Does Alexander II deserve his historical reputation?

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Does Alexander II deserve his historical reputation?

In recent historical perspectives, Alexander II has been described as the Tsar Liberator, the man who freed and ‘modernised’ Russia. Alexander II succeeded to the throne in 1855, at the height of the Crimean War, a war which clearly portrayed the strong backwardness of Russia in comparison to countries such as England and France. It was due to this that the newly appointed Tsar proposed several new reforms to modernise Russia, to be at the same stage of Western countries. This essay will be focusing on whether Alexander deserves the title of the Tsar Liberator and whether he truly freed Russia.

The first move Alexander II made to free Russia was the idea of emancipating the serfs within Russia. In 1861, Alexander issued his Emancipation Manifesto which proposed seventeen various things that would all contribute to freeing the serfs. Serfs were granted a personal freedom of two years, when full freedom would then be granted. Farming serfs were given plots of land in accordance to the size of their family to look after. Landowners got paid compensation in return for giving peasants pieces of land. The serfs would also get wages for working, something which had never occurred in Russia before. Alexander thought giving the serfs freedom would give me a wider range of support. This therefore, supports Alexander’s current reputation. He was the ‘Tsar Liberator’ as he liberated the serfs and gave them their freedom. However, peasants were not actually given full freedom and were bound by several terms of their ‘freedom.’ To begin with, the serfs were not just given plots of land, but had to pay for them. Landowners generally sold land for 134% more than it was actually worth, and regardless to selling it for extortionate prices, they gave the peasants the bad and infertile land and kept the good farming land for themselves. Additionally, peasants lost the right to forage in the forests, use grazing land and any woods that surrounded their land. They had to pay for any resources needed, including logs. Therefore, even though the serfs were now free, they were often bound by economic difficulties. Due to the new expenses of natural resources and infertile pieces of land, serfs generally received less land than they originally had and experienced numerous economic difficulties. Also, this liberation of all serfs and granting them the access to farming land which they would be paid for was not true for all serfs. Domestic serfs were given freedom, however, they received no land and found it hard to find new jobs, leading to many serfs being unemployed and in a worse state than they were originally in. Many things had to change as a result of the emancipation of the serfs, seeing as they now had a new ‘freedom’.

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As a result of liberating the serfs, a new system of law and order had to be created to replace the landowners which originally sorted such matters. A system of elected councils known as the zemstvo were introduced. The governor, appointed by the Tsar, was in control of taxes, appointing officials and had to maintain law and order. The Zemstvo were a local assembly introduced during the major liberal reforms during the reign of Alexander II. Each district elected representatives who had control over the education, roads and agriculture of that region. The zemtvo helped the Tsar increase his ...

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