Domestic and Military Reform

• Alexander II can be seen as a great reformer
• Military reforms under Dmitry Milyutin


  1. Conscription brought out across entire population

  2. Period of service reduced from 25 years to 6 years with 9 years in reserve

  3. Abolished brutal forms of punishment

  4. Improved living conditions of soldiers

  5. Set up military colleges to train officers

  6. Campaigns to improve literacy and education of troops

  7. Stopped using military service as punishment for criminal offences

  8. Introduction of modern weapons and battleships

  9. Development of rail network
• Majority of Russian army still consisted of peasant conscripts, with most officers from aristocratic class
• Russia still struggled due to lack of industrial capacity and cutting-edge technology compared to major powers
• Russia's performance in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 showed the limitations of the military reforms
• Local government reforms


  1. Elected district and provincial assemblies (zemstvos)

  2. Assemblies divided into sections for nobility, townspeople, church, and peasants

  3. Nobility continued to dominate the assemblies

  4. Zemstvos controlled education, health, transport, and poor relief

  5. Chairmen of zemstvos had to be from noble families

  6. No control over state or local taxation, or the legal system
• Alexander II did not intend the zemstvos to be a way of introducing democracy, but rather a way to maintain autocracy
• Judicial reforms


  1. Legal proceedings conducted in public

  2. Freedom of press to report on legal proceedings

  3. Access to courts regardless of class

  4. Charges assessed by juries

  5. Independent judges with better training and pay

  6. Elected justices of the peace
• Juries sometimes acquitted defendants who were clearly guilty due to sympathy, leading the government to introduce special procedures for 'political crimes'
• Education reforms


  1. Universities given more freedom

  2. Primary education made universal but focused on religion and basic literacy

  3. Secondary schools established but fee-paying

  4. Education available regardless of class or gender

  5. Significant increase in number of primary and university students
• Educated students started to be attracted to liberal and radical ideas, leading the government to clamp down on universities from 1866 onwards
• Other domestic reforms included relaxation of censorship, reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church, and some limited rights granted to ethnic minorities like Poles and Finns
• The reforms were limited in scope and the autocratic nature of the tsarist regime remained largely intact