The Zemstra’s functions gave a lot more jobs to the civil servants, e.g. roads, hospitals, education, industry etc… Another good point about the reforms was that the Zemsta gave everyone the right to be educated. Although, it took 6 years before girls could also be educated! Meanwhile there were also 2 different types of schools, the gymnasium and the lesser gymnasium. Yet the lesser gymnasium was teaching the peasants children relevant subjects like history, English and maths. Whilst the gymnasium taught the wealthier children Greek and Latin thus, being less educational. Even so, the gymnasium schools were the only way to university. Which made it a dead end for the peasants! It was also biased towards social class, as poor people like the peasants who made up the majority of Russia were being treated unfairly. In addition, the tsar was making everything more beneficial for the wealthier people who only made up 20% of the population. But even so, at least everyone was being educated and Russia was moving forward.
As a result to this backwardness in the Russian society, there were many people who disagreed with the tsars reforms and lots of revolutionary groups began to form In 1866 there was a first attempt on the tsar’s life. Dmitri karakosov a delusional university student, who was part of a terrorist group called “hell”, tried to shoot the tsar whilst taking a walk in the summer gardens, but missed. He was arrested and executed. In response to the fist attempt on his life, the tsar brought in Shuvalov. Shuvalov was chief of police and also in charge of the third section (secret police). Shuvalov introduced military courts for political violence, increased the use of censorship, created jobs for other extreme conservatives and disagreed with the reforms of Alexander II.
Shuvalov disagreed with the reforms to try and undermine the extremists thereby stooping them from doing any harm. He did this by stopping future reforms thus, slowing the whole process down. This is because reforms gave freedom to revolutionaries to go to the courts and express their views. For example, Vera Zasulish who killed the chief of police in St Petersburg ‘Trepov’. Despite her admitting her guilt, the defence made such play of the inhumanity of the victim that the jury acquainted her to public rejoicing. But Shuvalov wanted to stop all of this he had a lot of money, and was a conservative wanting to keep things the way they were. The outcome to Shuvalov’s policies portray that there was a large number of people who opposed the regime. But these opposes were executed, exiled or imprisoned.
After this in the 1870’s, idealistic young members of the gentry and intelligentsia were still determined to change the political system. But because they were only a small minority of between 1 and 2000 they decided the future lay in the hands of the peasants. They were called the narodkins, who were “going to the people” to try and gain there respect and rouse them into action.
This conveys that Tsars policies did not satisfy the popular demand. As he was the autocrat and people like the intelligentsia were learning about other countries and how they all have democracies. Therefore the violence intensified as people could see how backwards Russia was and wanted to make changes. But the Tsar did not want to lose any power as the autocrat, which he would if Russia had a democracy.
This caused a vicious circle of violence, as terrorists would kill officials then the Tsar would execute, exile or imprison the terrorists. But the terrorists would just continue to kill more officials. Therefore they would keep on attempting to kill Tsar, this was a chain reaction. Because there would always be more revolutionary groups being set up. This shows that there were a lot of people who were dissatisfied with Tsar’s reform on the Russian government and society.
In conclusion, the policies of Alexander II in the years 1861-1881 did succeed in reforming the Russian government and society because the Serfs were freed and did not have to be anybodies slave again. Also everyone had the right to vote to different extents and everyone was being educated. Also, emancipation had also given the serfs their own independence to be free men and make a living. However, the tsar did not succeed in satisfying the popular demand as he gave the serfs freedom from their masters, only to be put in a similar situation if not worse. The tsar also did not succeed in satisfying the popular demand, as he did not introduce a democracy. Yet he gave everyone the right to be educated and didn’t think that they would be learning about other counties and how they had democracies. But, he did introduce a local government ‘the Zemstra’, which gave a lot of jobs to civil servants, introduced education for everyone and also gave every individual the right to vote. This was a huge step forward for Russia as they were not familiar with a democracy because they had never had one.
