Emancipation manifesto is issued in 1861

Tsar Alexander’s emancipation manifesto is issued in 1861. The new government arrangements take into account that the peasant’s freedom is worth little unless they can own land. They decree that for two years the peasants must go on obeying the landowners and the landowners can no longer sell them, transfer them to other estates or remove their children. The landowners must also pay a tithe of 30 roubles (at the time one US dollar is worth two roubles) per man and 10 per women. When the two years is up the peasants are to be released from all obligations. The dvorovye, who are attached to the master, get no land and have to seek employment, and the krepostyne, who are attached to the land, keep their animal enclosure and, subject to payment, get some arable land. The obrok is a payment of eight to 12 roubles per person per year and the barshina is a payment in labour, equal to 40 days a year for men and 30 for women. Various scales are used to set the rates of payment (p214, 224, Tolstoy, Troyat). Before Tsar Alexander II decrees emancipation Tolstoy jumps the gun and proposes to his own peasants that each household immediately get half a desyatin of land for free and an additional four once they have paid five roubles per desyatin per year for 30 years. (A desyatin is equal to 2.7 acres or 1.1 hectare and, at that time, one pound sterling was worth approximately 10 roubles and the US dollar was worth two roubles). Check where from. Some of this money will help Tolstoy pay off the heavily mortgaged estate. His initial enthusiasm fades after a round of meetings reveal the disinterest of the peasants: they have heard rumours the Tsar was planning to make landowners hand over the land for free so think their master is cheating them. Tolstoy’s plan is shelved until the Tsar’s manifesto is introduced in 1861 (p45, Tolstoy, Simmons).