Political and Economic Change, 1861–1917

The Emancipation granted seigniorial, state, and crown serfs personal freedom, and divided farmland between peasants and landlords. Ownership of the land went to village communes or, in regions where communes did not exist, to individual families. Like most political compromises, the Emancipation was received grudgingly. Peasants believed that they had been given too little land and that their taxes were still too high. Nobles resented losing property that they considered rightfully theirs and they feared that they would not be able to support themselves on what they had left. The aftermath of Emancipation fed these resentments, for the income of lower‑ranking noble families plunged, even as most peasants continued to struggle with poverty.

The Emancipation was the centerpiece of a program of reforms begun under Alexander II and continued by his son Alexander III (ruled 1881–94) and grandson Nicholas II (ruled 1894–1917). Government ministers overhauled the judiciary by creating additional courts, improving legal procedures, and introducing trial by jury. They established the zemstva (the singular is zemstvo), assemblies elected at the district and county levels to promote local economic development, education, and health care. They reformed the military and encouraged industrialization. They also maintained the government’s autocratic power, censored the press, and harassed critics.

The transformation of the economy bred problems that the bureaucrats were unable to solve. Poverty continued to plague city and countryside alike. Factory work was grueling, dangerous, and poorly paid, and the government did little to improve conditions. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, and engineers labored to upgrade social services as well as infrastructure, but when they lobbied for input into government decision‑making or requested greater freedom for their professional organizations, they usually received a frosty response from the authorities.

The government also bungled foreign policy. In the late nineteenth century, being a great power was more expensive than ever before, because industrialization had led to mechanized armies and navies. In view of the empire’s already enormous size and economic underdevelopment, Nicholas II should have stayed out of the increasingly hostile competition between the colonial powers in the 1890s. Instead he increased military spending and meddled in China and Korea. The latter folly led to war with Japan, which intensified domestic unrest and, in 1905, produced uprisings across the empire. Yielding to the pressure, Nicholas agreed to the establishment of an elected legislature, but after protests subsided, he refused to share power with it. He then blundered into World War I in 1914. That colossal error, coming on top of so many others, brought on the Russian Revolution in 1917.