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Summary Russia Notes
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14 pages of detailed notes on Russia . Includes key facts, dates and statistics, as well as multiple historians' quotes to support interpretations.
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Tsarist RussiaRussia Pre-1894
Tsar System
● Romanovs ruled Russia since 1613
● Robert Service: 'Peasants cherished an icon of the ruler on their hut walls'
● Council of Ministers had no collective discussions
● Tsar appointed own governors & ministers
Alexander II (1855-1881)
● Came to throne during Crimean War: concluded peace then initiated wide range of social,
economic
administrative & legal reforms
● Viewed himself as enlightened
● Relaxed censorship - ‘intelligentsia’ formed
● Emancipation of the serfs 1861 – serfs given own farmland
● Happy serfs wouldn’t rebel
● More would join army & restore military pride
● Nobles resented giving up 1/3 of land, kept good land for themselves
● Peasants had to pay redemption payments back to gvt, which they struggled to do after
grain markets collapsed in 1870s & 1880s
● Peasants unable to leave mir so growing population meant shrinking allotments - average
size was 5.1 dessiatines in 1860 shrunk to 2.7 by 1900
JN Westwood – ‘enormous step forward’ but failed because peasants unable to make redemption
payments
● Had to control countryside communities (mir) to keep Russia in order – Zemstva formed
1864
● Gave sense of political freedom
● Elected rural councils
● Never truly democratic
● Landowners given greater political powers locally as compensation for lost lands
● Poor & rich unhappy w/ Tsar – Alexander II became more oppressive, first step towards
revolution
● Earned epithet 'Tsar Liberator' for giving peasants freedom but had no intention of sharing
power & was assassinated by terrorists ('The People's Will' group) in 1881
Alexander III (1881-1894)
● Severe rule as believed father's assassination was sign reforms were a mistake
● Began by reversing reforms & purging ministers deemed sympathetic to change
● Repressive but did allow for period of stability
● Demanded more active policy in Balkans
● ‘the Reaction’ – restrictive measures to deal w/ acts of revolt that came for lack of gvt
support
● Temporary law established 1887 not removed until 1917
● Gvt could control courts w/o adhering to legal system
● Okhrana given new powers, freedom of press abandoned, censorship reintroduced,
essentially creating police state
● Universities controlled by gvt
● Intelligentsia & ‘Westerners’ felt betrayed
● Statue of Measures to Preserve National Order made Russia police state, Okhrana developed
● 1889 - Land Captains introduced w/ powers over peasantry
● Did allow considerable industrial development
Rule of Nicholas II
, Nicholas II (1894-1917)
● Weak, inflexible & politically naïve
● Not prepared to make concessions
● Had idealised view of his father which affected his beliefs
○ (Developed 'almost mystical reverence towards the memory of his father' - Figes)
● Outraged public at coronation when attended banquet after 1400 killed
● Had potential to save monarchy by allowing constitutional one
● Relied on advisors e.g. Pobedonostsev
● Forced out Count Witte & Petr Stolypin who could have saved Tsarism
● Soviet joke that Nicholas II should be posthumously rewarded Order of the Red Banner 'for
his services to the revolution'
Darby: 'Alexander and Nicholas II did not possess their forbear's vision. They placed their faith in
reaction and repression'
Konstantin Pobedonostsev
● Russian jurist (studier of law), statesman & adviser & tutor to 3 Tsars
● Nicknamed 'Grand Inquisitor' & came to be symbol of Russia's absolute monarchy
● Was major decision maker during reign of Alexander III: appointed to the senate in 1868, to
the council of state in 1872 & being Ober-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod 1880-1905
(meaning he supervised the Russian Orthodox Church)
● Had immense power over domestic policy in particular
● Large influence as tutor of Nicholas II
● Behind many pogroms - gave people scapegoat & outlet
● Advocate of Russification & religious conformity
Russification
● Policy of making Russia ethnically more Russian
● Russian declared official 1st language
● Widespread & systematic state influence in education, religion & culture
● Forced people into Christian faith
Anti-Semitism
● Many different ethnicities but one main Tsarist policy was ethnic discrimination &
persecution
● Ethnic minorities more industrious than other members of society so made more money –
fear of these helped fuel religious intolerance (particularly anti-Semitism)
● Over 600 new measures introduced e.g. Jews forced to live in ghettos
● 'Black Hundreds' - ultra-conservative Russian nationalists, notorious for attacks on Jews
● No. of pogroms increased during Nicholas' reign due to encouragement of it
● Local communities eager to join in
Response/Effect of Policies
● 5 million Jews fled Russia
● More organised opposition - variety of parties from moderate reformers to violent
revolutionaries
● In 1890s, large increase of Jews in anti-Tsarist movements
● 1897 - Jews formed own revolutionary 'Bund' (union)
Problems of Russia in 1894
● 1/6 of world’s surface
● Still autocratic gvt in 1894
● Most of economy based on agriculture – no industrial revolution
● Aristocratic elite had laissez-faire attitude to reforming society
● Pop. nearly doubled 1861-1905 (76 million to 140 million)
● Orlando Figes: the ‘whole Tsarist empire was rife for collapse’ by 1905
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