On March 3, 1861, Alexander II abolished serfdom and received the nickname "Liberator" for this. But the reform did not become popular, on the contrary, it was the cause of mass unrest and the death of the emperor.
Landlord initiative
The preparation of the reform was carried out by large feudal landlords. Why did they suddenly agree to compromise? At the beginning of his reign, Alexander gave a speech to the Moscow nobility, in which he voiced one simple thought: "It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to be abolished from below by itself."
His fears were not in vain. In the first quarter of the 19th century, 651 peasant disturbances were registered, in the second quarter of this century - already 1089 disturbances, and over the last decade (1851 - 1860) - 1010, while 852 disturbances occurred in 1856-1860.
The landlords provided Alexander with more than a hundred projects for future reform. Those of them who owned estates in non-black earth provinces were ready to let the peasants go and give them allotments. But the state had to buy this land from them. The landowners of the black earth strip wanted to keep in their hands as much land as possible.
But the final draft of the reform was drawn up under the control of the state in a specially formed Secret Committee.
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False will
After the abolition of serfdom, almost immediately rumors spread among the peasants that the decree he had read was forged, and the landowners had hidden the real manifesto of the tsar. Where did these rumors come from? The fact is that the peasants were given "freedom", that is, personal freedom. But they did not receive the land.
The owner of the land was still the landlord, and the peasant was only its user. To become the full owner of the allotment, the peasant had to buy it from the master.
The emancipated peasant still remained tied to the land, only now he was held not by the landowner, but by the community, which was difficult to leave - everyone was "bound by one chain." For the community members, for example, it was not profitable for wealthy peasants to stand out and run an independent economy.
Buyouts and cuts
On what conditions did the peasants part with their slavery position? The most pressing issue was, of course, that of land. The complete landlessness of the peasants was an economically unprofitable and socially dangerous measure. The entire territory of European Russia was divided into 3 strips - non-black earth, black earth and steppe. In the non-chernozem areas, the size of the allotments was larger, but in the fertile black earth regions, the landowners were very reluctant to part with their land. The peasants had to bear their previous duties - corvee and quitrent, only now it was considered payment for the land provided to them. Such peasants were called temporarily liable.
Since 1883, all temporarily liable peasants were required to redeem their allotment from the landowner, and at a price much higher than the market price. The peasant was obliged to immediately pay the landlord 20% of the redemption sum, and the remaining 80% was paid by the state. The peasants had to repay it for 49 years annually in equal redemption payments.
The distribution of land in individual estates also took place in the interests of the landowners. Allotments were fenced off by landowners' lands from lands that were vital in the economy: forests, rivers, pastures. So the communities had to rent these lands for a high fee.
Step towards capitalism
Many modern historians write about the shortcomings of the 1861 reform. For example, Pyotr Andreevich Zayonchkovsky says that the terms of the ransom were of a predatory nature. Soviet historians unambiguously agree that it was the contradictory and compromise nature of the reform that ultimately led to the 1917 revolution.
But, nevertheless, after the signing of the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom, the life of the peasants in Russia changed for the better. At least they stopped selling and buying them, as if they were animals or things. The freed peasants entered the labor market, got a job in factories and plants. This entailed the formation of new capitalist relations in the country's economy and its modernization.
And, finally, the emancipation of the peasants was one of the first reforms in a series prepared and carried out by the associates of Alexander II. Historian B. G. Litvak wrote: "… such a huge social act as the abolition of serfdom could not pass without a trace for the entire state organism." The changes affected almost all spheres of life: economy, socio-political sphere, local government, army and navy.
Russia and America
It is generally accepted that the Russian Empire was socially a very backward state, because until the second half of the 19th century there was a disgusting custom of selling people at auction like cattle, and the landowners did not incur any serious punishment for killing their serfs. But do not forget that at that very time on the other side of the world, in the United States, there was a war between north and south, and one of the reasons for it was the problem of slavery. Only through a military conflict, which killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Indeed, the American slave and the serf can have quite a few similarities: they did not dispose of their lives in the same way, they were sold, they were separated from their families; personal life was controlled.
The difference lay in the very nature of the societies that gave rise to slavery and serfdom. In Russia, serfs were cheap, and estates were unproductive. The attachment of the peasants to the land was more a political than an economic phenomenon. The plantations of the American South have always been commercial, and their main principles were economic efficiency.