page_title: Emancipation reform of 1861
section_title: Emancipation Manifesto
hierarchical_section_title: Emancipation reform of 1861 / Emancipation Manifesto
caption_attribution_description: English: Reading of the 1861 Manifesto Русский: Чтение Положения 19 февраля 1861 года
context_page_description: The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Emancipation Edict of Russia, was the first and most important of the liberal reforms passed during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire.
  The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto proclaimed the emancipation of the serfs on private estates and of the domestic serfs. By this edict more than 23 million people received their liberty. Serfs gained the full rights of free citizens, including rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property and to own a business. The Manifesto prescribed that peasants would be able to buy the land from the landlords. Household serfs were the least affected: they gained only their freedom and no land.
  In Georgia the emancipation took place later, in 1864, and on much better terms for the nobles than in Russia. The serfs were emancipated in 1861, following a speech given by Tsar Alexander II on 30 March 1856. State owned serfs, i.e., those living on Imperial lands, were emancipated later, in 1866.
context_section_description: The legal basis of the reform was the Tsar's Emancipation Manifesto of 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1861, accompanied by the set of legislative acts under the general name Regulations Concerning Peasants Leaving Serf Dependence (Russian: Положения о крестьянах, выходящих из крепостной зависимости Polozheniya o krestyanakh, vykhodyashchikh iz krepostnoi zavisimosti).
  This Manifesto proclaimed the emancipation of the serfs on private estates and of the domestic (household) serfs. Serfs were granted the full rights of free citizens, gaining the rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property and to own a business. The Manifesto also permitted peasants to buy the land from the landlords.
caption: Peasants Reading the Emancipation Manifesto, an 1873 painting by Grigory Myasoyedov
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