How did the Reforms of Alexander II of Russia help influence the industrial revolution in Russia?
Alexander reformed many things about Russia. This was a response the Russia’s backwardness that was exposed by the Crimean War of the 1850s. Alexander attempted to reform agriculture to pay for the industrial investment and to directly invest in industrialising the country. Socially, he freed the serfs. But they had to buy their freedom and many could not afford the 50 year repayments. The land was not given to them, it was given to the village council – the Mir. The Mir then divided up the land according to who had the greatest need – so a family with a lot of children would get more land than a family with one child. If, however, someones children died, their land was re-allocated to others. All land was re-approtioned on a regular (I think 5 year basis), so there was no incentive to improve the land. this was also implemented in order to free up the workforce so they could move to the new industrial centres. Economically he drew up plans for a massive investment in railways – (put i
