[Edit this paragraph] Russia's 1861 serfdom reform
Russia's 1861 serfdom reform, that is, the abolition of serfdom, was the development of new productive forces in Russia at that time and the backward feudal production The crisis of feudal serfdom caused by the conflicts between relations, and the inevitable result of the intensification of class struggle resulting therefrom.
This reform was a top-down bourgeois reform carried out by Tsar Alexander II in order to safeguard the interests of the aristocratic landowners and forced by the revolutionary situation. It became a turning point in the development of Russian history. After the reform, Russia's feudal serfdom system was replaced by the capitalist system; although remnants of feudal serfdom still existed, Russian history entered the capitalist period after all.
[Edit this paragraph] Historical background of serfdom reform
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 a sharp deterioration of farmers' living conditions, increasingly acute class conflicts, and a surging peasant movement.
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 Serf Dependence" 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. Under 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 when the landowner's remaining good land after allotment of land to farmers is less than 1/3 of the total land, the landlord has the right to demand payment from the farmers. 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.
What the peasants demanded was to receive all the land free of charge and to be completely liberated from the power of the landlords. The 1861 reform did not meet the peasants' demands. 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.
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.
The number of factories in Russia was 4,189 in 1815 and increased to 12,256 by 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.
With the development of capitalism and the general increase in urban population, the demand for commercial grain has increased rapidly. In the 1840s and 1850s, the average output of grain in Russia was 250 million rutans, of which 50 million rutans 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, the landowners' land expanded two to three times, while the farmers' allotments shrank by 1/3 and 2/3 on average, 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 farmers' labor rent into labor rent, and increasingly increase the amount of labor 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 peasant land allotment system, the peasants' Personal attachment to the landlord, etc. In particular, the use of wage labor and machinery 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 operators; 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.
The aristocratic landlord class was divided, and the middle and small landlords went 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 letters 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!"
The failure of the Crimean War made Russia internal and external difficulties, and the people's resentment boiled, further deepening the crisis of feudal serfdom, further intensifying 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 Communist Party of China. 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 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.
On March 30, 1856, Tsar Alexander II already explained the necessity of reform when he summoned the Moscow nobles and admitted that "it is better to solve the problem from above than 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 ownership of all land of the landowner; landowners enjoy 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 classes 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 the landlord's right to control the 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 criticize feudal serfdom, liberals and serf owners belong to the same camp, and they are not willing to fundamentally overthrow feudal serfdom. , only hopes to use peaceful means to carry out some reforms that are beneficial to its own development. Their program is "Only reform, not revolution." The famous liberal Kaverin said that by abolition of serfdom from top to bottom through reform, it seemed that Russia would be able to remain calm and "smooth sailing and prosperous" within 500 years. Most of them warmly welcomed the Tsar's edict, praising it as "opening up a new era in history" and "as the product of the noble, self-sacrificing spirit." Only a few people believe that "the edict is not good for the landlords nor the farmers." The representative of this view is Onkovsky, chairman of the Tver Provincial Committee.
Due to their 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 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 representatives of their interests The revolutionary democrats had a completely different attitude towards the Tsarist Edict and the preparations for reforms. The peasants responded to the Tsarist Edict and the preparations for reforms with riots.
The revolutionary democrats were resolute defenders of the interests and freedom of the peasants. They used "The Bell" and "Modern Man" as their positions to constantly expose the deceitfulness of the tsarist government's reforms and the predatory nature of the landlord's plan, and lashed out at the liberals' compromise, weakness, wavering, betrayal of the people and the tsarism The government's groveling clearly expressed its attitude towards reform and put forward its own program.
After the announcement of the Tsar's edict, Herzen had not completely gotten rid of his liberal tendencies and swayed between liberalism and revolution. between democracy. In his article published in the 9th issue of "The Bell" in May 1858, he congratulated the tsar on the one hand, and said on the other hand that he was only willing to cooperate with those who resolutely liberated the peasants and were liberating the peasants. Communist Party moved forward together. During the reform process, he gradually realized the true face of the tsar and the essence of serfdom reform, thus strengthening his revolutionary democratic position and the "New All-Russian Institutions" program. The program called for the immediate abolition of all serfdom privileges in persons and land enjoyed by landlords and the state, and the distribution of land to peasants free of charge. This program was in sharp contrast to the tsarist edict and the landlord plan. The husband was more determined than them. In early 1858, Chernyshevsky published his article "On the New Conditions of Rural Life" in "Modern Man". In order to avoid censorship, he made formal changes to the edict. Well-intentioned criticism, but in essence put forward a program that was opposed to the Tsar's edict. Lenin spoke highly of Chernyshevsky and believed that "he was good at using the revolutionary spirit to influence all political events of his time through books and newspapers. The censorship agencies have repeatedly obstructed the propaganda of the idea of ??peasant revolution and the idea of ??mass struggle to overthrow all old power.” Dobrolyubov also exposed the narrowness of the tsarist government’s reforms and the paucity of reform content in “Modern People” and accused The cowardice and betrayal of the liberals, who believed that they were unable to undertake major social undertakings, caused great controversy among the ruling class. Panic. Forced by the situation, Alexander II made another concession. On October 18, 1858, he gave a new directive to the General Council of Peasant Affairs. The General Council of Peasant Affairs adopted the new directive on December 4. The main content of the new program is: farmers obtain personal freedom and are included in the rural freedom level; farmers form village societies, and the management bodies of village societies are elected by village societies; landlords have contact with village societies and not with individual farmers; in addition to ensuring that farmers In addition to long-term use of the land, they should be able to purchase the land as private property. 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 Noble 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.