After Alexander II ascended the throne, he launched reforms at home. In order to win the support of the Poles, his methods of rule in Poland became somewhat more lenient.
The Tsarist Government pardoned Polish political prisoners and permitted the establishment of a Polish medical academy and agricultural associations in Warsaw.
In 1863, Alexander II restored the Committee of Religious Affairs and Public Education, which had been abolished twenty years earlier. At the same time, the Tsarist Government also permitted the convening of the State Representative Conference. (Consultative in nature.)
(Note: Alexander II's accession was delayed, and so were his reforms. Many dates in this book differ from those of actual history.)
These concessions by the Tsarist Government satisfied Poland's bourgeoisie and nobility. The convening of the State Representative Conference gave them a channel through which to influence domestic politics.
Happiness had always been born of comparison. Compared with the reforms Austria had carried out more than a decade earlier, they were far happier than their counterparts in Galicia.
One had to know that during the Revolutions of 1848, the nobles and capitalists of Galicia had been too active, so more than half were hacked to death by rioting peasants. Of the small half that remained, many were implicated in the rebellion and dealt with by the Vienna Government.
Those who survived were either exceedingly cautious or diehard loyalists of the Habsburg Family, firmly standing at the Emperor's side.
With such a precedent before them, the nobles and capitalists of Russian Poland had lowered their expectations. If they and the Tsarist Government ever tore away all pretense, they believed the consequences would be far more severe.
At the very least, the Vienna Government would find a reasonable excuse and act within the bounds of the rules. The Tsarist Government had