Source A, primary source memoirs (accounts taken down 30yrs after emancipation), by Peter Kropotkin a man from the highest level of the noble rank recalls the effect that emancipation had on the Russian peasantry. Remembering that later on in his life, Peter Kropotkin (when these recollections were written down) had become a leading anarchist thinker and writer. This alone already undermines the credibility and reliability of the source, and its author. Peter Kropotkin describes the emancipation of the peasant population during the 1860’s as a welcomed policy by the noble class popula

This was very much not the case, as it can be seen by looking at other sources, that the serfs and nobles weren’t fully behind The Emancipation Act. A majority of nobles continued to oppose government emancipation reforms, for there were still powerful arguments against abolishing a social system that had worked “so well” for so long. The main argument was that serfdom was so fundamental that abolishing it would bound risky. Again Peter Kropotkin’s, recollections can be discredited by looking at other respected and reliable sources. The fact that the peasant population fully accepted and understood the conditions of the edict was totally incorrect. This can be shown by the immediate increase in peasant disturbances during the proclamation of the edict in 1861, by official police reports. Police reported 1176 incidents on estates, and that troops were involved to quell the disturbances.

“At 60 verst from the town of Odessa on the estates of M.K. - the peasants of Taschino and five other villages...believed that they were perfectly free and refused to work for their masters. The authorities in these districts immediately applied troops to suppress the revolt...the chiefs of the peasants were finally captured and flogged...they eventually resumed the carrying out of their duties”. The quote clearly illustrates the suppression and brutality the serfs experienced even after their so called “freedom” was given to them. The source goes on to say that these demonstrative and rebellious happenings were not isolated events but were happening throughout the Russian land. Secondly, another argument that Source B brings up, to support its usefulness to an historian, is the complete ignorance and confusion the peasants had of who was actually

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