ABSTRACT
Sept. Fall of Sebastopol 1856 March Peace of Paris ends Crimean war;
Russian defeat; Alexander II asks nobility to consider emancipation of the serfs
1861 Emancipation of the serfs 1863 Universities reformed by
Golovnin (Minister of Education 1861-66)
1863-64 Polish rising crushed 1864 Zemstva set up; judicial system
reformed 1865 Press law sets up system of warn-
ings; Jewish artisans freed from restrictions
1866 State peasants emancipated; entitled to redeem land
1874 Universal Military Service law by D. Miliutin (Minister of War 1861-81); Narodnik campaign in countryside
1877-78 Russia intervenes against Ottoman empire, most gains removed at Congress of Berlin
1881 Feb. Loris-Melikov reform plan approved by Alexander II
1 March Alexander II assassinated by People’s Will terrorists; Alexander III (r. 1881-94)
29 April Alexander III’s manifesto proclaims autocracy; reform plan rejected; Statute on State Security increases repression
1882-86 Finance Minister Bunge sets up Nobles’ and Peasants’ Land Bank
1890 Zemstva Act restricts powers; Land Captains introduced
1887-92 Finance Minister Vyshnegradsky exports grain; gold reserves built up
1891-92 Famine and cholera 1892-94 Russian-French alliance conclu-
ded
The last years of Nicholas I’s reign were overtaken by the humiliating defeat of Russian forces in the Crimea. The 1848 Revolutions had left the Tsar’s throne untouched and given Nicholas I a sense of security and confidence which was rudely shattered by the intervention of French and British forces in Russia’s own backyard. He died in 1855, leaving his son Alexander II to accept defeat in 1856.
