Results of Emancipation
Terms
Landowners
Peasants
Benefits
Negatives
Benefits
Negatives
Full rights of proper citizens
Allowed to own property and businesses
No longer bound to the land
The right to marry consulting landowners
Not given enough land to survive
Some got allotments of bad land and could not produce a surplus of grain to sell
The redemption tax was so high that not all peasants could produce enough grain to survive
Some newly freed serfs were forced to ‘rent’ land from wealthy landowners to pay the tax, and ended up neglecting their own fields
Over the next few years, the yields from the peasants’ crops remained low, and there was a famine
Nothing much changed: most peasants remained very poor
The backward social system prevented Russia from modernising. Its abolishment faciliated the development of the Russian economy, and hene strengthened the nation
There was a rise in the amount of production of grain for sale
As the bulk of the work force was more mobile to work in the cities (this was beneficial to landowners who invested in factories)
The serfs generated mass amounts of money for the nobles. Emancipation meant that the nobles would have to find other avenues to maintain their economic status
The land that serf dwellings were built on became the property of the serfs automatically, and the nobles had no right of appeal
Landowners were compensated for the loss of serfs by the redemption tax
This social reform considerably weakened the existing elite, the landowners, who lost their iron-cast control over the serfs
The discontent peasants revolved, hence disturbing the lives of the nobles
Power was decentralised because of the establishment and the increase in power of local governments (the mir). This position of authority had hitherto been assumed by the nobles
30 March 1861: Alexander II freed all Russian serfs (who made up one-third of the total population - 23 milliona0
All personal serfdom was abolished
Peasants received land from the landowners, and could also buy land from them
Peasants had to pay the government redemption tax as compensation for the financial loss of the landowners
Household serfs were now free but had no land
Peasants gained more political power
More peasants received education
The resulting population boom exerted more pressure on agricultural land
Granted all serfs full rights of proper citizens
Economic impacts
The Tsar hoped that emancipating the serfs would result in large-scale economic growth, but this not happen
As most of the peasants were still very poor, they did not have sufficient purchasing power to stimulate the market to produce consumer goods, and the consumer class in Russia remained very small