The Great Reforms Bruce Lincoln Summary

Bruce Lincoln, writing decades later in 1990, took a different look at the causes of the Great Reforms. The Crimean War was the catalyst that made it apparent that Russia had to reform to maintain her status internationally. Serfdom impeded the military and the industrial side of modern warfare because it did not have a proper labor force for it. He argues that giving millions of peasants their freedom scared the autocracy and the nobles. Lincoln highlights the efforts of “enlightened bureaucrats who believed that serfdom was a moral blight on Russia as well as a impeding her development that pushed for the reforms.” Following the death of Tsar Nicholas I these enlightened bureaucrats took advantage of Alexander II’s attention to public opinion