The Russian defeat in the Crimean War was a wake-up call to the autocracy.
While St. Petersburg could boast that it commanded the largest army in Europe
(in numbers), poor roads, antiquated weapons, and low morale prohibited the
effective use of that awesome potential power. The defeat proved to the
autocracy in charge that Russia had fallen dangerously behind its Western
neighbors, making it vulnerable to future attack and invasion.
Why had Russia lost? Looking to Western models and contrasting Russian society
to, say, French or Prussian society, one element remained outstanding: the
continued existence in Russia of serfdom. Whether out of genuine
progressive beliefs or merely a need for an effective conscript army when the
next war developed, Alexander II initiated a period of reform in Russia with
the February 19, 1861 Emancipation of the serfs.
This "emancipation", however, was barely related to what the peasants themselves
were expecting. While the 360-page statute did give them "the status of free
rural inhabitants," peasants were still subject to considerable taxes and a
passport system to restrict movement throughout the country. In addition, the
land settlement was equally as unfulfilling. Not only did freedom from land
obligations only come up for termination in 1863, but also those so-called
"temporary obligations" could continue until both the peasants and their local
landlords came to a mutually agreeable settlement. When and if that moment ever
came, the peasants would receive a small portion of the land through government-
financed redemption payments to the landlord--a sum the former serfs would have
to repay over a forty-nine year period.
Nevertheless, for autocratic Russia under the Romanov dynasty, this was
unprecedented reform. Even more striking were the additional reforms that
continued until Alexander's death--the so-called Great Reforms. They can be
divided into the following categories:
1. Local government reform: Since vast numbers of new citizens, i.e. former
serfs, now populated the countryside, a system of elected local governments, or
zemstvos, arose to replace the old institutions of landlord rule. These
assemblies, with separate seats for peasants, townspeople, and private
landowners, were responsible for maintaining the local infrastructure and
industrial development. Through taxation of all classes, the zemstvo
built bridges, roads, hospitals, and prisons and provided essential services
such as healthcare and poverty relief.
2. Education reform: At the call of the Elementary School Statute of 1864, a
litany of elementary schools sprang up across the country, though funding was
remanded to the local government, to overcome the massive illiteracy that
plagued the former serfs. The 1863 University Statute reorganized colleges and
universities into effective self-governing corporations, with considerable
freedom for both faculty and students.
3. Judicial reform: The Judiciary Statute of 1864 overhauled the Russian court
system based on these liberal principles--equality of all before the law, an
independent judiciary, jury trial by propertied peers, public legal
proceedings, and the establishment of an educated legal profession.
4. Military reform: The Universal Military Training Act of 1874 established
all-class conscription and called for technological improvement, elite
reorganization, and new military schools.
5. Expression reform: Alexander's Temporary Regulations of 1865 abandoned pre-
censorship, or censorship of journals or groups before publication, in favor of
punitive measures after the fact.
Teased by these halfhearted reforms from above, dissatisfied peasants,
intellectuals, professionals, and even some liberal gentry sought greater
freedom through recourse to violent revolutionary movements to overthrow the
Tsarist government. Widely labeled as populist movements whose aims focused on
giving all Russian land back to the peasants, these groups used clandestine
terrorism in the late 1870s to kill Alexander II, finally succeeding on March
1, 1881. An era of modest reform in Russia was over.
