Investigation of the Effect of the Policies of Alexander II in Russia

Investigation of the Effect of the Policies of Alexander II in Russia

Alexander 11 was the son of Nicholas 1. Alexander came to the thrown

in 1856. Alexander’s reforms were unfair to many especially the

peasants. However, they were a step forward for Russia as a whole.

The emancipation of the serfs was introduced in 1860. This affected

the serfs immensely. The serfs now became peasants and were each given

land, which also gave some peasants opportunities to become Kulaks.

However, it could be argued that the peasant’s lives were no better

than before as the emancipation proved to be very unpopular. There

were many peasants rioting at the beginning as redemption dues were

introduced which meant that the peasants had to pay for the land they

were given. Moreover, these payments tied the peasants to the Mir.

Thus in reality the peasants were not free and had no means of getting

away from the Mir as the land was redistributed annually so there was

no incentive to improve it. Peasants were also much poorer than before

thus, there was no stability of tenure. This conveys that agriculture

in Russia still remained backward.

The tsar wanted to improve Russia but he kept 80% of the population as

peasants. He decided that the peasants needed some kind of guidelines

to tell them how to live. So he came up with the judicial reform. This

was a chain of courts starting at the bottom was the volost which was

the court that peasants took their issues to. The chamber of justice

was the only court that allowed a jury. Therefore peasants would never

get that chance because of their low status and lack of money. Even

though the judicial reform enabled the peasants to express their views

in a court it still treated them as nobody’s, just as they were

before. Another reform was the Zemsta (local government). The tsar’s

purpose of this reform was to give everyone the right to vote. This

reform took 4 years to set up so that there were no rebellious