Who was Czar Alexander II and what were his reforms?

Alexander II was Tsar of Russia from 1818 to 1881 when he was killed.

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 reapportioned 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 in place under Alexander III). The emancipation, he hoped, would lead to greater agricultural output, in order to finance the railways, and the beginnings of Russia's industrialisation. He also invested in new iron and steel works - for armaments, new textiles factories - for uniforms, and new manufacturing industries - for arms and ammunition.

Politically he instituted new provincial councils - zemstvos, and town councils, but these were dominated by the landed classes and so were not genuinely democratic or representative organisations.

He also reformed the army & navy, along the British model, but soldiers were still signed on for 25 years and life in the armed forces was extremely harsh, except for officers in the elite guards regiments, who were drawn from the aristocracy and could use their position to gain personal fortunes.

He hoped that his reforms would quell the growing Narodnik movement (radical peasants who wanted to take ownership of the land from the aristocracy) and, in the cities, the growing popularity of Marxism.

See:

Russia, People & Empire - 1552 - 1917 by Geoffrey Hosking

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSalexander2...

Czar Alexander Ii

Alexander the Liberator Tsar of Russia, King of Poland, Prince of Finland etc. Came to a sticky end. His refornms were the liberation of the serfs, reorganisation of local and district government and the revamping the military forces.

inspite of the undeniable fact that he did stable via placing them loose he screwed them interior the tip. that they had no the place to pass because of the fact they lacked adventure and coaching of a loose guy. They didnt understand the thank you to get jobs and do different issues different than what htey knew in serfdom. They quickly grew to become poorer than that they had whilst they have been serfs.The serfs began to insurrection and riots occured in russia after the liberating of the serfs

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=czar+alexander+2

Here who he was,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russi...