MANIFESTO
February 19, 1861
by God's grace We, Alexander II, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Tsar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, and so on, and so on, and so on. We announce to all our loyal subjects.
by God's providence And sacred law succession to the throne Having been called to the ancestral All-Russian throne, in accordance with this calling, we made a vow in our hearts to embrace with our royal love and care all our loyal subjects of every rank and status, from those who nobly wield a sword in defense of the Fatherland to those who modestly work with a craft tool, from those undergoing the highest public service until he makes a furrow in the field with a plow or plow.
... We are convinced that the matter of changing the situation of serfs for the better is for us the testament of our predecessors and the lot given to us through the course of events by the hand of providence. … We provided the nobility itself with at his own call, to make assumptions about the new structure of life of the peasants, and the nobles were to limit their rights to the peasants and raise the difficulties of transformation not without reducing its benefits. …IN provincial committees, in the person of their members, invested with the trust of the entire noble society of each province, The nobility voluntarily renounced the right to personality of serfs. In these committees, after collecting the necessary information, assumptions have been drawn up about a new household arrangement people in serfdom and their relationship to the landowners.
...Calling on God for help , we decided to give this matter executive action.
By virtue of these new provisions, serfs will receive in due time full rights of free rural inhabitants.
Landowners, retaining ownership of all lands belonging to them, provide to peasants for established duties, for permanent use their estate settlement and moreover, to ensure their daily life and fulfillment their responsibilities before the government, defined in the regulations amount of field land and other lands.
Using sim land allotment, peasants are obliged to fulfill this in favor of landowners, certain duties are specified in the regulations. In this state, which is transitional, peasants are called temporary workers .
At the same time, they are given right to redeem their estate settlement, and with the consent of the landowners they can acquire ownership field lands and other lands allocated to them for permanent use. With such acquisition of ownership of a certain amount of land, peasants will be released from responsibilities to the landowners on the purchased land and enter into a decisive state free peasant owners.
On these main principles the drafted provisions are determined future device peasants and courtyard people, the order of public peasant management is established and indicated in detail bestowed peasants and courtyard people rights and responsibilities assigned to them in relation to the government and landowners.
... Like a new device, due to the inevitable complexity of the changes it requires, cannot be produced suddenly, but this will take time, approximately at least two years, then during this time, in aversion to confusion and for the sake of public and private benefit , the order that exists to this day on the landowners' estates must be preserved until now, when, after proper preparations have been made, a new order will be inaugurated.
To achieve this correctly, we considered it good to command:
Open a provincial government in each province presence on peasant affairs. … Appoint peace mediators in the counties....Educate on landowners' estates worldly administrations. ... Compile, verify and approve for each rural society or estate statutory charter, in which the amount of land provided to peasants for permanent use will be calculated, based on the local situation, and the amount of duties due from them in favor of the landowner, both for the land and for other benefits from it.
These statutory charters shall be carried out as they are approved for each estate, and finally put into effect for all estates within two years from the date of publication of this manifesto. Before the expiration of this period, peasants and courtyard people remain in the same obedience to the landowners and unquestioningly fulfill their previous duties. Landowners maintain control of order on their estates, with the right of trial and reprisal, until the formation of volosts and the opening of volost courts.
Paying attention to the inevitable difficulties of the transformation undertaken, We first of all We place our trust in the all-good providence of God protecting Russia .
We rely on the common sense of our people. When the government's idea of abolishing serfdom spread between not prepared for it peasants, private misunderstandings arose. Some thought about freedom and forgot about responsibilities. But general common sense has not wavered in the conviction that and by natural reasoning freely enjoying the benefits of society must mutually serve the benefit of society by performing certain duties, and according to Christian law " every soul must obey the powers that be” (Rom. XIII, 1), give everyone their due, and especially to whom it is due, a lesson, a tribute, fear, honor; that rights legally acquired by landowners cannot be taken from them without decent compensation or voluntary concession; that it would be contrary to all justice to use land from the landowners and not bear the corresponding duties for it.
And now we expect with hope that the serfs with a new future opening up for them will understand and with gratitude will accept important donation made by the noble nobility to improve their lives. They'll come to their senses, that, receiving for themselves a more solid basis of property and greater freedom to dispose of their household, they become obligated before society and before ourselves, supplement the beneficence of the new law with the faithful, well-intentioned and diligent use of the rights granted to them. The most beneficial law cannot make people prosperous if they do not take the trouble to arrange their own well-being under the protection of the law. Contentment is acquired and increased only by unremitting labor, prudent use of forces and means, strict frugality and generally an honest life in the fear of God.
Performers of preparatory actions for the new structure of peasant life and the very introduction to this structure will use vigilant care so that this is done with a correct, calm movement, observing the convenience of the time, so that the attention of farmers is not diverted from their necessary agricultural pursuits. Let them carefully cultivate the land and collect its fruits, so that later from a well-filled granary they can take seeds for sowing on land for permanent use or on land acquired as property.
Sign yourself with the sign of the cross, Orthodox people, and call upon us God’s blessing on your free labor, the guarantee of your home well-being and public good.
Given in St. Petersburg, on the nineteenth day of February, in the year from the birth of Christ one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, the seventh of our reign.
Date: 06/11/2007.14 Kb - http://refhist.ru/history/history_of_the_domestic_…
History of domestic law (tasks)
Task No. 5.
On February 19, 1861, Tsar Alexander II signed the Manifesto on the liberation of peasants from serfdom and a set of laws about cancellation serfdom.
However, for two years, essentially the same serfdom was maintained..
"For using land allotment, peasants obliged to fulfill in favor of the landowners defined in the provisions of conscription. In this state, which is transitional, the peasants are called temporarily obliged.
From the moment the Manifesto was published, the peasants received personal freedom.
The landowners lost the rights that previously belonged to them:
- interfere with personal life peasants,
- resettle them to other areas,
-- sell to other persons with or without land.
The landowners retained the rights to:
- land ownership
– the right to determine the size of the allotment
- - right of supervision for behavior peasants
STATUTORY CHARTERS.
The allocation of land was made in accordance with local regulations, in which for different regions of the country(chernozem, steppe, non-chernozem) were determined high and low limits the amount of land provided to peasants. These provisions were recorded in Statutory charters, which indicated what land the peasants received. To regulate relations between landowners and peasants on the proposal of the governors were appointed locally mediators from among the noble landowners . Statutory charters compiled by landowners or global mediators.
After this, their content is mandatory was brought to the attention appropriate peasant gathering. The charter came into force after the peasants were informed with her text, and when the world mediator recognized its contents comply with the requirements of the law. The consent of the peasants to the conditions stipulated by the charter was not necessary. But it was more profitable for the landowner to achieve such consent, because in this case, with subsequent redemption he received the so-called land from the peasants additional payment.
In the country as a whole, peasants received less land than they had previously cultivated for themselves. During the allotment, the landowners cut off sections from this land (peasant estate), especially large ones in the black earth regions. The peasants were not only disadvantaged in the size of their land; they usually got uncomfortable for processing plots, since the best land remained with the landowners.
REDUCTION PAYMENTS.
Temporarily obliged peasant received land not owned, but only for use. For use he had to pay duties corvée or quitrent, which differed little from his previous serf duties. Thus, peasants paid not only for land, but also for your personal liberation.
Go to state land owner the peasant could only after redemption payments for the “granted” land. Redemption price significantly exceeded the actual value of the land. Many peasants could not buy their land for decades. Government concerned "The Agrarian Question" opened a Peasant Bank so that peasants could take out a loan to pay ransom payments. The bank issued special Bonds, on each of which you can read that the repayment of loans was supposed to end in 1932.
But by this time, as we know, circumstances had changed greatly.
October 25, 1917 Council of People's Commissars issued Decree on land from which it followed that the land was nationalized, and peasants had the right to use all (including landowner) land. They immediately divided it among themselves, but then the Civil War began, food appropriation, food detachments, etc. The peasants began to live well only with the introduction of the New Economic Policy. But nothing lasts forever under the sun.
In 1929, collectivization began, and by 1932, former serfs were united into collective farms (kolkhozes), and state Soviet farms (sovkhozes) were organized on free lands. Since the land was nationalized, collective and state farms received land not as their own, but for “eternal use.” In private ownership, each of them had only an estate (house) and a personal plot (garden).
Boris Kustodiev. "The Liberation of the Peasants (Reading the Manifesto)." Painting from 1907
"I want to be alone with my conscience." The Emperor asked everyone to leave the office. On the table in front of him lay a document that was supposed to turn the entire Russian history upside down - the Law on the Liberation of Peasants. They had been waiting for him for many years, the best people of the state fought for him. The law not only eliminated the shame of Russia - serfdom, but also gave hope for the triumph of goodness and justice. Such a step for a monarch is a difficult test, for which he has been preparing all his life, from year to year, since childhood...
His teacher Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky spared neither effort nor time to instill in the future Emperor of Russia a sense of goodness, honor, and humanity. When Alexander II ascended the throne, Zhukovsky was no longer around, but the emperor retained his advice and instructions and followed them until the end of his life. Having accepted Russia, exhausted by the Crimean War, he began his reign by giving Russia peace.
Historians often reproach the emperors of the first half of the 19th century for not trying to implement or trying with all their might to complicate the abolition of serfdom. Only Alexander II decided to take this step. His reform activities are often accused of being half-hearted. Was it really easy for the monarch to carry out reforms if his support, the Russian nobility, did not support his initiatives. Alexander II required enormous courage to balance between the possibility of a threat from the noble opposition, on the one hand, and the threat of a peasant revolt, on the other.
To be fair, we note that there have been attempts to carry out peasant reform before. Let's turn to the background. In 1797, Emperor Paul I issued a decree on a three-day corvee, although the wording of the law remained unclear, whether the law did not allow or simply did not recommend the use of peasant labor in corvee more than three days a week. It is clear that the landowners were for the most part inclined to adhere to the latter interpretation. His son, Alexander I, once said: “If education had been at a higher level, I would have abolished slavery, even if it cost me my life.” Nevertheless, after Count Razumovsky approached him in 1803 for permission to free fifty thousand of his serfs, the tsar did not forget about this precedent, and as a result, in the same year, the decree “On Free Plowmen” appeared. According to this law, landowners received the right to release their peasants if it would be beneficial to both parties. During the 59 years of the law, the landowners released only 111,829 peasants, of which 50 thousand were serfs of Count Razumovsky. Apparently, the nobility was more inclined to hatch plans for the reconstruction of society rather than begin its implementation with the liberation of their own peasants.
Nicholas I in 1842 issued the Decree “On Obligated Peasants,” according to which peasants were allowed to be freed without land, providing it for the performance of certain duties. As a result, 27 thousand people became obligated peasants. The need to abolish serfdom was beyond doubt. “The state of serfdom is a powder magazine under the state,” wrote the chief of gendarmes A.H. Benkendorf in a report to Nicholas I. During the reign of Nicholas I, preparations for peasant reform were already underway: the basic approaches and principles for its implementation were developed, and the necessary material was accumulated.
But Alexander II abolished serfdom. He understood that he had to act carefully, gradually preparing society for reforms. In the first years of his reign, at a meeting with a delegation of Moscow nobles, he said: “There are rumors that I want to give freedom to the peasants; it's unfair and you can say it to everyone left and right. But, unfortunately, a feeling of hostility between peasants and landowners exists, and as a result there have already been several cases of disobedience to the landowners. I am convinced that sooner or later we must come to this. I think that you are of the same opinion as me. It is better to begin the destruction of serfdom from above, rather than wait for the time when it begins to be destroyed of its own accord from below.” The emperor asked the nobles to think and submit their thoughts on the peasant issue. But I never received any offers.
Then Alexander II turned to another option - the creation of a Secret Committee “to discuss measures to organize the life of the landowner peasants” under his personal chairmanship. The committee held its first meeting on January 3, 1857. The committee included Count S.S. Lanskoy, Prince Orlov, Count Bludov, Minister of Finance Brock, Count Adlerberg, Prince V.A. Dolgorukov, Minister of State Property Muravyov, Prince Gagarin, Baron Korf and Y.I. Rostovtsev. He managed the affairs of the Butkov committee. Committee members agreed that serfdom needed to be abolished, but warned against making radical decisions. Only Lanskoy, Bludov, Rostovtsev and Butkov spoke out for the real liberation of the peasants; Most committee members proposed only measures to alleviate the situation of the serfs. Then the emperor introduced his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, into the committee, who was convinced of the need to abolish serfdom.
The Grand Duke was an extraordinary person and thanks to his active influence, the committee began to develop measures. On the advice of the Grand Duke, Alexander II took advantage of the situation in the Baltic provinces, where landowners were dissatisfied with the existing fixed norms of corvee and quitrent and would like to abolish them. Lithuanian landowners decided that it was better for them to completely abandon the ownership of serfs, retaining land that could be rented out profitably. A corresponding letter was drawn up to the emperor, and he, in turn, handed it over to the Secret Committee. The discussion of the letter went on for a long time in the committee; the majority of its members did not share this idea, but Alexander ordered to “approve the good intentions of the Lithuanian nobles” and create official committees in the Vilna, Kovno and Grodno provinces to prepare proposals for organizing peasant life. Instructions were sent to all Russian governors in case local landowners “would like to resolve the matter in a similar way.” But no takers showed up. Then Alexander sent a rescript to the St. Petersburg Governor General with the same instructions to create a committee.
In December 1857, both royal rescripts were published in newspapers. So, with the help of glasnost (by the way, this word came into use at that time), the matter moved forward. For the first time, the country began to openly talk about the problem of the abolition of serfdom. The Secret Committee ceased to be such, and at the beginning of 1858 it was renamed the Main Committee for Peasant Affairs. And by the end of the year, committees were already working in all provinces.
On March 4, 1858, the Zemstvo Department was formed within the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the preliminary consideration of projects coming from the provinces, which were then transferred to the Main Committee. Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs A.I. Levshin was appointed chairman of the Zemstvo Department; the most important role in his work was played by the head of the department, Y.A. Solovyov, and the director of the economic department, N.A. Milyutin, who soon replaced Levshin as deputy minister.
At the end of 1858, reviews finally began to arrive from provincial committees. To study their proposals and develop general and local provisions for the reform, two editorial commissions were formed, the chairman of which was appointed by the emperor as the chief head of military educational institutions, Ya. I. Rostovtsev. General Rostovtsev was sympathetic to the cause of liberation of the peasants. He established a completely trusting relationship with Milyutin, who, at the request of the chairman, attracted liberal-minded officials and public figures, staunch supporters of the reform Yu.F. Samarin, Prince Cherkassky, Ya.A. Solovyov and others, to the activities of the commissions. They were opposed by members of the commissions who were opponents of the reform, among whom were Count P.P. Shuvalov, V.V. Apraksin and Adjutant General Prince I.F. Paskevich. They insisted on maintaining land ownership rights for landowners, rejected the possibility of providing land to peasants for ransom, except in cases of mutual consent, and demanded that landowners be given full power on their estates. Already the first meetings took place in a rather tense atmosphere.
With the death of Rostovtsev, Count Panin was appointed in his place, which was perceived by many as a curtailment of activities to liberate the peasants. Only Alexander II was unperturbed. To his aunt Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, who expressed concerns about this appointment, he replied: “You don’t know Panin; his convictions are the exact execution of my orders.” The Emperor was not mistaken. Count Panin strictly followed his instructions: not to change anything during the preparation of the reform, to continue to follow the intended course. Therefore, the hopes of the serf owners, who dreamed of cardinal concessions in their favor, were not destined to come true.
At the same time, at meetings of the editorial commissions, Panin behaved more independently, trying to gradually, very carefully make concessions to landowners, which could lead to significant distortions of the project. The struggle between supporters and opponents of the reform sometimes became quite serious.
On October 10, I860, the emperor ordered the closure of the editorial commissions, which had worked for about twenty months, and the activities of the Main Committee to be resumed again. Due to the illness of the chairman of the committee, Prince Orlov, Alexander II appointed his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, to this post. In a small committee, several groups formed, none of which could achieve a clear majority. At the head of one of them, which included the chief of gendarmes, Prince V.A. Dolgorukov, Minister of Finance A.M. Knyazhevich and others, was M.N. Muravyov. These committee members sought to reduce land allotment rates. A special position in the committee was occupied by Count Panin, who challenged many of the provisions of the editorial draft, and Prince P.P. Gagarin, who insisted on the liberation of peasants without land. For a long time, Grand Duke Constantine was unable to gather a solid majority of supporters of the draft editorial commissions. To ensure an advantage, he tried, by resorting to the power of persuasion and making some concessions, to win Panin over to his side, and he still succeeded. Thus, an absolute majority of supporters of the project was formed - fifty percent plus one vote: five members of the Main Committee against four.
Many were waiting for the onset of 1861. Grand Duke Constantine noted in his diary: “January 1, 1861. This mysterious year of 1861 began. What will he bring us? With what feelings will we look at him on December 31? Should the peasant question and the Slavic question be resolved in it? Isn't this alone enough to call it mysterious and even fatal? Maybe this is the most important era in the thousand-year existence of Russia?
The last meeting of the Main Committee was chaired by the Emperor himself. Ministers who were not members of the committee were invited to the meeting. Alexander II stated that when submitting the project for consideration by the State Council, he would not tolerate any tricks or delays, and set the deadline for completion of the consideration on February 15, so that the content of the resolutions could be published and communicated to the peasants before the start of field work. “This is what I desire, demand, command!” - said the emperor.
In a detailed speech at a meeting of the State Council, Alexander II gave historical information about attempts and plans to resolve the peasant issue in previous reigns and during his reign and explained what he expected from members of the State Council: “Views on the presented work may be different. Therefore, I will listen to all different opinions willingly, but I have the right to demand one thing from you: that, putting aside all personal interests, you act not as landowners, but as state dignitaries invested with my trust.”
But even in the State Council, approval of the project was not easy. Only with the support of the emperor did the decision of the minority receive the force of law. Preparations for the reform were nearing completion. By February 17, 1861, the State Council completed its consideration of the project.
On February 19, 1861, on the sixth anniversary of his accession, Alexander II signed all the reform laws and the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom.
On March 5, 1861, the Manifesto was read in churches after mass. At the divorce ceremony in the Mikhailovsky Manege, Alexander II himself read it to the troops.
The manifesto on the abolition of serfdom provided peasants with personal freedom. From now on they could not be sold, bought, given, or relocated at the request of the landowner. Peasants now had the right to own property, freedom to marry, could independently enter into contracts and conduct legal cases, could acquire real estate in their own name, and had freedom of movement.
The peasant received a land allotment as a means of personal freedom. The size of the land plot was established taking into account the terrain and was not the same in different regions of Russia. If previously a peasant had more land than the fixed allotment for a given area, then the “extra” part was cut off in favor of the landowner. Such “segments” made up a fifth of all lands. The allotment was given to the peasant for a ransom. The peasant paid a quarter of the ransom amount to the landowner in a lump sum, and the rest was paid by the state. The peasant had to repay his debt to the state within 49 years. Before purchasing the land from the landowner, the peasant was considered “temporarily obligated”, paid the landowner a quitrent and worked off corvée. The relationship between the landowner and the peasant was regulated by the Charter.
The peasants of each landowner's estate united into rural societies - communities. They discussed and resolved their general economic issues at village meetings. The village headman, elected for three years, had to carry out the decisions of the assemblies. Several adjacent rural communities made up the volost. The volost elder was elected at a general meeting, and he subsequently performed administrative duties.
The activities of rural and volost administrations, as well as the relationships between peasants and landowners, were controlled by global intermediaries. They were appointed by the Senate from among the local noble landowners. Conciliators had broad powers and followed the directions of the law. The size of the peasant allotment and duties for each estate should have been determined once and for all by agreement between the peasants and the landowner and recorded in the Charter. The introduction of these charters was the main activity of the peace mediators.
When assessing the peasant reform, it is important to understand that it was the result of a compromise between landowners, peasants and the government. Moreover, the interests of the landowners were taken into account as much as possible, but there was probably no other way to liberate the peasants. The compromise nature of the reform already contained future contradictions and conflicts. The reform prevented mass protests by peasants, although they still took place in some regions. The most significant of them were the peasant uprisings in the village of Bezdna, Kazan province, and Kandeevka, Penza province.
And yet, the liberation of more than 20 million landowners with land was a unique event in Russian and world history. The personal freedom of peasants and the transformation of former serfs into “free rural inhabitants” destroyed the previous system of economic tyranny and opened up new prospects for Russia, creating the opportunity for the broad development of market relations and the further development of society. The abolition of serfdom paved the way for other important transformations, which were to introduce new forms of self-government and justice in the country, and push for the development of education.
The undeniably great merit in this is Emperor Alexander II, as well as those who developed and promoted this reform, fought for its implementation - Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, N.A. Milyutin, Y.I. Rostovtsev, Yu.F. Samarin, Y.A. Solovyov and others.
Used literature:
Great Reform. T. 5: Reform figures. - M., 1912.
Ilyin, V.V. Reforms and counter-reforms in Russia. - M., 1996.
Troitsky, N.A. Russia in the 19th century. - M., 1997.
On March 3, 1861, Alexander II abolished serfdom and received the nickname “Liberator” for this. But the reform did not become popular; on the contrary, it caused mass unrest and the death of the emperor.
Landowner initiative
Large feudal landowners were involved in preparing the reform. Why did they suddenly agree to compromise? At the beginning of his reign, Alexander gave a speech to the Moscow nobility, in which he voiced one simple thought: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to begin to be abolished from below by itself.”
His fears were not in vain. In the first quarter of the 19th century, 651 peasant unrest were registered, in the second quarter of this century - already 1089 unrest, and in the last decade (1851 - 1860) - 1010, with 852 unrest occurring in 1856-1860.
The landowners provided Alexander with more than a hundred projects for future reform. Those of them who owned estates in non-black earth provinces were ready to release the peasants and give them plots. But the state had to buy this land from them. The landowners of the black earth strip wanted to keep as much land as possible in their hands.
But the final draft of the reform was drawn up under the control of the state in a specially formed Secret Committee.
Forged will
After the abolition of serfdom, rumors spread almost immediately among the peasants that the decree he had read out was a fake, and that the landowners had hidden the real manifesto of the tsar. Where did these rumors come from? The fact is that the peasants were given “freedom,” that is, personal freedom. But they did not receive ownership of the land.
The landowner still remained the owner of the land, and the peasant was only its user. To become the full owner of the plot, the peasant had to buy it from the master.
The liberated peasant still remained tied to the land, only now he was held not by the landowner, but by the community, from which it was difficult to leave - everyone was “shackled by one chain.” For community members, for example, it was not profitable for wealthy peasants to stand out and run independent farms.
Redemptions and cuts
On what conditions did the peasants part with their slave status? The most pressing issue was, of course, the question of land. The complete dispossession of peasants was an economically unprofitable and socially dangerous measure. The entire territory of European Russia was divided into 3 stripes - non-chernozem, chernozem and steppe. In non-black earth regions, the size of the plots was larger, but in the black earth, fertile regions, landowners parted with their land very reluctantly. The peasants had to bear their previous duties - corvee and quitrent, only now this was considered payment for the land provided to them. Such peasants were called temporarily obliged.
Since 1883, all temporarily obliged peasants were obliged to buy back their plot from the landowner, and at a price much higher than the market price. The peasant was obliged to immediately pay the landowner 20% of the redemption amount, and the remaining 80% was contributed by the state. The peasants had to repay it annually over 49 years in equal redemption payments.
The distribution of land in individual estates also took place in the interests of the landowners. Allotments were fenced off by landowners from lands that were vital in the economy: forests, rivers, pastures. So the communities had to rent these lands for a high fee.
Step towards capitalism
Many modern historians write about the shortcomings of the 1861 reform. For example, Pyotr Andreevich Zayonchkovsky says that the terms of the ransom were extortionate. Soviet historians clearly agree that it was the contradictory and compromise nature of the reform that ultimately led to the revolution of 1917.
But, nevertheless, after the signing of the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom, the life of peasants in Russia changed for the better. At least they stopped buying and selling them, like animals or things. Liberated peasants joined the labor market and began working in factories. This entailed the formation of new capitalist relations in the country's economy and its modernization.
And finally, the liberation of the peasants was one of the first of a series of reforms prepared and carried out by the associates of Alexander II. Historian B.G. Litvak wrote: “... such a huge social act as the abolition of serfdom could not pass without leaving a trace for the entire state organism.” The changes affected almost all spheres of life: the economy, the socio-political sphere, local government, the army and navy.
Russia and America
It is generally accepted that the Russian Empire was a very backward state in social terms, because until the second half of the 19th century there remained the disgusting custom of selling people at auction like cattle, and the landowners did not suffer any serious punishment for the murder of their serfs. But we should not forget that at this very time, on the other side of the world, in the USA, there was a war between north and south, and one of the reasons for it was the problem of slavery. Only through a military conflict in which hundreds of thousands of people died.
Indeed, one can find many similarities between an American slave and a serf: they did not have the same control over their lives, they were sold, separated from their families; personal life was controlled.
The difference lay in the very nature of the societies that gave rise to slavery and serfdom. In Russia, serf labor was cheap, and estates were unproductive. Attaching peasants to the land was a political rather than an economic phenomenon. The plantations of the American South have always been commercial, and their main principle was economic efficiency.
The reign of Alexander the Second (1856-1881) went down in history as a period of “great reforms”. Largely thanks to the emperor, serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861 - an event that, of course, is his main achievement, which played a large role in the future development of the state.
Prerequisites for the abolition of serfdom
In 1856-1857, a number of southern provinces were rocked by peasant unrest, which, however, subsided very quickly. But, nevertheless, they served as a reminder to the ruling authorities that the situation in which the common people find themselves could ultimately result in dire consequences for them.
In addition, the current serfdom significantly slowed down the progress of the country's development. The axiom that free labor is more effective than forced labor was fully demonstrated: Russia lagged significantly behind Western states both in the economy and in the socio-political sphere. This threatened that the previously created image of a powerful power could simply dissolve, and the country would become secondary. Not to mention that serfdom was very similar to slavery.
By the end of the 50s, more than a third of the country's 62 million population lived completely dependent on their owners. Russia urgently needed peasant reform. 1861 was supposed to be a year of serious changes, which had to be carried out so that they could not shake the established foundations of the autocracy, and the nobility retained its dominant position. Therefore, the process of abolishing serfdom required careful analysis and elaboration, and this was already problematic due to the imperfect state apparatus.
Necessary steps for the coming changes
The abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861 was supposed to seriously affect the foundations of life of the huge country.
However, if in states living according to the constitution, before carrying out any reforms, they are worked out in the ministries and discussed in the government, after which the finished reform projects are submitted to parliament, which makes the final verdict, then in Russia there are no ministries or a representative body existed. And serfdom was legalized at the state level. Alexander II could not abolish it single-handedly, since this would violate the rights of the nobility, which is the basis of the autocracy.
Therefore, in order to promote the reform in the country, it was necessary to deliberately create an entire apparatus specifically dedicated to the abolition of serfdom. It was intended to consist of locally organized institutions whose proposals were to be submitted and processed by a central committee, which in turn would be controlled by the monarch.
Since in the light of the upcoming changes it was the landowners who lost the most, the best solution for Alexander II would have been if the initiative to free the peasants had come from the nobles. Soon such a moment came up.
"Rescript to Nazimov"
In the mid-autumn of 1857, General Vladimir Ivanovich Nazimov, the governor from Lithuania, arrived in St. Petersburg, who brought with him a petition to grant him and the governors of the Kovno and Grodno provinces the right to free their serfs, but without giving them land.
In response, Alexander II sent a rescript (personal imperial letter) to Nazimov, in which he instructed local landowners to organize provincial committees. Their task was to develop their own options for future peasant reform. At the same time, in the message the king gave his recommendations:
- Granting complete freedom to serfs.
- All land plots must remain with the landowners, with ownership rights retained.
- Providing the opportunity for freed peasants to receive land plots subject to payment of quitrent or working off corvee.
- Give peasants the opportunity to buy back their estates.
Soon the rescript appeared in print, which gave impetus to a general discussion of the issue of serfdom.
Creation of committees
At the very beginning of 1857, the emperor, following his plan, created a secret committee on the peasant question, which secretly worked on developing a reform to abolish serfdom. But only after the “rescript to Nazimov” became public knowledge did the institution become fully operational. In February 1958, all secrecy was removed from it, renaming it the Main Committee for Peasant Affairs, headed by Prince A.F. Orlov.
Under him, Editorial Commissions were created, which reviewed projects submitted by provincial committees, and on the basis of the collected data, an all-Russian version of the future reform was created.
Member of the State Council, General Ya.I., was appointed chairman of these commissions. Rostovtsev, who fully supported the idea of abolishing serfdom.
Controversies and work done
During the work on the project, there were serious contradictions between the Main Committee and the majority of provincial landowners. Thus, the landowners insisted that the emancipation of the peasants should be limited only to the provision of freedom, and the land could be assigned to them only on a lease basis without redemption. The Committee wanted to give former serfs the opportunity to purchase land, becoming full owners.
In 1860, Rostovtsev died, and therefore Alexander II appointed Count V.N. as head of the Editorial Commissions. Panin, who, by the way, was considered an opponent of the abolition of serfdom. Being an unquestioning executor of the royal will, he was forced to complete the reform project.
In October, the work of the Editorial Commissions was completed. In total, provincial committees submitted for consideration 82 projects for the abolition of serfdom, occupying 32 printed volumes. The result was submitted for consideration to the State Council, and after its acceptance was presented to the Tsar for certification. After familiarization, he signed the corresponding Manifesto and Regulations. February 19, 1861 became the official day of the abolition of serfdom.
The main provisions of the manifesto of February 19, 1861
The main provisions of the document were as follows:
- The serf peasants of the empire received complete personal independence; they were now called “free rural inhabitants.”
- From now on (that is, from February 19, 1861), serfs were considered full citizens of the country with the appropriate rights.
- All movable peasant property, as well as houses and buildings, were recognized as their property.
- The landowners retained the rights to their lands, but at the same time they had to provide the peasants with household plots as well as field plots.
- For the use of land plots, peasants had to pay a ransom both directly to the owner of the territory and to the state.
Necessary compromise of reform
The new changes could not satisfy the wishes of all concerned. The peasants themselves were dissatisfied. First of all, the conditions under which they were provided with land, which, in fact, was the main means of subsistence. Therefore, the reforms of Alexander II, or rather, some of their provisions, are ambiguous.
Thus, according to the Manifesto, the largest and smallest sizes of land plots per capita were established throughout Russia, depending on the natural and economic characteristics of the regions.
It was assumed that if the peasant plot was smaller in size than established by the document, then this obliged the landowner to add the missing area. If they are large, then, on the contrary, cut off the excess and, as a rule, the best part of the allotment.
Norms of allotments provided
The manifesto of February 19, 1861 divided the European part of the country into three parts: steppe, black earth and non-black earth.
- The norm of land plots for the steppe part is from six and a half to twelve dessiatines.
- The norm for the black earth strip was from three to four and a half dessiatines.
- For the non-chernozem zone - from three and a quarter to eight dessiatines.
In the whole country, the allotment area became smaller than it was before the changes, thus, the peasant reform of 1861 deprived the “liberated” of more than 20% of the area of cultivated land.
Conditions for transferring land ownership
According to the reform of 1861, land was provided to peasants not for ownership, but only for use. But they had the opportunity to buy it from the owner, that is, to conclude a so-called buyout deal. Until that moment, they were considered temporarily obligated, and for the use of land they had to work corvée, which amounted to no more than 40 days a year for men and 30 for women. Or pay a quitrent, the amount of which for the highest allotment ranged from 8-12 rubles, and when assigning a tax, the fertility of the land was necessarily taken into account. At the same time, those temporarily obliged did not have the right to simply refuse the allotment provided, that is, corvee would still have to be worked off.
After completing the redemption transaction, the peasant became the full owner of the land plot.
And the state did not lose out
Since February 19, 1861, thanks to the Manifesto, the state had the opportunity to replenish the treasury. This income item was opened due to the formula by which the amount of the redemption payment was calculated.
The amount that the peasant had to pay for the land was equal to the so-called conditional capital, which was deposited in the State Bank at 6% per annum. And these percentages were equal to the income that the landowner previously received from quitrent.
That is, if a landowner had 10 rubles in quitrent per soul per year, then the calculation was made according to the formula: 10 rubles divided by 6 (interest on capital), and then multiplied by 100 (total interest) - (10/6) x 100 = 166.7.
Thus, the total amount of the quitrent was 166 rubles 70 kopecks - money “unaffordable” for a former serf. But here the state entered into a deal: the peasant had to pay the landowner at a time only 20% of the calculated price. The remaining 80% was contributed by the state, but not just like that, but by providing a long-term loan with a repayment period of 49 years and 5 months.
Now the peasant had to pay the State Bank annually 6% of the redemption payment amount. It turned out that the amount that the former serf had to contribute to the treasury was three times the loan. In fact, February 19, 1861 became the date when a former serf, having escaped from one bondage, fell into another. And this despite the fact that the size of the ransom amount itself exceeded the market value of the plot.
Results of changes
The reform adopted on February 19, 1861 (the abolition of serfdom), despite its shortcomings, gave a fundamental impetus to the development of the country. 23 million people received freedom, which led to a serious transformation in the social structure of Russian society, and subsequently revealed the need to transform the entire political system of the country.
The timely release of the Manifesto on February 19, 1861, the preconditions of which could lead to serious regression, became a stimulating factor for the development of capitalism in the Russian state. Thus, the eradication of serfdom is undoubtedly one of the central events in the history of the country.
