III.

Domestic Reform

Alexander came to the throne during the Crimean War, in which Britain and France were allied with Turkey against Russia. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Paris in 1856. Russia's defeat in the Crimea reflected the weaknesses of an army recruited largely from peasant serfs, and provided an impetus for the implementation of wide-ranging reforms. The Act of Emancipation of the serfs was issued on February 19, 1861, the tsar himself having played a major role in overcoming the opposition of the noble landowners. The most important of Alexander's other “great reforms” were those of the judicial system and of local government, which were introduced in 1864, and based on Western models. The tsar's initial reforming impulses were tempered by a wave of peasant protests against the terms of the Emancipation, and by a nationalist uprising in Russian Poland in 1863. Revolutionary socialists in Russia itself were dissatisfied with the reforms, and in April 1866 the student Dmitry Karakozov made an attempt on Alexander's life. The following year a Pole named Berezowsky tried to kill the tsar in Paris. Reforms continued after these attacks, but the second half of Alexander's reign was more conservative than the first, and the powers of the police were considerably strengthened.