The emancipation of the serfs was not the only substantial reform enacted by Alexander II in an effort to liberalize Russia. Although Alexander was devoted to the autocratic tradition he knew that it was necessary to modernize Russia in order to keep up with a rapidly growing western economy and society. Knowing that the political infrastructure of Russia was becoming inefficient he made attempts to make local government more efficient. One way of doing this was enacting what is known as zemstvos. Zemstvos were organs of self-government that were made up of representatives elected by the population. It is important to note, however, that the representatives represented members of three groups: nobility, townsmen, and peasants. The number of representatives that each group could elect to a zemstov was dependent on the value of property owned by each group. It can be deduced then that the electoral power primarily lay with the nobility which, therefore, fueled animosity between classes.
Alexander II's attempts to liberalize Russia worked but not in the way that he had planned. Marxist philosophy discusses the necessity of class warfare in order to eliminate social hierarchy. The institution of the zemstvo was an attempt to democratize local government in order to make it more efficient but, like serf emancipation, came off to the overall population as another concession to the nobility and resulted in more animosity towards the tsar, the wealthy class, and democracy.
Zemstvo Having a Dinner by Grigoriy Myasoyedov
No comments:
Post a Comment