Limitations of Emancipation

• The landlords twisted emancipation to suit themselves and not the peasants.
• Some disturbances in the months immediately following the edict.
• The areas granted to the peasants were often too small, resulting in an average holding of just 9 acres.
• The landlords often inflated the estimated value of their land in order to boost their compensation.
• Most peasants remained impoverished as a result of small landholdings and did not provide sufficient consumer demand to stimulate the growth in industry which was necessary for the modernisation of Russia.
• Peasants remained tied to the village commune (mir) which continued to control many aspects of the peasants’ lives including the allocation of land, restricting travel through internal passports and preventing freedom of enterprise.
• Government payments to the landowners were often used to pay off existing debts.

  One estimate suggests that this absorbed 248 million roubles out of the 543 million paid in total by the government.

  As a result, the landowning class as a whole lacked the capital to invest in the significant modernisation of industry and agriculture.
• The loss of land and local economic and political influence led some nobles to sell up and move to towns, taking with them their resentment of the government.