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A Modernizing Monarch By the 1850s, the changes engendered by the SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution had had little impact on Russia. When Alexander II took power, Russia was an agricultural nation that had been controlled by autocratic tsars who trumpeted Slavic cultural superiority, feared liberal revolutions, and preserved the feudal injustices of serfdom. Alexander became the great modernizer of Russia, walking a delicate line between preserving Russia's Slavic identity and enabling its people to benefit from Western advancements. Alexander the Emancipator "The evil of evils is serfdom," a Russian politician admitted in the 1850s. Serfdom affected roughly 23 million SERFS (and their families), who were bound to serve just a quarter million wealthy landowners, or "planters." Serfs faced brutal work conditions, floggings, and poverty. In essence, they were slaves with very limited rights and privileges. On February 19, 1861, Alexander signed the EDICT OF EMANCIPATION, which abolished serfdom. The Russian...

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