Emancipation Manifesto By Mikhail Petrashevsky

In 1849, Russia’s Interior Minister, I.P. Liprandi, believed that he had unveiled a secret plot to overthrow the Tsar – the Petrashevsky Circle. The members of this group gathered at Mikhail Petrashevsky’s house to discuss “how to arouse indignation against the government in all classes of the population, how to arm peasants against landowners, officials against their authorized superiors; how to undermine and dissolve all religious feelings” (Patyk 37). Fearful of this group, Nicholas I arrested all members, including Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Russian society was appalled by their incarceration, deeming the members as ‘schoolboy pranksters’. Therefore, Nicholas I decided to hold a prank of his own: incarcerate all Petrashevsky members, condemn

Between 1858 and 1861, “a liberal minority and a conservative… majority took shape” in the 46 provincial committees of the Tsarist administration that were in charge of the Emancipation Manifesto (Zakharova 25). This allowed for the liberal concept emancipation to be completely overpowered by traditional Russian statehood (37). Therefore, there was very little change in the four characteristics of serfdom: authority, ascription, status, and economic. In terms of authority, the government ensured that the nobility remained in high-ranking positions of the local administration. Moreover, the ex-serfs were financially enslaved “as renters or wage laborers or sharecroppers, to a landowner in the neighborhood, though not necessarily to the one who had been their master under serfdom” (Fields 50). With the abolition of serfdom, the ex-serfs were still ascribed by the squire and the village commune in order to obtain a passport and leave home. They were also required to send part of their earnings back to the commune (Fields 51). Though the ex-serfs did have a change in their status, it is important to note that status differences were not eliminated. And therefore, the ex-serfs were still considered to be lowly. Most importantly, the “characteristics of the servile economy survived the abolition of serfdom, often in altered form” (Fields 52). The

And with a mighty cry of ‘Long live the Russian Social and Democratic Republic’, we will move against the Winter Palace to wipe out all who dwell there. It may be that we will only have to destroy the imperial family, i.e. about a hundred people… and in the support of the people and in the glorious future of the Russia – which destiny has ordained shall be the first country to realize the great cause of socialism – we will cry ‘To your axes!’ and then we will strike the imperial party without sparing our blows just as they do not spare theirs against us’” (Patyk