Effectiveness of the Emancipation Serfs

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How Effective was the Emancipation of the Serfs

Before answering this question, we have to understand the complexity and how difficult Alexander II’s task was. The Tsar had to completely change the structure of the country by destroying the system that it had been using for many years. Something had to be done as this system caused Russia to become a backwards economy which caused a once powerful country to fall behind the other great powers of Europe.

 Alexander II’s main aims for the emancipation were to prevent Russia’s economy to further decline, help Russia become a modern industrial economy  and to improve the weak military. Although Russia had the largest army, 1.2 million soldiers, they were the weakest in training and power.

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Alexander II proposed to “abolish serfdom from above rather than wait until it abolishes itself from below”. The Emancipation allowed the peasants to gain freedom by owning land and having the ability to start their own business. This led to an increase in population and a substantial growth in industrialisation as peasants had the freedom to leave their farms and work in factories. 85% of the peasants became landowners and met the payments. The nobles thought that by the peasants gaining part of their land, they would lose money, but they were repaid due to the interest payments made by ...

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