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
Coal in Russia Irkutsk and South Yakutsk basins. The two major coal producers in Russia are Rosugol and Donugol. Over two-thirds of coal produced in Russia is used domestically. Russia is self-sufficient in coal, and consumed 223 million tons of coal in 2009. The percentage of coal in Russian power generation has been declining since 1990, when it was 20.7%, due to increasing gas consumption as well as increasing nuclear and hydroelectric energy production. Currently only 14.4% of Russia's power is produced from coal. Coal in Russia Coal is one of the largest sources of energy in Russia, accounting for 14.4% of the