Alexander II

• 49 years of redemption payments
• Minister of Interior reported 647 peasant revolts in the first four months after emancipation
• 43 out of 70 provinces had zemstvo by 1914
• Nobility elect 60% of zemstvo
• Provincial governors power to override zemstvo
• Judicial reforms, 1864, led to independent judiciary, open trials and trial by jury
• Zemstva Act


  1864
• Expansion of university places from 3,600 to 10,000
• University Regulation


  1863
• Tolstoy from 1866 had control over curriculum in schools and universities
• Universities autonomy over curriculum
• Conscription reduced from 25 years to 6 years
• 153 of 193 acquitted in trail of the 193 and those who were sentences got light sentences
• Dissolution of St Petersburg zemstvo after calls for constitutional reform (wanted a central zemstvo office) and exile of leaders 1866
• 1866 and 1867 assassination attempts led to increasing reliance on the Third Section
• Vera Zasulich acquitted against all evidence after she shot and seriously wounded a general who had given orders that an imprisoned student be flogged for refusing to salute
• Alexander II: '"It is better to abolish serfdom from above than wait for the time when it begins to abolish itself from below"'
• Ex-serfs lost, on average, 4.1% of their pre-1861 agricultural holdings, with it being as high as 30.8% in Ukraine
• Free peasants could marry without the consent of a third party, could no longer be bought or sold, hold property in his own name, etc. (so liberating in some ways)
• Following the 1863 revolt attempt in Poland, a revised Emancipation Statute was quickly introduced that provided fairer and more equitable distribution of land
• Property of Polish Roman Catholic Church was seized in 1864
• Warsaw's university was closed in 1869 and replaced by the Imperial University of Warsaw – a university with the Russian language as the language of instruction
• Decrees issued in 1863 and 1876 which forbade the publication and import of books written in Ukrainian
• The 1863 Valuev Circular, issued by the minister of internal affairs: the Ukrainian Language "never existed, doesn't exist, and can't exist"
• The use of the Finnish language had not just been permitted under Alexander II, but made compulsory in local administration
• Demands for separate Finnish Parliament (Diet) in 1863 and constitution in 1865 conceded to
• Treaty of San Stefano – signed March 1878, Russia signed it due to wanting to create a large client state in Bulgaria, signed with Turkey giving her (Russia) a victory
• Treaty of San Stefano overturned at international conference in Berlin where Russia had to back down and agree to dividing Bulgaria
• Russia just about defeats Turkey in Russo-Turkish war
• Polish revolt, 1863
• Reason for Polish revolt 1863: reforms to improve their position did not happen
• Following the 1863 Polish revolt, a revised Emancipation Statute was introduced that provided fairer and more equitable distribution of land
• First zemstvo laws went into effect in 1864
• Ukrainians looked to develop a separate cultural identity, and this was reflected in literature and arts in general (however, this was mainly a small group of academics)
• The Finnish did not particularly oppose Alexander II or question authority
• Jews were more of a perceived than genuine threat, as they never seemed to pose much active opposition
• Jews weren't members of the Russian Orthodox Church, in theory giving them les reason to support tsars
• Alexander II expanded the rights of rich and educated Jews to live beyond the Pale of Settlement (this was a restrictive artificial place of settlement for Jews
• The Intelligentsia were an anti-autocracy minority who set the tone of literate society and wanted to dismantle the Orthodox Church, which was seen as a way of justifying autocracy, and end the repression and exploitation of peasantry. They took ideas from Slavophiles and Westernisers, feeling Russia was backwards in comparison to the West but were also crucial of some western ways, e.g. materialism. They weren't a single, unified group and had nowhere to express their ideas due to the lack of a national assembly.
• Reasons for growth in revolutionary activity 1862-9:

  • Failure of emancipation to liberate peasantry
  • Dissolution of St Petersburg Zemstvo after calls for constitutional reform and exile of leaders in 1866
  • 1866 and 1867 assassination attempts and increasing reliance on Third Section