On March 30, 1856, Tsar Alexander II already explained the necessity of reform when summoning the Moscow nobles, admitting that "it is better to solve it from above than from below." January 3, 1857 , the tsarist government established a 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 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 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. 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. During the reform process, he gradually realized the true face of the tsar and serfdom. The essence of the reform thus strengthened his revolutionary democratic stance.

The "New All-Russian Institutions" program drawn up by Ogarev called for the immediate abolition of all serfdom privileges enjoyed by landlords and the state over people and land, and the distribution of land to peasants free of charge. This program was in sharp contrast to the tsarist edicts and landowner programs. Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov were 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 formally criticized the edict in good faith, but in essence proposed 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, propagating the ideas of peasant revolution through the obstacles of censorship agencies, and promoting the masses who overthrew all the old power. The idea of ??struggle.” Dobrolyubov also exposed the narrowness of the tsarist government's reforms and the poverty of its content in "Modern People", accusing 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 revolutionary democrats' exposure and attack on the preparations for reform caused great panic among the ruling class. Alexander II was forced by the situation to make further concessions. On October 18, 1858, he gave new instructions at the General Committee on Peasant Affairs. The General Committee on Peasant Affairs adopted a new program on December 4 based on the new instructions. Its main contents are: farmers obtain personal freedom and are included in the rural freedom level; farmers form village communities, and the management bodies of village communities are elected by village communities; landlords have contact with village communities but not with individual farmers; in addition to ensuring farmers' long-term use of allotted land , 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 Council of Nobles and formulate a general reform plan, a compilation committee under the leadership of the General Council 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.

Reference: /view/175948.htm

The Meiji government deified the absolute authority of the emperor politically, established the "Chinese" system to maintain the special status of the old lords and ministers, and Include reform heroes and plutocrats as Chinese to cultivate the privileged class; economically support feudal plutocrats and parasitic landlords; ideologically promote Shinto, Imperial Way, Confucianism, and introduce German idealist philosophy. In 1882, the "Military Edict" was issued to advocate bushido. In 1890, the "Rescript on Education" was issued to promote militaristic education with loyalty to the emperor as the core. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan transformed from a feudal country ruled by shogunate lords to a feudal capitalist country. Warlords, bureaucrats and aristocrats from Satsuma, Choshu and other powerful feudal lords, who closely colluded with the Zaibatsu, have long controlled the political power and promoted "hanlord politics" in the process of establishing the modern emperor system. From the 1870s to the 1880s, Japan experienced a civil rights movement that opposed autocratic politics and fought for bourgeois liberal and democratic rights. The Meiji government disintegrated this movement through violent suppression and political differentiation, promulgated the Meiji Constitution in 1889, and established the Diet in 1890, thereby establishing an authoritarian constitutional monarchy, the modern Japanese emperor system. In terms of foreign relations, as the country's national strength becomes stronger, it continues to negotiate and request modifications to treaties. The treaties began to be revised in 1894 and finally abrogated in 1911. In the early years of Meiji, Japan was planning to invade and expand its Asian neighbors. In 1874, troops were sent to invade Taiwan, China. In 1875, they invaded North Korea armedly and forced North Korea to sign the "Treaty of Ganghwa" the following year. In 1879, Ryukyu was annexed and renamed Okinawa Prefecture. By the late 1980s, the mainland policy with the main goal of invading China and North Korea was basically formed. Since the mid-1990s, it has continued to launch aggressive wars against foreign countries.

(Educational Edict): Pay attention to the national constitution, obey the national laws, and once there is an emergency, you must serve the public righteously and bravely to support the endless destiny of the emperor. If you do this, you will not only be my loyal ministers and good citizens, but also show the style of your ancestors< /p>

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