An area of reform that Alexander II received both praise and criticism for was the reform of local government. Like serfdom Alexander was praised for completely revolutionising the system, however, like serfdom, he was also accused of protecting his autocratic power and leaving serfs with a raw deal. Alexander’s reform of local government was yet another revolutionary one. By creating elected district and provincial assemblies in the Zemstva in villages and the Duma in towns, he granted a certain level of autonomy to local government. The Zemstva and Duma had control over various aspects of Russian life in their area, their control spanned from polices on health, land management, education, economic growth, roads and utilities. These reforms were very impressive from Alexander and suggested that the Tsar was prepared to give up more power in a bid to modernise Russia. However, Alexander’s focus was still on holding on tight to complete power in Russia. There were many aspects of the reforms of local government that prevented the Russia people from questioning the Tsar’s power. Although the Zemstva were elected, the voting system was weighted heavily towards the landowning classes. This gave the serf’s an even tougher time in dealing with their new-found freedom. The introduction of the Zemstva was also a slow process and by 1914 only 43 out of 70 provinces had them. This reform appeared to be happening at an alarmingly slow rate. But this slow and rate of reform was mainly down to Alexander’s wariness and precaution in handing over too much power to the Russian people. Individual Zemstvo were strictly prohibited from staging meetings, as this could be the informal gathering of a Russian pseudo-Parliament. The idea of a Russian Parliament was one that definitely scared Alexander II, and that is why strict rules were put in place to make sure different Zemstvo never met. Another possible reason for Alexander II’s local government reform was to keep the radicals who demanded an increase in local government at bay. The introduction of the Zemstvo and Duma could have been galvanised by a fear that radicals who were against Alexander would rise up and demand more than the Zemstvo and Duma offered. By offering these two forms of local government, Alexander could successfully distract radicals from the fact that he was still and absolute monarch, and therefore still retain a strong grasp on power.
A very successful reform that Alexander II implemented was the reform of legal system. Alexander set up trails by jury, open court proceedings and defence by qualified lawyers was introduced. The judges were made independent and neutral and paid well from the public purse to avoid bribery and corruption. This newly introduced independent bar encouraged the growth of the legal profession in Russia and was a step forward in modernising the country. The reforms were also a genuine move to improve the poor reputation of Russia in terms of human rights and to dispel the image of unjust courts in Russia. Alexander II also chose to meddle very little with the new legal system; once the Tsar appointed new judges it was incredibly difficult to remove them. This aspect was highlighted in the Vera Zasulich case were a women revolutionary attempted to assassinate the mayor of St Petersburg. Zasulich was found not guilty by a jury in case that could have seen the Tsar interfere, but instead Alexander stuck true to his reforms and let the case proceed as usual. This was a sign that Alexander wanted the Russian legal system to move forward and to modernise Russia. However, like all his reforms the legal reforms had their flaws. The serfs and peasants were only allowed to be tried by the Mir courts, so 83% of Russia’s population had no trial by jury available to them. This aspect was incredibly unjust from the serfs and detracted from largely liberal reform. A possible reason why serfs were not allowed trail by jury was that if Alexander granted them this, he could risk further angering the nobles who now had to go through for complex legal procedures than before and could not bribe officials as had previous been the case. The aspect of the reforms suggest that Alexander was trying to hold onto power while once again creating the aura that he was actually reforming Russia, when in fact he only reformed it for 17% of the population. It can also be argued that by creating an independent legal bar a new professional class was born, one that became a new intelligentsia and that could challenge the Tsar’s power. However, this was just a by product, and if anything it points more to how much of liberator and reformer Alexander was, as he musts have known that this would be the case, that a new intelligentsia would challenge him. But he went ahead with the reforms at the risk of being challenged by new schools of thought that would arise from it, as he deemed it the best thing for Russia.
After the humiliation of the Crimean War, Alexander saw it best to reform the military. He introduced varying reforms ranging from the reducing the service required from 25 years to 16 years, to reorganising the command structure. The reform of the command structure and the abolition of paying for ranks within the army was truly a great reform. Alexander strayed from the feelings of the nobles who felt that they should be in complete power within in the army and decided to prevent them from buying places in the army for themselves or their sons. This reform was truly astonishing seeing how rigid the Russian social class system was, and these reforms go to show that Alexander really did want to reform Russia and it’s archaic social system. The military reforms also got morale up amongst the country and increased patriotism towards the Tsar and the state, this was furthered by Russian success against Turkey in the war of 1878. However, there is reason to belief that these military reforms may just have been to support the Tsar’s power and not the people of Russia. Alexander reformed the way the people thought of the army, and made the army something that citizens could be proud of in a move to increase patriotism. The reforms focused on making soldiers realise that they were becoming loyal servants to the state and they developed a sense of patriotic duty amongst the soldiers. These reforms therefore could all have been a façade so that Alexander could tighten his grip on power and on the Russian people, as it had previously been that the army was a threat to the Tsar’s complete power.
An area where Alexander reformed thoroughly was that of education. In 1861, the Tsar appointed Golvonin as minister for education. Under Golvonin many liberal reforms took place that revolutionised the system. Primary education was brought to Mir villages and towns and implemented by the Zemstva and Duma respectively. This reform was a great success and between 1861-1881 the number of children receiving primary education quadrupled. In 1863 Golvonin implemented the secularisation of education from the church, and incredible reform seeing as how one of Nicholas I’s key principles was that of Orthodoxy, relating to the state religion. This improved the standard of education overall. In 1863, there was a reform of the universities that increased the freedom of most aspects of the system. In 1864 secondary schools were also set up by Zemstva and Duma and after Golvonin moved on, his successor Tolstoy continued to reform education and in 1871 technical schools were set up and in 1872 women were allowed in university. These reforms were all extraordinary as they show Alexander willingly allowing a new intelligentsia to be formed. Alexander was perfectly aware of this possibility but still he persisted and implemented all these reforms. The education reforms show Alexander opening himself up to criticism from a new forged class of educated Russians. If Alexander had wanted to strengthen to grip on power that much he would not have made such revolutionary reforms that paved the way for new groups of intelligentsia that would criticise the Tsar’s rule.
Censorship was also reformed by Alexander, between 1855 and 1863 the strict censorship of Nicholas I’s reign were relaxed. The number of books published per year doubled between 1855-164. This shows that Alexander did no want to have a stranglehold on the press and his minister in charge of censorship, Valuev, only sought to isolate radical writers. Alexander and Valuev managed to strike a balance between publisher, writer and the censor. There was definitely a mood of cooperation rather than repression, the latter was the case with Nicholas’ policy on censorship. However, some publication did remain banned, the radical journal The Contemporary was banned, but this was seen as reasonable by the public.
The economy was also in need of reform, and Alexander II decided to do it. There were vast reforms in financial control, taxation and new sources of income were exploited. Annual budgets were also published and the economy was definitely starting to get back on its feet. Alexander II did not have much to gain in terms of strengthening his power over Russia, it was clear that Alexander had to reform the economy in order for this many other reforms to function fully. Despite the reform of the economy, inflation worsened and national debt rose due to the Russo-Turkish War.
In conclusion, Alexander II was without a doubt a great reformer. His vast reforms, which I have spoken about broke Russia out of a previously archaic system. Alexander II also took huge risks with these reforms. With his education reforms being very liberal he risked coming under fire from the new breed of students that his reforms created, the same was the case with the new breed of lawyers that the legal reforms created. This put Alexander’s absolute power at risk, but still he was brave enough to push through the reforms for the benefit of Russia. Alexander II did give the serfs a raw deal in many of his reforms, but he did take the crucial first step in their complete liberation and with it left hi mark on Russian society. Like any Monarch, Alexander II was not perfect, but his reforms completely changed the face of Russia and it society, mostly for the better.
