186 1 Russia's serfdom reform, that is, the abolition of serfdom, was the inevitable result of the feudal serfdom crisis caused by the contradiction between the development of new productive forces and the backward feudal production relations in Russia at that time and the sharp class struggle caused by it.
This reform is a bourgeois reform carried out from top to bottom by Tsar Alexander II in order to safeguard the interests of aristocratic landlords and forced by the revolutionary situation. This became a turning point in Russian history. After the reform, the feudal serfdom in Russia was replaced by the capitalist system; Although there are still remnants of feudal serfdom, the history of Russia has entered the capitalist period after all.
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Historical background of serfdom reform
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Russian czar Alexander II carried out a top-down reform to abolish serfdom in 186 1. /kloc-in the first half of the 0/9th century, capitalist factors gradually developed within the Russian serfdom society. Large factories gradually replaced handicraft workshops, machine production gradually replaced manual operation, and free wage labor gradually replaced serf labor. In agriculture, the commodity economy has developed greatly, and the self-sufficient natural economy is disintegrating day by day. The development of capitalism requires breaking the shackles of agricultural slavery.
1853 to 1856 The failure of the Crimean War completely exposed the decay of serfdom and deepened the crisis of serfdom. The war led to a sharp deterioration in the living conditions of farmers, increasingly sharp class contradictions and surging peasant movements.
From 1858 to 1860, there were nearly 290 peasant riots and uprisings. Driven by the peasant resistance movement, the revolutionary democrats represented by аииг herzen, вг belinsky, нг Chernyshevski and others started a debate with liberals on solving the peasant problem. Liberals. I know. Kavelin and others proposed to abolish serfdom, while retaining the czar's regime, without touching the landlord's land ownership. Revolutionary Democrats advocated the complete abolition of serfdom and the overthrow of czar rule. At that time, because Russia did not form a revolutionary force enough to overthrow serfdom and autocracy, the reform to abolish serfdom was carried out by the czar government from top to bottom. 1860, 10, 1 On March 3rd, Alexander II approved the "decree" and "declaration" to abolish serfdom. The General Decree on Peasants' Reliance on Serfs stipulates that peasants have personal freedom and general civil rights, landlords cannot buy, sell or exchange peasants, and peasants have the right to own property, hold litigation office and participate in industry and commerce. On the premise that all the land is owned by the landlord, farmers can use a certain amount of land, but they must pay a ransom to the landlord (this ransom greatly exceeds the actual price of the land). Before signing the redemption contract, farmers should work hard for the landlord or pay the service rent. According to local laws and regulations, when the amount of land used by farmers exceeds the amount stipulated in laws and regulations, or the land left by the landlord is less than 1/3 of the total land, the landlord has the right to cede the land to the farmers, that is, to deprive the farmers of their original land 1/5 ~ 2/5. In order to manage the farmers after the reform, village communities and township organizations controlled by local nobles were established, and an environmental protection system was established to supervise farmers.
What farmers want is to get all the land for free and be completely liberated from the landlords. The reform of 186 1 failed to meet the requirements of farmers. After the announcement of "Xuanyan" and "Decree", there were 2000 peasant riots and uprisings from 186 1 to 1863. Lenin pointed out that the reform of serfdom was a bourgeois reform carried out by farm slave owners. After the reform, Russia still preserved a large number of remnants of serfdom. As the economic basis of feudal serfdom, the landlord's land ownership has not been eliminated, and a few landlords and nobles still occupy a large amount of land, while farmers who account for the vast majority of the population only occupy a small amount of land. The reform in 186 1 year created favorable conditions for the development of capitalism. As farmers got rid of their personal attachment to landlords, a large number of freely employed laborers appeared, and capitalist industries developed rapidly. The landlord's corvee economy gradually transited to the capitalist economy. After the reform of serfdom, the czar government successively carried out a series of bourgeois reforms in local institutions, municipal administration, justice and military affairs. 186 1 year later, Russia gradually changed from a serfdom society to a capitalist society. The Russian proletariat gradually formed and entered the historical stage as an independent political force.
/kloc-At the end of 0/8th century, Russian feudal serfdom had begun to decline in some areas. /kloc-in the middle of the 0/9th century, it gradually disintegrated. The process of disintegration of feudal serfdom is also the process of formation of new capitalist elements within serfdom.
Russia began the industrial revolution in the 1930s. Capitalist factories gradually replaced handicraft workshops, and machine production began to replace manual labor. 1840, the value of machines imported by Russia from abroad was 10 10000 rubles, and by 1850, it had reached 2.685 million rubles. While adopting foreign machines, Russia also began to manufacture and adopt domestic textile machines, looms and silk reeling machines. By the middle of19th century, the output of Russian textiles ranked fifth in the world. Other industrial sectors, such as metallurgy, mining and shipbuilding, have also begun to use machines. After 1930s, steam power was widely used.
18 15 There were 4 189 factories in Russia, and it increased to 1256 in 1858. The number of workers increased from 224,882 in 1804 to 859,950 in 1860, of which 6 1.4% were employed workers. In the textile industry and silk industry, serf labor has been completely replaced by wage labor. Although these hired laborers are mainly farmers who pay service rents to landlords and the state, they are still "free" labor sellers in their relationship with business owners, which is a capitalist relationship developed under the feudal serfdom economy.
With the development of capitalism and the general increase of urban population, the demand for commodity grain has increased rapidly. 1In the 1940s and 1950s, the average grain output in Russia was 250 million tons, of which 50 million tons were sold abroad, accounting for 20% of the total grain output. This effectively stimulated the production of commodity grain. Lenin pointed out: "The landlord produced grain for sale (this kind of production developed especially in the later period of serfdom), which was the first sound of the collapse of the old system." However, Russia's grain output is far from meeting the needs of domestic and foreign markets. In order to increase grain output, more and more landlords began to adopt machines, improve farming systems and use wage labor. However, under the historical conditions of Russia at that time, most landlords adopted the methods of increasing labor rent and service rent to expand their economic income.
In black soil provinces and Belarus with fertile soil and underdeveloped industries, landlords mainly rely on reducing farmers' land, expanding cultivated land and increasing economic income. Here, in the first half of the19th century, the land of landlords increased by 2-3 times, while the land of farmers decreased by 1/3 and 2/3 on average, from 7 mu per person to 3.2 mu. With the expansion of the landlord's cultivated land and the increase of labor rent, the working day has increased from three days a week to four, five or even six days.
In the non-black land belt provinces with developed industries in Russia, landlords mainly change farmers' labor rent into service rent, and increase the number of service rent day by day. By the end of 1950s, the annual service rent paid by each person in the industrial zone had greatly increased. Farmers under such heavy pressure have to leave their homes to work in handicraft workshops in cities or remote areas or engage in handicrafts and commerce to pay the service rent. To a certain extent, these farmers left the countryside and land and became free workers. This actually destroys the natural economy.
The above situation fully shows that the intensification of the Russian serfdom crisis has destroyed the necessary conditions for the existence and development of the landlord economy: the dominant natural economy, the land distribution system of farmers, the personal dependence of farmers on landlords and so on. In particular, the use of wage labor and machinery in agriculture shows that capitalist relations of production have begun to appear in rural areas. This not only further deepened the agricultural crisis, but also accelerated the class differentiation in rural areas.
Among the peasant class, there are rich peasants besides a large number of poor peasants who are increasingly poor and bankrupt. Some of them rent the landlord's state-owned land and become land operators; Some start enterprises, hotels and become business owners; Some buy and sell agricultural products, lend usury, and become businessmen and usurers. Wealthier people have become big factory owners with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of rubles. They constituted the rural bourgeoisie covered by serf relations and laid a new capitalist economic foundation in rural areas.
The aristocratic landlord class has been divided, and the small and medium landlords have gone bankrupt. During the period from 1835 to 185 1, the number of landlord estates with less than 20 farmers decreased by more than 9,000, and by the middle of19th century, there were tens of thousands of landless landlords in Russia. It is worth noting that among the aristocratic landlords, a group of bourgeois aristocratic landlords transformed and managed their own estates in a capitalist way. They are small in number, but they are representatives of the new production relations in rural areas.
With the development of capitalism, the deepening of agricultural crisis and the division of rural classes, class struggle is becoming more and more acute. According to statistics, from 1826 to 1834, there were 145 peasant riots, and from 1845 to 1854, there were 348 peasant riots. 1853 ~ 1856 after the Crimean war, the peasant movement became even higher. There were 86 peasant riots in 1858, 90 in 1859 and 90 in 1860. The crisis of serfdom prevented the ruling class from ruling as usual. Especially the bourgeois aristocratic landlords, hope to change the serfdom quickly. Liberals representing their interests openly exposed the shortcomings of the government, criticized the government's internal and external policies and talked about the necessity of serfdom reform. They even wrote to the government, wrote to the czar, made reform plans, and made speeches at various gatherings to clarify their political views. Moscow political commentator Milegorov wrote in his comments: "We need freedom, freedom! Only freedom is what we pray for. " The jurist Cheshire advocated the gradual elimination of serfdom, freedom of belief, speech and publication, and the reform of judicial organs. Individual senior officials also expressed their dissatisfaction with the czar government. After the defeat of the Crimean War, Kurlan Governor Luwayev publicly condemned the government's deception and bureaucracy. He shouted to liberals: "Wisdom needs freedom!"
The failure of the Crimean War made Russia's internal affairs and diplomacy difficult and people's grievances boiled, which further deepened the crisis of feudal serfdom, further intensified class contradictions and accelerated the abolition of serfdom. As Marx pointed out: "Some legitimate governments in Europe can abolish serfdom only under the pressure of revolution or because of war." However, the fundamental reason for the reform in 186 1 is that the power of economic development dragged Russia onto the capitalist road. It has become a historical necessity to abolish serfdom in preparation for the reform of Russian serfdom. However, which road to take, revolution or reform, was the focus of the struggle at that time. Revolutionary Democrats representing the interests of farmers insisted on abolishing serfdom by revolutionary means, while aristocratic landlords and liberals representing the interests of farmers tried to abolish serfdom by improved methods. At that time, the development of the revolutionary situation had a tendency to abolish serfdom by revolutionary means, but the storm of the peasant movement did not set off a whirlwind of revolution.
Russia has been under the backward feudal serfdom for a long time, and farmers have been oppressed by serfdom and bound by feudal ideas for a long time, which is related to the powerful imperialist ideology. Although they often launched a struggle against aristocratic landlords and local officials, they did not oppose the tsar, and even supported and worshipped the "good tsar" who was regarded as the god of the world by farmers. Therefore, their struggle never reached the stage of conscious struggle, and the peasant movement was obviously spontaneous and decentralized. The peasant movements all over the country have never formed a unified force that poses a strong threat to the czar government. As a result, the peasant movement was quickly suppressed by the czar government. As Lenin pointed out: "In Russia, the people who have been landlords and slaves for hundreds of years have not been able to fight for freedom widely, openly and consciously in 186 1." The working class has not yet entered the political arena.
The Russian bourgeoisie grew up under the egg wing of the autocratic system and was never a revolutionary class. The czar government not only granted them various privileges, but also protected their competitiveness with foreign businessmen with high tariffs, protected their foreign markets with its aggressive policies, and broadened their financial resources with a large number of decrees. At the same time, most of the Russian industrial bourgeoisie comes from businessmen, who occupy the surplus products on the basis of the old mode of production to a certain extent. Therefore, the Russian bourgeoisie is inextricably linked with feudal serfdom, and they need this serfdom country. At this time, the class contradictions and class struggles exposed by capitalist countries in western Europe, especially the June uprising of the proletariat in Paris in 1848, made the Russian bourgeoisie afraid of revolution from the beginning.
It can be seen that although the Russian revolutionary situation is becoming more and more mature, the power to destroy serfdom is not yet available. As a result, the czar government, representing the interests of aristocratic landlords, was forced to carry out "top-down" reforms to safeguard the crumbling feudal serfdom and the political power of aristocratic landlords.
1856 On March 30th, when Tsar Alexander II summoned the Moscow nobles, he expounded the necessity of reform and admitted that "it is better to solve it from above than from below."
103, the czar's government set up a secret committee on peasant affairs. Most of the participants in the committee are big noble landlords, who are not enthusiastic about the reform, and the committee has not solved any problems. 1 65438+1on October 20th, the tsar issued an imperial edict to Nazimov, governor of Vilna province, allowing the three Lithuanian provinces to set up provincial aristocratic committees, demanding that the relationship between farmers and landlords be adjusted according to the following principles: (1) Retain the ownership of land owned by landlords; Landlords have hereditary territorial security rights; Ensure that national tax, local tax and currency tax are paid correctly and in full. In fact, this imperial edict is the government's initial reform plan. This program did not touch the feudal relations of production, except for the personal freedom of farmers. The imperial edict was distributed to provincial governors and published in newspapers.
After the announcement of the imperial edict, the provinces successively established provincial aristocratic committees according to the imperial edict. By the end of 1858, all provinces in Europe and Russia had established aristocratic committees except Arkhangelsk. 1858 In February, the secret committee of peasant affairs was reorganized into the general committee of peasant affairs, responsible for leading the preparatory work for the reform. It is still composed of landlords in big noble, so there is still no progress in the reform. However, the establishment of the provincial aristocratic Committee and the announcement of the imperial edict made the discussion of serfdom open and aroused strong repercussions in all walks of life. Due to the different political and economic status of various social strata and political groups, they have different attitudes towards imperial edicts, reforms and proposed reform programs.
Landlords in big noble account for 10% of the aristocratic class, but they own 30% of the serfs. They are staunch supporters and powerful pillars of feudal serfdom and oppose any reform. The announcement of the czar's imperial edict aroused their great dissatisfaction. Under the leadership of Count suvorov, the plan drawn up by the Petersburg Committee is the most conservative. The main contents of the plan are: all land is still owned by the landlord; Farmers can use their land indefinitely under the condition of full service; Ensure the landlord's control over the peasants. Obviously, they are the biggest obstacle to the reform of serfdom.
Although the bourgeois aristocratic landlords and their spokesmen, the Liberals, also criticized the feudal serfdom, the Liberals and serf owners belonged to the same camp. They do not want to fundamentally overthrow the feudal serfdom, but only hope to carry out some reforms that are conducive to their own development through peaceful means. Their program is "only improvement, no revolution". Kaverin, a famous liberal, said that by improving roads from top to bottom and abolishing serfdom, Russia seems to be able to maintain calm and "smooth prosperity" for 500 years. Most of them warmly welcomed the imperial edict of the Tsar and praised it as "opening a new era in history" and "the product of noble and self-sacrificing spirit". Only a few people think that "imperial edicts are not good for landlords or farmers." The representative who holds this view is Onkovsky, Chairman of Tver Provincial Committee.
Because of their different political views and different conditions in their regions, their views on reform are not completely consistent. As a result, hundreds of schemes and memorials were put forward. 370 books have been found and studied. There are two representative schemes: one is the reform scheme proposed by Onkovsky in Tver province. It represents the interests of landlords who want to turn the economy into a capitalist track in non-black land areas. The program requires: completely abolish serfdom; Distribute land to farmers through redemption; Land was redeemed by farmers themselves, and the ransom of feudal land rent should be borne by the state. Onkovsky's view was the most progressive among the landlords at that time. Another plan was put forward by Pozin of Poltava province, representing the interests of landlords in black soil province. The plan stipulates that only the homestead land will be distributed to farmers, and the ownership of all land will still belong to the landlord. Obviously, this view lags far behind the former one.
Although their plans are different, one thing is the same, that is, to safeguard the interests of aristocratic landlords. The conflict between them is the conflict within the same class, and the struggle between them "is mainly the struggle within the landlord, which is completely caused by the degree and form of concession."
Farmers and revolutionary Democrats representing their interests have completely different attitudes towards the imperial edict and reform of the tsar. Farmers responded to the czar's imperial edict and preparations for reform with riots.
Revolutionary Democrats are staunch defenders of farmers' interests and freedom. Based on The Bell and Modern People, they constantly exposed the deception of the reform of the czar's government and the predatory plan of the landlords, lashed out at the compromise, weakness and vacillation of liberals, betrayed the people, kowtowed to the czar's government, clearly expressed their attitude towards the reform and put forward their own programs.
After the publication of the Imperial Decree of the Tsar, herzen did not completely get rid of the tendency of liberalism and wavered between liberalism and revolutionary democracy. In his article published in the ninth issue of The Bell 1858 in May, on the one hand, he congratulated the Tsar, on the other hand, he said that he was only willing to advance with those who resolutely liberated the peasants and those who were liberating them. In the process of reform, he gradually recognized the true face of the tsar and the essence of serfdom reform, thus strengthening his position of revolutionary democracy. The program of "New All-Russia System" drawn up by Ogarev demands the immediate abolition of all serfdom privileges enjoyed by landlords and the state in people and land, and the free distribution of land to farmers. This plan is in sharp contrast with the imperial edict of the tsar and the plan of the landlord. Chernyshevski and Dobro Lyubov are more determined than them. 1858 At the beginning of this year, Chernyshevski published his article "On the New Situation of Rural Life" in Modern People. In order to avoid the censorship of books and newspapers, he criticized the imperial edict in good faith in form, but in essence he put forward a program opposite to the imperial edict of the tsar. Lenin spoke highly of Chernyshevski, saying that "he was good at influencing all political events of his time with revolutionary spirit, propagating peasant revolutionary thoughts and mass struggle thoughts and overthrowing all old regimes through the obstacles of books and newspapers inspection organs". Dobro Lyubov also exposed the narrowness of the reform of the czar's government and the poverty of the reform contents on modern people, and accused the liberals of cowardice and betrayal, believing that they could not undertake major social undertakings.
The upsurge of the peasant movement and the exposure and attack of the revolutionary Democrats on the preparations for reform have aroused great panic among the ruling class. Alexander II gave in again because of the situation. 1858101October18 He gave new instructions at the General Committee of Farmers' Affairs. On February 4th, 65438, the General Committee of Peasant Affairs adopted a new program according to the new instructions. Its main contents are: farmers get personal freedom and are brought into the level of rural freedom; Farmers form village cooperatives, and the management institutions of the village cooperatives are elected by the village cooperatives; The landlord contacted the village community, not the individual farmers; In addition to ensuring farmers' long-term use of land, they should also be able to buy land with private property, and the government can help farmers by organizing credit. Although this program still retains the strong remnants of serfdom, taking the deprivation of farmers as the premise, it is still a step forward compared with the imperial edict of the tsar.
In order to review the plan put forward by the provincial aristocratic Committee and draw up the overall reform plan, an editorial board led by the General Committee of Farmers Affairs was established on March 1859. At the end of August, the Committee completed the work of making plans. The labor rent and amount put forward by the establishment Committee are inconsistent with the landlord's suggestion, which has aroused the dissatisfaction of aristocratic landlords. Since then, after protracted negotiations, repeated discussions and repeated revisions, the revised scheme was not submitted to the Agricultural Association for discussion until 1860 10. After discussion and revision by the Committee, it was submitted to the State Council for approval on18611104. 65438+1On October 28th, the State Council approved the reform plan. /kloc-in February of 0/9, it came into effect after being signed by Alexander II. At the same time, the tsar signed a declaration to abolish serfdom. This is the famous 19 February law.
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