Section 2 - Emancipation of the Serfs + Impacts

• The Crimean War ended in March 1856.
• Alexander II set up committees to examine emancipation.
• Alexander II delivered pro-emancipation speeches when he toured Russia in 1858-59.
• Provincial nobles failed to agree on emancipation measures and debate took place between them and Alexander II.
• Alexander II established a committee with 38 members on it to examine emancipation and it was led by Nicholas Milyutin.
• The emancipation of the serfs was proclaimed in Alexander II's Edict of 1861.
• Emancipation only applied to privately-owned serfs.
• Serfs owned by the state would receive their freedom in 1866.
• Emancipation permitted modernisation but supporters of it found that it was not as "liberating" as expected.
• Landlords received government bonds and compensation from emancipation which could be used for redeeming debt and investing in enterprises.
• Some landlords could only pay off debts with their compensation and they were forced to sell land.
• Serfs were declared free and they could marry, own property, travel and have rights.
• Serfs were given an allotment of land and a cottage to live in but the quality of the land varied between serfs.
• Enterprising peasants could buy land and sell surplus grain.
• Serfs could move to an industrialised city if they sold their land.
• Rights of serfs often remained theoretical because of other terms of the Edict.
• Serfs were required to pay 49 annual redemption payments.
• Redemption payments provoked unrest.
• The issue with land prices was that they were fixed above the market value which left serfs in debt.
• Some peasants had to work for their old masters and rent land in order to survive
• The Mir was responsible for tax and redemption collection and the serfs had to remain in the Mir until redemption payments were finished.
• Mirs supervised farming of allocated land and they promoted backward farming practices.
• Mirs constrained peasants and they couldn't leave the countryside.
• Landowners were allowed to retain personal land.
• Some serfs struggled because they couldn't make a living without additional land protection that they lost from their landowners.
• Communal open fields were opened by the Mirs for everyone.
• The Obruk was a labour service that remained for two years of "temporary obligation".
• The peasants felt resentful about the Obruk and there were 647 riots over 4 months.
• Historian John Gooding said that the Emancipation Edict from a European perspective "might not have seemed like freedom at all".