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What role may the crimean war have played upon the later emancipation of russian serfs? - idk - 11-19-2012 03:10 AM
- Iri - 11-19-2012 03:19 AM
im not gonna write an essay, but:
The war shocked Russia into realising that it was 'backward' as a nation, as Russia had traditionally been the worlds greatest military power, something that had clearly changed during the Crimean War.
The ease of defeat of the Russian armies showed the Tsar (Alexander II in 1855 who later emancipated the serfs) that Russia needed to modernise and undergo revolutions that had happened in Western Europe. Alexander II also knew that an industrial revolution would be impossible with his current social structures, such as serfdom and a small elite of nobility running said serfs. Serfdom had to be abolished because it basically tied half of the peasantry to their land, as they had to work in labour for the nobles of the village, and they were also essentially owned by the nobility. This meant that the serfs could not move freely between villages, or to cities as Alexander wanted. To solve this problem Alexander saw emancipating the serfs as a central reform in his "liberation of the people". If people moved to cities Alexander II hoped this would fuel a Russian industrial revolution, as Britain and France (the victors in Crimea) had had.
Alexander II also knew that he would need an educated middle class, born from his lower class peasants, to run factories and further stimulate the revolution. With serfdom there was no opportunity for education, as serfs were too preoccupied working for the nobles, so an educated class could not originate from serfs. Free peasants also had no incentive for educating their children as an education in rural areas made no difference to crop output, which is what peasants were most interested in. By emancipating the serfs Alexander II hoped to create the incentive for education, as there would be more food on the markets (serfs now produce food for themselves and not the nobility, so theres more competition to sell food) also as more food is produced the agrarian society (mostly rural society) can support more city dwellers, which Alexander II also needed.
All of this came about because of the Crimean War, which was basically a comparison between the West of Europe and Russia. Alexander's main aim of his reign as a result of this war was to revolutionise Russia, and by doing this he emancipated the serfs to help the revolution become a reality (it never really did for him).