To what extent did Alexander II's reforms cause more problems than they solved?.
When Alexander II came into power he was faced with a lot of problems such as serfdom and the backwardness of the economies development. Alexander set up a lot of reforms, however not all of them were successfully coping with all of the problems but instead it created new obstacles. A prime example of how Alexander II's reforms caused more problems than they solved was the Emancipation Act of February 1861. Even though the emancipation, to a certain degree, help to solve discontent of the peasants it actually made life harder for the peasants. There poverty worsened, they did not have full citizen rights, their debts increased because they couldn't afford the land they were given and their poll tax rose by 80% throughout Alexander II's reign. There was also not much improvement that could be observed in agriculture as the 'primitive farming method' was still adopted. The main aim of the Emancipation Act was that Alexander II realized that the modernization of Russia could no take place without freeing the serfs. Overall the Emancipation Act had more negatives to it than positives.
Another reform that caused more problems than it solved was the Education Reform. This reform allowed everyone including peasants to get an education; the Tsar also got a well-educated generation out of it. However, the spread of education did encouraged radical ideas to take place and groups to form such as the 'Intelligentsia", this lead to further agitation and deteriorating the Tsar's rule. This eventually led to Alexander II's assassination, which greatly disrupted the progress of the reforms. The Local Government Reform had many faults within it. Although the local administration was improved, it did move slightly away from autocracy, which is bad for the Tsar because he always wanted to keep his power.
