Further reforms of Alexander II

Question 1

significance of reforms

Answer 1

• showed some attempt to appease the resentment form peasants over redemption payments / land allocation

Question 2

who led the military reforms?

Answer 2

• Dmitrii Milyutin as minister of war made reforms to removed abuses and create a more professional army.

Question 3

military reforms

Answer 3

• improvements in equipment, medicine and food
• length of service - reduced from 25 to 15 years
• conscription for all classes - from age 20
• corporal punishment and flogging abolished
• modern weaponry - iron steamships, strategic ways to improve transport
• military colleges - better training for officers (including non-nobles)
• new code of conduct

Question 4

significant outcomes of military reforms

Answer 4

• a smaller but better trained army - reduced govt. expenditure
• success against war with Turkey in 1878 (although took longer than expected)

Question 5

weaknesses of military reforms

Answer 5

• some peasant soldiers remained illiterate and therefore officer ranks were mainly filled by nobility
• defeat to Japan in 1905, losses in WW1.

Question 6

why were local government reforms needed?

Answer 6

• new roles needed due to gap left when landowners non longer had control over the local population & upkeep of the area
  (following emancipation)

Question 7

who led Commission 1860 to make changes?

Answer 7

• N. Milyutin and then Valuev later

Question 8

introduction of zemstva 1864

Answer 8

• local elected councils, voting through an electoral college
• peasants voted for electoral college members, who then did the official voting for people to be in the zemstva
• separate electoral college for peasants, townspeople, churches - but nobles dominated

Question 9

impact / influence of zemstva

Answer 9

• this influence did partially appease the nobles who had lost power (ability to regain power)

Question 10

why were education reforms necessary?

Answer 10

• needed to catch up with west
• peasants now running on their own smallholdings needed basic literacy and numeracy

Question 11

who operated education reforms?

Answer 11

• operated through zemstva (moved away from church control)
• ran by minister for education, Golovnin

Question 12

universities

Answer 12

• able to govern themselves
• all students could progress to university

Question 13

primary and secondary education

Answer 13

• women could attend secondary school from 1870
• education was extended