Alexander Ii- a True Reformist

Ebba Henningsson2/09/2010 History Why and with what success did horse parsley II impose so some(prenominal) reforms? black lovage II (1818-1881) has on several occasions been referred to as Alexander the Liberator due to the emancipation of the serfs, which was mavin of the many reforms he imposed during his reign as Tsar of Russia. The emancipation, a yen with the reform of the phalanx, the installation of a discriminative system, an educational reform, combined with his other smaller reforms, are all reforms which created a more democratic Russia easyist to a further extent, if you will.Alexander II was up to today the head of an autocracy in which he had controlling power which leads one to ponder as to what his incentives for these reforms were and how palmy he was in imposing these? Alexander was the replacework forcet of his father Nicholas I who passed away during the Crimean war, and it can be argued that Russias defeat in this war, which was fought in Russia he rself, is one of the main reasons for many of Alexanders reforms. This defeat was a hard one for Russia who had been one of the leash military powers in the previous century as tumesce as the personal loss it presented for Alexander.These defeats whitethorn very well have been the reason for the military reform, one problem that the Russian army had was the long time of the average soldier who would be considerably older than those of the western powers. Alexander assortmentd this by reducing the eld of service a soldier faced from 25 days to 6. Conversely, a soldier who had served these 25 years returned as a free man. This meant former serfs, who constituted most of the army, would return younger with full military training creating two social classes on the country side, resulting in more peasant revolts.In smart set to prevent this Alexander found that he would have to re chance on the order that made them into free men, however to do this he would have to present some o ther enticement or solution to take for the army conscription rate up. Alexanders solution to this became the, most probably, reason for the reform of the arrangement of vassalage the emancipation. This meant that all serfs would become free for a period of two years with their own land, something that had non occurred before where serfdom had been frequently like slavery.Introducing the emancipation meant that Alexander could carry out his military reform whilst keeping the peasants under control. The land that the peasants now got was that previously owned by the grandeur and to compensate the latter(prenominal) the peasants had to pay redemption dues to the state which would then be given to the nobility. Alexander relied heavily on the nobility to keep his rule intact in even the country side and and then it was important for him that these remained true-blue and at good peace with him and his reform scheme.However with all these new free citizens some discriminate of o rder system had to be presented. The zemstvo seemed to be Alexanders solution for this, which along with the new effective body of Russia assembled Alexanders legal reform. These new bodies created a lot of question about Alexanders goals with the reformation as a whole as this was creating a much more liberal society for the common Russian. To mayhap calm the nobility Alexander said The existing order of serfdom can non remain unchanged. It is better to do away with serfdom from above than to wait for the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below.This quote has moved to become quite important when judging whether Alexander wanted to move towards a democracy or keep his autocracy intact. However a nonher reform which, too, brought Russia further towards a democratic liberal state, was the education reform. A reason for this reform could be to educate the people of Russia see as the literacy rate was very low in the country side, to boot to , perhaps, integrate Russia more into atomic number 63 and the other western states society. New foreign school books were introduced along with more open universities where both women and men were allowed.This educational reform could have been inspired by Alexanders possible wish to change Russia. The emancipation of the serfs would also have helped improved that industrialization, perceive as the serfs would now be able to chose to do something other than what the nobility had ordered them to do previously. This industrialisation could have been desired due to the fact that Russia was dropping behind the other European states economically. Additionally one of the major problems that had caused Russia to lose the Crimean war had been the malfunctioning railroad line system along with the deficiency of arms.It is often easier to draw conclusions in retrospect but when judging how successful something was there are several antithetical aspects that ought to be considered, the emancipation of the serfs was indeed successful in its ready goal, to free the serfs. However with the redemption dues and the shortage of land the everyday life of a serf did non change very much and in fact their economical situation decreased, hence this reformation was non good long term for neither the serfs nor for Alexander who now had the ill wishes of the serfs against him. The military reform was nonetheless very successful.Alexander managed to reduce the amount of time a soldier spent in the army, additionally he created a reserve army which was ready to step in if needed. This resulted in a much stronger and younger army, so in his military reform Alexander was very flourishing. Alexanders judicial reform was also very thriving, both as a short term and a long term development. Short term it provided the Russians with a judicial system that was independent from the government and therefore incorrupt, what is more the zemtsvo kept control in the country side and kept Alexanders orders intact.This reform was therefore both beneficial for both Alexander and his Tsardome as well as for the common population of Russia who got a just law system. The educational restructuring is hard to judge as a matter of success. Even though the conditions of the students and the universities significantly improved it was not advantageous for Alexander himself. As he allowed the students to access outside development they learnt about other governmental systems which eventually, introvertably lead to his death. Hence, in itself the reform was successful however its consequences were, most likely, not those wished for by Alexander.If Alexander wished to reform Russias economy and industrialise her one could argue he was not very successful in doing so. The industrialisation never thoroughly commenced during Alexanders reign and the now freed serfs kept at the new land they had gotten from the nobility. So this aspect of his overall reformation was not very triumphant either. All things consider ed, Alexander the second was a great reformer who managed to impose several different reforms in a large country without creating a sever debacle which would have harmed the already unclouded Russia. Several of his reforms were not only successful short term but also long term. most(prenominal) of the reforms seem to have been brought forward due to the Crimean war, and the realisation that the Russian state was down falling. However seeing as it is unbeknownst what his objectives with these reforms were it is hard to state whether he was successful or not, he did manage to change Russia for a more liberal democratic state but he brought his own demise upon himself. Considering the reforms in themselves he was very successful in imposing them however their consequences were not favourable for himself, as well as the peasant population of Russia.