Long-Term Consequences Of Aleksandr II

When Aleksandr II came to the throne following the death of his father Nikolai I, he was an already mature adult at age thirty-six. He received training for leadership from an early age and had received the best education possible. Aleksandr II became Tsar at the end of the Crimean War and fully intended to reform Russia radically. The humiliating defeat for Russia in the Crimean War directly caused the Great Reforms, but they were required because of many long-term factors such as the Serf Question, the influence of Western Europe, and the debates among the intelligentsia. The results of the Great Reforms were wide and varied, affecting all aspects of Russian society with many unintended consequences that marked the beginning of the

The intelligentsia was the conscious-based opposition to tsardom, made up of educated elites. The intelligentsia debated about the issues of Russia from the time following the Napoleonic Wars until the end of tsardom in 1917. They were an important force in Russian political discourse, and while the tsars often silenced them, many educated Russians, including the government bureaucrats and the tsar himself, read and discussed their work. One influential member of the intelligentsia was Aleksandr Herzen. He, like most members of the intelligentsia, focused on serfdom as a primary issue within Russia. In speaking about serfdom, Herzen once wrote, “thus all Russia, finally, believed that people could be sold and resold without a question, without even being asked by anybody on what legal grounds all this was done, not even by those who were being sold.” Herzen is pointing out the ease with which society accepted serfdom, and how it should not receive blind acceptance. He wants the serfs to rise up about their captivity, and he wants the elites to realize that serfdom is morally wrong. Aleksandr II was able to use these arguments, which the intelligentsia had been making since his uncle’s rule, to increase public support for emancipation. He did this by decreasing censorship so that members of the intelligentsia could debate freely, especially about the issue of serfdom to stir up popular

This was due to decreased censorship and increased education as part of the Great Reforms. With decreased censorship, members of the intelligentsia were able to publish a wide variety of ideas, including political discourse from abroad. This exposed Russians to ideas they had never heard of or thought about. Not only was more material available to read, but more Russians could read because of the Great Reforms. Elementary schools, high schools, and universities increased in number and funding. Additionally, Universities received more rights and freedoms and university presses were established. This further increased the spread of political ideas. While this originally started as a way for Aleksandr II to increase support for emancipation, it began to turn on him and the institution of tsardom. For example, when Aleksandr II suppressed the Polish noble uprising in 1863, young educated Russians reacted by questioning the intentions, motivations, and execution of the Great Reforms. This was a paradoxical and unexpected result from increased education and decreased censorship. Eventually, the political fervor became too much and Aleksandr II began suppressing those propagating revolutionary thought, especially after the assassination attempt by Karakozov in 1866; however, this suppression did not stop revolutionary groups but instead pushed them underground where they