1 / 9

History 440: Alexander II, “Tsar Liberator”

History 440: Alexander II, “Tsar Liberator”. Alexander II, r. 1855-1881. Born April 1818 Eldest son of Nicholas I Tutor: Vasily Zhukovsky founder of Russian Romanticism Kindness, warmth, humane Toured Europe and 20 provinces Potential not anticipated.

goro
Download Presentation

History 440: Alexander II, “Tsar Liberator”

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. History 440: Alexander II, “Tsar Liberator”

  2. Alexander II, r. 1855-1881 • Born April 1818 • Eldest son of Nicholas I • Tutor: VasilyZhukovsky • founder of Russian Romanticism • Kindness, warmth, humane • Toured Europe and 20 provinces • Potential not anticipated. • Adhered to no particular set of ideas, neither a radical or a reactionary

  3. Coronation26 August/7 September 1856 • Ended the war, then celebration. • Count von Moltke’s account: ritual, riches, ceremony. • “Behind the troops stood the bearded populace, with heads uncovered, close together, but without crowding.” • Queen mother • Church’s role

  4. Causes of the Great Reforms • Crimean War, 1853-1856 • Humiliating defeat on “Russian” soil • Defeat greatly undermined Romanovs’ legitimacy. • Exposed army’s problems, especially recruitment “non-system” and poor quality of soldiers. • technological inadequacies: • Railroad • telegraph (dispatches took 7.5 days to Piter) • Symptoms of a larger, key problem: serfdom • Emergence of “enlightened” bureaucracy • Earlier reform attempts

  5. Emancipation of serfs, 1861 • 1857: Polish nobles of Lithuania complained. • 1858: Alexander called for committees to “improve the condition of peasants.” • Two proposals: with or without land • 3 March 1861: Emancipation Manifesto • 23 million serfs emancipated • Got the worse half of the land • Had to pay for it over 49 years • Strengthened and empowered the village commune “mir” or “obshchina” – in charge of land redistribution.

  6. 1861 manifesto proclaimed • Bezdna uprising, April 1861: • Kazan province • 5000 peasants • Up to 91 killed • 350 wounded • Black Repartition (Chornyi peredel)

  7. Other Great Reforms 1864: Judicial reform • New penal code • Simplified and liberalized court system: • Equality before the law • Public hearings • Trial by jury • Professional legal advocate for all parties • Abolished death penalty

  8. Other Great Reforms 1864: Local Government reform • Zemstvo: local self-government, five curia: • large landed proprietors • small landowners, clergy in their capacity of landed proprietors • wealthier townsmen • less wealthy urban classes; • delegates of the peasants, elected by the volosts • Not democracy (nobles were 74% of members, but 1.3% of population) • But greater representation.

  9. Other Great Reforms 1874: Military reform: • universal military conscription • army reserve • military district system • building of strategic railways • Better military education of officer corps

More Related