TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Full text is unavailable for this digitized archive article. Subscribers may view the full text of this article in ...

In the nineteenth century, Russia was a European power but in many ways it was trapped in the past. Twenty-two million Russians were serfs, still owned by aristocratic landlords as they had been ...

During her reign she extended the Russian empire southwards and westwards ... reforms giving them greater control over their land and serfs. The 1785 ‘Charter to the Nobility’ established ...