ALEXANDER II: GOALS To improve the tarnished image that Russia received as a result of its defeat in the Crimean War To correct the internal problems which.
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ALEXANDER II: GOALS
• To improve the tarnished image that Russia received as a result of its defeat in the Crimean War
• To correct the internal problems which had contributed to this defeat
IMPROVING RUSSIA’S IMAGE• Took advantage of Franco-
Prussian War to void provisions of Treaty of Paris that restricted Russian activities in Black Sea region
• Won Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78– Gained control of
Bulgaria (temporarily)• Established control of
Caucasus and Central Asia• Won territorial concessions
from China
IMPROVING INTERNAL STATUS QUO
• Not motivated by liberal principles– Simply realized that certain changes
had to be made to domestic status quo if Russia was to remain a great power
• Primary issue was serfdom– Few nobles could afford serfs– New laborers required for changing
economy– 1500 peasant rebellions between
1800-1860– Uneducated, docile serfs had fought
poorly in Crimean War– Educated Russian objected to
serfdom on moral grounds
THE GREAT EMANCIPATION• March 3, 1861: Alexander signs
imperial order freeing 40 million serfs– Nobles gave up ½ of the land they
formerly controlled• Compensated by govt.
– Land given to serfs to work as their own
• Legal title held by village assemblies
• Each serf family had to accept allotment, assume tax liability, and make annual “redemption” payments for 49 years to cover cost of compensating landlords
WEAKNESSES• Terms not generous enough to
improve their lives– Redemption payments were high– Each family only received an
average of six or seven acres– Little surplus income to buy more
land• Edict did not provide crucial resources
(such as timber and pasture lands and water rights)
• Did legally abolish serfdom but left peasants with inadequate amount of land and huge financial burden of increased taxes and redemption payments– Many peasants felt betrayed
ZEMSTVOS• Provincial and district assemblies
– 1864– Administer local affairs– Representatives chosen by a
complicated electoral system• Peasants received significant
representation but nobles dominated
– Met once a year and selected committees that met regularly all year
– Responsibilities limited to local finances, public health, road maintenance, and education
• Improved conditions and gave people some experience with representative government
OTHER REFORMS• Legal reforms
– Administration of justice made separate branch of government
– Jury trials introduced– Freedom of speech
granted to lawyers– Equal treatment before law
guaranteed• Military reforms
– Conscription expanded to include all Russians
– Term of service lowered from 25 to 6 years
– Reserve force created
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT
• Revolutionary movement had developed into several distinct branches– Remained upper-
class movement centered in universities of Moscow and St. Petersburg
– Never a mass movement
RUSSIAN INTELLIGENTSIA (I)• Slavophils
– Nationalists who sought a return to the Russian state as it was before Peter the Great
– Ideal was an isolated nation based on the peasant commune, a purified Orthodox Church, and an autocracy free from all bureaucratic interference
• Westerners– Advocated a secular, rational
approach to development• Based on increase use of
Western technology, thought, and social structures
• Inspiration was Peter the Great
RUSSIAN INTELLIGENTSIA (II)
• Petrashevtsi– Leader was Mikhail
Petrashevsky– Followed teachings of Charles
Fourier– Spread socialist literature
and opposed Nicholas I– Some members arrested and
executed• Fedor Dostoevsky
SOURCES OF POPULISM I• Narodnichestvo
• Influenced by Alexander Herzen– Westerner and moderate revolutionary– Embraced socialism but adapted it to
Russian conditions• Socialism would spring from a
peasant revolution and would be based on traditional socialistic tendencies of the peasant commune
– Published Kolokol (“The Bell”) from Paris
• 1857-1867• Found eager audience among
educated Russians
SOURCES OF POPULISM II
• More radical than Herzen• Called for a violent revolution
that would abolish the state and church and establish a society in which no class would dominate
• Envisioned political authority being held by self-governing communes—no state
• Spent most of adult life in exile– Participated in Revolutions
of 1848– Leader of anarchist wing of
the First International
Mikhail Bakunin
SOURCES OF POPULISM III
• Wrote What Is To Be Done?– Outlined vision of Russia under
socialist system• Postulated existence of “new
man”—an elite corps of intellectuals who would strive to improve conditions
– Argued that Russia could skip capitalist phase and go directly to socialism
– Exhorted followers to violently pull down existing system
• Inspired future revolutionaries, especially Lenin
Nicholas Chernyshevsky
“GO TO THE PEOPLE” MOVEMENT• Thousands of university students
go into countryside to work with peasants– 1873– Inspired by Herzen’s notion of
“natural socialism” of peasants– Purpose was to awaken
peasants to their socialist potential and inspire them to revolution
• Students did not receive warm welcome– Beat up and chased away by
frightened peasants– Government also arrested many
participants
AFTERSHOCKS• Failure of “Go to People” convinced many that
a revolutionary elite should act for the people, not necessarily with the people
• Land and Freedom (Zemlya i Volya)– Founded in 1876– Dedicated to overthrow of government by
any means necessary, ending private land ownership, redistribution of land to peasants, and self-determination for national minorities
– Vera Zasulich tried to kill governor of St. Petersburg
• Jury refused to convict her even though she made no attempt to deny her crime
PEOPLE’S WILL (NARODNAYA VOLYA)
• Land and Freedom splits into two groups by 1879– One group wanted to
prepare people for revolution through propaganda and education
– Other group dedicated to immediate reign of terror that would destroy tsarist regime
• People’s Will• Kills Alexander II on
March 1, 1881 with hand grenade
ALEXANDER III• Tsar from 1881-1894• Determined to re-establish law and order
and reassert complete authority of the autocracy
• Determined to crush all revolutionary activity– Strengthened powers of secret police– Banned all student associations– Further restricted university curriculums– Established government bank to make
loans to nobles– Restricted access of lower classes to
educational institutions– Forced non-Orthodox subjects to
convert to Orthodox Christianity
POGROMS• Alexander was an intense nationalist and
anti-semite• Discriminated against national minorities
– Suppressed their local culture, language and religion
• Organized pogroms against Jews– Organized against Jews who lived in
cities– Resulted in many deaths and massive
property destruction– Forced Jews to live in “Pale of
Settlement” (Ukraine)– Restricted number of Jews admitted
to schools– Over one million Jews fled Russia as
a result
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