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who had known nothing of the life of Western Europe,
were now suddenly carried.
The first question which forced itself upon the
thoughts of all was about the education of the people.
There were hardly any schools in the land, and the few
that did exist were, in the rural districts, wholly in the
hands of the ignorant popes. There were no other
teachers than the priests of the country towns. At
this time, Sunday schools were started, first in the
capitals, and then in various parts of the country, and the
teachers in these schools taught without pay, from pure
enthusiasm for the cause of the elevation of the people.
In the various divisions of the army, the officers taught
the recruits in similar schools, the officers of the Guard
distinguishing themselves as teachers above all others.
It was under these conditions that the great, far-reaching
reforms which characterized the beginning of the
reign of Alexander II. were begun. The first of these
was that which, on the 19th of February, 1861, led to
the emancipation of the serfs, and gave to more than
fifty million of men personal freedom and a share in the
ownership of the soil of Russia. As a matter of course,
it caused a tremendous diminution of the power of the
noble landed proprietors. It was a measure at once
democratic and autocratic. And it was carried through
at a time when the powers that had hitherto been
respected had lost their splendor. The defeats in the
Crimea had destroyed the prestige of the army; the
shortcomings and the mistakes and the frauds of the
administration, which the war had brought to light, had given
a death-blow to official authority; the clergy had long
been utterly despicable. Now, by one blow the power
of the nobility was diminished in an unprecedented
manner, at the same time that a large part of their property
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