Russia after 1856:
- enormous village - stretching from Poland to the Pacific
- the Crimean War - set off a series of changes
    > unable to repel a localized attack by France and England
    > Alexander II (1855-1881) became tsar during the war - not a liberal by nature ==> something should be changed (reforms - followed the European model)

- Political organization in Russia - difficult to understand
    >Westernizers - Russia destined to become more like Europe
    > Slavophiles - Russia had a special destiny, imitation of Europe would weaken or pervert

Institutions:

1. the leading institution: the autocracy of the tsar
    > the tsar did not rule by law ==> but by ukase, police action , and the army
    > the Russian empire - a machine imposed upon its people without organic connection ==> pure bureaucracy
- many Russians - acquired ideas of liberty and fraternity, just and classless society, individual personality enriched by humane culture and moral freedom - from Europe
- universities and the press - severely censored

2. other fundamental institution: - the serfdom (legalized bondage)
    > the bulk of the population - serfs - dependent upon masters
    > serfdom resembled the slavery - the serfs were "owned"
    - could be bought and sold and used in other occupations
      than agriculture (serfs could work in factories and mines
      could rented out) ( serfs - more independent: artisans,
      mechanics, traveling and residing in the cities - from
      earnings they had to remit fees to the lord, or return
      home when called)
    - the owners had paternalistic responsibilities for their
      serfs ( in the villages the gentry constituted a personal
      local government)
- mid - 19th century: conservative and liberal Russians - serfdom must end.
    > serfdom: ceased to be profitable
    > serfdom: recognized as a bad system of labor relations - making the muzhiks into illiterate drudges ( no initiative, self-respect, and pride), poor soldiers for the army

- intelligentsia - distinctive feature of Russian life -
    > people who were: educated, had ideas, subscribed to magazines, engaged in critical conversation - a separate class
( students, university graduates, people who had leisure to read)
    > believed that intellectuals should play a large role in society ==> attitude of opposition, some turned to revolutionary and terrorist philosophies

The Emancipation Act of 1861 and Other Reforms

Alexander II:

- gave permission to travel outside of Russia
- eased the controls on the universities
- eased the censorship => newspapers and journals were founded

==> outburst of public opinion ==> that agreed on the necessity of emancipation of the peasants

Alexander II - set up a branch of the government to study the question
==> 1861: imperial ukase - declared serfdom abolished and the peasants free
- peasants became legally free
- they were subjects of the government ( not of their owners)

The Act of Emancipation:

- roughly it allocated half of the cultivated land to the gentry and half to the former serfs
- the peasants had to pay redemption money for the land and for the fees the gentry lost
- the peasants did not posses the land according to principles of private property - the land became the collective property of the ancient peasant village assembly - mir -
- the village - was responsible to the government for payment of the redemption and for the collection of the sums from its individual members
- the village could prevent peasants from moving away
- the government forbade the selling of land to persons outside the village
-not all peasants within a village unit were equal - some had rights to work more land than others, some - right of inheritance of land ( not all lands were reassigned yearly)

==> None of the Russian peasants - full individual freedom of action. They were restricted ( in their movement, obligations and thoughts) by their villages (like - in the past by their lords)

- Alexander II: westernize the legal system
> the lord's jurisdiction - replaced with a system of local courts
1864: edict
> trials were made public
> private persons received the right to be represented in court by lawyers
> class distinctions in judicial matters - abolished
> a clear sequence of lower and higher courts - established
> laid down requirement for professional training of judges, stated salaries
> system of juries (English model) - introduced

==> attempt to establish a rule a law

1864: edict ==> self-government

> created a system of provincial and district councils - zemstvos - elected by various elements (including peasants)
- zemstvos took up matters of : education, medical relief, public welfare, food supply, road maintenance

Liberals - urged for a representative body for all Russia - a Zemsky Sobor or Duma ==> Alexander II refused

1866, 1873, 1880 - Alexander II barely escaped assassination
1881 - killed by a bomb

Revolutionaries - unhappy with the reforms
- nihilists: believed in nothing - except science - and took a critical view of the reforming tsar and his zemstvos
- Bakunin and his disciple Nechaiev - anarchists: they called for terrorism against tsarist officials and liberals

Alexander II - support among the liberals
- 1880: abolished the Third Section, allowed the press to discuss freely political subjects, freedom to the zemstvos
- he proposed two nationally elected commissions to sit with the council of state ( like a parliament) ==> he signed the edict on March 13, 1881 and on the same day he was assassinated (People's Will)

Alexander III (1881-1894) abandoned the project for elected commissions
- reverted to a program of resistance to liberals and revolutionaries