ABSTRACT
The Russian serfs gained their personal liberty with the publication of the Emancipation Statute on 5 March 1861 and through it received rights of property and private activity which constituted the most progressive aspects of the reform. Even though emancipation was politically motivated, it could not fail to have far-reaching economic consequences. The terms of reform would determine to a marked degree the future level of productivity in agriculture and the ability of farmers and farm workers to respond to changing economic opportunities. This, together with the distributional aspects of reform, would in turn affect the level of internal demand; add to these the effects of reform on labour mobility and it is obvious that the edict would have a profound influence on the course of industrialisation. But there was far more to it than this. The conditions under which serfdom was abolished were to be of the highest significance in determining the degree of internal political stability for the next few decades. Expectations play a large part in the process of investment and views on the likelihood of internal peace, formed in Russia and abroad, would certainly have an appreciable influence on the level of capital investment. However, these two elements necessary to the future of Russian society, development and political stability, conflicted with each other. The solution of 1861 sought stability at considerable cost to the prospects of growth and development, and thirty years later lagging industrialisation had to be forced forward at such a pace that the internal tensions created built up inevitably to the revolts of 1905–6 and to the revolution of 1917.
