ABSTRACT
Starting with the elimination of serfdom, Tsar Alexander II launched his series of Great Reforms, which transformed society, but by no means solved all its problems. The reforms served as a safety valve, releasing long pent-up resentments and promising a better future. The era of the Great Reforms ended not only in the murder of the Tsar-Liberator but in a period of reaction and counterreform that immobilized political life in the empire for twenty-five years. In nineteenth century, Tsar Alexander II, presided over an impressive burst of reforms that considerably altered the old order. With these changes, and under the impact of the country's rapid economic development and social transformation, the Russian Empire moved belatedly down the path of modernization. Nicholas II, however, could be influenced by powerful personalities, and he supported for a time the program of economic modernization advanced by his minister of finance, Sergei Witte.
