ABOLITION OF SERFDOM IN THE BALTICS by Karl Marx. Short summary

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Two articles in which Marx explores the causes and driving forces behind the country’s agrarian reform, speaks of its inconsistent, ambivalent nature, and the forced abolition of serfdom.

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A couple of articles in which the author explores the causes and driving forces behind the country’s agrarian reform. The existence of serfdom inhibited the development of capitalism. The result was defeat in the Crimean War. At that time there was an inter-class struggle between the peasants and the landlords.

The agrarian reform was inconsistent and had a dual nature. Abolition of serfdom was a forced measure. European governments could abolish it only under the pressure of revolution or military action.

Although slavery was formally abolished, emancipation took place on such terms that it became a fiction. This position was popular even with the liberal Russian nobility.

Marx comments on the report of the Main Committee, which dealt with the abolition of serfdom. He notes that the nobility and landowners were less reform-minded than the government of Alexander II, and every section of the document speaks of the material loss to the aristocracy.