Exactly 160 years ago, on March 2, 1855, Emperor Alexander II the Liberator ascended the throne, who was destined to carry out transformations comparable to the reforms of Peter I. He got a semi-feudal country that had lost the war, which had to be pulled into a new era. By nature, Alexander II was not a reformer, but he possessed sufficient statesmanship to understand the need for reform. Resting on the laurels of the Napoleonic wars played a cruel joke with Nicholas Russia: she approached the war of the new generation - the Crimean one - completely unprepared, and only the courage of sailors, soldiers, officers and civilians saved the country from even more difficult peace conditions than those that were dictated her in the end. Backwardness, feudal savagery and archaic vestiges of the Middle Ages were hidden behind the glitter of balls and magnificent military parades.
Alexander II perfectly understood how much he risked preparing his transformations. Launching too radical reforms would lead to discontent of the noble elite and a conspiracy. The fate of Paul I in this sense was more than indicative. The absence of any reforms at all would increase the lag of the Russian Empire from the advanced powers, which would inevitably lead to an even more severe military defeat in the future. We can safely say that back in the middle of the 19th century, the ghosts of impending failures in the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars arose before the sovereign.
A year after the end of the Crimean War, such a wild phenomenon as military settlements was eliminated, and almost immediately preparations began for the abolition of serfdom.
On February 19 (March 3), 1861, an event of historic proportions took place, which changed the entire way of Russian life. On this day, the All-Russian Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich signed the "Manifesto on the Abolition of Serfdom" and "Regulations on the Peasants Coming Out of Serfdom." The Manifesto and the Regulations became a huge event in Russian history, although they provoked the discontent of both landlords and peasants. Former serfs were surprised to learn that "in freedom" they are still forced to serve corvee and pay their rent, and the land-nurse still does not belong to them. The terms of the land redemption were also so unfair that many nobles considered them dangerous for the stability of the state. The result of the peasant reform was, on the one hand, numerous peasant revolts, and on the other, an agricultural upsurge and the emergence of an ever-increasing layer of wealthy peasants.
Following the Peasant reform, the Zemskaya reform became natural, creating a flexible system of local self-government, which in turn contributed to the development of rural hospitals and schools. It was followed by the judicial, educational and military reforms, which completely changed the spirit of the era and its appearance.
Foreign policy was contradictory. On the one hand, Alexander II sought to get rid of the distant and unprofitable "overseas territories", which resulted in the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan, and Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the United States, as well as the refusal to colonize New Guinea. On the other hand, there was an attempt to expand influence already on the continent: the relatively peaceful annexation of Outer Manchuria and the military one - Central Asia. Peaceful Caucasus.
As a result of the Russian-Turkish war, almost all military victories were (as often happens in Russian history) successfully surrendered by diplomats. In Europe, Alexander relied on Prussia (later - unified Germany), seeing in it a counterweight to France, to which he felt a completely understandable personal dislike. Alas, history has shown that a united Germany is even more unfriendly to Russia than France.
The results of the reign of Alexander II, with all the well-known reservations, can be called deeply positive, and the sovereign himself - one of the greatest rulers of Russia in its entire history. During his reign, the country embarked on the path of the industrial revolution and the rule of law. The emancipation of the peasants led to their influx into the cities, where they became workers in factories and the driving force behind the industrial upsurge of the 1890s. On the other hand, the half-hearted nature of reforms (primarily peasant reforms) increased social tension. Contemporaries often criticized the policies of Alexander II, and only descendants were able to appreciate his transformations, however, only when there was little left of them.
