Emancipation: Success or Failure?
Emancipation: Success or Failure?
Student Number:
Mailbox Number: 029
Word Count: 2386
Professor:
Hist 380: Modern Russia
Due Date: October 6th, 2011
The system of serfdom is where an agricultural worker in feudal Russia who cultivates land and belongs to a landowner. The emancipation of the serfs happened for a mired of reasons. Most of which are tied to Russia as a nation. The defeat in the Crimean war for example was a huge blow to Russia as a world power. The national prestige was lost as Russia lost the Crimean war to the allied powers of Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The humiliation that was felt through losing this war was based off of Alexander II’s viewing of a serf army falling at the hands of free men from Britain and France. This implied a certain lack of conviction that the militarized serfs portrayed. Alexander II felt that the best way to gain back military prowess was to free the serfs and give them self worth, and perhaps in turn give them something to fight for.[1] There are three parts of the emancipation of the serfs. The first is of the defeat of the serf armies in the Crimean war. The great dishonor of the prize of the Russian empire could not be pushed aside so Alexander II did whatever it took to regain that military prestige. The second is whether or not the emancipation did the serfs any good. And the third is the view that the emancipation was due to the symptomatic unwillingness of the tsarist system to embrace much needed total reform.
Alexander II came into the throne in 1855 right in the middle of Crimean war, so he was unable to save the Russians from military defeat. However the war taught him a valuable lesson in the form of an idea. This idea was reform. Alexander II realized through the humiliation that was suffered that if he ever wanted to have stability, as well as peace at home and to be honored abroad then military and domestic reforms needed to
Student Number:
Mailbox Number: 029
Word Count: 2386
Professor:
Hist 380: Modern Russia
Due Date: October 6th, 2011
The system of serfdom is where an agricultural worker in feudal Russia who cultivates land and belongs to a landowner. The emancipation of the serfs happened for a mired of reasons. Most of which are tied to Russia as a nation. The defeat in the Crimean war for example was a huge blow to Russia as a world power. The national prestige was lost as Russia lost the Crimean war to the allied powers of Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The humiliation that was felt through losing this war was based off of Alexander II’s viewing of a serf army falling at the hands of free men from Britain and France. This implied a certain lack of conviction that the militarized serfs portrayed. Alexander II felt that the best way to gain back military prowess was to free the serfs and give them self worth, and perhaps in turn give them something to fight for.[1] There are three parts of the emancipation of the serfs. The first is of the defeat of the serf armies in the Crimean war. The great dishonor of the prize of the Russian empire could not be pushed aside so Alexander II did whatever it took to regain that military prestige. The second is whether or not the emancipation did the serfs any good. And the third is the view that the emancipation was due to the symptomatic unwillingness of the tsarist system to embrace much needed total reform.
Alexander II came into the throne in 1855 right in the middle of Crimean war, so he was unable to save the Russians from military defeat. However the war taught him a valuable lesson in the form of an idea. This idea was reform. Alexander II realized through the humiliation that was suffered that if he ever wanted to have stability, as well as peace at home and to be honored abroad then military and domestic reforms needed to