HST 328 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Serfdom, Autocracy, Proletariat
Document Summary
Serf owners exercised near complete authority over the lives of their serfs, and served as judge and jury in all matters. Serfs assured minimal access to resources required to sustain life and meet obligations. Free rural inhabitants (but not entirely - still legally separate in many ways) Ex-serfs received an allotment and required to make payments on it. More reasons not to emancipate than to do so. Crimean defeat left state poorly positioned to risk upsetting noble servitors and peasantry, let alone disrupt the economy. There were few supporters of emancipation in the upper echelons of power. Little to do with economic development, but rather, with preservation of autocracy as a rejuvenated agrarian policy. Emperor placed some of the blame for crimean defeat on backwardness of. Serf owners weak - deeply in debt, had little political experience, and limited opportunity to voice opposition publicly. War and rumors of liberation had increased fears of peasant disturbances (pugachev)
