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Modern European History
A Modernizing Monarch
By the 1850s, the changes engendered by the SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution had had little impact on Russia.
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| The charge of the Light Brigade took place at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. More than 500 British horsemen died in this futile charge, which was commemorated in the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. |
When Alexander II took power, Russia was an agricultural nation that had been controlled by autocratic tsars who trumpeted Slavic cultural superiority, feared liberal revolutions, and preserved the feudal injustices of serfdom. Alexander became the great modernizer of Russia, walking a delicate line between preserving Russia's Slavic identity and enabling its people to benefit from Western advancements.
For centuries, Russian tsars desired maritime access to the Mediterranean Sea. France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire feared that such expansion would jeopardize their interests in the region. The conflict came to a head with the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Roughly 300,000 Russians died in the fierce fighting that resulted in a Russian military loss.
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Russia's poor military performance in the war, especially its inability to utilize rail links to mobilize troops, left a lasting impression on Alexander, who signed the Peace of Paris in 1856.
Alexander the Emancipator
"The evil of evils is serfdom," a Russian politician admitted in the 1850s. Serfdom affected roughly 23 million SERFS (and their families), who were bound to serve just a quarter million wealthy landowners, or "planters." Serfs faced brutal work conditions, floggings, and poverty. In essence, they were slaves with very limited rights and privileges.
On February 19, 1861, Alexander signed the EDICT OF EMANCIPATION, which abolished serfdom. The Russian state confiscated millions of acres of land from the nobility and gave them limited compensation. The nobility lost over one-third of its land, much of it going to former serfs, who became landowners through the mir, a village community practicing collective agriculture. Mirs and their members ultimately paid compensation through the redemption tax, which hindered development.
Serfdom ended largely due to the efforts of Russian abolitionists and of Alexander, the "Tsar liberator." According to the Russian novelist LEO TOLSTOY, "We owe the Emancipation to the Emperor [Alexander] alone."
Alexander's actions stemmed in part from a traditional tsarist fear of revolution. He once explained to Russian nobles that "it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to await the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below."
Alexander's economic reforms included the expansion of Russia's railroad system, which at the time of the Crimean War consisted of only 650 miles of tracks. It was American money and engineering that between 1842 and 1851 had built Russia's first rail line linking St. Petersburg and Moscow. New railroads soon linked Russia with western Europe, which facilitated the sale of Russian grain and oil, as well as the importation of Western goods, capital, and ideas.
Imperial Russia's Shining Era
Although the resulting system of land redistribution and compensation was flawed, it served as an important social reform. The influence of the Russian nobility was weakened, and the reforms freed great numbers of peasants for work when Russia began its belated industrialization.
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| The reign of Alexander II was marked by a flourishing cultural life. Despite the advances of the peasants and working class, the splendor of the imperial court remained unsurpassed in eastern Europe and soon caused much resentment among the Russian people. |
Russian intellectuals sharpened their Slavic identities on the iron and steel of Alexander's modernization. Poles and Finns chafed at Russian control. Writers and artists espoused anti-Western attitudes. Marxists protested industrial work conditions. Nihilists, terrorists, and anarchists called for the abolition of the state and the assassination of its leaders. On March 13, 1881, in the midst of this instability, Alexander II died at the hands of a Polish terrorist, thus ending a quarter century of rule that helped bring Russia into the modern age.
Alexander's liberalization of Russian society had its limits. Secret police forces and state censorship inhibited political organization. Corruption precluded the efficient operation of state bureaucracies. Russian authorities continued to exile dissenters to Siberia. These practices increased under ALEXANDER III.
By the end of the 19th century, Russia lagged behind many of its European contemporaries. Liberal reform had barely advanced, and in industry Russia trailed Britain, France, and Germany. Although most Russian citizens were loyal to the Russian nation, the people were internally divided along class and ideological lines. The resulting social and political unrest eventually ended tsarist rule.
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