The Presidential Library’s video lecture marking the 160th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom in Russia

March 23, 2021 the Presidential Library hosted a video lecture entitled “Traditions and Innovations in the Development of the Emancipation Reform of 1861” as part of the Knowledge of Russia project. The event was timed to the 160th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom in Russia.

The video lecture was free. The meeting was held remotely and was broadcasted live on the Presidential Library's portal in Live broadcasts section in accordance with the program of live events, on the institution's YouTube channel and on the VKontakte social network.

As part of the video lecture, Natalya Nikitina, Dean of the History Faculty of Pskov State University, analyzed the emancipation reform that abolished serfdom in Russia. On March 3, 1861 (February 19, old style), Alexander II signed a manifesto "On the all-merciful granting to serfs of the rights of the state of free rural inhabitants" and "General regulations on peasants who have emerged from serfdom". According to these documents, the peasants received personal freedom and the right to dispose of their property.

Natalya Nikitina spoke about the long work preceding the event of 1861. The participants of the video lecture found out whose experience of reforming the peasant class was used and what innovations were introduced in the process of transformations.

Nadezhda Zabavskaya, director of the Lenin House-Museum in Vyborg, also spoke at the event. She told about Vladimir Lenin’s attitude to the emancipation reform.

The Presidential Library features the electronic collection The Emancipation Reform of 1861 presented on the institution's portal. It includes publications spotlighting the history of the peasant question in Russia, the preparation and implementation of the peasant reform, revealing the identity of the reformers, as well as the main legislative documents of the reform, memoir testimonies of contemporaries and publicistic papers concerning the peasant question.

Interactive lessons and video lectures are regularly held in the Presidential Library. More information about them is available on the institution's portal in the Multimedia lessons section and in the Video lectures for school section, which features records of lectures and open lessons held in the Presidential Library.