Question by Billy Rowe: What prompted Alexander II to institute long overdue reforms in Russia? What were these two reforms?
I have a summer packet I have to do for school.
I am on chapter one and I am stuck on these two questions. I can’t seem to find it in the book OR, on the internet.
Can someone help me, or point me to the right direction?
What prompted Alexander II to institute long overdue reforms in Russia?
What were these two reforms?
Yeah, lame answer; however, I found the correct answer in Chapter 2.
Thanks anyway, you gave me inspiration.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Spellbound
Alexander reformed many things about Russia. This was a response the Russia’s backwardness that was exposed by the Crimean War of the 1850s. Alexander attempted to reform agriculture to pay for the industrial investment and to directly invest in industrialising the country.
Socially, he freed the serfs. But they had to buy their freedom and many could not afford the 50 year repayments. The land was not given to them, it was given to the village council – the Mir. The Mir then divided up the land according to who had the greatest need – so a family with a lot of children would get more land than a family with one child. If, however, someones children died, their land was re-allocated to others. All land was re-approtioned on a regular (I think 5 year basis), so there was no incentive to improve the land. this was also implemented in order to free up the workforce so they could move to the new industrial centres.
Economically he drew up plans for a massive investment in railways – (put in place under Alexander III). The emancipation, he hoped, would lead to greater agricultural output, in order to finance the railways, and the beginnings of Russia’s industrialisation. He also invested in new iron and steel works – for armaments, new textiles factories – for uniforms, and new manufacturing industries – for arms and ammunition.
Politically he instituted new provincial councils – zemstvos, and town councils, but these were dominated by the landed classes and so were not genuinely democratic or representative organisations.
He also reformed the army & navy, along the British model, but soldiers were still signed on for 25 years and life in the armed forces was extremely harsh, except for officers in the elite guards regiments, who were drawn from the aristocracy and could use their position to gain personal fortunes.
He hoped that his reforms would quell the growing Narodnik movement (radical peasants who wanted to take ownership of the land from the aristocracy) and, in the cities, the growing popularity of Marxism.
See:
Russia, People & Empire – 1552 – 1917 by Geoffrey Hosking
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSalexander2.htm
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