... it going to former serfs, who became landowners through the mir, a village community practicing collective agriculture. Mirs and their members ultimately paid compensation through the redemption tax, which hindered development. Serfdom ended largely due to the efforts of Russian abolitionists and of Alexander, the "Tsar liberator." According to the Russian novelist LEO TOLSTOY, "We owe the Emancipation to the Emperor [Alexander] alone." Alexander's actions stemmed in part from a traditional tsarist fear of revolution. He once explained to Russian nobles that "it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to await the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below." Imperial Russia's Shining Era Although the resulting system of land redistribution and compensation was flawed, it served as an important social reform. The influence of the Russian nobility was weakened, and the reforms freed great numbers of peasants for work when Russia began its belated industrialization. Alexander's economic ...

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