The Republican journal., 1917-08-23
A Gar OF RUSSIA
Eccentric Alexander H., Who
Gave Freedom to the Serfs.
AND THEN CRUSHED POLAND.
Out Of the Reform He Started by the
Liberation Of the Masses Grew the
Nihilist Movement, Which Brought
About His Own Death by a Bomb.

Liberation of the Masses Grew the
Nihilist Movement, Which Brought
About His Own Death by a Bomb.
1t is curious fact, says the Kansas
City Star, that one of the greatest re-
forms that ever came to Russia-the
liberation Of the serfs In 1S61-came
through Alexander IL, man educated
under the Prussian military system.
Born in 1918, the son of sternly au-
tocratic father, growing up in an at
mosphere in which it was looked upon
as treason to criticise the corner police
man since he was representative Of
the government, Alexander persisted
in cherishing an interest In all sorts of
humble people.
He came to the throne in 1855, when
Russia was foundering waist deep in
the Crimean war. Russia was defeated
and demoralized, and it was an unusu-
ally suspicious time for men with re-
form IDEAS to get a hearing. Peace
was made at the end of a year and
new laws passed encouraging industry
and commerce. Plans were laid for an
extensive railway system partly to de-
velop the natural resources Of the
country and partly to increase its mill
tary efficiency.
Then in 1858 Alexander received a
petition from certain great landowners
in Lithuania praying for a more salts
factory adjustment of relations be-
tween themselves and their serfs. The
car replied with lavish praises Of their
public spirit and assumed that what
they wanted to do was to improve the
condition of the serfs, which in point
of fact was not true at all. Their petit
ton had given him an opening.
Without consulting his ministers the
car caused copies of his instructions
to the governor general of Lithuania to
be forwarded to the governors of all the
other Russian provinces. suggesting"
that the landowners of their provinces
might also care to consider emancipa-
ton Of the se-fs. Local committees
went to work on the subject.
There We're in Russia at this time
some 23,000GO0 serfs. slaves of the
soil. They could not be sold away
from the land on which they We're
born, but in all other respects their
bondage was virtually complete. The
ear set the ball rolling by freeing the
100000 serfs on the imperial estates.
The abolition of serfdom was inevita-
BILE, but the landowners tried to stave
it off as far as possible They submit
ted plan for making the serfs agri-
upon them economically. The car re-
fused to accept 1t. If the serfs were
really to be free he decided they must
be able to own land. A state loan,
payable annually at 6 per cent for for
ty-niIe years. enabled the former serfs
to buy certain share of farm land of
Russia and become peasant proprie-
tors. The land was held by the village
communities and by them apportioned
to their members. The ukase freeing
the serfs was published March 8, 1861.
Hope famed very high in Russia at
that time, and men of the more vision
airy sort looked forward to an imme-
date Utopia. They We're disappointed,
of course, and they found that freeing
the serfs did not cure all the ills to
which Russian flesh was heir Out of
their disappoh. tment and their impa-
tience that Alexander. did not make
Russia into a Socialist community
there developed the nihilist movement.
whose passion for revolution involved
passion for assassination.
The car in the meantime was en-
deavoring to steer a middle course 1t
is one OF the curious contradictions of
his character that this man, who car
r1ed through the freeing of the serfs
almost single handed. should have look
ed with entire GOODNESS and disfavor
upon Poland's aspirations for freedom
Embrace the union with Russia"
he told the Polish delegates, and
abandon all thoughts of independence,
now and forever impossible
And in 1868 when revolt broke out in
Poland it was relentlessly repressed
under Alexander IL, and thereafter
every step was taken to crush the ma
tional spirit of Poland, destroy it's Ian
guage and traditions and make of it an
integral part of Russia. The doctrine
of Panslavism took a strong hold on
his imagination, and he went to war
with Turkey In 1877, feeling himself
the chivalric liberator of the Chris
tian peoples Of the Balkan country.
But his hopes Of confederation of
Slav states under Russian rule in the
Balkan peninsula were dashed by the
congress Of Berlin next year.
The last years of Alexander's life
were dreary ones: More and more he
yielded to depression as he saw his
high hopes for Russia fail to mate
rialize. Numerous attempts We're made
upon his life, and after the explosion
in the Winter palace in 1880 the car
gave practically dictatorial power for
six months to General Loris Melikoff.
a distinguished liberal officer. Nell
koff advised the granting of a consti-
tuition to Russia, and Alexander was
on the point of issuing ukase to that
effect-had indeed signed it-when he
was slain, March 10, 1881, by nihilist
bomb.
Vanity.