Having been two
years upon the throne, having made a plan, having stirred some thought
through certain authorized journals, he inspired the nobility in three
of the northwestern provinces to memorialize him in regard to
emancipation.
Straightway an answer was sent conveying the outlines of the Emperor's
plan. The period of transition from serfage to freedom was set at twelve
years; at the end of that time the serf was to be fully free and
possessor of his cabin, with an adjoining piece of land. The provincial
nobles were convoked to fill out these outlines with details as to the
working out by the serfs of a fair indemnity to their masters. The whole
world was stirred; but that province in which the Czar hoped most
eagerly for a movement to meet him--the province where beat the old
Muscovite heart, Moscow--was stirred least of all. Every earnest throb
seemed stifled there by that strong aristocracy.
Yet Moscow moved at last. Some nobles who had not yet arrived at the
callous period; some professors in the University who had not yet
arrived at the heavy period, breathed life into the mass, dragged on the
timid, fought off the malignant.
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