformers that the zemstvos would expand into a national pariliament= unfulfilled
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Legal Reforms
1. Legal reforms of 1864, which created regular system of local and provincial courts and a judicial code that accepted the principle of equality before the law, were successful
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Autocratic tsar
- i. Autocratic tsar unable to control forces he unleashed by his reforms
- 1. Reformers wanted fast change; conservatives opposed tsar’s attempts to undermine the basic institutions of Russian society
- By 1870, Russia had increased numbers of reform movements
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Alexander Herzen
One of most popular stemmed from writing of Alexander Herzen, a Russian exile in London, whose slogan “Land and Freedom” epitomized his belief that the Russian peasant must be the chief instrument in social reform
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Alexander Herzen belief
- i. Believed that the peasant village commune could serve as an independent, self-governing body that would form the basis of a new Russia
- ii. Russian students and intellectuals who followed his ideas formed movement called populism whose aim was for a new society through revolutionary acts of peasants
- 1. Peansants lack of interestà populists use violence to overthrow tsaris autocracy
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Vera Zasulich
- 1. Daughter of poor noble who used violence to overthrow repression of tsarist regime
- a. Clerk before joining Land and Freedom, an underground populist organization advocating radical reform
- 2. 1878: she shot and wounded the governor-general of Saint Petersburg and acquitted by a caring jury
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Zasulich's success
- i. Encouraged by Zasulich’s success, other radicals, called People’s Will, assassinated Alexander II in 1881
- 1. His son, Alexander III, turned against reform and used traditional means of repression
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