How Did Alexander II Became The Tsar?

When Alexander II became the Tsar, Russia was in total disarray. Her once widely respected and feared army was humiliated on the battlefields in the Crimean Peninsula, 80% of the people were in poverty and illiterate. Russia was still stuck in the middle ages while the rest of Europe was steaming in through the Industrial Era. Alexander II saw this as a need for change, primarily in response to the Crimean War, however to be able to do this, he also had to change the Russian society, therefore in 1861 he abolished serfdom, becoming the most significant events in Imperial Russian history, giving him the name as the ‘Tsar Liberator’ (Watts, Peter, History Review, 2014). However, although Alexander II’s reforms did pave the way for a more educated,
Revolts were frequent, 1467 of them since 1800. Nicholas I saw this and created nine secret committees to find a way to end serfdom. Alexander II was part of one of those committees. He was also there to be the acting Tsar when Nicholas I was away. Therefore Alexander II was the most prepared heir to the Tsar the empire has ever had. Alexander made a very good start in change when he became Tsar. He stopped all army recruitment, which meant it was no longer forced to enter the army, nor was it a punishment for crimes. Applying for military was completely voluntary. Alexander also released all of the Decembrists, who are people who tried to overthrow his father in 1825 and the Poles, who revolted in 1830. He also lifted restrictions for travelling, 26,000 passports were granted in 1859. Allowing people to travel to Western Europe and learning more about liberal culture and allowing Russia to catch up with the rest of
These reforms included rapid growth in public schools. Reforms in elementary schools included structural changes, which means the school now has independent management, however the curriculum was still monitored. For example, religion, writing and mathematics were considered as ‘safe’ subject. However foreign languages and history were avoided. Secondary schools had an increase in number of students in 800,000. These students will eventually become university students. In 5 years, from 1855 to 1860, Alexander was able to increase students attending university by 2000 people. And within 40 years, increased the number of students by a staggering 2000%, successfully catching up with other countries and dramatically raising the literacy rate of the country. However the problem with these reforms is that censorship was still a major issue in the contents of the curriculum, and because of Russia’s terrible past, her citizens would want a new leader. Alexander knew that if he lifted censorship completely, he would expose the Tsar’s weaknesses to the public and his gaol to preserve the Tsar would fail. However he also needed to satisfy the citizens by removing censorship. Therefore he made sure that all the curriculum contents were checked by the ‘Mir’, an official who monitors education and has contact with the Tsar. This allows the Tsar to still have an understanding of what is being taught to the next generations,