Serfdom in Russia Great, businesses began to send serfs into those areas in an attempt to harvest their large amount of untapped natural resources Tsar Alexander I wanted to reform the system but was thwarted in this ambition. New laws allowed all classes (except the serfs) to own land, a privilege that had previously been confined to the nobility. Russian serfdom was finally abolished in the emancipation reform of 1861 by Tsar Alexander II. Scholars have proposed multiple overlapping reasons to account for the abolition, including fear of a large-scale revolt by the serfs, the government's financial needs, evolving cultural sensibilities, and the
Lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Court of Russia Lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Court of Russia A lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Russian Court ("придворные дамы") was a woman of high aristocracy at the service of a woman of the Imperial family. They were organised according to the strict hierarchy of Peter the Great's table of ranks, following the woman's "chin" (rank) established on January 24, 1722. All the ancient occupations of the women at the Court of Russia, traditionally held by "boyarynias" (wives of "boyars"), nurses, housekeepers, servants, nannies etc., were abolished and replaced by a new hierarchy inspired by Versailles Court's etiquette and German models, although many Muscovite