Emancipation Manifesto

Emancipation Manifesto, (March 3 [Feb. 19, Old Style], 1861), manifesto issued by the Russian emperor Alexander II that accompanied 17 legislative acts that freed the serfs of the Russian Empire. (The acts were collectively called Statutes Concerning Peasants Leaving Serf Dependence, or Polozheniya o Krestyanakh Vykhodyashchikh iz Krepostnoy Zavisimosty.) Defeat in the Crimean War, a perceptible change in public opinion, and the increasing number and violence of peasant revolts had shown Alexander, who became tsar...