This books is concerned with the emancipation of the Russian serfs in 1861, the most important event in Russian history between the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725) and the Revolution of 1905. It is a social history of the emancipation. The attitudes of the landowning gentry toward emancipation: their part in its preparation and their conflict with the government over the terms of emancipation and related reforms, are the major subjects treated...