Bezdna Unrest

Bezdna unrest
Date April 1861 Location Bezdna, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire Result Peasant movement suppressed by Tsar Army
Belligerents
peasants	Russian Imperial Army
Strength
5,000 unarmed protesters
Casualties and losses
57 or 91 killed, 350 wounded

1861 Bezdna unrest or Bezdna peasant revolt (Russian: Бездненские волнения, Tatar: Бизнә крәстияннәр кузгалышы) was an unrest of former serfs after the Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia in April 1861. The events took place in the Spassky Uyezd of Kazan Governorate and the center of unrest was a village of Biznä (Tatar Cyrillic: Бизнә, Russian: Бездна).

With the Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia, Tsar Alexander II and the Russian autocracy put several new alterations into place to help advance Russia past its old traditions of bonded labor and into a more enlightened age similar to the other European nations. But for many noblemen and landlords, the end of serfdom would lead to the destruction of the Russian economy; if landowners and state officials had to start paying for their labor, their profit would significantly diminish. Nonetheless, Alexander knew that it was time to lift the burden of serfdom off of Russia; he was quoted as saying in 1856: “There are rumors that I want to announce the emancipation of the peasants. I will not say to you that I am completely against this. We live in such an age that this has to happen in time. I think that you agree with me. Therefore, it is much better that this business be carried out from above, rather than from below.” In fear of an all out revolt, plans began moving forward to ensure the survival of the autocracy. By early 1861 the Emancipation Manifesto was completed, it contained several statutes that freed serfs from their lords, entitled former serfs to rights that other civilians possessed, and allowed them to purchase lands as well. Unfortunately even these reforms could not grant the peasants the life they desired; many peasants were left homeless and starving because they did not possess money to purchase land, nor could they get paying jobs because of the mass influx of people who now needed paying jobs. It seemed as if nothing would grant these laborers the respect and liberty they had desperately tried to attain. The lower class majority at the time was unable to ascend to the level of the royals and landowners; this caused many peasants to blame the noblemen who made up the tsar’s court, for they are the ones who profited from their indentured labor and lost a cheap labor source when the emancipation went into affect. The former serfs, who had endured the hardship since the birth of the Russian Empire, had been granted bittersweet liberty. The disappointment of the reforms would soon spark an upheaval in the small town of Bezdna only after a month of the manifesto being introduced.

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