Tsar Alexander Ii Deserving Of Tsar The Liberator?

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To what extent did Tsar Alexander II deserve the title “Tsar the Liberator”? Alexander II ascended to the throne of Russia in 1855 following the death of Nicholas I, He was immediately faced with conflict surrounding the Crimean war, previously Russia had gone into the Crimean war in 1953 in hope of clean victory, by 1956 they were humiliated by the war and as a result had to withdraw due to backwardness of their own military. Tsar Alexander needed to respond to this problem and introduce a considerable amount of reforms such as emancipation which will probably go down in history as one of his most important reforms’, Alexander also introduce the zemstva (local council) the municipal Duma (Local government very much like the Zemstva) and reformed the educational system in Russia. Yet he was assassinated 1881 by the displeased left-wing terrorist group “the people’s will”, furthermore his motives to his reforms are still in question as to which he was forced to make the changes or was he a liberator and wanted to liberate the Russian society to make it was economical and military more efficient? Alexander II most talked about reform came in 1861 when he managed to abolish serfdom which could be traced from its origin’s in the 11th century in medieval Russia, Previously Emancipation was talked about, Nicholas I Alexander’s predecessor acknowledged serfdom as a flaw in the Russian society and introduce minor reforms such as the Factory act which was to do with specifying the working condition for a urban worker he set up a welfare system which gave health and educational benefit to the peasants however these measures were not as great as the emancipation reforms of Alexander II by the time of his reign 38% of the Russia population was serf’s and serfdom had already created many revolt and unrest through the late 18th century to the mid 19th century (Decembrist
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