The reforms implemented by Russian Tsar Alexander II in 1861. This reform abolished serfdom, and serfs became free people, providing a large amount of free labor for the development of capitalism. The huge land ransoms accumulated a large amount of funds for the development of capitalism. Russia has since embarked on the path of capitalist development. The reforms of 1861 were a major turning point in Russian history. At the same time, the 1861 reforms also retained a large number of feudal remnants, which had a negative impact on the subsequent development of Russian society.

Edit this paragraph: Conditions for Russia’s serfdom reform in 1861

In the first half of the 19th century, Russia’s capitalism had developed to a certain extent (the industrial revolution was in progress), and the factory handicraft industry had Reaching a considerable scale, domestic and foreign markets have further expanded. Big businessmen, rich farmers, and some landowning aristocrats operating commercialized agriculture and factory handicrafts accumulated a large amount of capital. Its essence is a bourgeois reform under the auspices of feudal landlords.

Edit background of this paragraph

(1) Premise: Capitalism developed to a certain extent in Russia in the first half of the 19th century.

Reason for editing this paragraph

(2) Direct cause: The failure of the Crimean (Crimea) War aggravated the domestic economic and social crisis and exposed the shortcomings of serfdom. , aggravating social conflicts and promoting serfdom reform. (3) Fundamental reasons: Russia in the first half of the 19th century was still a backward feudal serfdom country. Serfs lived in extremely poverty, with no personal freedom and no purchasing power. This resulted in a small domestic market and a lack of free labor, which seriously hindered the development of capitalism. develop. (4) External reasons: The industrial revolution promoted the development and growth of the industrial bourgeoisie. (5) Politics: Tsarist Russia strengthened serfdom, leading to acute class conflicts and constant serf uprisings. (6) Thought: In December 1825, the "December Party" launched an uprising, which impacted Russian society. In the mid-19th century, the literary works of progressive writers propagated Enlightenment ideas and shook the foundation of feudal thought. (7) Purpose: To save the crisis of rule, to protect the interests of the aristocratic and landlord class in a forced and passive manner, to prevent the outbreak of bourgeois revolution, to ease conflicts, and to maintain the autocratic rule of the Tsar.

Edit this paragraph The dangers of serfdom

1. Peasants are tied to the land and cannot meet industry’s demand for free labor. 2. The impoverishment of serfs severely restricted the expansion of the domestic market, which in turn affected the expansion and reproduction of enterprises. 3. The class contradiction between farmers and rulers is acute.

Purpose of editing this paragraph

Resolve conflicts and consolidate the rule and interests of the royal family.

Edit this paragraph Limitations of Russian serfdom reform

1. Incompleteness: A large number of feudal remnants are retained. 2. Expropriation: Farmers can buy land, but they have to pay a large ransom. 3. Deceptiveness: After the reform, the exploitation of farmers intensified. 4. Failed to fundamentally change feudal production relations.

Edit this paragraph for class significance

1. Protect the interests of the nobility and landowners. A full-length statue of Tsar Alexander II

2. Prevent bottom-up The emergence of the people's revolutionary movement 3. Maintaining and consolidating the shaken tsarist autocratic rule 4. Promoting the growth and development of the bourgeoisie 5. Top-down bourgeois reform

Edit the national significance of this paragraph

< p>1. Develop capitalist industry and agriculture 2. Alleviate social conflicts 3. Enhance the ability to resist the expansion of Western European countries

Edit the main content of the reform in this paragraph

Politics: Establish local autonomy Institutions (Local Government Bureaus). The Decree on Provinces, Districts and Local Bodies promulgated in 1864 established autonomous assemblies and their administrative agencies in most regions of Russia. Judiciary: Abolish the old hierarchical trial system and establish a jury system and a lawyer system. Conduct public trials. Education: Encourage school running, expand university autonomy, and allow the introduction of Western books. Thoughts: Objectively, Western bourgeois ideas were further introduced into Russia. More and more Russians saw the gap and demanded reforms. Economy: (1861 reforms increased free labor, expanded the domestic market, and provided capital; borrowed Western technology; the government formulated policies to promote industrial development) Special reminder: Russia belongs to military feudal imperialism (because it retains a large amount of tsarist autocracy)

Edit the content of this paragraph

In 1861, Tsar Alexander II signed a decree abolishing serfdom, stipulating that serfs had legal personal freedom and the right to own movable and immovable property, hold public offices and In industry and commerce, landlords could not buy or sell serfs or interfere with their lives; it was stipulated that land still belonged to the landlords, and serfs could get a certain amount of land, but they had to pay to redeem it from the landlords; farmers were still under the management of the village commune.

Edit the nature of this paragraph

The reform of 1861 was a top-down bourgeois nature reform by serf owners and a bourgeois nature reform under the auspices of feudal landlords.

Evaluation

Russia’s 1861 reform abolished serfdom and provided the necessary free labor force, vast domestic market, capital and relatively stable social environment for the development of Russian capitalism. At the same time, a corresponding judicial system was established, which accelerated the historical process of Russian industrialization.

Since then, Russia has entered a new stage of historical development from the era of serfdom, embarked on the path of capitalist development, and gradually established the capitalist system after reform. However, this reform was far from thorough, retaining a large number of feudal remnants, and the life of serfs has not substantially improved. The democratic revolution is still the historical mission facing the development of Russian society. 1. A turning point in the development of Russian history. 2. The reform is not thorough and retains a large number of feudal remnants, which hinders the development of capitalism. 3. Predatory and deceptive, exacerbating conflicts and leading to the outbreak of revolution.

Edit this paragraph Reasons for the rapid reform

In March 1856, Tsar Alexander II pointed out in a speech to the Moscow nobles: "...the current serf ownership system cannot Nothing remains the same. Instead of waiting for the serfs to abolish the serfdom system from the bottom up, it is better to abolish the serfdom system from the top.” From January to February 1857, the State Council of Tsarist Russia discussed and reviewed the serfdom reform draft. Alexander II emphasized at the State Council: "Continuing delay will only cause greater disasters and will have harmful and disastrous consequences for the entire country, especially the landowners. Therefore, it is recommended to adopt the reform plan as soon as possible." February 17 , the State Council approved the reform plan. The reforms of 1861 were the result of challenges from domestic and foreign situations. In Russia at that time, dangers and opportunities coexisted. The people in power in the tsarist government recognized this and implemented reforms to distribute benefits among various classes. However, the reform encountered great resistance. The reason why Alexander II was able to declare the abolition of serfdom despite the opposition of some conservative aristocratic courtiers was because "if small profits are not abandoned, big profits cannot be guaranteed."

Edit Background of the reforms in this paragraph

Tsar Alexander II

Russian Tsar Alexander II carried out top-down reforms to abolish serfdom in 1861. In the first half of the 19th century, capitalist factors gradually developed within the Russian serfdom society. Large factories gradually replaced manual workshops, machine production gradually replaced manual operations, and free wage labor gradually replaced serf labor. In agriculture, the commodity economy has developed greatly, and the self-sufficient natural economy is increasingly disintegrating. Capitalist development requires breaking the shackles of serfdom. The failure of the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856 completely exposed the decadence of the serfdom system and deepened the crisis of serfdom. The war led to the sharp deterioration of farmers' living conditions, increasingly acute class conflicts, and the surging peasant movement.

Edit this paragraph in the early stage of reform

A total of nearly 290 peasant riots and uprisings broke out from 1858 to 1860. . Driven by the peasant resistance movement, revolutionary democrats represented by Herzen, Belinsky, Chernyshevsky and others were working together with liberals to solve the problem. A debate started over the peasant issue. Liberals к.д. Kaverin and others proposed the abolition of the serfdom system while preserving the tsarist power and not touching the landlords' land ownership. Revolutionary democrats advocated the complete abolition of serfdom and the overthrow of tsarist rule. Since Russia did not have enough revolutionary power to overthrow serfdom and the autocratic system at that time, the reform to abolish serfdom was carried out from top to bottom by the tsarist government. In October 1860, a draft decree for the emancipation of serfs was drawn up. On March 3, 1861 (February 19 in the Russian calendar), Alexander II approved the "decree" and "declaration" to abolish the serfdom system. The "General Decree on Peasants Freed from Serfdom" stipulates that peasants have personal freedom and general civil rights. Landlords cannot buy, sell or exchange peasants. Peasants have the right to own property, hold public office, litigate, and engage in industry and commerce. On the premise that all land belongs to 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 a redemption contract, farmers had to perform labor service or pay rent for the landlord. The "Local Ordinance" stipulates that when the farmers' use of allotment land exceeds the amount stipulated in the "Ordinance", or after allotment of land to farmers, the landlord has less than 1/3 of the total land left, the landlord has the right to ask the farmers to Land cutting means depriving farmers of 1/5 to 2/5 of their original cultivated land. To manage the farmers after the reform, village communes and township organizations controlled by local aristocrats were set up, and a company-wide environmental protection system was established to supervise farmers.

Edit this paragraph Peasants’ demands

What Peasants demanded was to obtain all the land free of charge and to be completely liberated from the power of landlords. The 1861 reform did not meet the demands of farmers. After the "Declaration" and "Decree" were promulgated, peasant riots and uprisings occurred 2,000 times from 1861 to 1863 alone. Lenin pointed out that serfdom reform was a bourgeois reform implemented by serf owners. After the reform, Russia still preserved a large number of remnants of serfdom. The landlord land ownership system, which was the economic basis of feudal serfdom, has not been eliminated. A small number of landlords and nobles still occupy a large amount of land, while the peasants, who account for the vast majority of the population, only occupy a small amount of land. . The 1861 reforms created favorable conditions for the development of capitalism. As farmers got rid of their personal dependence on landlords, a large number of free wage laborers emerged, and capitalist industry developed rapidly. The landlord's corvee economy gradually transitioned to a capitalist economy. Following the serfdom reform, the tsarist government also carried out a series of bourgeois reforms in local institutions, municipal administration, justice, and military.

After 1861, Russia gradually transitioned from serfdom to capitalism. The Russian proletariat gradually took shape and entered the stage of history as an independent political force.

Edit this paragraph The decline of serfdom

At the end of the eighteenth century, Russia’s feudal serfdom had begun to decline in some areas; by the early and mid-19th century, it was increasingly disintegrating. The process of disintegration of feudal serfdom was also the process of the formation of new capitalist elements within serfdom. Russia began its industrial revolution in the 1830s. Capitalist factories gradually replaced manual workshops, and machine production began to replace manual labor. In 1840, the value of machinery imported into Russia from abroad was 1.01 million rubles, and by 1850 it had reached 2.685 million rubles. While adopting foreign machines, Russia also began to manufacture and adopt its own textile machines, looms and reeling machines. By the mid-19th century, Russia's textile output ranked fifth in the world. Other industrial sectors such as metallurgy, mining and shipbuilding also began to use machines. After the 1930s, the use of steam power became more common. In 1815, there were 4,189 factories in Russia, which increased to 12,256 in 1858. The number of workers increased from 224,882 in 1804 to 859,950 in 1860, of which 61.4% were employed workers. In the textile and silk industries, serf labor has been completely replaced by wage labor. Although these wage workers are mainly farmers who pay rent to landlords and the state, in terms of their relationship with business owners, they are still "free" labor sellers and are capital developed under the conditions of the feudal serfdom economy. ism relationship.

Edit this paragraph The development of capitalism

With the development of capitalism, the urban population has generally increased, and the demand for commercial grain has increased rapidly. In the 1840s and 1950s, the average output of grain in Russia was 250 million Russian quintals, of which 50 million Russian quintals of commercial grain were sold abroad, accounting for 20% of the output. This strongly stimulated the production of commercial grain. Lenin pointed out: "Landlords produce grain for sale (this kind of production was particularly developed in the late period of serfdom), which is the precursor of the collapse of the old system." However, Russian grain production is far from meeting the needs of domestic and foreign markets. In order to increase food production, more and more landowners began to adopt machinery, improve farming systems and use wage labor. However, under the historical conditions in Russia at that time, the vast majority of landowners adopted methods of increasing labor rent and raising labor rent to expand their economic income. In the black soil provinces and Belarus where the soil is fertile and the industry is not very developed, landlords mainly rely on reducing farmers' land allocations and expanding the area of ??cultivated land to increase economic income. Here, in the first half of the 19th century, landowners' land expanded two to three times, while farmers' land allotments shrank by an average of 1/3 and 2/3, from 7 dessians per person to 3.2 dessianes. As the landowners' cultivated land expanded, labor rents intensified, and labor days increased from three to four, five, or even six days per week. In the non-black soil provinces where Russia's industry is more developed, landlords mainly convert peasants' labor rent into service rent, and increasingly increase the amount of service rent. By the end of the 1950s, the annual service rent paid by each person in the industrial zone had increased significantly. Peasants who were under such heavy pressure had to leave their hometowns in order to pay the rent and go to cities or distant areas to be employed in manual workshops or engage in handicrafts and commerce. To a certain extent, these farmers have separated themselves from the countryside and the land and become free laborers. This effectively destroys the natural economy. The above situation fully illustrates the intensification of the serfdom crisis in Russia, and the intensification of the serfdom crisis destroyed the necessary conditions for the existence and development of the landlord economy: the dominance of the natural economy, the farmers' land allotment system, and the farmers' personal dependence on the landlords. In particular, the use of wage labor and machines in agriculture marks the beginning of the emergence of capitalist production relations in rural areas. This not only further deepened the agricultural crisis, but also accelerated class differentiation in the countryside. Among the peasant class, in addition to a large number of poor peasants who are increasingly impoverished and bankrupt, there is also a wealthy peasant class. Some of them rented land from landlords and state-owned land and became land managers; some opened businesses, hotels and inns and became business owners; some purchased and resold agricultural products and made loan sharks at usury, becoming merchants and loan sharks. The wealthier people became large factory owners with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of rubles. They constituted the rural bourgeoisie covered by the serf-servant relationship and laid the new, capitalist economic foundation in the countryside.

Edit this paragraph Class differentiation

The aristocratic and landlord classes have become divided, and the middle and small landowners have gone bankrupt. From 1835 to 1851, the number of landowner estates with less than 20 peasants decreased by more than 9,000. By the middle of the 19th century, the number of landless landowners in Russia had reached tens of thousands. It is worth noting that among the aristocratic landowners, a group of bourgeois aristocratic landowners adopted capitalist methods to transform and operate their estates. They are few in number, but they are representatives of new production relations in rural areas. With the development of capitalism, the deepening of the agricultural crisis and the differentiation of rural classes, class struggle has become increasingly acute. According to statistics, there were 145 peasant riots from 1826 to 1834, and 348 from 1845 to 1854. After the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856, the peasant movement became even more intense. There were 86 peasant riots in 1858, 90 in 1859, and 108 in 1860.

The crisis of serfdom made it impossible for the ruling class to continue to rule as usual. In particular, the bourgeois aristocratic landowners hoped to quickly change the serfdom system. Liberals representing their interests openly exposed the government's shortcomings, criticized the government's domestic and foreign policies, and talked about the necessity of serfdom reform. They even wrote to the government, wrote to the Tsar, formulated reform plans, and gave speeches at various rallies to clarify their political views. Moscow political commentator Melegonov wrote in his commentary: "We need freedom, freedom! Only freedom is what we pray for." Legal scholar Chicherin advocated the gradual elimination of serfdom and the implementation of freedom of belief, speech and press , reforming the judiciary. Individual senior officials also expressed dissatisfaction with the tsarist government. After the failure of the Crimean War, Courland Governor Luvaev publicly denounced the government's deception and bureaucracy. He shouted to the liberals: "Wisdom requires freedom!"

Edit this paragraph to boost the war

The failure of the Crimean War further deepened Russia's internal and external difficulties and boiling public dissatisfaction. The crisis of feudal serfdom further intensified class contradictions, thus accelerating the abolition of serfdom. As Marx pointed out: "Some legal governments in Europe were able to abolish serfdom only under revolutionary pressure or as a result of war." But the basic reason for the reforms in 1861 was the force of economic development that had dragged Russia onto the road to capitalism. . Preparations for serfdom reform In Russia, the abolition of serfdom has become a historical necessity. However, the method to be adopted, revolution or reform, was the focus of the struggle at that time. The revolutionary democrats who represented the interests of the peasants insisted on abolishing serfdom through revolutionary means, while the aristocratic landowners and the liberals who represented their interests tried to abolish serfdom through reform methods. The development of the revolutionary situation at that time had a strong tendency to abolish serfdom in a revolutionary way. However, the storm of the peasant movement did not set off a revolutionary surge. Russia has been under the rule of the backward feudal serfdom system for a long time. The peasants have long been oppressed by serfdom and bound by feudal ideas, which are related to strong imperialist ideas. Although they often launched struggles against aristocratic landowners and local officials, they did not oppose the tsar, and even supported and worshiped the "good tsar". "The tsar was regarded by the peasants as a god on earth." Therefore, their struggle has never developed to the stage of conscious struggle, and the peasant movement has obvious spontaneity and decentralization. The peasant movements in various regions never formed a unified force that posed a strong threat to the tsarist government. As a result, the peasant movement was quickly suppressed by the tsarist government. As Lenin pointed out: "In Russia, the people who had been slaves to the landlords for hundreds of years did not have the strength to carry out a broad, open and conscious struggle for freedom in 1861." The working class had not yet ascended to the throne. political arena. The Russian bourgeoisie grew up under the auspices of the autocratic system and has never been a revolutionary class. The tsarist government not only granted them various privileges, but also used high tariffs to protect their ability to compete with foreign merchants, guaranteed their foreign markets with its aggressive policy, and opened up financial resources for them with large government orders. At the same time, most of Russia's industrial bourgeoisie were born from merchants. To a certain extent, they owned surplus products based on the old mode of production. Therefore, the Russian bourgeoisie was inextricably linked to the feudal serfdom system. They needed This serfdom country. At this time, the class contradictions and class struggles exposed in Western European capitalist countries, especially the proletarian June uprising in Paris in 1848, made the Russian bourgeoisie fear revolution from the beginning. It can be seen from this that although the Russian revolutionary situation is becoming increasingly mature, the power to destroy serfdom is not yet available. As a result, the tsarist government, which represented the interests of the aristocratic landowners, was forced to carry out "top-down" reforms in order to preserve the crumbling feudal serfdom system and the political power of the aristocratic landowners.

Edit the process of reform in this paragraph

On March 30, 1856, Tsar Alexander II already explained the necessity of reform when summoning the Moscow nobles, admitting that “the need to solve the problem from above must be solved”. It is better to solve it from below.” On January 3, 1857, the tsarist government established the Secret Committee on Peasant Affairs. Most of the people who participated in the committee were big aristocratic landowners who were not enthusiastic about reform, and the committee did not solve any problems. On November 20, the Tsar issued an edict to Nazimov, the governor of Vilna Province, allowing the three provinces of Lithuania to establish provincial committees of nobility, requiring the adjustment of the relationship between farmers and landowners in accordance with the following principles: retaining the ownership of all land of the landowner; the landowner enjoys hereditary territorial security rights; ensure proper and complete payment of national, local and currency taxes. In fact, this edict is the government's preliminary reform program. Apart from allowing farmers to gain personal freedom, this program did not touch the feudal production relations. The edict was sent to all provincial governors and published in newspapers. After the edict was announced, each province successively established provincial noble committees based on the edict. By the end of 1858, noble councils had been generally established in all European and Russian provinces, except Arkhangelsk. In February 1858, the Secret Committee on Peasant Affairs was reorganized into the General Committee on Peasant Affairs, responsible for leading the preparations for the reform. It was still composed of large aristocratic landowners, so there was still little progress in reform. However, the establishment of the Provincial Council of Nobles and the publication of the edict brought the discussion of serfdom into the open, arousing strong repercussions among all classes of society. Due to the different political and economic status of various social strata and political groups, their attitudes towards edicts, reforms and proposed reform plans also differed.

The big aristocratic landowners accounted for 10% of the aristocracy, but owned 30% of the serfs. They enjoy high-ranking officials, generous salaries and various privileges. They are staunch supporters and powerful pillars of feudal serfdom and oppose any reform. The publication of the Tsar's edict caused great dissatisfaction among them. The plan drawn up by the Petersburg Committee under the leadership of Count Suvorov was the most conservative plan. The main contents of the plan are: all land will still be owned by the landlord; farmers can use the allocated land indefinitely under the condition of full service; and landlords' control rights over farmers will be guaranteed. It can be seen that they are the biggest obstacle to serfdom reform. Although the bourgeois aristocratic landowners and their spokespersons, the liberals, also criticized feudal serfdom, liberals and serf owners belonged to the same camp. They were not willing to fundamentally overthrow feudal serfdom, and only hoped to use peaceful means to do so. Some reforms that are beneficial to their own development. Their program is "Only reform, not revolution." The famous liberal Kaverin said that by abolishing serfdom from top to bottom through reform, it seems that Russia will be able to remain calm and "smooth sailing and prosperous" within 500 years. Most of them warmly welcomed the Tsarist Edict, praising it as "opening up a new era in history" and "as the product of the noble, self-sacrificing spirit of the nobility." Only a few people believe that "the edict is not good for either landlords or farmers." The representative of this view is Onkovsky, chairman of the Tver Provincial Committee. Because they have different political views and different conditions in their regions, their opinions on reform are not completely consistent. As a result, hundreds of various plans and memorials were proposed. 370 copies have been discovered and studied. There are two representative plans among these: one is the reform plan proposed by Onkovsky in Tver Province. It represents the interests of those landowners in non-black soil areas who wish to shift their economy to a capitalist track. The plan called for: complete abolition of serfdom; distribution of land to peasants through redemption; the land should be redeemed by the farmers themselves, and the ransom of feudal land rent should be borne by the state. Onkovsky's views were the most progressive among landowners at the time. Another plan was proposed by Pozin, Poltava province, which represented the interests of landowners in the black soil provinces. The plan stipulated that only residential and garden land would be distributed to farmers, while ownership of all land would remain with the landlords. Obviously, this view is much backward than the previous one. Although their plans are different, they have one thing in common, which is to safeguard the interests of the aristocratic landowners. The conflict between them is a conflict within the same class, and the struggle between them is "mainly a struggle within the landlords, a struggle caused entirely by the degree and form of concessions." Peasants and revolutionary democrats who represent their interests, for The Tsarist Edict had a completely different attitude towards reform. The peasants responded to the Tsarist Edict and the preparations for reform with riots. They used "The Bell" and "Modern Man" as their staunch defenders. position, constantly exposed the deceitfulness of the tsarist government's reforms and the predatory nature of the landlord's plan, lashed out at the liberals' compromise, weakness, wavering, betrayal of the people and groveling to the tsarist government, clearly expressed their attitude towards reform, and Proposed his own program. After the announcement of the Tsarist Edict, Herzen had not completely gotten rid of his liberal tendencies and vacillated between liberalism and revolutionary democracy. He published this in the 9th issue of "The Bell" in May 1858. In the article, on the one hand, he congratulated the tsar, and on the other hand, he expressed that he was only willing to move forward with those who resolutely liberated the peasants and were liberating the peasants. In the process of reform, he gradually realized the true face of the tsar and serfdom. The essence of the reform thus strengthened his revolutionary democratic position, and the "New All-Russian Institutions" program formulated by Ogarev required the immediate abolition of all serfdom privileges enjoyed by landlords and the state over people and land, and the land should be transferred free of charge. The land was distributed to the peasants. This program was in sharp contrast to the Tsarist edict and the landlord plan. Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov were more determined than them in early 1858. In order to avoid book censorship, he published his article "On the New Conditions of Rural Life", which formally criticized the edict, but in essence put forward a program that was opposed to the tsar's edict, which Lenin highly praised. Chernyshevsky believed that “he was good at using the revolutionary spirit to influence all the political events of his time, propagating the ideas of peasant revolution and the idea of ??mass struggle to overthrow all old powers through the obstacles of censorship agencies. ". Dobrolyubov also exposed the narrowness of the tsarist government's reforms and the poverty of the reform content in "Modern Man", accused the liberals of cowardice and betrayal, and believed that they were unable to undertake major social undertakings. The rise of the peasant movement and the The revolutionary democrats' exposure and attack on the preparations for the reform caused great panic among the ruling class. Forced by the situation, Alexander II made further concessions at the General Council of Peasants' Affairs. The General Committee on Peasant Affairs adopted a new program based on the new instructions on December 4. Its main contents are: farmers obtain personal freedom and are included in the rural freedom level; farmers form village societies. The management agency is elected by the village community; the landlord has contact with the village community and not with individual farmers; in addition to ensuring that farmers can use the land for a long time, they should be able to purchase the land as private property, and the government can use organized credit methods to help farmers.

Although this program still retained strong remnants of serfdom and was premised on the expropriation of the peasantry, it was still a step forward compared with the Tsarist Edict. In order to review the plans proposed by the Provincial Nobles' Committee and formulate a general reform plan, a compilation committee under the leadership of the General Committee of Peasant Affairs was established in March 1859. The committee completed its work on formulating the plan at the end of August. The land subsidy and amount proposed by the compilation committee were inconsistent with those proposed by the landowners, and the plan aroused dissatisfaction among the aristocratic landowners. After that, after protracted consultations, repeated discussions and multiple revisions, it was not until October 10, 1860 that the revision was submitted to the General Committee on Peasant Affairs for discussion. After discussion and revision by the committee, it was submitted to the State Council for approval on January 14, 1861. On January 28, the State Council approved the reform plan. It came into effect on February 19, when Alexander II signed it. At the same time, the Tsar signed a declaration on the abolition of serfdom. This is the famous decree of February 19th.

Edit this paragraph of the February 19th Decree (219 Decree)

The February 19th Decree contains 17 documents, the more important of which are: "February 19, 1861" "Declaration of Japan", "General Decree on Peasants Freed from Serfdom", "Decree on the Redemption of Farmers' Land by Peasants Freed from Serfdom and the Government's Assistance in Purchasing Cultivated Land for Private Ownership", "Decree on Provincial and County Dealings with Peasants Freed from Serfdom" "Decree on the Institution of Peasant Affairs" and "Decree on the Placement of Domestic Slaves Freed from Serf Dependence." In addition, there are some "local decrees" on settling land relations in different areas, "supplementary decrees" on various serf workers, etc. The "Declaration of February 19, 1861" was the first document announcing the reform of serfdom. The Declaration recognized the need for reform and was signed by Tsar Alexander II, but its author was Archbishop Filaret Drozdov of Moscow, who was also a large serf owner. The purpose of the declaration is to show the "justice" of this serfdom reform, saying that "when a new future is revealed to the serfs, the serfs will understand and gratefully accept what the noble nobles have done to improve the lives of the serfs." "This is obviously a glorification of the aristocratic landowners. This declaration also tried to explain to the peasants that it was absolutely necessary for them to fulfill their obligations to the landlords because they used the land. The declaration reads: “Without considerable compensation or voluntary concessions, it is impossible for landowners to obtain from farmers the rights that are legally stipulated for them. To use the landowner’s land without fulfilling corresponding obligations is a violation of any A kind of justice.” Therefore, the declaration requires farmers to continue to fulfill their obligations to the landlords and endure their exploitation without complaint. The "General Decree on Peasants Freed from Serfdom" is the fundamental decree in a series of decrees. It involves two important aspects of farmers' lives: personal rights and property rights. With the development of capitalism in industry and agriculture, the expansion of the domestic market, and the rapid growth of railway construction. From 1865 to 1895, Russia's railway length increased from 3,374 versts to 31,728 versts. By the early 1880s, Russia had basically completed the industrial revolution. It embarked on the path of colonial expansion by Western powers and became a major industrial power after Britain, France and the United States. But at this time, Russia's autocratic system had not undergone essential changes, and the working people still lacked basic democratic rights. The pace of modernization in Tsarist Russia was still heavy and slow.