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The reign of Alexander II: a watershed?

larisa zakharova

The abolition of serfdom in 1861, under Alexander II, and the reforms which followed (local government reforms, the judicial reform, the abolition of corporal punishment, the reform of the military, public education, censorship and others), were a ‘watershed’, ‘a turning point’ in the history of Russia. This is the verdict of the reformers themselves and their opponents, people who lived at the time in Russia as well as beyond its borders, and many researchers. This theme remains crucial for historians. But in particular periods such as during the 1905 Revolution or Gorbachev’s perestroika, interest in the history of Alexander II’s reforms has acquired a particular topicality and political colouring. At such times instead of the already established term ‘the Great Reforms’, new terminology emerges particularly in the academic literature for wider audiences such as ‘revolution from above’, ‘a revolutionary break with the past’ and ‘coup d’etat’.1

However, mainstream scholarship still accepts the more subtle term ‘the Great Reforms’.2 If the question of the suitability of the term for designating this epoch is unlikely to evoke serious doubts and disagreements, that is not true of the issues raised in the title of this chapter as well as others (including the personal role of Alexander II in the realisation of the reforms, the interconnection among them, their subsequent fate), on which there is no consensus in the academic literature. It is sufficient to refer to contemporary Western and Russian research whose authors consider the boundary between ‘the pre-reforms’ of Nicholas I, ‘the Great Reforms’ of Alexander II and the

1N. Ia. Eidelman, ‘Revoliutsiia sverkhu’ v Rossii (Moscow: Kniga, 1989); T. Emmons, ‘“Revoliutsiia sverkhu” v Rossii: razmyshleniia o knige N. Eidelmana i o drugom’, in V razdum’iakh o Rossii (XIX vek) (Moscow: Arkheograficheskii tsentr, 1996), pp. 365–6; B. G. Litvak,

Perevorot 1 861 goda v Rossii: pochemu ne realizovalas’ reformatorskaia al’ternativa (Moscow: Politizdat, 1991).

2L. G. Zakharova, B. Eklof and J. Bushnell (eds.), Velikie reformi v Rossii, 1 85 6–1 87 4 (Moscow: Izd. MGU, 1992), American version: B. Eklof, J. Bushnell and L. Zakharova (eds.), Russia’s Great Reforms, 1 85 5 –1 881 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994). Both books were based on the papers presented at an international conference at Pennsylvania University.

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‘counter-reforms’ of Alexander III relative and even artificial. They present the whole process of reforms as an unbroken continuum spanning the entire nineteenth century.3 This approach contradicts the other, more traditional one, which views the epoch of the Great Reforms as delimited on the one side by the failure of the Nicholas system with the conclusion of the unsuccessful Crimean War and on the other by the tragic end of the Tsar-liberator on 1 March 1881. There is no doubt that this subject demands further attention and additional research. In this chapter, I will attempt to give my own view of the complex, contested questions that to date remain inadequately addressed in the historiography of the period.

The reasons and preconditions for the abolition of serfdom

Tsar Alexander II himself was the initiator of the transformations in Russia. The question as to what induced the autocratic monarchy to abolish serfdom, which had been its foundation-stone for centuries, has been sufficiently elucidated in the literature. The defeat in the Crimean War (1853–6), which interrupted the one-and-a-half-century-long victorious advance to the Black Sea and was incurred on home territory; the surrender of Sebastopol; the conditions of the Peace of Paris of 18 (30) March 1856, which deprived Russia of its fleet and naval bases on the Black Sea and parts of Bessarabia and shed doubt on Russia’s prestige as a great power: all these things exposed the extent to which Russia was lagging behind other European countries. The outdated equipment and system of recruitment for the army, the absence of a railway network and telegraph communications with the south of the country (dispatches from military leaders from the Crimea to the Winter Palace took seven and a half days by courier, whereas telegraph communications about the siege of Sebastopol were coming from Paris, the enemy capital) as well as many other indicators of the country’s backwardness left little doubt as to the need for change. ‘Sevastopol had an impact on stultified minds.’ This pithy expression of V. O. Kliuchevskii referred to every layer of Russian society, including the government. ‘The former system had outlived its time’ – this was the judgement of one of the former apologists of this system, the historian M. P. Pogodin.4

3G. Freeze, The Parish Clergy in Nineteenth Century Russia: Crisis, Reform, Counter-reform

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 350; P. Gatrell, Znachenie velikikh reform v ekonomike Rossii, in Zakharova, Eklof and Bushnell, Velikie reformi v Rossii, pp. 106–26.

4M. P. Pogodin, Istoriko-politicheskie pis’ma i zapiski v prodolzhenie Krymskoi voiny (Moscow: Izd. V. M. Frish, 1874), p. 315.

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The reign of Alexander II: a watershed?

Alexander II, who ascended to the throne on 19 February 1855 inherited a difficult legacy.

Later, soon after the abolition of serfdom, the minister of finance M. Kh. Reutern wrote in a report to the tsar: ‘If the government after the Crimean War had wished to return to the traditions of the past, it would have encountered insurmountable obstacles, if not openly, then at the very least in the form of passive opposition, which over time may even have shaken the loyalty of the people – the broad foundation, on which the monarchical principle is based in Russia.’5 But even earlier, in 1856, N. A. Miliutin, the main author of the Great Reforms, acknowledged in a memorandum that the further preservation of serfdom and continued delay of the reforms could lead to an uprising of the peasantry within fifteen years.6 The explanation for the abolition of serfdom as a response to the rise in peasant disturbances, which dominated Soviet historiography, has now been superseded. In the Western literature, the concept of ‘a revolutionary situation’ and of the decisive role played by actions taken by the peasantry, which supposedly forced the government to undertake reforms, has been convincingly criticised in the work of Daniel Field, Terence Emmons and Dietrich Beyrau, all of whom spent time at Moscow University under P. A. Zaionchkovskii in the 1960s and 1970s.7

Alexander II embarked on the emancipation reforms not because he was a reformer in principle but as a military man who recognised the lessons of the Crimean War, and as an emperor for whom the prestige and greatness of the state took precedence over everything. Particular aspects of his character played a significant role, including his kindness, warmth and receptivity to humane ideas and the effects of his education under the guidance of V. A. Zhukovskii. A. F. Tiutcheva aptly defined this characteristic in Alexander II’s nature: ‘The instinct of progress was in his heart.’ Not a reformer by calling or temperament, Alexander II became a reformer in response to the demands of the time. His character, upbringing and world outlook equipped him with a sufficient understanding of the given situation to take non-traditional decisions. He lacked fanaticism or a rigid conception of politics and this allowed him to pursue new and radical paths, though still within the framework of the

5RGIA, Fond 560, op. 14, d. 284, l. 1.

6GARF, Fond. 722, op. 1, d. 230, ll. 1–22.

7D. Field, The Reforms of the 1 860s: Windows of the Russian Past. Essays on Soviet Historiography since Stalin (Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1978), pp. 89–104; T. Emmons, ‘The Peasant and Emancipation’, in W. Vucinich, The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968), pp. 41–71; D. Beyrau, Agrarnaia struktura i krest’iianskii protest: k usloviiam osvobozhdeniia krest’iian v 1 861 godu: Noveishie podkhody k izucheniiu istorii Rossii i SSSR v sovremennoi zapadnoevropeiskoi istoriografii (Yaroslavl: Izd. Iaroslavskogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, 1997), pp. 3–51.

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autocratic-monarchical system and while remaining true to his predecessors’ traditions.

Speaking in Moscow in front of the leaders of the nobility shortly after the conclusion of the Peace of Paris in 1856, the tsar said: ‘There are rumours that I want to announce the emancipation of the peasants. I will not say to you that I am completely against this. We live in such an age that this has to happen in time. I think that you agree with me. Therefore, it is much better that this business be carried out from above, rather than from below.’8 This short speech tells us much that is important in the history of the 1861 reforms: about the fact that the initiative came from Alexander II himself; that he imposed his will on the nobility; that he recognised the necessity to forestall the initiative of the peasantry, and that he took into account the overall trends of the century. Subsequent events show that Alexander II did not step back from this first declaration about the abolition of serfdom. Some years later in a rather didactic tone he wrote to Napoleon III: ‘the true condition of peace in the world lies not in inactivity, which is impossible, and not in dubious political manoeuvrings . . . , but in practical wisdom, which is necessary in order to reconcile history, this unshakeable behest of the past, with progress – the law of the present and the future.9 These words affirm Alexander II’s confidence in the correctness of the course undertaken by him to transform Russia, as do many of his handwritten letters to his brother, the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, and to his viceroy in the Caucasus and friend Prince A. I. Bariatinskii.10 In general the role of Alexander II in the Great Reforms has not been sufficiently explored in the literature.

What were the preconditions of the reform? There is no single opinion on the objective socioeconomic preconditions for the emancipation of the serfs. Soviet historians wrote about the crisis of the feudal-serf system. The majority of Western historians (following P. Struve and A. Gershchenkron) have come to the conclusion that serfdom as an economic system was still fully viable on the eve of the 1861 reforms.11 This problem clearly needs further research bringing to bear data on macroand micro-socioeconomic development during the

8Golos minuvshego. 191 6, Nos. 5–6, p. 393; L. G. Zakharova, Aleksandr II, 185 5 –1881 : Romanovy. Istoricheskie portrety (Moscow: Armada, 1997), pp. 400–90.

9D. A. Miliutin, Vospominaniia, 1 863 –1 864 (Moscow: Rosspen, 2003), p. 319.

10Perepiska imperatora Aleksandra II s velikim kniazem Konstantinom Nikolaevichem. Dnevnik velikogo kniazia Konstantina Nikolaevicha, 1 85 7 –1 861 (Moscow: Terra, 1994); A. Rieber, The Politics of Autocracy: Letters of Alexander II to Prince A. I. Bariatinskii. 1 85 7 –1 864 (Paris: Rieber, 1966).

11For sources on the historiography of the question, see P. Gatrell, ‘Znachenie velikikh reform v ekonomicheskoi istorii Rossii’, in Zakharova, Eklof and Bushnell, Velikie reformy v Rossii, pp. 106–26.

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pre-reform decades. The effects of the banking crisis at the end of the 1850s on the preparation of the reforms has been convincingly and comprehensively studied in the works of Steven Hoch.12

The question of the economic goals and perceptions of the reformers themselves has been illuminated well in the work of Olga Crisp, A. Skerpan and Bruce Lincoln. Economic liberalism and the recognition of the role of private initiative in the development of the economy formed the core of their views. In this light the assertion that the liberal bureaucracy was not aware of the realities of the Russian situation and was only copying the experience of the West looks highly dubious. Rather it can be said that the key reformers took into account the experience of Europe but acted in the awareness of Russian realities and traditions, with which they were very well acquainted. Above all this concerns the Statutes of 19 February. For example, already at the beginning of the 1840s Nikolai Miliutin and A. P. Zablotskii-Desiatovskii carried out detailed on-the-spot studies of serf estates. With this same aim in mind, in the summer of 1860 A.V. Golovnin was sent with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich to the central provinces. Before he wrote his 1855 memorandum on the emancipation of the peasants, K. D. Kavelin had direct experience with serf-based agriculture.

On the whole, thanks primarily to the work of Bruce Lincoln, it is now clear that a key precondition of the Great Reforms was the existence of cadres, people who were prepared to take upon themselves the massive work of the transformation of Russia, a project which their predecessors in the first half of the nineteenth century had tried to embark on but had not managed. This stratum of progressive, educated people, united in their common views about the forthcoming transformations and the methods for carrying them out, began to take shape in the heart of the bureaucratic apparatus during the reign of Nicholas I in the 1830s and especially in the 1840s. It was characterised by the practically identical conceptions of the ‘liberal’ or ‘enlightened’ bureaucracy.13 Certain ministries (state domains, internal affairs, justice and navy) and the State Chancellery formed its core. The liberal bureaucracy was not shut off from society: it co-operated closely with liberal public figures, academics and

12S. Hoch, ‘Bankovskii krizis, krest’ianskaia reforma i vykupnaia operatsiia v Rossii, 1857– 1861’, in Zakharova, Eklof and Bushnell, Velikie reformy v Rossii, pp. 95–105.

13The term ‘enlightened bureaucracy’ has been accepted in the Western literature, ‘liberal bureaucracy’ in the Russian literature. See W. B. Lincoln, In the Vanguard of Reform: Russia’s Enlightened Bureaucrats, 1 825 –1 861 (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press,

1982); R. S. Wortman, The Development of a Russian Legal Consciousness (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1976); L. G. Zakharova, Samoderzhavie i otmena krepostnogo prava v Rossii

1 85 6–1 861 (Moscow: Izd. MGU, 1984).

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writers. These links were maintained through personal contacts, interactions in groups and in fashionable salons (especially the salon of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna). Iu. F. Samarin, K. D. Kavelin, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, P. N. Mel’nikov (Pecherskii), V. I. Dal’ and others were members of the bureaucracy at different times. This collaboration of civil servants (among whom Dmitrii and Nikolai Miliutin stood out particularly) and social and academic figures found an outlet in the Russian Geographical Society which was set up in 1845 under the chairmanship of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. Terence Emmons, a leading expert on the 1861 peasant reform, is convinced that the ‘bureaucratic “third element”’, which had formed during Nicholas’s reign ‘can undoubtedly be considered one of the preconditions of the 1860 reforms’.14 Although the study of the enlightened bureaucracy in Russian historiography has far from been exhausted, there is no doubt about the pivotal role it played in the transformations.

Another such precondition was the institutional reforms which were carried out in the reign of Alexander I, including the creation of ministries in which the cadres of the future reformers were trained. It is also important to note the significance of the legacy of M. M. Speranskii. He put large-scale reforms of the state system on the agenda during the reign of Alexander I and during the subsequent reign ordered and codified legislation by producing the Complete Collection of Laws (Pol’noe sobranie zakonov) and the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire (Svod zakonov). He also did his bit in the education of the future Tsar-liberator (for a year and half Speranskii gave the heir to the throne lectures on law). In addition, the educational reforms in the first half of the nineteenth century created the institutions (universities, School of Law, Tsarskoe Selo Lycee) from which many of the key reformers graduated.15

Among the preconditions for the abolition of serfdom, the accumulated experience of discussion and decision-making regarding the peasant problem in the first half of the nineteenth century also played a significant role. The Decree of 1803 on ‘Free Agriculturalists’ and of 1842 on ‘Obligated Peasants’, which were not binding on landowners and as a result had little effect, nevertheless meant that ideas about emancipation linked to land-redemption and about the unbreakable link of the peasant with the land had been affirmed in legislation. Local reforms also created models: the abolition of serfdom in the Baltic provinces (Livonia, Kurland and Estonia) in 1816–19 and the introduction of inventories in the south-west of the country (in Kiev, Podolia and Volhynia)

14Emmons, ‘“Revoliutsiia sverkhu” v Rossii’, p. 380.

15See F. A. Petrov, Rossiiskie universitety v pervoi polovine XIX veka i formirovanie sistemy universitetskogo obrazoviniia, vols. 1–4 (Moscow: Izd. MGU, 1996–2003).

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