The optimality of the option of abolishing serfdom in Russia, implemented in 1861

The article discusses the controversial issues related to the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861: its causes, features of preparation and implementation. The authors focus on the question of whether the implemented version of the abolition of serfdom in Russia was optimal. For this purpose, a comparative analysis of the abolition of serfdom in Russia is carried out with similar reforms in European countries, which could serve as a reference point, primarily in Austria and Prussia. It is concluded that the peasant reform in Russia in 1861 (in the final version) was carried out primarily in the interests of the state and not of individual social groups (landowners and peasants). It is the state that has benefited most from the implementation of this particular version of the reform, both financially and politically. Among the losers there were both peasants (to a greater extent) and landowners (to a lesser extent). The main thing was that the reform provoked the problem of the lack of land of the majority of peasants, which in the future became one of the main reasons for the social explosion and revolutions at the beginning of the XX century.