What factor did the peasants associate their liberation with?

From the report of the police department on peasant unrest and the measures taken to suppress them. 1859 g.

Even before the promulgation of the highest rescripts last year. about the improvement of the life of the landlord peasants among the people, rumors were spread about this, which caused various rumors on the part of the serfs, expressing the expectation of the forthcoming freedom.

This expectation was strongly expressed in 1855 on the occasion of the appeal of the Holy Synod during the formation of the state militia, and the peasants, sometimes in whole villages in very significant masses, refused to perform master’s work, expressing a desire to join the ranks of the militia and assuming that at the same time they would receive freedom.

In 1856, the same rumors and the same expectations were the reason for the movement of landlord peasants from almost all provinces of southern Russia (especially Yekaterinoslav and Kherson) to the Crimea, allegedly summoned by the government to populate the places of the Crimean peninsula devastated by the enemy.