Peasants at the Mahtra estate in the…

Peasants at the Mahtra estate in the Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire, revolt against ongoing serfdom, which had been officially abolished in 1816, from May to July 1858.

The revolt is suppressed using the regular army.

Fourteen peasants are wounded and seven killed on site; three will died later of wounds.

The military casualties include thirteen soldiers wounded and one officer killed. 

Sixty of sixty-five peasant defendants will be sentenced to death by a court-martial in Tallinn.

Baltic governor-general Suvorov will later reduce the sentences of fourty-four peasants to corporal punishment, thirty-five of whom will be sentenced to exile in Siberia, while the remaining twenty-one defendants will be set free.

Although serfdom had been abolished in the Governorate of Estonia in 1816 (in comparison, in the whole Russian Empire it will not be abolished until 1861), the land had not been redistributed among the peasants and the corvée labor has been preserved (and will be until 1876).

The March 19, 1856 manifesto of Tsar Alexander II spoke about further agrarian reforms, but the implementation has been slow, and this has sparked unrest, including the Mahtra revolt.

The events will significantly influenced the work of the committees working on the project of the emancipation of the serfs in Russia.