The History of Liberalism in Russia

Chapter 8

107 alexander II’s reign has justifiably been called the Era of Great Reforms. From the outset, Alexander II considered the emancipation of the serfs as the most important and urgent of tasks. This can perhaps be explained by the fact that, as he himself relates, his father, Nicholas I, on his deathbed extracted his promise to find a solution to this problem. Thus, Alexander tried right from the start of his reign to convince the gentry that emancipation was necessary. When he returned from Paris after concluding the peace treaty to end the Crimean War, he turned to the marshals of the nobility for the Moscow province and explained that they had to think about liberating the serfs. He said, “Better to abolish serfdom from above than wait for it to be abolished by force from below.”1 Soon after this Moscow address, Alexander asked the deputy minister of the interior, Levshin, to draft a memorandum setting out the historical development of serfdom and measures to restrict it. The Committee for Peasant Affairs was formed on January 3, 1857, followed almost exactly a year later, on January 8, 1858, with a new committee that in fact directed all the preparations for the emancipation of the serfs. On February 18 of that year, this committee was given the title of the “Main Committee for Peasant Affairs.” During the course of the same year, special committees were set up in all the provinces. Each one consisted of the provincial marshal of the nobility, a representative of the gentry from each dischapter 8 The Emancipation of the Serfs Preparation of legislation for the emancipation of the serfs—Psychological impact of the emancipation—general intellectual atmosphere of the 1860s—Katkov’s and chicherin’s views 108 • the emancipation of the serfs trict, and two further members of the gentry appointed by the provincial governor . Each committee also had a secretary or an administrator. These committees were initially given the task of preparing drafts of a law emancipating the serfs; later they were meant to be given the task of implementing the reform. On April 2, 1858, these committees were handed a program of work approved by the Main Committee. It was pointed out in this program that the new law was to be called “the law on improving the condition of peasants on private estates.” This was to avoid using the term emancipation. The problems, which the new legislation was to deal with, were summarized in ten chapters.2 In fact, these committees concluded their work so that they could be wound up after eighteen months, the last being disbanded on September 4, 1859. Other institutions were set up, however, to implement the reform.3 The drafts that emerged from the individual provinces diverged considerably , as they were based on differing principles. It was then decided to set up a commission to harmonize these diverse drafts. This commission consisted of members of the Main Committee and a further five individuals, including General Rostovtsev, who has been described as the soul of the emancipation. In addition , two editing commissions were set up, which Rostovtsev also chaired. He was able to attract people whom he personally trusted to sit on these committees, and it was thanks to this circumstance that, for example, Nicolas Miliutin, Yuri Samarin, and Prince Cherkassky were recruited to join the commissions. The first of these commissions consisted of two sections: one covering law and administration and the other focused on economic affairs.4 The legal section in the first commission was given the task of defining the peasants’ personal and financial rights, as well as the property rights of the gentry . The section for administrative affairs had to deal with the organization of the peasant communes and determine the relations of the peasants to the landowners , on the one hand, and to the administrative authorities, on the other. The commission for economic affairs had to find a solution to economic issues, in particular the problem of the redemption payments that the peasants had to pay for their allocation of land. Later a third commission, the financial commission, was set up to deal with the question of which measures were required to help the peasants with their buyout of land. Rostovtsev died shortly before this work was completed and was replaced by Panin, the minister of justice. Panin was no supporter of the reforms and was in fact one of the greatest skeptics in the government. He was, however, a disciplined official...