A Brief Look at Late Tsarist Russia

Late-Tsarist Russia

Introduction

The Late-Tsarist period in Russia is popular in the state’s history in that it was during this time that serfdom was abolished, that is around the early 1860s. Before this era, serfdom was legal and practiced in the traditional Russian systems. Serfdom was an ideology of the late 1640s which gave to landowners the power to override the lives of their peasant serfs (workers) as long as they lived on their land. Serfdom’s legal powers included denial of movement from the landlord’s place, and freedom in acquiring as much service as a landlord could demand. Thus defined, it can be concluded that it was a form of slavery. It is for these reasons that the following study text will evaluate the aftereffects of the 1861 emancipation, and what Russia became after it.

Serfdom was put to an end after it was evident that it contributed to Russia’s lagging behind of the wider European shift to the industrial and commercial ages. This was attributed to Russia’s remaining socially and economically behind because they perceived of the western changes as “unacceptable” ideologies. It was later in the decade that Russia realized that serfdom was responsible for its civil disorders, industrial poverty, overpopulation, food inadequacy, and military incompetence. It was for these reasons that tsar Alexander II called to an abolishment of the act as a means of strengthening Russia. This was, for instance pushed by the need to have a stronger and larger army to fight in the Crimean War unlike the previous one which only had serfs as military men .

As expected, the peasant population was seemingly the biggest gainer of the emancipation that they could enjoy the freedoms equal to everyone in Russia, including freedom ...

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...r but it later emerged that there was a hidden trick in the emancipation which sought to continue with the serfdom. Although these and other minor negative attributes to the emancipation exist, it is evident that the emancipation was of more benefit to Russia. The reasons lie in that political, economical, technological, and industrial growth was achieved through the effects of the emancipation.

Bibliography

Lynch, Michael. “The Emancipation of the Russian Serfs, 1861: A Charter of Freedom or an Act of Betrayal?” History Today (2003), http://www.historytoday.com/michael-lynch/emancipation-russian-serfs-1861-charter-freedom-or-act-betrayal (accessed May 21, 2014).

Moon, David, The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia, 1762-1907, (Longman, 2001).

Sylla, Richard & Toniolo, Gianni, Patterns of European Industrialization: The Nineteenth Century, (Routledge, 2002).