Secret Committee. Peasant reform in Russia Secret Committee 1857
On January 3, 1857, the first significant step was taken, which served as the beginning of the reform: the creation of a Secret Committee under the direct supervision and chairmanship of the emperor himself. It included: Prince Orlov, Count Lanskoy, Count Bludov, Minister of Finance Brock, Count V.F. Adlerberg, Prince V.A. Dolgorukov, Minister of State Property M.N. Muravyov, Baron M.A. Korf and Ya.I. Rostovtsev.
The purpose of the committee was designated as “discussion of measures to organize the life of the landowner peasants.” Thus, the government tried to get initiative from the nobility in resolving this issue. The word “liberation” had not yet been spoken. But the committee acted very sluggishly. More precise actions began to be implemented later.
In February 1858. The Secret Committee was renamed the “Main Committee on Landowner Peasants Emerging from Serfdom,” and a year later (March 4, 1859) Editorial Commissions were established under the committee, which were responsible for reviewing materials prepared by provincial committees and drafting a law on the emancipation of peasants . There were two opinions here: the majority of landowners proposed to release the peasants without any land at all or with small plots, while the liberal minority proposed to release them with land for ransom. At first, Alexander II shared the point of view of the majority, but then came to the conclusion that it was necessary to allocate land to the peasants. Usually historians associate this decision with the strengthening of the peasant movement: the Tsar was afraid of a repetition of the “Pugachevism.” But an equally important role here was played by the presence in the government of an influential group called the “liberal bureaucracy.”
The draft “Regulations on Peasants” was practically prepared at the end of August 1859, but for some time it was subject to minor corrections and clarifications. In October 1860, the “Editing Commissions”, having completed their work, transferred the project to the Main Committee, where it was again discussed and underwent further changes, but in favor of the landowners.
On January 28, 1861, the project was submitted to the final authority - the State Council, which accepted them with some changes, in the sense of reducing the size of the peasant plot.
Finally, on February 19, 1861, the “Regulations on Peasants Emerging from Serfdom,” which included 17 legislative acts, were signed by Alexander II. On the same day, the manifesto “On the most merciful granting to serfs of the rights of the state of free rural inhabitants” followed, which proclaimed the liberation of 22.6 million peasants from serfdom.
The “Provisions” applied to 45 provinces of European Russia, in which there were 112,000 landowner estates. First of all, it was declared obligatory for the landowner to provide his former peasants, in addition to the estate land, with arable and haymaking land in certain amounts. Secondly, it was declared obligatory for peasants to accept the allotment and keep in their use, for the duties established in favor of the landowner, the worldly land allocated to them for the first nine years (until February 19, 1870). After nine years, individual members of the community were given the right to both leave it and refuse to use field lands and lands if they bought out their estate; society itself also receives the right not to accept for its use such plots that individual peasants refuse. Thirdly, with regard to the size of the peasant plot and the payments associated with it, according to general rules It is customary to be based on voluntary agreements between landowners and peasants, for which purpose a charter must be concluded through the mediation of international mediators established by the state, their congresses and provincial presences on peasant affairs, and in the western provinces - and special verification commissions.
The “regulations,” however, were not limited to the rules for allocating land to peasants for permanent use; it made it easier for them to buy out the allocated plots of land into their ownership, using a state buyout operation, and the government gave the peasants a loan against the lands they were purchasing in a certain amount with payment in installments for 49 years and, issuing this amount to the landowner with state interest-bearing securities, the state took over further settlements with the peasants.
Upon approval by the government of the redemption transaction, all obligatory relations between the peasants and the landowner ceased and the latter entered the category of peasant owners. The “provisions” were gradually extended to the palace, appanage, assigned and state peasants. But as a result of this, the peasantry remained bound by the community, and the land allocated to them was clearly insufficient to meet the needs of the ever-growing population. The peasant remained completely dependent on the rural community (the former “world”), which, in turn, was completely controlled by the authorities; personal plots were transferred into the ownership of peasant societies, which periodically “equalized” them to redistribute them.
In the spring and summer of 1861, the peasants, who did not receive “full freedom” as they expected, organized many uprisings. Indignation was caused by such facts as, for example: for two years the peasants remained subordinate to the landowner, and were obliged to pay quitrents and perform corvée, were deprived of a significant part of the land, and those plots that were given to them as property had to be bought back from the landowner.
During 1861, 1860 peasant uprisings occurred. One of the largest is considered to be the protests of peasants in the village of Bezdna, Kazan province. Subsequently, disappointment grew with the inconsistency of the reform not only of the former serfs: articles by A. Herzen and N. Ogarev in Kolokol, N. Chernyshevsky in Sovremennik.
Secret Committee for Peasant Affairs
Meanwhile, according to the old custom, a secret committee for peasant affairs was formed, similar to those that were formed during the reign of Nicholas. This committee was opened on January 3, 1857 under the personal chairmanship of the emperor from persons especially trusted. The committee was tasked with developing overall plan arrangement and improvement of the situation of serfs. The work of this committee shows us that in 1857 there was no plan yet, information about the state of affairs had not yet been collected, even the basic principles of liberation had not been worked out; for example, they have not yet decided whether to free the peasants with land or without land. The committee got down to business. Meanwhile, in November, the long-awaited Vilna Governor-General Nazimov arrived in St. Petersburg with the results of his meetings with the local nobility. Nazimov appeared hanging his head; The leaders of the nobility, perhaps under the influence of festive impressions in Moscow, said too much, for which they received due instruction from their voters, the nobles of the Lithuanian provinces. Local provincial committees, formed to review Bibikov's inventories, decisively announced that they did not want [neither] the liberation of the peasants, nor a change in their situation. When Nazimov reported this, the following rescript was drawn up in his name, marked November 20, 1857 (Please listen not to the rescript, but to the meaning.) The rescript stated that the sovereign gladly accepted Nazimov’s expressed desire of the Lithuanian nobles to improve the situation of the serfs, therefore, he allows the local nobility to form a committee from among them to develop a provision that would implement this good intention. These committees should be composed of deputies from the district nobles of the provinces, two from each district, and from experienced landowners appointed by the governor-general. These provincial noble committees, having developed their projects for a new system of peasants, were supposed to submit them to the commission under the governor-general; having examined the project of the provincial committees, it must develop a common project for all three Lithuanian provinces. The rescript also indicated the principles on which these projects should be based. These are the three principles: peasants buy back their estates from the landowners; They use field land by agreement with the landowner. The further arrangement of the peasants should be such that it ensures the continued payment of state and zemstvo taxes by the peasants. Peasants, having received estates and land from landowners, settle into rural societies, but remain under the authority of the landowner as a patrimonial police observer. The local nobles greeted the rescript given to Nazimov with great surprise, having difficulty understanding what they had given the reason for.
But then another spark flashed in St. Petersburg. It was decided to send an invitation to the Lithuanian nobility to take care of organizing the situation of the peasants and to inform the nobility of the remaining provinces in case they wanted the same thing that the Lithuanian nobility wanted. They say that the idea of generalizing the case was first proposed by Grand Duke Constantine, who had previously been included in the secret committee; this idea soon received public expression. Around that time, the Voronezh governor Smirin introduced himself to the sovereign; the sovereign unexpectedly told him that he had decided to complete the work of the serfs and hoped that he would persuade his nobles to help him in this. Smirin turns to Lansky for an explanation of these words and with the question whether the Voronezh nobility will receive some kind of order on this matter. “He will,” Lanskoy answered, laughing. Around that time, someone remembered that some St. Petersburg nobles expressed a desire to determine more precisely the position of peasant duties in favor of landowners; the act was abandoned; now it was dug up, and a new rescript followed on December 5: “Since the St. Petersburg nobility has expressed a desire to improve the situation of the peasants, they are allowed to set up a committee, etc.” The nobility greeted this rescript, given in the name of the St. Petersburg Governor General, Count Ignatiev, with widened eyes. Finally, all these rescripts to Nazimov and the circulars of the Minister of Internal Affairs were sent to the governors of all provinces so that these acts were taken into account. People in St. Petersburg were waiting with great impatience to see how the nobles would react to this message.
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The need for transformations - improvement of “internal improvement” - was first declared in the manifesto of Alexander II on the end of Crimean War March 19, 1856 Abstract good wishes were somewhat concretized in the speech delivered by the emperor to the Moscow leaders of the nobility on March 30, 1856. Increasing cases of peasant discontent and rumors about the government’s secret intentions on the peasant issue seriously alarmed the Moscow nobles, and Governor-General Count A.A. Zakrevsky turned to Alexander II with a request to dispel unfounded rumors. But the sovereign’s speech only increased the anxiety of the landowners. Having assured the noble leaders of his reluctance to free the peasants, Alexander II at the same time expressed disappointment at the growing hostility between peasants and landowners and spoke of the objective inevitability of the abolition of serfdom, if not “from above,” then “from below,” which is undesirable. Zakrevsky called the tsar’s speech “embarrassing,” and the agitated nobles had to be cajoled with a circular from the Minister of Internal Affairs, which guaranteed the preservation of landowner power.
The Emperor hesitated. He understood the inevitability of change, but could not go into direct conflict with the nobility. Therefore, he instructed the Vilna Governor-General V.I. Nazimov to find out the opinion of the nobles of the northwestern region on the possibility of changing serfdom, and during the coronation in August 1856, the Minister of Internal Affairs S.S. Lanskoy and Comrade (Deputy) Minister A.I. Levshin, on the instructions of the sovereign, conducted confidential negotiations with the leaders of the nobility of different provinces of Russia. Conversations with the leaders, who were frightened by even a faint hint of the impending liberation of the peasants, turned out to be unproductive. Only the leaders of the nobility of the western provinces, who had suffered losses from the introduced inventories, expressed their readiness to abolish serfdom, but free the peasants without land - following the example of the Baltic region, where such a reform took place back in 1816-1819. The government decided to begin preparing a bill on peasant affairs for the western provinces of the empire, in order to then begin gradually implementing reform in other individual localities. Alexander II made a reservation at the same time that he would not take any steps until he received from the “well-meaning owners of populated estates” ideas about improving the peasant “lot.”
On January 3, 1857, the Secret Committee on Peasant Affairs was established, designed to prepare draft measures to improve the life of landowner peasants. The committee was chaired by the tsar himself, and in his absence, by the chairman of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers, Prince A.F. Orlov. The committee included senior government officials. Seasoned statesmen took a wait-and-see attitude, delaying the consideration of the assigned issue. The committee slowly collected ideas from various people about the future peasant reorganization, and disagreements emerged between its members, which led the activities to a dead end. There were proposals to free the peasants according to the “Baltic Sea” model, others insisted on ensuring the actual implementation of the decrees on free cultivators of 1803 and on obligated peasants of 1842. Finally, there was an opinion to completely rid the government of an inconvenient problem by entrusting the development of conditions for the abolition of serfdom to the shoulders of local nobility. Only the Minister of Internal Affairs S.S. Lanskoy introduced for the consideration of the committee members qualitatively new principles of reform (the author of the project was A.I. Levshin): the liberation of the peasants, the purchase of their estates for 10-15 years and the preservation of the plots for the use of the peasants for their services. At the same time, he considered it necessary to leave the solution of the issue in the hands of the government with the advisory participation of the nobility. Prince A.F. Orlov opposed the liberation of the peasants and was about to curtail the work of the committee, and, as usual, transfer the received considerations to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, Alexander II broke this scenario by demanding specific decisions. In the summer of 1857, the sovereign’s brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, was appointed a member of the committee. The bureaucratic idyll was disrupted by heated debate, and in August the committee made a fundamental decision to begin the abolition of serfdom, dividing its implementation into the following stages: preparation of the reform, personal emancipation of the peasants while maintaining their land dependence, and complete emancipation of the peasants.
Attempts to continue the red tape were suddenly thwarted in October 1857 by the arrival of V.I. in St. Petersburg. Nazimov, who obtained the consent of the nobility of the Vilna, Grodno and Kovno provinces entrusted to him to replace the inventory system with the gratuitous but landless emancipation of the peasants. The Governor-General demanded instructions from the government, and on November 20, 1857, Alexander II approved the rescript to Nazimov developed by the Secret Committee. The rescript, which became the first government program on the peasant issue, consolidated the beginnings of the project drawn up in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The nobility of the region was supposed to form provincial committees and a commission common to the three provinces to draw up projects “on the arrangement and improvement of the life of the landowner peasants,” but could not go beyond the principles established by the supreme authority. Government principles confirmed the ownership of landowners “to all the land.” However, the peasants retained their “estate settlement”, received the right to purchase the estate land as their own and could not be arbitrarily deprived of an additional “amount of land” subject to payment of quitrent or serving corvée. Thus, the government prevented the expulsion of peasants from the land. It was supposed to establish self-government for the peasants, but in order to keep them in obedience, the patrimonial police were transferred to the disposal of the landowners. To avoid noble discontent, the thesis about the abolition of serfdom was carefully veiled in the document.
Yakov Ivanovich Rostovtsev
At the same time, to consider these notes, it was decided to form a Secret Committee, which included mainly ministers and dignitaries of the previous reign. This committee was formed in January 1857.
In this committee, the Minister of Internal Affairs Lanskoy was an unconditional supporter of peasant reform. Then, among the persons included in this committee was also General Ya. I. Rostovtsev, the chief head of military educational institutions, who was very sympathetic to the idea of peasant reform. Rostovtsev was one of the people close to Alexander, personally very devoted to him, but he was completely inexperienced in the peasant business. Therefore, at the beginning, when he, along with two other members of the committee, was barred. M.A. Korf and Prince. P.P. Gagarin, - the committee was entrusted with familiarizing itself with all the notes and projects circulating in the society, he even tried to avoid this. On the other hand, in public opinion Rostovtsev did not seem to be a particularly attractive figure at that time: there was a stain on him, which was that a legend had been preserved that Rostovtsev was an informer and a traitor in the Decembrist cause. This legend, however, depicted his participation in these events in a distorted form. In 1825, Rostovtsev was still a young officer (22 years old); he was personally close to the influential leaders of the December 14 conspiracy, Ryleyev and especially Prince. Obolensky, with whom he lived in the same apartment. During the famous interregnum of 1825, thus, not only did individual phrases accidentally reach Rostovtsev’s ears, revealing the intentions of the conspirators, but, apparently, Ryleev and Obolensky also made a direct attempt to attract Rostovtsev to their cause. He was a completely loyal person in his views and not only did not sympathize with the plans of the Decembrists and secret societies in general, but was also not inclined to participate in revolutionary political enterprises. In any case, he not only flatly refused to take part in the secret society, but even began to persuade Ryleev and Obolensky to give up their plans, and finally warned them that if they did not give up these plans, he would consider it is his duty to warn the government of the danger that threatens him. Seeing that the conspiracy was continuing, Rostovtsev carried out his threat, came to Nicholas and told him that they were very excited against him, that something was being prepared, and even convinced Nicholas either to renounce the throne, or to persuade Konstantin to come and abdicate. publicly. At the same time, Rostovtsev did not name a single name, and after his meeting with Nikolai (December 10, 1825), he himself immediately informed Ryleev and Obolensky about this. From this it is already clear that the impression of vileness and selfish calculations that is usually associated with political denunciation was not present in this case, and Rostovtsev’s personality was hardly rightly branded with the name of a traitor and informer. It is now known that both Ryleev and Obolensky, who knew the full course of this matter, retained respect for Rostovtsev even after Rostovtsev’s visit to Nikolai, and when Obolensky returned from exile, he did not refuse to resume friendly relations with Rostovtsev. But at that time, all this was not known for sure and lay a big stain on Rostovtsev’s personality, and Herzen systematically persecuted him in “The Bell” until his death.
Rostovtsev's real role in the peasant reform, in fact, began later; his participation in the affairs of the Secret Committee at this time was not yet as great and decisive as later.
The remaining members of the Secret Committee either treated the matter more or less indifferently and formally, or secretly did not sympathize with it. Nevertheless, none of them dared to deny in their answers to the question directly posed by Alexander that the matter was ripe and that at least some limitation of landowner arbitrariness and a change in the existing state of affairs were necessary. But still, the mood of the majority was such that work proceeded extremely slowly. The only engine of work at this time was the Ministry of the Interior, which was headed by a person who sympathized with the reform and had the means to prepare it, since it had in its hands a whole series of collected materials, projects and considerations.
In the summer of 1857, the Ministry of Internal Affairs presented a fairly definite reform plan drawn up by Levshin, which consisted in declaring the peasants personally free, but strong on the land, after a certain period of time, preserving for them for a certain or indefinite time the obligation to perform duties for the assigned duties. allotments with the obligation to purchase the estate ownership, and the landowners of non-black earth provinces would be given the opportunity to enter so-called fishing benefits into the valuation of estates.
Since progress in the committee itself was slow, Emperor Alexander, dissatisfied with the committee headed by Prince. Orlov, who was unsympathetic to the cause of reform, introduced his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, into its composition, from which he expected a great acceleration of the matter, since Konstantin showed great sympathy for the cause of reform. And indeed, he brought great excitement to the general course of business, but due to his inexperience he was then inclined to make many compromises harmful to the interests of the peasants, just to speed things up. By the way, he proposed introducing a certain degree of openness into the entire matter, publicly announcing the government’s intentions at least in general outline. On August 18, a decisive meeting of the Secret Committee took place, where Konstantin Nikolaevich’s project was discussed. Konstantin Nikolaevich argued that glasnost would calm the peasants and enable society to take a more active part in developing the details of the reform. However, the committee certainly rejected this proposal; it was decided that there should be no announcement of the types of government, that the work of reform should be carried out gradually and thoughtfully, dividing it into periods, and in the first period, the period of which was not even determined, it was supposed to collect various information, notes, etc. among those in the know, for example Levshin, things tended to delay the reform, in the hope that the thought of it would finally fall asleep.
Until recently, completely reliable information about the work of this committee was available only in the two articles mentioned above: “Memorable minutes of my life” A. I. Levshina and "Notes" Y. A. Solovyova, partly replenished by those compiled by D. P. Khrushchev and “Materials on the history of the abolition of serfdom”, printed abroad, Berlin, 1860–1862, three volumes. Now the history of the work of the Secret Committee is presented on the basis of a study of its archive by Mr. A. Popelnitsky in "Bulletin of Europe" for 1911, No. 2, p. 48. This study, however, only confirmed the accuracy of the information reported in the notes of Levshin and Solovyov.
About Rostovtsev important documents printed in "Russian Archive" for 1873, No. 1, pp. 510 et seq. See also about him in Barsukov (“The Life of Pogodin”), vol. XIV, p. 465 and passim and in A. V. Nikitenko V different places his "Notes from a Diary". Compare also the last review of Rostovtsev after his death by the publishers of Kolokol Herzen And Ogareva in “Voices from Russia,” book, VIII, p. 8.
Alexander II calls on the Moscow nobles to begin liberating the peasantry. 1857. Engraving from the early 1880s.
“From that day (March 30, 1856), when Alexander II declared: “Better from above than from below,” preparations for the abolition of serfdom began, on the initiative of the tsar. But this initiative cannot be credited personally to Alexander II. In himself, he was even more conservative than his father, Nicholas I. Even those penny concessions in peasant question, which Nikolai allowed, Alexander considered unnecessary. As a person, Alexander II was, of course, more attractive than his father - smarter, more educated, softer and more restrained in character (the influence of his teacher V.A. Zhukovsky affected him). Outwardly, in appearance and bearing, he was the spitting image of his father; he was mentally and morally more like his uncle, Alexander I, than like his father. However, Alexander Nikolaevich also combined - not as blatantly as Nikolai Pavlovich - the vices of a tyrant and a retrograde, and he also relied excessively on Nikolai’s former servants, about whom F.I. Tyutchev said in 1856 that they “remind him of the hair and nails that continue to grow on the body of the dead for some time after their burial in the grave.” In contrast to the strong, albeit limited, truly gendarmerie nature of Nicholas, Alexander was by nature not so much weak as changeable. In this way he also reminded him of his uncle. In his youth, for example, he endured meekly, like his father under hot hand lashed him on the cheeks (that is why, according to evil tongues, Alexander’s cheeks sagged from a young age), then suddenly he dared to despise his father’s will and stand his ground. Over the years, Alexander II retained this instability of nature - both in personal and in state life, “he always walked now to the right, now to the left, constantly changing his direction.” He hesitated for a long time before taking the initiative to abolish serfdom. The main thing is that this initiative of his was forced, imposed on the tsar by force of circumstances - a force that had been growing steadily for a long time, in the form of economic and social disasters, spontaneous protest of the peasant masses, pressure from liberals and revolutionaries. Preparations for the abolition of serfdom in Russia began with the establishment of the next Secret Committee on Peasant Affairs on January 3, 1857, as was done from time to time under Nicholas I. The committee included 11 nobles: the former chief of gendarmes A.F. Orlov, the real chief of gendarmes V.A. Dolgorukov, future “Hangman” M.N. Muravyov, former member of the trial of the Petrashevites and the future chairman of the trial of the Ishutinites P.P. Gagarin and others, almost without exception, are reactionaries, serf owners. Orlov even boasted that he would “rather let his hand be cut off than sign the liberation of the peasants with the land.” He was appointed (isn’t that why?) chairman of the committee.
This was the committee for preparing the liberation of the peasants. Its members did not hide their readiness to bury the peasant question in conversations “about the peasant question,” as was the case in similar committees under Nicholas I. However, the increase revolutionary situation and in particular the rise of the peasant movement forced the committee, after 6.5 months of abstract debate, to concretely get down to business. On July 26, 1857, member of the committee, Minister of Internal Affairs S.S. Lanskoy presented an official draft of the reform and proposed creating noble committees in each province with the right to make their own amendments to the draft. This proposal meant that tsarism, showing maximum sensitivity to the interests of the landowners, carried out the reform in such a way that the initiative for its implementation would come from the nobility with minimal damage to the nobles. Lanskoy himself advertised his serfdom beliefs, stating in print that the Emperor instructed him to “inviolably protect the rights granted to the nobility by his crowned ancestors.” On November 20, the tsar legitimized Lansky’s proposal in a rescript addressed to the Baltic Governor-General V.I. Nazimova. The rescript to Nazimov was sent to all governors for information and published. It set out the reform principles formulated by Lansky /187/ that were to guide the provincial committees, namely:
1) landowners retain in their hands all the land and patrimonial (i.e. police) power over the peasants;
2) peasants receive only legal personal freedom, and even then after the so-called transition period (up to 12 years), as well as an estate for ransom, without land.”