ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the clues to the great mystery of the revolutionary movement of the 1860s: the organization of Land and Freedom. Peasants were to get their land in full and free, but, rather surprisingly, the proclamation proposed that the landlords be compensated by "the imperial treasury," paying them sixty million rubles annually for thirty-seven years! Ogarev fancied himself an economist and argued that such compensation could easily be afforded without raising taxes if the state were to cut down expenses on the army and on the tsar's "stables and kennels." Eastern Siberia was then ruled by Nicholas Muraviev. And as it happened, the Bakunins and Muravievs were related. Bakunin struck up a friendship with his understanding relative, and also with his chief of staff, Boleslaw Kukiel.
