Riga was the capital of the Livonia Province, and Governor Mikhail Zinovyev was running late due to inspecting provincial affairs.
In the era before Alexander III, Baltic German nobles usually held the position of governors in the Baltic provinces. However, Nicholas's father, who was a staunch believer in conservatism, Pan-Slavism, and Great Russian nationalism, had shifted the trend towards Russification in the Baltic region, making it an irreversible process.
"Peasant issues?" Governor Zinovyev was momentarily taken aback upon hearing the purpose of Crown Prince Nicholas's visit. He quickly replied, "There are no such issues among the peasants of Livonia! It has been over twenty years since the last unrest!"
Zinovyev had misunderstood Nicholas's inquiry, assuming it was related to the widespread crop failures and subsequent peasant revolts across Russia.
"That's not what I meant, Governor Zinovyev," Nicholas clarified after a moment of surprise, blinking several times. "I'm here to investigate the living conditions of the peasants—their income, land ownership, and so forth."
"Well, there's not much to say about that..." Zinovyev muttered before nodding to Nicholas. "I will provide whatever assistance I can, Your Highness."
Nicholas had already acquired a preliminary understanding of the Baltic provinces by perusing provincial government archives while waiting for relief supplies to be loaded onto the train.
For the Russian Empire, the most influential ruler in recent history was Nicholas's grandfather, the great reformer Alexander II.
The transformation of the Baltic provinces began with the Polish Uprising of 1863. After successfully suppressing the uprising, the Russian Empire reevaluated its governance policies in regions with significant minority populations.
Given Russia's rough and brutal methods of rule, the response to the spreading nationalist "plague" was a strong policy of Russification.
This included closing local administrative and educational institutions, replacing minority officials with Russian ones, substituting Russian for minority languages, closing non-Orthodox churches, and forcing minorities to convert to Orthodoxy.
Such measures gradually expanded from the suppression in Poland to encompass the entire western frontier, including Lithuania, Belarus, and the Baltic provinces.
From Nicholas's study of historical documents and government records, it was clear that as early as the late 1850s, there were debates between Russians and Baltic German nobles regarding the peasant issue in the Baltic provinces.
Preparations for the emancipation of the serfs had already alarmed the Baltic German nobility. At that time, the Baltic provinces were governed by the semi-autonomous Baltic Governorates.
This autonomy originated from the 1721 Treaty of Nystad, where the Baltic German nobles pledged allegiance to the Tsar, who in return granted the provinces autonomous rights.
Much like many Russian peasants past and present, the Estonian and Latvian peasants under Baltic German noble landlords were impoverished, economically dependent on landlords, and subjected to labor rent systems.
"According to archival documents inherited from the Baltic Governorates, Tsar Alexander I agreed to the Estonian Provincial Assembly's legislation for the emancipation of serfs in 1816. The following year, Courland enacted similar legislation, and Livonia passed laws abolishing serfdom in 1819."
Interior Ministry bureaucrats assisting Nicholas in sorting through old files provided him with conflicting information.
"If these early documents are accurate, then Baltic peasants should have transitioned from serfdom to freedom at the beginning of the 19th century. Latvian and Estonian peasants were granted opportunities for education, voting, and local governance."
Nicholas sought help from the accompanying inspection team, particularly from Witte, with summaries of the documents.
"Livonia Province experienced famines in 1821-1823, 1832-1835, 1837-1838, 1841-1842, and 1845-1847."
Drawing from his extensive administrative experience, Witte extracted several relevant documents from the voluminous archives and presented them to Nicholas.
"These documents include a petition drafted by a delegation of northern Livonia peasants, submitted to Tsar Alexander II."
Nicholas read through the petition's copies, noting that local peasants were suffering under the forced labor system and yearned for land ownership under the same conditions as Russian mainland peasants, governed by state-regulated rent and redemption payments.
"So, the Baltic peasants were emancipated multiple times?"
"Well, Your Highness, it seems so," Witte agreed after reviewing the documents and organizing his thoughts. "During Alexander I's reign, although Latvian and Estonian peasants were legally emancipated, they remained under strict control of the noble landlords."
Witte handed over several resolutions from old peasant administrative bodies to Nicholas, who found that these so-called peasant management decisions required the landlords' approval.
"Moreover, the Baltic German nobles retained police and judicial powers, freely administering corporal punishment to peasants working their lands."
Witte's statements were corroborated by numerous peasant petitions to the Tsar, detailing the harsh methods employed by German landlords, which shocked even the Russian court.
"Peasants gained personal freedom but not land, and landlords no longer bore traditional obligations to them, leading to frequent famines post-1816 emancipation."
"Petitions also highlighted peasants' struggles against landlords' residual control, despite nominal freedom, restricting their mobility without landlords' permission. Thus, many ostensibly free peasants continued working on landlord estates. What do you think?"
Nicholas tried to comprehend the petition's contents, which Witte confirmed.
"Indeed, Your Highness."
In Witte's view, Crown Prince Nicholas had always been a well-mannered young man but little more.
Raised in a sheltered environment among his parents, a large extended family of royals, and a loyal entourage of servants and tutors, Nicholas had rarely shown defiance or independence, lacking decision-making abilities and being easily influenced.
The Crown Prince's aversion to principled individuals was evident; the more principled someone's activities, the quicker Nicholas distanced himself.
Worse, Nicholas exhibited a certain fatalism, believing in the inescapability of destiny.
Ultimately, Witte believed that in an autocratic society like Russia, the personal qualities of those at the helm greatly influenced the nation's trajectory, especially its decline.
"…So, the improvement in the Baltic peasants' situation after my grandfather's agrarian reforms explains the current agricultural prosperity in the Baltic provinces."
Watching Nicholas flipping through documents and taking notes, Witte reconsidered his initial impression.
Though Nicholas remained kind and well-mannered yet naive, his resolve seemed stronger than suggested by his tutor, Pobedonostsev, who claimed he lacked "overall vision."
"These are the detailed administrative measures by the State Assets Department for direct intervention in Baltic peasant affairs."
Witte handed his summaries to Nicholas, who categorized them into four main actions: abolishing forced labor, reducing corporal punishment, reforming peasant self-governance, and improving living conditions.
"The most crucial was the fourth point. State Assets Department Minister Zelenoy believed allowing peasants to buy land at low prices would significantly improve their situation."
Witte shared his insights, earning frequent nods from Nicholas.
"So, land is the root of rural issues?"
"Indeed, Your Highness." Witte hesitated, sensing danger in this line of questioning. "But this is just the Baltic provinces. We need broader insights for a comprehensive Russian rural policy."
"In that case, it's time to commence our field investigations. Pouring over old files has given me a backache."
"Yes, Your Highness."
In reality, Nicholas's findings aligned with known facts.
After losing administrative, judicial, and enforcement powers under autonomous protection, the Baltic German landlords' large estates were in decline.
Landlords' exploitation of peasants through personal control, land ownership, and administrative privileges was dismantled by Alexander II's reforms.
Consequently, large estates became less profitable.
Many Baltic landlords sold their land, with numerous peasants acquiring it through purchase, rent, and allocation, establishing a system akin to Western European private land ownership.
Nicholas's inspection team, having bid farewell to Edgar's group, traveled south by train from Riga, examining several counties in Livonia before reaching Courland.
Courland Province, founded after the Third Partition of Poland, lay in what is now western Latvia.
Courland's governor, Dmitry Sergeyevich Sipyagin, awaited them at Jelgava station.
"The historical atmosphere here differs greatly from Russia," Sipyagin remarked upon learning Nicholas's purpose. "No communal land, only private family-owned plots."
Nicholas noted the Russian officials surrounding Sipyagin.
Following Russian tradition, Jelgava held an elaborate welcome ceremony for the Crown Prince.
The town's architecture, like Riga's, reflected a traditional European style.
After a day in Jelgava, Nicholas toured nearby counties, finding peasant living conditions better than expected.
Similar to Livonia, Courland's peasants owned enough land to sustain their families and more, fostering high productivity due to private ownership.
Many farmers owned four or more horses, employing advanced Western European agricultural techniques and iron tools, far surpassing their Russian counterparts using wooden plows.
"These peasants are far more vibrant than Russian ones, with economic resilience against crop failures," Witte observed. "Such vibrant rural areas can provide sufficient funds for national modernization."
"If only such scenes were widespread in Russia."
Nicholas gazed at the farmland, mostly owned by wealthy farmers hiring laborers from lesser landowners, paying wages.
Witte shared Nicholas's sentiment but refrained from speaking, aware of Russia's deep-seated feudalism.
Next, Nicholas's team followed their planned route, continuing south from Courland through the neighboring Kovno Province.
In terms of the geographical concepts of the Russian Empire, Nicholas and his entourage had now left the Baltic region and entered Lithuania.
The vast European part of the Russian Empire, comprising 50 provinces, could be divided into 13 regions: the Northern Region, Trans-Ural Region, Northwestern Region, Baltic Coastal Region, Lithuanian Region, Belarusian Region, Central Industrial Region, Central Black Earth Region, Middle Volga Region, Left-bank Ukraine Region, Southwestern Region, Southern Steppe Region, and Southeastern Region.
Welcoming Nicholas in Kovno Province was an unexpected but significant figure for the Crown Prince, Peter Arkadyevich Stolypin, the current chief noble of the province.