Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Alexander II of Russia's reforms.

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Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of Alexander II’s reforms

Alexander II of Russia (1855-1881), also known as the Tsar Liberator, was well prepared to take over Nicholas I of Russia’s reign; Lionel Kochan said the he was, ‘the best prepared heir the Russian throne ever had.’ Alexander II was faced with a Russia which was seen by many as a hopelessly backward nation. He could see there was a crucial need for restructuring, or perestroika, as it has been referred to in more modern times.  His reforms included:  serfdom, local government, law, censorship, and the army.  

The most famous of Alexander II’s reform is The Emancipation of Serfdom.   Alexander II shared the same conviction as his father that American slavery was inhumane; Serfdom in Russia was compared to American slavery. The relationship between lord and serf was, in fact, a little different.  It was because the serf lived and worked on the lord’s land that he was bound to the lord. The Crimean War initially started off the reform of serfdom. Russia suffered a heavy defeat, probably due to low morale in the Russian army, the majority of which were serfs; it had failed to provide the calibre of soldier Russia needed. In order to restore peace at home and be honoured abroad, the emancipation of serfdom was a vital first step.

Alexander II knew that in order to carry out his reform peacefully they would have, ‘to destroy serfdom from above than to wait until that time when it begins to destroy itself from below’.  These words are famous and express Alexander II’s motives: to keep peace within the country, which it did. What is often less quoted is his inability of knowing how to do this: ‘I ask you, gentlemen, to figure out how all this can be carried out to completion.’  The basic aim of the emancipation was to satisfy both the lords and the serfs: this turned out not to be the case. The lords were allowed to keep two-thirds of their land, and got to choose what they kept.  Unsurprisingly, they chose the best pieces of land. The serfs got the left overs. Furthermore, the serfs had to buy the land they got. Since they had no savings they were offered 100 per cent mortgages, 80 per cent offered by the state bank and 20 per cent by the landlord himself. The peasant now had redemption payments that became a lifelong burden that then had to be handed down on to their children. They were now tied to their lifelong debt to the government and landlord which is no real change from before; it only had the appearance of liberty.  It did, however, mean that the peasant population were able to move around thus Russia being able to become a more industrial nation. The workforce increased from 860,000 to 1,320,000 people by 1887.  An increase in workforce meant Russia’s economy would have grown.  Alexander had hoped that the liberated peasantry would be thankful to tsar and increased support and make worthier recruits to the army: this was not the case.

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The majority of serfs stayed within the lord’s land. The Russian government promoted them to stay because it made it easier for them to control the new ‘free’ population.  They achieved this through the re-organisation of local government.  The Mir was formed which became the focus of life in the countryside. The motives for this were administrative. The freed serfs now had to pay taxes and the Mir was an effective way to collect them.  The Mir was a controlling mechanism for keeping order in the countryside. It kept Alexander II’s government safe from being rebelled against. But the peasantry were ...

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