Landowners after the reform of 1861. The difference in the position of peasants in different regions of Russia. Liberation of the yard peasants

On February 19, 1861, Alexander II signed the Manifesto and the “Regulations on the peasants who emerged from serfdom”. Peasant reform 1861 was then put into practice.

Peasant question. Reasons for reform.

Even the great-grandmother of Alexander, Catherine II knew that serfdom better cancel. But she did not cancel, because "the best is the enemy of the good." Alexander II understood the benefits of the abolition of serfdom in terms of economics, but was worried, realizing that the damage would be inflicted in terms of political.

The main reasons for the peasant reform of 1861:

One of the reasons for the abolition of serfdom can be called the Crimean War. This war opened the eyes of many people to the rotten system of autocracy. Because of serfdom, the military-technical backwardness of Russia from the leading powers of Western Europe became obvious.
Serfdom did not show signs of its collapse, it is not known how long it could exist further. The agricultural economy continued to stand still.
The work of a serf, as well as the work of an assigned worker, differed several times from the work of a free wage worker working for piecework. The serfs worked very badly, as their labor was forced.
The government of Alexander II feared peasant unrest. After the end of the Crimean War, spontaneous uprisings of peasants swept through the southern provinces.
Serfdom was a relic of the Middle Ages and resembled slavery, which in itself was immoral.

Alexander II, knowing the causes of serfdom and how to eliminate them, did not know how to proceed with them.

Of particular importance was the “Note on the Liberation of the Peasants” by K. D. Kavelin. It was this “Note” that served as the initial plan for reforms when it fell into the hands of the tsar. Kavelin, in his project, insisted that the peasant should be released only together with the land, which should be given to him for a small ransom. "Note" aroused the ardent hatred of the nobles. They set Alexander II against Kavelin. As a result, Kavelin was dismissed from St. Petersburg University and lost his place as Tsarevich.

Rice. 1. Photograph by K. D. Kavelin.

Manifesto preparation. The beginning of transformation

The preparation of reforms was carried out at first very secretly. In 1858, noble committees were nominated from all Russian provinces to draw up a general draft of reforms. The struggle between the nobles unfolded mainly because of the issue of granting plots of land to the peasants after their liberation from serfdom.

The main legal provisions of the Peasant Reform of 1861

From the day the Manifesto was signed, the peasants ceased to be considered the property of the landowners. The peasants of each landowner's estate were united in rural societies.

The bill drew a line between non-chernozem and chernozem provinces. In the non-chernozem provinces, the peasant was left with almost as much land as he had in use when he was a serf.
In the chernozem provinces, the landlords went to all sorts of tricks - the peasants were given cut-down allotments, and the best land remained with the landowner, and the peasants got marshy and stony soils.
Fearing that the peasants would simply scatter so as not to pay a ransom for the cut plots, the government obliged each peasant to pay a ransom. The peasant could leave the permanent area of \u200b\u200bhis residence only with the permission of the rural society. The general gathering usually resisted the desire of the peasants to leave, since usually all labor duties had to be divided equally for each peasant. Thus, the peasants were bound by mutual responsibility.
The landowner could “give” the peasants a quarter of their allotment, which was given by the state. However, at the same time, the landowner took all the best land for himself. Peasants who fell for such “gifts” quickly went bankrupt, since the “granted” lands were usually unsuitable for growing crops.

Rice. 3. Peasant on one leg. Caricature of the reform of 1861.

Needless to say, the peasants were waiting for a completely different reform ...

The consequences of the peasant reform of 1861 and its significance

From the table below, you can see the main pros and cons, as well as the results of the 1861 reform:

*Positive consequences of the reform of 1861*	*Negative Consequences of the 1861 Reform*
Peasants became a free class.	The reform was of a predatory nature - the peasant had to pay almost all his life for the allotment of land allocated to him.
The abolition of serfdom led to an increase in production.	The landowners retained the best land for themselves, which forced the peasants, especially those with little land, to rent land from the landowners.
Entrepreneurship has intensified.	The community still remained in the village.
Two new social strata of the population appeared - the industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat.	The privileges of the nobility remained intact, since the reforms did not affect this social stratum.
The reform was the first step towards civil equality, since medieval serfdom was finally abolished.	The main part of the peasants went bankrupt after the reforms. This forced them to look for work in the city, joining the ranks of hired workers or urban beggars.
The peasants for the first time had the right to land.	The peasant was still not considered. The peasantry had no influence on the political life of the country.
Peasant unrest was prevented, although minor uprisings took place.	The peasants overpaid almost three times for the allotments allocated to them.

The significance of the Peasant Reform of 1861, first of all, was the output Russian Empire to the international market of capitalist relations. The country gradually began to turn into a powerful power with a developed industry. At the same time, the consequences of the reform had a negative impact primarily on the peasantry.

After the "liberation" the peasants began to go bankrupt much more. The total value of the land that the peasants had to buy out was 551 million rubles. The peasants had to pay the state 891 million rubles.

What have we learned?

The reform of 1861, studied in the 8th grade, was of great importance for the country and progressive society. This article tells about all the negative and positive results of this reform, as well as about its main bills and provisions.

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Alexander II

Contrary to the existing erroneous opinion that the vast majority of the population of pre-reform Russia consisted of serfdom, in reality the percentage of serfs to the entire population of the empire remained almost unchanged at 45% from the second revision to the eighth (that is, from to), and to the 10th revision ( ) this share fell to 37%. According to the 1859 census, 23.1 million people (of both sexes) out of 62.5 million people who inhabited the Russian Empire were in serfdom. Of the 65 provinces and regions that existed in the Russian Empire in 1858, in the three above-mentioned Baltic provinces, in the Earth Black Sea Troops, in the Primorsky region, the Semipalatinsk region and the region of the Siberian Kirghiz, in the Derbent province (with the Caspian region) and the Erivan province there were no serfs at all; in 4 more administrative units (Arkhangelsk and Shemakhinsk provinces, Zabaikalsk and Yakutsk regions) there were no serfs either, with the exception of a few dozen courtyard people (servants). In the remaining 52 provinces and regions, the proportion of serfs in the population ranged from 1.17% (Bessarabian region) to 69.07% (Smolensk province).

The reasons

In 1861, a reform was carried out in Russia that abolished serfdom and marked the beginning of the capitalist formation in the country. The main reason for this reform was: the crisis of the feudal system, peasant unrest, especially intensified during the Crimean War. In addition, serfdom hindered the development of the state and the formation of a new class - the bourgeoisie, which was limited in rights and could not participate in government. Many landowners believed that the emancipation of the peasants would give a positive result in the development of agriculture. An equally significant role in the abolition of serfdom was played by the moral aspect - in mid-nineteenth century in Russia there is "slavery".

Reform preparation

The government's program was outlined in the rescript of Emperor Alexander II on November 20 (December 2) to the Vilna Governor-General V. I. Nazimov. It provided: the destruction of personal dependence peasants while maintaining all the land in the ownership of the landowners; providing peasants a certain amount of land for which they will be required to pay dues or serve corvee, and over time - the right to buy out peasant estates (a residential building and outbuildings). In order to prepare peasant reforms, provincial committees were formed, within which a struggle began for measures and forms of concessions between liberal and reactionary landowners. The fear of an all-Russian peasant revolt forced the government to change the government's program of peasant reform, the drafts of which were repeatedly changed in connection with the rise or fall of the peasant movement. In December it was adopted new program peasant reform: granting peasants the possibility of redemption of land allotment and the creation of bodies of peasant public administration. Editorial commissions were created in March to consider the drafts of provincial committees and develop a peasant reform. The project, drawn up by the Editorial Commissions at the end, differed from that proposed by the provincial committees with an increase in land allotments and a decrease in duties. This caused dissatisfaction with the local nobility, and in the project allotments were somewhat reduced and duties increased. This direction in changing the draft was preserved both when it was considered in the Main Committee on Peasant Affairs at the end, and when it was discussed in the State Council at the beginning.

On February 19 (March 3, old style) in St. Petersburg, Alexander II signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom and the Regulations on peasants leaving serfdom, which consisted of 17 legislative acts.

The main provisions of the peasant reform

Main act - " General position about the peasants who came out of serfdom "- contained the main conditions of the peasant reform:

peasants received personal freedom and the right to freely dispose of their property;
the landowners retained ownership of all the lands that belonged to them, but they were obliged to provide the peasants with “estates” and a field allotment for use.
For the use of allotment land, the peasants had to serve a corvée or pay dues and did not have the right to refuse it for 9 years.
The size of the field allotment and duties had to be fixed in charter letters of 1861, which were drawn up by the landlords for each estate and verified by peace mediators.
The peasants were given the right to buy out the estate and, by agreement with the landowner, the field plot, before this they were called temporarily liable peasants.
the structure, rights and obligations of the bodies of peasant public administration (rural and volost) courts were also determined.

Four "Local Regulations" determined the size of land plots and duties for their use in 44 provinces European Russia. From the land that was in the use of the peasants before February 19, 1861, cuts could be made if the per capita allotments of the peasants exceeded the highest size established for the given locality, or if the landowners, while maintaining the existing peasant allotment, had less than 1/3 of the entire land of the estate.

Allotments could be reduced by special agreements between peasants and landlords, as well as upon receipt of a donation. If the peasants had smaller allotments in use, the landowner was obliged to either cut the missing land or reduce duties. For the highest shower allotment, a quitrent was set from 8 to 12 rubles. per year or corvee - 40 male and 30 female working days per year. If the allotment was less than the highest, then the duties decreased, but not proportionally. The rest of the "Local provisions" basically repeated the "Great Russian", but taking into account the specifics of their regions. The features of the Peasant Reform for certain categories of peasants and specific regions were determined by the “Additional Rules” - “On the arrangement of peasants settled on the estates of small landowners, and on the allowance for these owners”, “On people assigned to private mining plants of the department of the Ministry of Finance”, “On peasants and workers serving work at Perm private mining plants and salt mines”, “About peasants serving work at landowner factories”, “About peasants and courtyard people in the Land of the Don Cossacks”, “About peasants and courtyard people in the Stavropol province”, “ About Peasants and Household People in Siberia”, “About people who came out of serfdom in the Bessarabian region”.

The “Regulations on the arrangement of courtyard people” provided for their release without land, but for 2 years they remained completely dependent on the landowner.

The “Regulations on Redemption” determined the procedure for the redemption of land by peasants from landlords, the organization of the redemption operation, the rights and obligations of peasant owners. The redemption of the field plot depended on an agreement with the landowner, who could oblige the peasants to redeem the land at their request. The price of land was determined by quitrent, capitalized from 6% per annum. In the event of a ransom under a voluntary agreement, the peasants had to make an additional payment to the landowner. The landlord received the main amount from the state, to which the peasants had to repay it for 49 years annually in redemption payments.

"Manifesto" and "Regulations" were promulgated from March 7 to April 2 (in St. Petersburg and Moscow - March 5). Fearing dissatisfaction of the peasants with the terms of the reform, the government took a number of precautionary measures (redeployment of troops, secondment of the imperial retinue to the places, appeal of the Synod, etc.). The peasantry, dissatisfied with the enslaving conditions of the reform, responded to it with mass unrest. The largest of them were the Bezdnensky performance of 1861 and the Kandeev performance of 1861.

The implementation of the Peasant Reform began with the drafting of charters, which was basically completed by the middle of the city. On January 1, 1863, the peasants refused to sign about 60% of the charters. The price of land for redemption significantly exceeded its market value at that time, in some areas by 2-3 times. As a result of this, in a number of districts they were extremely striving to obtain donation allotments, and in some provinces (Saratov, Samara, Yekaterinoslav, Voronezh, etc.) a significant number of peasants-gifts appeared.

Under the influence of the Polish uprising of 1863, changes took place in the conditions of the Peasant Reform in Lithuania, Belarus and the Right-Bank Ukraine: the law of 1863 introduced compulsory redemption; redemption payments decreased by 20%; peasants, landless from 1857 to 1861, received their allotments in full, previously landless - partially.

The transition of peasants to ransom lasted for several decades. K remained in a temporary relationship 15%. But in a number of provinces there were still many of them (Kursk 160 thousand, 44%; Nizhny Novgorod 119 thousand, 35%; Tula 114 thousand, 31%; Kostroma 87 thousand, 31%). The transition to redemption was faster in the black-earth provinces, where voluntary transactions prevailed over mandatory redemption. Landowners who had large debts, more often than others, sought to speed up the redemption and conclude voluntary deals.

The abolition of serfdom also affected the appanage peasants, who, by the "Regulations of June 26, 1863", were transferred to the category of peasant proprietors by means of compulsory redemption on the terms of the "Regulations of February 19". On the whole, their cuts were much smaller than those of the landowning peasants.

The law of November 24, 1866 began the reform of the state peasants. They retained all the lands that were in their use. According to the law of June 12, 1886, the state peasants were transferred for redemption.

The peasant reform of 1861 led to the abolition of serfdom in the national outskirts of the Russian Empire.

On October 13, 1864, a decree was issued on the abolition of serfdom in the Tiflis province, a year later it was extended with some changes to the Kutaisi province, and in 1866 to Megrelia. In Abkhazia, serfdom was abolished in 1870, in Svaneti - in 1871. The terms of the reform here retained serfdom survivals to a greater extent than according to the "Regulations of February 19". In Armenia and Azerbaijan, the peasant reform was carried out in 1870-83 and was no less enslaving than in Georgia. In Bessarabia, the bulk of the peasant population was made up of legally free landless peasants - tsarans, who, according to the "Regulations of July 14, 1868", were allocated land for permanent use for service. The redemption of this land was carried out with some derogations on the basis of the "Regulations on Redemption" on February 19, 1861.

Literature

Zakharova L. G. Autocracy and the abolition of serfdom in Russia, 1856-1861. M., 1984.

Links

The most merciful Manifesto of February 19, 1861, On the abolition of serfdom (Christian reading. St. Petersburg, 1861. Part 1). On the site Heritage of Holy Russia
Agrarian reforms and the development of the rural economy of Russia - an article by Doctor of Economics Adukova

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See what the "Peasant Reform of 1861" is in other dictionaries:

Modern Encyclopedia

The PEASANT REFORM of 1861, the main of the reforms carried out during the reign of Emperor Alexander II, 1860-70s, abolished serfdom. Conducted on the basis of Regulations February 19, 1861 (published March 5). The peasants received personal freedom and ... ... Russian history

Peasant reform of 1861- PEASANT REFORM of 1861, the main of the reforms of 1860-70s, which abolished serfdom in Russia. Conducted on the basis of the Regulations of February 19, 1861 (published March 5). Peasants received personal freedom and the right to dispose of their property. Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

The bourgeois reform that abolished serfdom in Russia and marked the beginning of the capitalist formation in the country. The main cause To. was the crisis of the feudal serf system. "Strength economic development, drawing in Russia ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Burzh. reform that abolished serfdom in Russia. She laid the foundation for a new bourgeoisie. formations in the country. Main cause To. there was a crisis of feudalism. serf. systems. Crimean War 1853 56 revealed with all obviousness rottenness and impotence ... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

Abolished serfdom in Russia; the most important of the reforms of the 1860s and 70s. Conducted on the basis of the "Regulations February 19, 1861" (published March 5). Peasants received personal freedom and the right to dispose of their property. The landowners kept ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

The most important reform of Alexander II throughout his reign was the Peasant Reform - the publication of the Manifesto on February 19, 1861 on the abolition of serfdom of the peasants of the entire Russian Empire. This reform was developed over a long period of time, first secretly, then openly at the All-Russian level. After the reform, the peasants became free and received civil rights, as well as land plots. However, the peasants had to pay for these land plots to the landowner, as well as to the state, which made most of the redemption payments for them. You will learn more about all this in this lesson.

Rice. 2. Alexander II calls on the Moscow nobles to free the peasants ()

However, it was rather difficult to move forward, since the members of the committee themselves were ardent supporters of the preservation of serfdom in Russia. Alexander decided to lead the process, and a chance helped him in this. In October 1857, an old friend of the emperor, the Vilna governor V.I., arrived in St. Petersburg. Nazimov (Fig. 3), who came to the capital in order to convey to Alexander II a petition from the nobles of the Vilna, Grodno and Kovno provinces. In it, the nobles asked for permission from the emperor to discuss with him the issue of the release of their peasants.

Rice. 3. V.I. Nazimov - Vilna governor, friend of Alexander II ()

Alexander decided to take advantage of the opportunity given to him and issued a rescript, according to which committees were to be created in the indicated provinces to discuss the project for the abolition of serfdom. During 1858 similar rescripts were issued for all provinces of the Russian Empire. After that, the discussion about the abolition of serfdom became official and practically nationwide.

This was followed by even more decisive steps. The Secret Committee was renamed the Main Committee, which was headed by a supporter of the peasant reform Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. As part of the committee, a special body was singled out, more precisely, several bodies called the Editorial Commissions. These bodies were created in order to process various projects for the abolition of serfdom received from different parts of the Russian Empire and, on their basis, create a certain single optimal project. The person who led the Editorial Commissions was Ya.I. Rostovtsev (Fig. 4).

Rice. 4. Ya.I. Rostovtsev - Head of the Editorial Commissions ()

The result of the work of the above state bodies was the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom, published on February 19, 1861 (Fig. 5). In it Alexander IIannounced that from now on the peasants of the Russian Empire became free, received civil rights. In addition, they received land in limited quantities. The size of the land plots that the peasants received under the reform of 1861 ranged from 3 to 12 acres. The reason for this was the difference in the quality of land in different regions of the Russian Empire.

Rice. 5. Reading the Manifesto on February 19, 1861 on the liberation of peasants from serfdom ()

The above conditions for the liberation of peasants from serfdom were not optimal. In most provinces, the landlords managed to keep the best plots of land for themselves, while the peasants found themselves in worse conditions. In addition, the landlords could not transfer land to the peasants more than it was written in the Manifesto. Thus, even if the landowners were very eager to help their peasants, they could not do so by law.

Finally, a number of groups of peasants did not receive land at all:

Assigned to manufactories
Yard peasants
Owned by landless nobles

An important part of the reform of the abolition of serfdom was the question of the redemption of land by the peasants. They could not redeem all the land at once, so the state provided for the following measures. Before the land was redeemed, the peasants were temporarily liable. This meant that such peasants had to bear a number of duties in favor of their landowner, such as corvée and dues. Under the law, for 9 years, the peasants remained temporarily liable, after which they could give up their allotment and go to the city. The landlords and their former serfs entered into agreements between themselves - statutory letters, which they had to conclude within two years after the publication of the Manifesto on the emancipation of the peasants.

Redemption payments were made as follows. The peasants had to pay the landowner 20% of the value of the land provided to them. Another 80% of the cost for the peasants was paid by the state. However, the state did not do this free of charge, but it was believed that the peasants took this money from the state as a pledge, which had to be returned within 49 years after the publication of the Manifesto on February 19. Moreover, the peasants paid, in addition to the principal amount, 6% per annum of the payment amount.

The amount of redemption payments was determined as follows. According to Alexander II, nobles and landlords should not have lost their income. Therefore, the landowner put the money received from the peasant in the bank at the rate of 6% per annum and received the same amount that the peasant paid him before as dues. Thus, it was planned to prevent the ruin of Russian landowners.

The peasant reform of 1861 underwent five more changes: additional acts were issued, and the amount of redemption payments was actively discussed in society. Nevertheless, what was done in 1861 sharply turned the whole course Russian history. The reform to abolish serfdom was carried out.

Bibliography

Zayonchkovsky P.A. The abolition of serfdom in Russia. - M., 1954.
Zakharova L.G. Alexander II and the abolition of serfdom in Russia. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2011.
Peasant reform in Russia in 1861. Collection of legislative acts. - M., 1954.
Lazukova N.N., Zhuravleva O.N. Russian history. 8th grade. - M.: "Ventana-Count", 2013.
Lyashenko L.M. Russian history. 8th grade. - M .: "Drofa", 2012.
Tomsinov V.A. Preparation of the Peasant Reform of 1861 in Russia // Peasant Reform of 1861 in Russia / Comp., author of the preface. and intro. Art. V.A. Tomsinov. - M.: Zertsalo, 2012.

Memoirs.ru ().
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Studopedia.ru ().
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Homework

Tell us about the development of the reform on the abolition of serfdom. What prerequisites and reasons for this reform can you name?
How was the reform of the liberation of peasants from serfdom carried out? How many stages did she go through?
Explain how and under what scheme the peasants paid redemption payments.

In Russian history, one of the saddest pages is the section on "serfdom", which equated most of the population of the empire with the lowest grade. The peasant reform of 1861 freed dependent people from bondage, which became impetus for reorganization the whole state into a democratic free state.

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Basic concepts

Before talking about the process of abolition, you should briefly understand the definition of this term and understand what role it played in history. Russian state. In this article you will get answers to the questions: who abolished serfdom and when serfdom was abolished.

Serfdom - these are legal norms that prohibit the dependent population, that is, the peasants, from leaving certain land plots to which they were assigned.

Talking about this topic briefly will not work, because many historians equate this form of dependence with slavery, although there are many differences between them.

Not a single peasant with his family could leave a certain land plot without the permission of an aristocrat who owned land. If the slave was attached directly to his master, then the serf was attached to the land, and since the owner had the right to manage the allotment, then the peasants, respectively, too.

People who fled were put on the wanted list, and the relevant authorities had to bring them back. In most cases, some of the fugitives were defiantly killed as an example for others.

Important! Similar forms of dependence were also common during the New Age in England, the Commonwealth, Spain, Hungary and other states.

Reasons for the abolition of serfdom

The predominant part of the male and able-bodied population concentrated in the villages, where they worked for the landowners. The entire crop harvested by the serfs was sold abroad and brought huge incomes to the landowners. The economy in the country did not develop, which is why the Russian Empire was at a much lagging stage of development than the countries of Western Europe.

Historians agree that the following causes and conditions were dominant, as they most sharply demonstrated the problems of the Russian Empire:

This form of dependence hindered the development of the capitalist system - because of this, the level of the economy in the empire was at a very low level.
The industry was going through far from its best times - due to the lack of workers in the cities, the full functioning of factories, mines and factories was impossible.
When agriculture in the countries of Western Europe developed according to the principle of introducing new types of equipment, fertilizers, methods of cultivating the land, then in the Russian Empire it developed according to an extensive principle - due to increase in the area of crops.
The peasants did not participate in the economic and political life of the empire, and yet they constituted the predominant part of the entire population of the country.
Because in Western Europe this species dependence was considered a kind of slavery, the authority of the empire suffered greatly among the monarchs of the Western world.
The peasantry was dissatisfied with this state of affairs, and therefore uprisings and riots constantly took place in the country. Dependency on the landlord also encouraged people to go to the Cossacks.
The progressive layer of the intelligentsia constantly put pressure on the king and insisted on profound changes in.

Preparations for the abolition of serfdom

The so-called peasant reform was prepared long before its implementation. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, the first prerequisites for the abolition of serfdom were laid.

Cancellation preparation serfdom began during the reign, but it did not go beyond projects. Under Emperor Alexander II in 1857 Editorial Commissions were created to develop a project for liberation from dependence.

The body faced a difficult task: a peasant reform should be carried out according to such a principle that the changes would not cause a wave of discontent among the landowners.

The commission created several reform projects, reviewing various options. Numerous peasant revolts pushed its members towards more radical changes.

Reform of 1861 and its contents

The manifesto on the abolition of serfdom was signed by Tsar Alexander II March 3, 1861 This document contained 17 points that considered the main points of the transition of peasants from a dependent to a relatively free class society.

It is important to highlight main provisions of the manifesto about the liberation of people from serfdom:

the peasants were no longer the dependent class of society;
now people could own real estate and other types of property;
to become free, the peasants had to initially buy the land from the landowners, taking a large loan;
for the use of the land allotment they also had to pay dues;
the creation of rural communities with an elected head was allowed;
the size of allotments that can be redeemed were clearly regulated by the state.

The reform of 1861 to abolish serfdom followed the abolition of serfdom in the lands subject to the Austrian Empire. The territory of Western Ukraine was in the possession of the Austrian monarch. The elimination of serfdom in the West happened in 1849. This process has only accelerated this process in the East. They had practically the same reasons for the abolition of serfdom as in the Russian Empire.

The abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861: briefly

The manifesto has been released throughout the country from March 7 to mid-April of the same year. Due to the fact that the peasants were not just freed, but forced to buy their freedom, they protested.

The government, in turn, took all security measures, redeploying troops to the most hot spots.

Information about such a path of liberation only outraged the peasantry. The abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861 led to an increase in the number of uprisings compared to the previous year.

The uprisings and riots almost tripled in scope and number. The government was forced to subdue them by force, which caused thousands to die.

Within two years from the moment the manifesto was published, 6/10 of all the peasants in the country signed the advising letters "on liberation". Buying the land for most people stretched over more than a decade. Approximately a third of them had not yet paid their debts in the late 1880s.

The abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861 was considered by many representatives of the estate of landlords. end Russian statehood . They assumed that now the peasants would rule the country and said that it was necessary to choose a new king among the mob, thereby criticizing the actions of Alexander II.

Results of the reform

The peasant reform of 1861 led to the following transformations in the Russian Empire:

the peasants now became a free cell of society, but they had to redeem the allotment for a very large sum;
the landlords were guaranteed to give the peasant a small allotment, or sell the land, at the same time they were deprived of labor and income;
"rural communities" were created, which further controlled the life of the peasant, all questions about obtaining a passport or moving to another place were again decided on the council of the community;
conditions for obtaining freedom caused discontent, which increased the number and scope of the uprisings.

And although the liberation of the peasants from serfdom was more profitable for the landowners than for the dependent class, it was progressive step in development Russian Empire. It was from the moment when serfdom was abolished that the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society began.

Attention! The transition to freedom in Russia was quite peaceful, while due to the abolition of slavery in the country, the Civil War began, which became the bloodiest conflict in the history of the country.

The reform of 1861 did not completely solve actual problems society. The poor still remained far from government and were only an instrument of tsarism.

It was the unresolved problems of the peasant reform that came to the fore at the beginning of the next century.

In 1905, another revolution began in the country, which was brutally suppressed. Twelve years later, it exploded with renewed vigor, which led to and drastic changes in society.

For many years, serfdom kept the Russian Empire at the agrarian level of development of society, while in the West it had long since become industrial. Economic backwardness and peasant unrest led to the abolition of serfdom and the liberation of the dependent stratum of the population. These were the reasons for the abolition of serfdom.

1861 was a turning point in the development of the Russian Empire, since it was then that a huge step was taken, which later allowed the country to get rid of the vestiges that hindered its development.

Prerequisites for the Peasant Reform of 1861

The abolition of serfdom, a historical overview

Conclusion

In the spring of 1861, the great All-Powerful Alexander II signs a manifesto on the liberation of the peasants. The conditions for obtaining freedom were taken very negatively by the lower class. And yet, twenty years later, most of the once dependent population became free and had their own land allotment, house and other property.

Thus, the “lower classes” suffered simultaneously both from the onslaught of capitalism and from its insufficient development, which was delayed by feudal remnants. Which way will it go further development Russia - this is the question that worried the progressive layers Russian society. In the revolutionary movement of that time, we see the presence of several different directions, starting with the moderate ones, who retained the remnants of hope for the possibility of a peaceful transformation of the socio-political system, and ending with the extreme ones, who saw no other outcome than revolution.

The purpose of the work is to consider the peasant reform of 1961.

The tasks of the work are to consider the situation in the country on the eve of the reform, to study the prerequisites for the emergence of the peasant reform, to consider the essence of the reform, to determine the significance of the reform for the country.

The situation in the country on the eve of the reform and its prerequisites
Before proceeding to study the significance of the abolition of serfdom in Russia, it is necessary to review the situation in the country on the eve of the reform in order to understand the tasks facing it and evaluate how they were solved during its implementation.

First, it should be noted that in Russia serfdom lasted the longest and assumed such crude forms that in practice it was no different from slavery. But it was terrible not only from a moral and moral point of view, it was also untenable in its inner essence.

Possibilities of serfdom as economic system in Russia in the second quarter of the 19th century. were completely exhausted, and in the last pre-reform decades (30-50s of the 19th century) it entered a period of deep crisis.

“The landed estates, based on forced, serf labor, increasingly fell into decay. The productivity of corvée labor fell sharply, an indication of which is the fall in productivity in the landowner's village. According to the calculations of the historian I. D. Kovalchenko, in regions with a predominance of the corvée form of exploitation of peasants, the average yield of grain crops by the middle of the 19th century. was 75-80% in relation to the yield of the first decade of the 19th century.

The landowners increased the number of corvée days per week and at the same time introduced a "lesson system" (that is, they established certain norms for daily output in corvee), sometimes they practiced partial payment for corvee work. However, all these measures of "stimulation" and intensification of corvee labor could not compensate for the increasing losses from the fall in the productivity of corvee labor. The corvée peasant offered open and covert resistance to pressure from the landowner. The landowners constantly complained about the "laziness" and "negligence" of the peasant in the lordly work, and this despite the use of cruel punishments. “Let's look at corvee work. The peasant will come as late as possible, look around and look around as often and as long as possible, and work as little as possible - it’s not his business to do, but to kill the day, ”wrote in 1847. in the article "Hunting more than captivity" a large landowner A. I. Koshelev. The most far-sighted landowners understood the advantages of free hired labor over serf labor, they understood that serfdom excludes all incentives for productive labor (except perhaps the fear of punishment).

But the realization of this did not yet make it possible, in the conditions of that time, with the narrowness of the market for hired labor and its high cost, even for advanced landowners to switch from serf labor to hired labor.

The crisis primarily hit the corvée estates (they at that time included more than 70% of the serfs). However, quitrent estates also experienced serious difficulties. Since the 20s of the XIX century. arrears in the payment of quitrents on quitrent estates are growing everywhere. (The arrears in the quitrent estates, of course, also served as an indicator that the peasants were unable to bear quitrent payments.) Landowner estates were mortgaged and remortgaged. By the time of the abolition of serfdom, the landlords had pledged more than 2/3 of the serfs in various credit institutions, and the amount of debt to these institutions reached an astronomical value - 425 million rubles.

Serfdom was ineffective not only because it did not stimulate peasant labor, but it also led to the "economic" degradation of the landlords, because in the vast majority of cases their interest was not aimed at increasing production efficiency, which required constant attention. and concern for their own affairs, but for a more "thorough" exploitation of the peasants. Serfdom thus “beat” from two directions at once: it inevitably led to a decrease in both peasant and landowner initiative.

The expression of the social crisis was the consistent
growth in the pre-reform decades of the peasant anti-serf movement. For the second quarter of the XIX century. 709 peasant unrest were registered (on average 26 unrest per year), for the second quarter of this century - already 1089 unrest (43 unrest per year), and for the last pre-reform decade (1851-1860) - 1010 (101 unrest per year). In addition to unrest and uprisings, the protest of the peasantry against serfdom manifested itself in other forms: the murder of landowners and estate managers, flight from the landowner, complaints local authorities and the king, spreading rumors about the will that disturbed the minds of the peasants. The highest police authorities pointed out the danger of all these manifestations of peasant protest:

“The common people are not the same as they were 25 years before this,” says the report of the III department for 1839, the whole spirit of the people is directed towards one goal - to liberation ... In general, serfdom is a powder magazine under the state, and all the more dangerous that the army is made up of peasants." III branch pointed to the appearance among the peasants of "reasoning heads", who thought about the causes of social inequality, formulated peasant anti-serfdom demands.

Objectively, serfdom also interfered with the industrial modernization of the country, as it prevented the formation of a free labor market, the accumulation of capital invested in production, an increase in the purchasing power of the population and the development of trade.

The Crimean War contributed to the deepening of the crisis of feudalism, giving it a comprehensive character. The enormous costs of the war seriously undermined the finances of the state. Frequent recruitment during the war years, requisition of livestock and fodder, the growth of monetary and in-kind duties associated with the war, ruined the population. All this caused a noticeable increase in the mass anti-serfdom movement of the peasantry. In 1854-1855. a wave of escapes of peasants from the landlords was clearly indicated.

Thus before Russian government With all inevitability, economic and political tasks arose: it was necessary to resolve acute social problems, get out of a severe financial and economic crisis and at the same time maintain Russia's position among the leading powers of the world.

For the first time, the need to abolish serfdom was officially announced by Alexander II in a short speech delivered by him on March 30, 1856. before representatives of the Moscow nobility. In this speech, Alexander II, mentioning his unwillingness now to “give freedom” to the peasants, was at the same time forced to declare the need, in principle, to begin preparing for their release in view of the danger of further preservation of serfdom, indicating that it was better to abolish serfdom “from above” rather than waiting for it to be canceled "from below" itself.

The essence of the reform of 1861
The preparation of the reform was at first carried out in secret. Then, wide circles of the nobility were involved in it: in 1858, in all provinces (except Arkhangelsk, where there were no serfs), elected noble committees were created to draw up reform projects. The central leadership in the preparation of the reform was concentrated in the Main Committee for Peasant Affairs, created in 1858. To bring together the materials of the provincial committees, editorial commissions were created under the Main Committee.

Neither the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, nor even the peasantry, were allowed to prepare for the reform. And the nobles preparing the reform sought mainly to ensure their own interests.

The central question of the reform, on which there was a struggle within the landlord class, was the question of whether to free the peasants with or without land. On this issue there were disputes between groups of serf-owners and liberals.

The feudal-bureaucratic nobility belonged to the feudal lords, as well as the landlords, whose economy was mainly based on worked-out rent. The liberals expressed the interests of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie landlords. The struggle between them was not fundamental: both the feudal lords and the liberals stood for the abolition of serfdom while maintaining landlordism and autocracy, but the liberals at the same time wanted to somewhat limit tsarist absolutism and were against the liberation of the peasants without land. Of course, it was impossible to leave the peasants completely without land. But the landlords of the black earth provinces, where the land was highly valued, sought to free the peasants with a minimum allotment and for a ransom. Such a "liberation" kept almost all the land in the hands of the landlords and provided their farms with working hands. The landowners of the non-chernozem provinces, where the land was not of such value, considered it possible to free the peasant with the land, but for a high monetary ransom; in this case, the landowners received capital for running a capitalist economy on the land they had left.

There was also a class struggle around the reform. No one represented the interests of the masses in the tsarist committees and commissions. The main struggle around the reform was fought not between noble groups, but between the landlords and the autocracy, on the one hand, and the peasantry, on the other. The interests of the peasants were expressed by the revolutionary democrats. Despite strict censorship, in their speeches they called for the complete elimination of serfdom and landlordism, for the transfer of all land to the peasants without any redemption. The struggle of the revolutionary democrats, the unceasing peasant unrest forced the tsarist government to abandon the most reactionary options for reform and make some concessions to the peasantry. A compromise decision was made, reconciling all the landowners, to release the peasants with a minimum allotment of land for ransom. Such liberation provided the landowners with both working hands and capital.

The law on the abolition of serfdom - "Regulations on peasants who emerged from serfdom" - was signed by Alexander II on February 19, 1861. This law consisted of separate "Regulations" relating to three main groups of issues:

1. The abolition of the personal dependence of the peasants on the landowners.

2. Allotment of land to peasants and definitions of peasant

duties.

3. Redemption of peasant allotments.

Main Provisions of Legislative Acts of the Reform of 1861
On February 19, 1861, in addition to the Manifesto, he also signed 17 legislative acts concerning the abolition of serfdom in the country. As for the Manifesto itself, its text was written by the well-known church figure Filaret, who clearly did not approve of the reform.

Alexander II wanted to see a document not only officially - solemn, but also quite propagandistic - agitational. From the pen of Filaret, the text of the "Manifesto" came out eloquent, ponderous and incomprehensible to the common people, as, indeed, all other legislative acts.

The main (out of 17) legislative acts on the reform were the "General Regulations on the Peasants who Abandoned Serfdom", "Local Regulations" and "Additional Rules".

According to the Manifesto, the serfdom of the landowners over the peasants was abolished forever, and the peasants were recognized as free without any redemption in favor of the landowners. It is especially necessary to emphasize the enormous importance of personal freedom, for which the peasant has fought for centuries. From now on, the former serf, from whom the landowner could not only take away all his property, but also sell, mortgage him with his family or separately from it, got the opportunity to freely dispose of his personality: to marry without the consent of the landowner, to conclude various things on his own behalf. kind of property and civil transactions, open commercial and industrial establishments, move to another estate. All this provided considerable scope for peasant entrepreneurship, contributed to an increase in the departure of peasants to work, and on the whole gave a strong impetus to the development of capitalism in post-reform Russia.

If serfdom was abolished immediately, by one legislative act, then the elimination of feudal economic relations in the village stretched for several decades. According to the law, the peasants for another 2 years (until February 19, 1863) were obliged to serve the same duties as under serfdom. The corvée was only somewhat reduced and petty natural requisitions (eggs, oil, linen, linen, wool, etc.) were abolished. According to the law, the peasants received the right to buy their estates from the landowners and, moreover, they could, in agreement with their landowners, acquire field plots from them. While the peasants used the allotments without redeeming them, they were dependent on the landowner and were called temporarily indebted peasants. When the ransom was made, the peasants received complete independence and became peasants - owners. The law did not establish any definite deadline for the end of the temporarily obligated position of peasants, therefore it did not last as long as 20 years, and only by the law of 1881 temporarily obligated peasants (there were no more than 15% by that time) were transferred to compulsory redemption.

The size of the field allotment was determined from 1 to 12 acres per person, recorded in the peasants for the landowner on the revision (revision souls). The size of the allotment depended on the “band” of the state (non-chernozem, chernozem and steppe) and therefore for provinces and even counties the sizes of allotments were different.

The specific economic conditions for the liberation of the peasants (the size of the allotment and the amount of duty for it) were fixed in the so-called statutory charters. They were considered as a defining document, which is a legal act that fixes the specific conditions for the exit of peasants from serfdom. The letter was signed by the landowner or his authorized representative and peasant attorneys, which created the appearance of a legally legalized transaction between two equal sides. The statutory charter was the main document that fixed the moment of transition of serfs to a temporarily obligated state and determined the socio-economic conditions of this state. A whole generation of peasants lived according to the norms fixed in the statutory charters.

The drafting and enactment of statutory letters was entrusted to the mediators. The positions of mediators were established to deal with possible misunderstandings, disputes and complaints in the reform process. The central task of the peace mediators was to document the new relations between landowners and peasants in accordance with the "Regulations of 1861". The peace mediators were supposed to monitor the correctness and fairness of the deals of the landowners with their peasants who were going free. They approved statutory charters, observed the course of peasant self-government in rural communities and volosts.

Thus, the center of gravity of the practical implementation of the reform fell on the lowest link - the world mediators appointed by the Senate according to the lists proposed by the noble assemblies. In June 1861, 1,714 mediators began to operate. The general leadership of the peasant reform in the provinces was entrusted to the provincial presence for peasant affairs. These presences acted under the chairmanship of the governor and consisted of the most important officials of the province and representatives of the local nobility. And the supreme body was the Main Committee on the Arrangement of the Rural State, which replaced the Main Committee "On landlord peasants emerging from serfdom."

An important place in the reform of 1861 was occupied by the solution of the agrarian question. The law proceeded from the principle of recognizing the landowners' right of ownership of all the land in his estate, including the peasant's allotment. Peasants received allotment not for ownership, but for use, for the duties established by law in the form of a collection or corvée. To become the owner of his allotment land, the peasant had to buy it from the landowner.

In the non-chernozem and chernozem regions of Russia, the highest and lowest (one third of the highest) norms of allotment were established, and in the steppe regions - one (indicative) norm. The law provided for a segment from the land allotment, if it did not reach the lowest. As a result, the peasants lost more than 0.20 of their land due to cutting off allotments, and in the black earth agricultural provinces, in which the corvée system prevailed and the land was especially highly valued, the loss of the peasants reached 30 - 40%. But that was not the only problem. Usually, the most valuable and necessary lands for the peasants were cut off, without which normal farming was impossible: meadows, pastures, etc. The peasant was forced to rent these “cut-off lands” on extortionate terms. The land use of the peasants was also narrowed by striping and deprivation of forest land.

The transfer of peasants for ransom marked a complete cessation feudal relations in the former landowner's village. However, the peasants could become the actual owners of their allotments only if they paid the entire redemption amount for them. Its calculation was based not on the market price of the land, but on the amount of dues, so that the redemption price turned out to be 1.5 times higher than the market price. Of course, the peasants were not able to immediately pay the redemption sum. Therefore, the state took over the ransom. The treasury immediately paid the landlords in money and securities the main part of the redemption sum, and withheld the other part from the landlords to pay off their debts to the treasury, and then collected it in the form of redemption payments from the peasants. The deadline for such payments was set at 49 years. Until 1907, when redemption payments from peasants were abolished, the peasants paid more than 1,540 million rubles, i.e. 1.5 times more than the redemption amount originally set from them and still remained debtors to the treasury.

The publication of the Manifesto and the "Regulations" on February 19, 1861, the content of which deceived the hopes of the peasants for "full freedom", caused an explosion of peasant protest in the spring - summer of 1861. In fact, there was not a single province in which the peasants would not protest against unacceptable for them release conditions. During 1861 there were 1860 peasant unrest. By the autumn of 1861, the government, with the help of military units and the use of mass punishments with rods, managed to suppress the outbreak of peasant protest, but in the spring of 1862 a new wave of peasant uprisings arose, this time connected with the introduction of statutory charters.

In the period 1863 - 1870. were held agrarian reforms in accordance with the principles of the "Regulations" in the specific village, the land arrangement of state peasants, as well as reforms in the national outskirts of Russia (Georgia, Bessarabia and Abkhazia).

Political and socio-economic consequences of the peasant reform
The publication of the "provisions" on the new structure of the peasants caused complete disappointment in radical circles. Herzen's "bell" in Ogarev's articles proclaimed that serfdom had in fact not been abolished at all and that "the people have been deceived by the tsar."

On the other hand, the peasants themselves expected full freedom and were dissatisfied with the transitional state of the “temporarily obliged”. In some places there were unrest, because the peasants thought that the gentlemen had hidden the real royal will and were offering them some kind of false one. In with. The abyss of the Kazan province came to the point that the troops fired into the crowd of peasants, and there were over 100 people killed and wounded.

The news of the abyssal pacification made a depressing impression in society and caused a number of anti-government demonstrations. In the autumn of 1861, serious student unrest took place in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Kyiv, and in the same year the first illegally published revolutionary proclamations "Great Russian", "To the Young Generation", etc. appeared. The revolutionary movement in the country sharply intensified.

As for the process of changing the socio-economic structure of the countryside, the peasants themselves called it "depeasantization." The evolution of the peasant economy in the post-reform period was a relative impoverishment of the peasantry, its polarization, the emergence of new classes from among the peasantry - the rural bourgeoisie and the rural proletariat.

The poorest and middle-peasant farms did not have the opportunity to acquire new agricultural implements, to carry out any agrotechnical measures. The plow remained the main tool in the peasant economy (back in 1910, plows in Russia accounted for 43% of all plowing implements).

In the late 80s and early 90s, the rural bourgeoisie owned in various provinces of Russia from 34 to 50% of all peasant land - allotment, purchase, lease - and from 38 to 62% of working livestock, and the rural poor (about 50% of all peasant households) - only from 18 to 32% of the land and from 10 to 30% of working livestock. The intermediate link was the middle peasants, who accounted for about 30% of the peasant households.

The evolution of the landowner economy consisted in the ever greater intensification of agriculture on the basis of the widespread use of hired labor and the use of agricultural machinery.

The post-reform landlord economy, transitional in its socio-economic content, was reduced to two main systems: labour-service and capitalist. The labor system consisted in the fact that the peasants, who suffered from land shortages, were forced to rent land from their former owners and, in return, cultivate the land with their inventory that part of the land that remained with the landowner. This system dominated in the provinces of the Black Earth Center and the Middle Volga region.

The capitalist system, under which the cultivation of the landlords' land was carried out by civilian workers using machines and mineral fertilizers, prevailed in the Baltic states, on the Right-Bank Ukraine, in Novorossia and in the North Caucasus. Laborers were recruited from the poorest peasants, who sold or abandoned their meager allotments and went to work. The number of farm laborers in 1890 reached 3.5 million people (about 20% of the total male population of working age).

The process of development of capitalism in agriculture Russia led to the ever-increasing spread of the capitalist system of landowner farms and the displacement of the labour-service system. At the same time, the land of the ruined landlords quite often fell into the hands of the largest nobles, as well as merchants and the rural bourgeoisie.

Conclusion
Despite the predatory nature of the 1861 reform for the peasants, its significance for the further economic and social development of the country was great. The reform was a turning point, the "line" separating the feudal era from the capitalist. Such an enormous social act as the abolition of serfdom could not pass without leaving its mark on the entire state organism, accustomed to serfdom over the centuries. Having touched the cornerstone of the feudal empire, it was necessary to change other supporting structures of the socio-political system: the local government, the police, the courts and the army. The peasant reform thus inevitably led to other transformations.

The reform of 1861 was followed by other bourgeois reforms: in the field of local government, courts, education, printing, finance, and military affairs.

The reverse side of the transformations was their half-heartedness, inconsistency and belatedness, exacerbated by indecision and the desire to carry out transformations at the cost of minimal losses on the part of the ruling classes, which led to the aggravation of social contradictions and the revolutionization of the social strata of Russian society that were infringed by the reform.

Such inconsistency of the reform throughout its entire length from development to completion also led to the inconsistency of its consequences and results, when, on the one hand, it is impossible not to note that the abolition of serfdom in Russia was undoubtedly a necessary and progressive phenomenon, but on the other hand, it is impossible not to see In addition, many of the tasks that it faced were far from being solved in full, and for individual problems it is difficult to even assess whether it has changed the situation in better side or, in the end, only aggravated.

Thus, the reform appears before us as a complex and ambiguous phenomenon, which was of great importance in the history of Russia.

Bibliographic list
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History of Russia from ancient times to the second half of XIX century. Lecture course. Ed. prof. B.V. Lichman. Yekaterinburg: Ural. state tech. un-t. 1994.
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