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 Coal in Russia Coal is one of the largest sources of energy in Russia, accounting for 14.4% of the country's electricity consumption. The prominence of coal power in Russia has been declining since 1990, although Russia has among the largest coal reserves in the world. Russia is the fifth largest consumer of coal in the world and is the sixth largest producer of coal. Russia has the second largest coal reserves in the world, equaling 19% of the world's total. The total coal reserves in Russia amount to 173 billion tons. This puts Russia behind the United States in total