Though Russia first embarked on emulation of European culture and society with the reforms of Peter the Great in the 1700s, the late 19th century marked another turning point in the country’s political and social evolution. The abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1860s was part of a comprehensive shift in social and legal institutions known as the Great Reforms including the establishment of jury trials and a new system of local government. Local assemblies known as the zemstvo had tax collecting responsibilities and oversaw the construction of hospitals and schools. Though there was no national parliament in the Russian empire before 1905, the zemstvo marked a new period of regional self-governance. While the newly emancipated peasants still owed their former owners financial compensation, they had freedom of movement and the legal status of citizens. As nobles with large estates, both Levin and Vronsky encounter these institutions and participate in them to varying degrees.

The political and legal situation of the peasantry was a subject of significant discussion for Russian elites from the 1830s onward. In Anna Karenina, this debate is best represented by Levin’s arguments with his brother Sergei. Sergei romanticizes the peasants as the repository of national wisdom, while Levin takes a more practical view and is interested in their economic position and the prospects of agrarian reform.