Bezdna unrest

The Bezdna peasant revolt, also known as the Bezdna unrest (Russian: Бездненские волнения) was an uprising organised by former sefts after the 1861 Russian Emancipation Reform.The event took place in the Spassky Uyezd of Kazan Governorate, specifically in a village of Bezdna (Russian: Бездна, Biznä Tatar Cyrillic: Бизнә). The leader of the unrest was a literate peasant Anton Petrov. Petrov inspired the local peasants within the Kazan Governorate. He began convincing his neighbours that the local officials were misinterpreting new reforms brought about by the 1861 Russian Emancipation Reform. The insurgents believed that every desyatina should be declared as in possession of peasants and declared that they would refuse to continue to pay payments to their landlords and suspend all works on their lots.[1] Approximately 5000 peasants from 130 surrounding villages joined the unrest.[2]

Bezdna unrest
DateApril 1861
Location
Bezdna, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire
Result Imperial Army victory
Belligerents
Peasants Russian Imperial Army
Commanders and leaders
Anton Petrov
Strength
5,000 unarmed protesters
Casualties and losses
57 or 91 killed, 350 wounded

Russia after serfdom

With the Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia, Tsar Alexander II and the Russian autocracy put several new alterations into place to help advance Russia past its old traditions of bonded labor and into a more enlightened age similar to the other European nations. But for many noblemen and landlords, the end of serfdom would lead to the destruction of the Russian economy; if landowners and state officials had to start paying for their labor, their profit would significantly diminish. Nonetheless, Alexander knew that it was time to lift the burden of serfdom off of Russia; he was quoted as saying in 1856:

There are rumors that I want to announce the emancipation of the peasants. I will not say to you that I am completely against this. We live in such an age that this has to happen in time. I think that you agree with me. Therefore, it is much better that this business be carried out from above, rather than from below.”[3]

Aftermath

According to his writings in the London Russian language magazine, The Bell, Alexander Herzen criticizes the Russian government for their complete disregard for human life and the fact that the government did not publicly acknowledge the unrest until a month after it had occurred.[4]

References
  1. Pushkarev, Sergei G. (1968). "The Russian Peasants' Reaction to the Emancipation of 1861". The Russian Review. 27 (2): 199–214. doi:10.2307/127028. ISSN 0036-0341.
  2. Tatar Encyclopaedia. Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.
  3. Zakharova, Larisa (2008). The Reign of Alexander: a Watershed?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 596.
  4. Herzen, Alexander (2012). A Herzen Reader. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. pp. 139–140.
  • "Biznä krästiännäre quzğalışı/Бизнә крәстияннәре кузгалышы". Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.
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