ABSTRACT
With Alexander II there came to the throne a man who, though conservative by instinct, had the sense to realise that Russian society was in a highly critical condition and needed some drastic treatment. During eighteenth century the aristocracy had become largely Western-Europeanised in thought, while after French Revolution liberal ideas had spread among all sections of population, except among the most important—the peasants. Moreover with growth of population even adequate allocations of land became in time inadequate, and land-hunger became widespread even among those who had become independent of their former landlords. Only in the Cossack territories and in Siberia, where there never had been any landlords, did Russian peasants become really free and independent and able to hold up their heads looking to the future. The autocracy, toying with Liberalism, recoiled into reaction and received the support of the middle classes, which in other European states at this period of history was on side of social progress.
