Reasons for Emancipation
- The reasons why Alexander wanted to emancipate the serfs is because serfdom was the reason that Russia was so weak and poor.
- It was responsible for military incompetence, food shortages, overpopulation, civil disorder, and industrial backwardness.
- Alexander II believed that without serfdom the economy and social status would change to make Russia back into the great country it was.
- Alexander II also shared with his father, Nicholas I, that American slavery was inhumane.
- After a number of committees met and talked about the master, Alexander published his Emancipation Manifesto in mArch 1861. The The Manifesto was quickly turned into a law, and all privately owned serfs were given the right to become free citizens, free to marry, own their own land and businesses.
- After the emancipation there was an increase in commercial farming and it had a dramatic impact on Russia's agricultural sector. The changes also led to social unrest. The heavy burden of having to deal with payments caused resentment among the peasants.
- Some landlords would raise their prices that the peasants were forced to continue working for their old landlords. Some of the peasants had to pay their landowners with crops, or to continue to pay them rent in order to keep their land.
- The Russian industry also expanded, cities, communications, and banks also grew. In Ukraine and the East, the emancipation led to increased grain production. Grain exports went up steeply- from 31% of exports in 1861-65 to 47% in 1891-95.
- The loss of the former benefits of the common land, pastureland and the woods, as well as the removal of the landlord's protection, was enough to put many peasant families well below subsistence level. Also land could still be taken away and reallocated by the mir to ensure that all the male children born within the community had allotments.