Administrative Reform.—After the emancipation of the peasants, the complete reform of local government was necessary. It was accomplished by the law of Jan. 1 ( is) 1864, which intro duced the district and provincial "zemstvos" (county councils). Land proprietors had a relative majority in these assemblies. They were given (in all Russia) 6,204 seats (48%) while the peasants were entitled to choose only 5,171 delegates and the town inhabi tants 1,649 (12%). The competence of zemstvos included roads, hospitals, food, education, medical and veterinary service and pub lic welfare in general. How much was achieved before the end of the century in provinces enjoying zemstvo government as com pared with others, can be seen from the following figures: A third capital reform touched the Law courts. The law of Nov. 20 (Dec. 2), 1864, put an end to secret procedure, venality, dependence on the Government, etc. Russia received an inde pendent court and trial by jury. The judges were irremovable; trials were held in public with oral procedure and trained advo cates. Appeals to the senate could take place only in case of irregularities in procedure.
A little later came the reforms of municipal self-government (187o) and of the army (1874). General Dmitri Milyutin (the brother of the other Milyutin) reduced the years of active service from 25 to 16 and made military service obligatory for all classes. The only exemptions admitted were for reasons of education. Military courts and military schools were humanised.
A new wave of revolutionary movement set in. It proceeded from the young generation of university students. They expected an agrarian revolution directly after the liberation of peasants. They were busy preparing for it working men, soldiers and peas ants through popular education. Secret circles were formed, proc lamations issued and even a revolutionary movement was at tempted in connection with the Polish uprising of 1863. Finally, an attempt was made by a student, Karakozov, to assassinate the tsar in April 1866. All these attempts were extremely naïve ; a few young revolutionaries were executed or sent to Siberia and the whole movement was stifled in its primary stage. But Alexander was frightened. Gradually he dismissed his liberal advisers, and conservatives took their place. The Home Office was given (1861) to Valuyev, who tried to paralyse the introduction of the Emanci pation Law and formally prosecuted its faithful adherents. Uni versity troubles brought about the removal of the liberal minister of public instruction, Golovnin, the author of a model university statute of 1863. His successor was a reactionary, Count Dmitri Tolstoy, who found the means of salvation in the classics. The old chief of gendarmes, Prince Dolgoruki, had to give place, after Karakozov's attack, to Peter Shuvalov who became the soul of reaction. General Trepov a police martinet was appointed general governor of Petersburg instead of the humane Suvarov. Zam iatnin, the minister of justice, under whom the reform of tribunals was carried through, fell a victim to his defence of this reform against an imperial whim. He had to yield to an ignorant reac tionary, Count Pahlen (1867), who nearly annihilated the reform. The same was done for the press by Timashev who superseded Valuev in 1868. Two radical monthlies The Contemporary and The Russian Word were closed (1866). Katkov, a European Lib
eral who now inclined to extreme nationalism and reaction, became the most influential journalist.
All this contributed to uphold and to increase the disaffection of educated public opinion. About 1869 a new young generation ap peared which gave expression to that state of mind. Russian emi grants in Switzerland discussed at that time a new revolutionary doctrine which later on received the name of "Populism." Lavrov was giving it a scientific basis, but Bakunin found this too learned and plainly invited the youth to give up the study and go straight to the people with the aim of inducing disorder. He found this very easy, since Russian peasants with their "commune" were born socialists. The youth of Russia, chiefly the young girls who went to study abroad as there were no female institutes of learning in Russia, listened to these discussions in ainch and, of course, mostly preferred Bakunin's active optimism to Lavrov's learning. In 1873 they were all ordered back to Russia by the Government and they met, when at home, with many student circles which were busy distributing books and revolutionary pam phlets among their provincial branches and working men. Nicholas Tchaikovsky, Prince Peter Kropotkin and Sergius Stepniak were among the leaders of that educational and (later on) revolutionary work. They decided, in the spring of 1874, to "go to the people"— a naïve crusade by inexperienced youth, hardly out of their 'teens, in order both to teach the people and to learn from them their socialistic wisdom. Of course they were not acknowledged by the people, in spite of their peasant attire, and were easily ferreted out by the police : 77o were arrested and 2 sent to prison. They then decided to change their tactics. A regular secret society was founded in 1876 under the name of "Land and Liberty" (or "Will"). They still hoped to provoke a mass uprising according to the "ideals of the people"; but their village settlements proved useless for revolution while in the towns they soon got engaged in a lively conflict with the police. As a result the terrorist side of their activity came to the forefront. In the autumn of 1879 the ter rorist group formed their separate party "the People's Will," while the remaining members led by Plekhanov—under the name of "Black Partition" (i.e., agrarian revolution)—remained inactive. A series of terrorist acts now followed, beginning with that of Vera Zasulich, who fired on Trepov for his having flogged a prisoner— and was acquitted by the jury (1878). In 1879 Solovyev fired five shots at the tsar. On Feb. 17, 188o a young workman, Khalturin, blew up the imperial dining room at the winter palace. The police seemed powerless against the famous "executive committee" which directed the blows. And the government asked the loyal elements of public opinion for support. The answer was given, in the name of the Tchernigov zemstvo, by Ivan Petrunkevich : he said that no co-operation was possible with the government as long as public opinion was stifled. The Tver zemstvo, led by Rodichev, asked the tsar to "give us what he gave to Bulgaria" (i.e. constitution and political freedom). After the winter palace explosion a supreme commission was appointed under the chair manship of General Loris-Melikov, who was given a sort of dicta torial power. Loris-Melikov's design was to isolate revolutionary elements by concessions to the Liberals, and after exterminating the revolutionaries to summon a sort of consultative assembly, thus renewing certain projects of aristocratic landowners in 1861-3. He submitted to the tsar, on Feb. 9, 1881, a proposal to appoint two "drafting committees" for administrative and financial reforms and to submit their drafts to a "general commission," where "experts" chosen by the zemstvos and municipalities should also be heard (two from each of them). The respective laws would be issued in the ordinary way by the council of State, but 15 delegates should be admitted to its session. It did not at all look like a constitution ; but it might have served as an introduc tion to it. Fate decided otherwise : on the very day when Alexander signed Melikov's project, on March 1 (13), 1881, he was blown up by revolutionaries led by Sophie Perovskaya, on his way back home.