In 1861, in Russia, Tsar Alexander II decreed the edict of emancipation of serfs. In theory, this was to give perfect freedom to the millions of state serfs and peasants in Russia. The reasons he did this can be seen in the years leading up to his declaration of emancipation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'?Get the original essayThe defeat in the Crimean War exposed a weakness in the state structure that the men who ruled Russia had barely felt it or suspected it at all, and they feared it would destroy the empire unless remedied immediately. The war cost Russia 600,000 lives. While St. Petersburg could boast of commanding the largest army in Europe, poor roads, antiquated weapons, and low morale prohibited the effective use of this formidable potential power. But much more serious was a great wave of peasant unrest, which swept away a large part of the population. of the country. The defeat proved to the ruling Tsarist autocracy that Russia was dangerously lagging behind its western neighbors, making it vulnerable to future attacks and invasions. Many liberal thinkers have worked long and hard on the reasons for Russia's great defeat. Looking at Western models and contrasting Russian society, one element remained unresolved: the continued existence of serfdom in Russia. Whether out of genuine progressive beliefs or simply the need for an effective conscript army when the next war developed, Alexander II initiated a period of reform. in Russia with the emancipation of the serfs of February 19, 1861. Alexander's second reason was that the emancipation could then be used as a means of advancing Russian reform policy. If the liberation of the serfs were to be carried out in Russia, it would be necessary to diminish the lordly power of the nobility and grant civil rights to the peasantry. In this scenario, further reforms would have to be introduced in the local administration and courts to protect the rights of the peasants since they were no longer under the exclusive jurisdiction of the landowner. Emancipation, Alexander believed, would create an economic utopia and pave the way for reforms in other sectors of Russian society. The liberation of the serfs was largely the personal responsibility of the tsar. Alexander's ideas on reform tended to be met with general apathy throughout Russia on the part of certain key strata of society; mainly the aristocracy and nobility, who control not only the peasants but also the economy, could benefit from liberation. It was this lack of interest, caused by the nobility, which strengthened the Tsar's determination to free the serfs, if only to keep them away from landowners who had little concern for the economy, because wage labor was more efficient and more profitable for the agrarian economy than forced labor. . Alexander was not entirely without support, but after the nobility lost interest in the Tsar's request in March 1856 for ideas on emancipation, he was left to Alexander's liberal intelligentsia in the press and universities to promote this policy. The Orthodox Church was too conservative to promote radical changes and the official classes too satisfied with their existing power and privileges; even the serfs themselves lacked the consistency to show real enthusiasm for emancipation. We can therefore see that the character of Alexander II and his frustration with the apathy of the ownersland rights towards his proposals have strengthened his determination to give some impetus and motivation to the reform process. What is less clear is the impact of external Europe. about the tsar and his political decisions. Alexander's first public manifestation of his wishes regarding the question of serfdom was the Paris negotiations at the end of the Crimean War. Alexander may have seen emancipation as a way to restore Russia's influence among the other major European powers following its military defeat. By informing European states of his intention to emancipate Alexander might have hoped that his economic reforms would be recognized and perhaps attract trade and investment from other countries. Another reason in favor of emancipation could therefore be his general desire to see the Russian economy flourishing and competitive on the continent. With a deficit of 307 million rubles in 1856, these concerns were at the forefront of his policies. Considerable signs of improvement in Russian agricultural trade can be noted in the generation following emancipation. The average annual export of grain increased from 86 million in 1861-5 to 136 million in 1866-70 and again to 286.5 million in 1876-80. A common argument used by the Tsar for the emancipation of the serfs was that liberation was a means of containing peasant unrest. It is true that there have been two recent revolts on the Black Sea and that the number of riots has increased: - in 1826-34, there were 148 riots. The nobility were the class of Russian society that Alexander most feared offending because they held high administrative positions and had previously been responsible for the downfall of some tsars. This is why the compensation policy was intended to appease the landowners whose serfs would be freed. Regardless, it was individual landowners who were initially most threatened by a possible uprising, and Alexander, insofar as he wished to prevent unrest, used this motive to exploit the fears of the nobility. This helped to implant the idea of ​​a peasant uprising in the minds of the nobility so that they would be more willing to view the emancipation of the serfs as a means of maintaining the dependent status of the peasants to avoid the emergence of a peasant. It was more of a ploy aimed at getting the reform policy accepted and not rejected by the nobility than a real fear of a revolution on the part of the tsar himself. Although he did not favor civil unrest, the influence of this factor was less significant than others. In theory, the Emancipation Decree was supposed to give freedom to millions of the state's serfs and peasants, but on closer inspection this was not true. The actual terms of the Emancipation Edict gave the peasants limited freedom in terms of rights, but in another way they would have further restrictions imposed on them. They now had the right to trade, to act as they wished, and to marry whomever they wished. love. This in itself was an achievement, as other forms of slavery had been abolished in the rest of the world years before, so Russia had finally caught up with the modernizing world in this regard. The argument is even more compelling when we think of the freedom they gained from brutal and oppressive owners. Cases of landowners brutally torturing their subjects would certainly not occur again, nor would the exile of serfs to Siberia. Previously, farmers enjoyed complete job security. They all had access to common land, woods and pastures, as well as good fertile land. The exploitation of which they were victims was very..