WI: Napoleon Frees the Serfs?

In the initial stages of France's 1812 invasion of Russia, the Russian elite was terrified that he would attempt to liberate the serfs and start an uprising. The memory of Pugachev was strong, and there were rumors of disorder. As it turned out, Napoleon was not interested in abolishing serfdom, and the peasants calmed down.
So what if Napoleon made an effort to exploit class divides in Russia properly? The Russian army can't destroy everything nearly as effectively without peasant cooperation. Thoughts?
 
He wouldn't : his goals weren't to crush or devastate Russia, but to forces the czar to abide by his own geopolitical diplomacy and back into the continental system, as a obedient ally.

A chaotic Russia wouldn't serve this objective at all, and would likely backfire on Napoleonic armies, assuming it get obeyed.

See, subjects of the Russian Empire had a really, really bad view on Napoleon. Foreign invader, Antichrist, etc.
Russian serves weren't politically develloped enough as a group to see the situation as an opportunity, at the contrary of more active and advanced Polish and Lithuanian populations.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
Napoleon had no interest in Russian serf freedom, although he may have personally disliked serfdom. Still, to actually provoke that kind of uprising, he'd have to see Russia as a mortal enemy, not a potential friend.

Once Napoleon makes this connection, he would do his utmost to destroy the fabrics on which the state lies. Much like in Spain, anticlericalism would be one way to provoke this; Russian serfs and the Orthodox Church were very close, and the church used this to whip up a furor against the alleged antichrist. Split the serfs from the church, and they will turn their anger towards the landholders.

Napoleon would of course need a puppet to make this work; he'd have to commit to a multiyear campaign in Russia. Had he done this, he probably could have won. Taking bits of Russia, one by one, allows his logistical base to be secure, and forces the Russian army into confrontation, which he would win and win handily if he wasn't forced to attack like at Borodino. First, he frees the Baltics. Then the Ukrainians. Then he takes Russia up to Smolensk. Then he launches raids into the Muscovite countryside. He does not abuse the serfs, but rather compensates them, etc.

Napoleon very well could have rocked Russia's institutional structures and led to free serfs. However, this was not something he could have completed in a single year campaign.
 
Napoleon would need to envision a very different kind of war with Russia and plan the invasion accordingly. Instead of a decisive battle/campaign to bring the Russians to heel, he would need to recognize that Russia would not be obliterated in one stroke. Instead, he would ruin the basis of Russia as a great power through a multi-year campaign.

Likely it would involve splitting off bits of Russia into their own states (an expanded Poland, perhaps a Cossack Ukraine, a Baltic state, Finland) and liberate the serfs wherever France could control - to destroy the basis of the power of the Russian elites. It would be an immense undertaking - not only holding all that land, but setting up the administration, and finding local collaborating elites to take over.

It would require fielding a huge army for many years in Russia until a decisive battle was fought that would make the Tsar accept a peace along Napoleon's lines. In retrospect, this is better than what ended up happening for Napoleon, but this is very bold and expensive and it's not a surprise Napoleon never considered it.
 
Problem is that this is not his plan, and additionally, I think the serfs hadn't already the desire of freedom at this point, but believed in the Zarist/orthodox propaganda depicting Napoleon as the human evil.

Though, I can image that he would have freed the serfs in the territores which were to be annexed by Poland or a Cossack/Baltic state AFTER is victory. Before - not his plan.
 
Most of the serfs in western Russian Empire are owned by Polish aristocrats, anyway, Napoleon would be destroying his own allies if he tried to liberate those serfs.
 
Most of the serfs in western Russian Empire are owned by Polish aristocrats, anyway, Napoleon would be destroying his own allies if he tried to liberate those serfs.
Not neccessarily unless he also starts agrarian reform; aristocrats would still own the land and peasants one way or another would have to pay fees for using their fields.
 
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