Western Civilization II / Unit 11 WC2 1020 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Alexander II Emancipates the Serfs, 1861, With a Catch
Captions available
The idea
Alexander II, tsar from eighteen fifty-five, blamed backwardness for the Crimean defeat and freed the serfs in eighteen sixty-one. The catch: the serfs owed the state redemption payments for land the nobles were paid for, tying them to the soil for generations.
In practice
Two years before Lincoln's Proclamation; household serfs got no land.
Where people slip
"Alexander the Liberator", the witness says; little immediate effect.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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