The issuing of the emancipation statuses was a great leap forward for Russia, however they were imperfect and largely criticized by Russia’s more liberal thinkers. As the aim of the reform was to break serfdom while minimizing the social, economic and political disruption that would ensue, many were disappointed by its limitations. The serfs seem to have gained quite a lot from the statuses, however upon closer examination the gains are negated by considerable losses. Although the serfs were given freedom from noble interference and control of their lives the Mir, or peasant commune, tended to replace the gentry in terms of controlling the lives of peasants. Furthermore, the serfs were freed from feudal dues and payments, however these were replaced by higher tax burdens, the need to rent additional land at higher prices and the exorbitant prices at which they had to buy the land they worked. Although this first reform legally changed the life of the Russian peasants as well as abolished the institution of serfdom practically very little changed.
The emancipation of the serfs led to many other reforms. The next reform to take place under Alexander II was the reform of the Judiciary in 1864. The previous judicial system had been characterized by secrecy, corruption and inquisitorial procedures reminiscent of the European witchcraft trials. The new system was loosely based on the British judicial system; it had an open western structure and system of procedure. The new accusatorial system introduced barristers and a jury system. Secrecy was abolished and the trial proceedings were published verbatim in a government newspaper, the Russian Courier.
However this new reform was far from perfect. Peasants were excluded from the new system and had to be content with justice dispensed by the local courts and government-appointed justices of the peace. Furthermore, later in his reign, political trials tested the new system, which suffered from new restrictions. Although these criticisms show the weakness of the reform, in essence Alexander II was able to revolutionize justice in Russia.
As serfdom was a central part of the organization of the Russian state, after the emancipation, crucial function such as provision and maintenance of roads and bridges, schooling, medical care, which had been the responsibility of serf owners, now became the responsibility of the state. Before 1864, the local government consisted of the landlord fulfilling the state requirement for taxation and recruitments with the occasional intervention of troops to put down peasant disturbances. New structures had to be devised to replace the old local government and take on the new responsibilities. The choice to create elected assemblies was a cheep way of extending the bureaucracy, fulfilling the needs of the people without creating more jobs and salaries, which Russia could not afford to pay.
The introduction of zemstva, Russian for local assembly, was ground breaking as it endorsed the elective principle as opposed to the autocratic and bureaucratic principles in Russian politics. The dumy was the urban equivalent of the zemstva. These local assemblies implied that Russia could have a representative political system as the assembly officials were elected every year. This was the beginning of proper local governments.
The zemstva operated on a two-tier system, district and the higher-level provincial guberniya zemstva. Although they may have seemed democratic, they were actually a concession to the local gentry and had no intention of being remotely democratic. The votes were heavily weighted towards the local landowners they had 42% of the seats in the lower tier and 74% in the upper tier while the peasants had 38% and 10.5% respectively. Furthermore, although they were elected annually they only met for long enough to elect a standing council to undertake local administration
Although the zmestva and dumy have been criticized for their inadequacies especially when compared to western administrative systems, in a Russian context theses reforms gave Russia the proper basis of local government for the first time.
After the defeat in Crimea it was self evident that Russia needed to modernize their army. The first step was changing the recruitment methods. Short term service with the bulk of the army made up of reserves. Following the Prussian model, Russia integrated the army with the nation instead of isolating it as they had done before. Professional military service was reduced to 15 years (from 25) and could be further reduced according to level of education; this reform was applicable to all citizens regardless of social class. The army also had to be reorganized; the empire was divided into 15 military districts to facilitate mobilization. Lastly the training establishments needed to be modernized and the education given to the recruits no longer focused solely on military training but rather a more general education.
This reform had a large impact, not only on Russian military life but on society as a whole. The army became much more civilized and integrated in Russian life, an example of this is that recruits no longer needed to shave their heads. Furthermore, the army used to be a life sentence, however now, recruits could expect to return home better equipped for daily life. Modernizing the army was not solely a military reform; it was equally a social transformation as it led to the reform of education.
The military reform also pushed towards a change of the Russian education system. These changes affected the largest urban universities to the smallest rural elementary schools. Firstly, universities abolished their quota system, which allowed increasing numbers of students from non-gentry backgrounds to attend. The number of elementary and secondary schools also rose considerably during this period. Elementary schools were used to ‘strengthen religious and moral notions and to spread basic, useful knowledge’ so that the peasantry might become literate and numerate. While secondary schools were to teach ‘children of all estates […] without distinction of profession or religious belief.’
However, this liberalism was short lived. Political radicalism on university campuses made the government uneasy. The government responded by restricting the numbers of courses and students in an attempt to strangle the subversive element. Sunday schools were closed as the Third Section, the secret police, believed them to be hotbeds of radicalism and opposition. The reforms freed the universities of their restrictions, however they were vulnerable to seductive, subversive western ideas, which made the government impose further limitation. As such, the Russian educational reform could be seen as taking one big step forward followed by two steps back.
Alexander II last reform was the economy. The backwardness of Russian economy was one of the main causes of Russia’s military inefficiency in the Crimean War. Russia’s military defeat was an indicator of the urgent need to modernize the economy. The modernization of the economy began with a vigorous industrialization policy. Railway construction was at the top of the government’s political and economic agenda. The most important effect was to reduce the price inequalities between the cities in the north and the main producing regions in the south. This in turn stimulated urbanization and further industrialization.
This was followed by a vital reform of the countries finances; the state began publishing its accounts. The government abolished the ancient, inefficient system of tax farming where financiers could ‘farm’ taxes, collecting them in whatever quantity they saw fit and giving the government only the money it required and pocketing the surplus. This was replaced with an excise tax, the equivalent of the British value added tax (VAT). Finally, a state bank was founded in 1860 followed by municipal banks and savings banks in hopes of stabilizing the rouble With little private capital or western entrepreneurship to fall back on, the Minister of finance was able to establish momentum and revolutionize the Russian economy.
After his assassination in 1881, Alexander II was given the title of ‘Tsar Liberator’ in recognition of his emancipation of the serfs. Throughout his rein Alexander II, well aware of the need to modernize Russia, put forward several reforms. His first reform, the emancipation of the serfs, legally changed the status of Russian peasants however very little changed in terms of their lifestyle or freedom. A similar example of this was the education reform; the government gave the universities freedom only to attempt to take it away when subversive ideas began to form. However not all the reforms failed in changing Russian life and institutions. Alexander II was able to revolutionize the justice system in Russia, give Russia the proper base of local government for the first time and completely modernize the army. In essence, the ‘Tsar Liberator’ succeeded in reforming some aspects of Russian life and institutions and fell quite short of the mark for others.
