Comments by "Kate S" (@KateeAngel) on "Russian Tsars Family Tree | Ivan the Terrible to Nicholas II" video.

  1. Because he "abolished" serfdom in a way that required peasants to pay their former owners for land for generations. Many still didn't finish paying in 1905 when the payments were abolished after the first Russian revolution. In short, in order to stay on the good side of nobility, Alexander didn't free peasants fully. However, when it came to abolishment of serfdom in Poland, he did it in a more radical way, really freeing the peasants there, then the Polish nobility got angry and hence the January Uprising. After which Alexander took away true autonomy from Poland. Considering that he also gave autonomy to Finland, here you can see another surface-level "contradiction", which becomes understandable when you look at the details.
    8