Adonis Diaries

Alexander II: Tsar of Russia

Ivan the Terrible had cancelled all privileges that the noble class might have enjoyed before his reign:

1. the noble class could no longer inherit lands or serfs because all Russia was owned by the Tsar;

2. the noble could be flogged and executed on a whim of the Tsar without any due recourse.

In 1790, the Tsarine Catherine restored many privileges to the noble class, including inheriting lands and selling or bartering the serfs working the land as a collective or “mir“.  The noble could no longer be flogged, executed, or had to pay taxes. Titles and lands could not be confiscated without due process before a jury of peers.

Catherine had captured Belorussia and Ukraine from the Polish Kingdom and ventured toward the Caucasus regions.

By 1830, the class of nobles were emulating their counterparts in France, England, and Germany and even went way farther in their recklessness: a noble status was measured to the number of “souls” or serfs that he possessed.

The spirit of the French Revolution got activated in this climate of total servitude.

In 1850, Alexander II acceded to the Imperial throne. He abolished servitude before Abraham Lincoln decided on that policy in 1863.

Alex put an end to censorship of the press and promoted free expressions in universities; the legal system was replaced by public juries; the forced military service of 25 years was suppressed.

Cities were opened to whoever wanted to come in and settle; the Jews were permitted to attend universities. The word “glasnot” or openness was first used at that period.

In 1874, university students created this movement code named “to the people” and headed to rural areas with the intention of aiding peasants; the peasants got suspicious and the students returned to their urban centers.

Tolstoy got pretty angry when his serfs declined his offer to re-purchase the collective land as Tsar Alexander II had emancipated all kinds of slavering systems in Russia:  The serfs didn’t find it right to buy lands that they considered belonging to them as a community.

This remind me of a recent “similar” obstinate attitude:  Viet Nam had asked the French multinational Michelin (manufacturing tires) to re-invest in Viet Nam.  Michellin didn’t digest the fact of re-purchasing rubber plantations that it owned there during the colonial period.

The day of his assassination in 1874, Alex was to sign far reaching reforms on Constitutional monarchy.

The nihilist and terrorists groups got apprehensive that these reforms will kill their plans for “drastic revolution” in blood.

Alex was the target of several previous assassination attempts and the Imperial family was haunted by the vision that outside the Palaces was a hell of the real world.

The succeeding Tsar Alexander III cancelled all previous reforms and spent his life counter attacking the virulent terrorist groups; he instituted a new counter terrorist police force that encouraged further hatred to the regime.