A Modernizing Monarch

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A Modernizing Monarch

By the 1850s, the changes engendered by the SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution had had little impact on Russia.

When Alexander II took power, Russia was an agricultural nation that had been controlled by autocratic tsars who trumpeted Slavic cultural superiority, feared liberal revolutions, and preserved the feudal injustices of serfdom. Alexander became the great modernizer of Russia, walking a delicate line between preserving Russia's Slavic identity and enabling its people to benefit from Western advancements.

Alexander the Emancipator

"The evil of evils is serfdom," a Russian politician admitted in the 1850s. Serfdom affected roughly 23 million SERFS (and their families), who were bound to serve just a quarter million wealthy landowners, or "planters." Serfs faced brutal work conditions, floggings, and poverty. In essence, they were slaves with very limited rights and privileges.

On February 19, 1861, Alexander signed the EDICT OF EMANCIPATION, which abolished serfdom. The Russian state confiscated millions of acres of land from the nobility and gave them limited compensation. The nobility lost over one-third of its land, much of it going to former serfs, who became landowners through the mir, a village community practicing collective agriculture. Mirs and their members ultimately paid compensation through the redemption tax, which hindered development.

Serfdom ended largely due to the efforts of Russian abolitionists and of Alexander, the "Tsar liberator." According to the Russian novelist LEO TOLSTOY, "We owe the Emancipation to the Emperor [Alexander] alone."

Alexander's actions stemmed in part from a traditional tsarist fear of revolution. He once explained to Russian nobles that "it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to await the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below."

Imperial Russia's Shining Era

Although the resulting system of land redistribution and compensation was flawed, it served as an important social reform. The influence of the Russian nobility was weakened, and the reforms freed great numbers of peasants for work when Russia began its belated industrialization.

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Alexander's economic reforms included the expansion of Russia's railroad system, which at the time of the Crimean War consisted of only 650 miles of tracks. It was American money and engineering that between 1842 and 1851 had built Russia's first rail line linking St. Petersburg and Moscow. New railroads soon linked Russia with western Europe, which facilitated the sale of Russian grain and oil, as well as the importation of Western goods, capital, and ideas.

Other key reforms of Alexander's regime included legal changes, such as the establishment of trial by jury, and educational improvements, which finally allowed women ...

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