Russian History; 1796-1881
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Transcript of Russian History; 1796-1881
The Russian Revolution1815-1924
Session IINineteenth Century Russia
1796-1881
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Major Points of This Session
• Tsar Paul, 1796-1801--A Question of Madness
• Alexander I, 1801-1825--Reform and Reaction
• Nicholas I, 1825-1855--Reaction, Plain and Simple
• Alexander II, 1855-1881--Reform, then Reaction
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
IntroductionInternal Instability: 1796-1825
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
IntroductionInternal Instability: 1796-1825
The Battle of Borodino1812
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
During the period of the Napoleonic Wars and in the decade following them, Russia began to show signs of internal strain; the system of society and government bequeathed by Catherine II was beginning to lose its equipoise. Basic to the growing imbalance was the continuing peasant unrest, now becoming so extended that the institution of serfdom itself was being questioned…. Before long, wider attention was to be focused on the emerging question: could the existing system...be maintained indefinitely without fundamental change.
Sidney Harcave, Russia, A History. p. 205
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The fatal flaw of enlightened despotism--everything depends upon the despot.
RR Palmer
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tsar Paul--A Question of Madness
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tsar Paul--A Question of Madness
1754-1796-1801
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tsar Paul’s Childhood
• Catherine suggested that his father was her lover, Prince Saltykov
• her court, with its intrigues and her sexual acting-out, was not a healthy place
• his pug-nosed facial features in later life are attributed to an attack of typhus, from which he suffered in 1771
• he believed, with some basis, that his mother intended to murder him
Paul I as a child
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Па́вел I Петро́вич -- 1754-1796-1801
• at Catherine’s death, he undid many of her measures
• his positive accomplishments are forgotten because of the opprobrium over his eccentricities
• he was fiercely hostile towards the nobility and their privileges. He publicly humiliated them.
• during his five year reign he became more and more capricious and vindictive
• his diplomacy during the Napoleonic Wars became increasingly erratic
Statue before the Pavlovsk PalaceTuesday, September 29, 2009
the tsar’s Prussian militarisma parade before the Mikhailovsky Palace
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
resentment leads to a crisis • the nobility became increasingly bitter and concerned as Paul seemed
to become irrational and arbitrary. He alternated draconian punishments and lavish gifts.
• the tsar’s fear of conspiracies helped produce them
• Count Pahlen, military governor of St Petersburg, led a circle who planned to force Paul to abdicate in favor of his son Alexander
• the twenty-three year old Tsarevich joined the conspirators
• 23 March 1801, Paul suspected them and ordered his sons arrested
• that night the conspirators went to the tsar with their demand that he abdicate
• they were received, a quarrel followed, and Paul was strangled to death
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander I--Reform and Reaction
(1777-1801-1825)Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander I--Reform and Reaction
(1777-1801-1825)Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander’s Upbringing
Frédéric-César de La Harpe
(1754-1838)Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander’s Upbringing
• his grandmother, Catherine II, took charge of his and his younger brother Constantine’s education
• there was talk that she planned to remove his father, Paul, from the succession
• his Swiss republican tutor, La Harpe, implanted the philosophies of Plato, Descartes, Locke, and Rousseau
• Catherine did permit Alexander contact with his parents. So he was torn between the two warring parties.
• “he learned to ride with the hounds and run with the hares”--Harcave
Frédéric-César de La Harpe
(1754-1838)Tuesday, September 29, 2009
His Character
• he had earned Catherine’s praise by assimilating La Harpe’s instruction and Paul’s by displaying a love of Prussian military drill
• “half a citizen of Switzerland and half a Prussian corporal”
• “a weak and sly man”--Pushkin
• “too weak to rule, too strong to be ruled”--Prince Speransky
• “No one knew his mind, and apparently he himself didn’t always know it”--Harcave
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Napoleon
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Sword of the Revolution”or its destroyer?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)
• Third Coalition (1805) ends at Austerlitz
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)
• Third Coalition (1805) ends at Austerlitz
• “...even I will be good at [war] for only another five or six years”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)
• Third Coalition (1805) ends at Austerlitz
• “...even I will be good at [war] for only another five or six years”
• Fourth Coalition (1806-07) ends with Russia’s defeat at Friedland
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)
• Third Coalition (1805) ends at Austerlitz
• “...even I will be good at [war] for only another five or six years”
• Fourth Coalition (1806-07) ends with Russia’s defeat at Friedland
• Fifth Coalition (1809) Britain’s Peninsular Campaign begins, Austria is beaten once again
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)
• Third Coalition (1805) ends at Austerlitz
• “...even I will be good at [war] for only another five or six years”
• Fourth Coalition (1806-07) ends with Russia’s defeat at Friedland
• Fifth Coalition (1809) Britain’s Peninsular Campaign begins, Austria is beaten once again
• Sixth Coalition (1812-14)--Napoleon’s hubris
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wars of Napoleonic France
• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)
• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)
• Third Coalition (1805) ends at Austerlitz
• “...even I will be good at [war] for only another five or six years”
• Fourth Coalition (1806-07) ends with Russia’s defeat at Friedland
• Fifth Coalition (1809) Britain’s Peninsular Campaign begins, Austria is beaten once again
• Sixth Coalition (1812-14)--Napoleon’s hubris
• Seventh Coalition (1815)--the Hundred Days & Waterloo
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander wavers
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander wavers
• 1800-1801-hero worship, then scorn and hostility
• LaHarpe first praised, then denounced
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander wavers
• 1800-1801-hero worship, then scorn and hostility
• LaHarpe first praised, then denounced
• 1803-1805-allies with Austria & Prussia against Napoleon
• Austerlitz(1805) and Friedland (1807)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander wavers
• 1800-1801-hero worship, then scorn and hostility
• LaHarpe first praised, then denounced
• 1803-1805-allies with Austria & Prussia against Napoleon
• Austerlitz(1805) and Friedland (1807)
• 1807-treaties of Tilsit--Alexander and Napoleon now allies
• unequal alliance with France, crushing peace for Prussia
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander wavers
• 1800-1801-hero worship, then scorn and hostility
• LaHarpe first praised, then denounced
• 1803-1805-allies with Austria & Prussia against Napoleon
• Austerlitz(1805) and Friedland (1807)
• 1807-treaties of Tilsit--Alexander and Napoleon now allies
• unequal alliance with France, crushing peace for Prussia
• 1812-invasion!--> unrelenting hostility toward the “greatest tyrant of the world” and “disturber of the peace of Europe”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
scenes from the wars
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander and the Concert of Europe
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander and the Concert of Europe
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander and the Concert of Europe
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander and the Concert of Europe
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander and the Concert of Europe
Tsar AlexanderKaiser Franz I
Congress of Verona, 1822Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Mikhail Speransky (1772-1839)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Mikhail Speransky (1772-1839)
• Alexander’s liberal advisor
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Mikhail Speransky (1772-1839)
• Alexander’s liberal advisor
• 1809-his constitutional plan, based on a series of dumas, never came to be
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Mikhail Speransky (1772-1839)
• Alexander’s liberal advisor
• 1809-his constitutional plan, based on a series of dumas, never came to be
• 1812-a conspiracy of conservative aristocrats and clergy forced his dismissal
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Mikhail Speransky (1772-1839)
• Alexander’s liberal advisor
• 1809-his constitutional plan, based on a series of dumas, never came to be
• 1812-a conspiracy of conservative aristocrats and clergy forced his dismissal
• 1815-however he influenced the constitutions granted to Finland and Poland
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Mikhail Speransky (1772-1839)
• Alexander’s liberal advisor
• 1809-his constitutional plan, based on a series of dumas, never came to be
• 1812-a conspiracy of conservative aristocrats and clergy forced his dismissal
• 1815-however he influenced the constitutions granted to Finland and Poland
• 1826-Nicholas I recalled him to codify Russia’s law codes, a task completed in 1833 with 35,933 enactments!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Post-war Domestic Policy
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Post-war Domestic Policy
• at the beginning of his reign Alexander had promised a codification of laws and a liberal constitution, neither was delivered
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Post-war Domestic Policy
• at the beginning of his reign Alexander had promised a codification of laws and a liberal constitution, neither was delivered
• new bodies, the State Council and Imperial Senate, theoretically powerful, “became slavish instruments of the tsar and his favorites of the moment”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Post-war Domestic Policy
• at the beginning of his reign Alexander had promised a codification of laws and a liberal constitution, neither was delivered
• new bodies, the State Council and Imperial Senate, theoretically powerful, “became slavish instruments of the tsar and his favorites of the moment”
• 1818-a foolish plot to kidnap him on the way to the Congress of Aix- la-Chapelle by his own officers began his conversion to reaction
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Post-war Domestic Policy
• at the beginning of his reign Alexander had promised a codification of laws and a liberal constitution, neither was delivered
• new bodies, the State Council and Imperial Senate, theoretically powerful, “became slavish instruments of the tsar and his favorites of the moment”
• 1818-a foolish plot to kidnap him on the way to the Congress of Aix- la-Chapelle by his own officers began his conversion to reaction
• other influences: personal contacts with Metternich, the liberal revolutions of the 1820s, especially the Greek War for Independence
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Post-war Domestic Policy
• at the beginning of his reign Alexander had promised a codification of laws and a liberal constitution, neither was delivered
• new bodies, the State Council and Imperial Senate, theoretically powerful, “became slavish instruments of the tsar and his favorites of the moment”
• 1818-a foolish plot to kidnap him on the way to the Congress of Aix- la-Chapelle by his own officers began his conversion to reaction
• other influences: personal contacts with Metternich, the liberal revolutions of the 1820s, especially the Greek War for Independence
• stirrings among the Russian peasantry, a constant theme which provoke an authoritarian response
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Alexey Andreyevich Arakcheyev
(1769-1834)general, War Minister
“That which ceases to grow begins to rot.”
wartime reformsmilitary settlements(1816)
symbol of repression
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Beginnings of liberal aristocratic dissent
• junior officers during the last years of the war and especially during the occupation of France came in contact with western ideas
• 1816-a secret society arose in the Imperial Guards Regiment calling itself the Union of Salvation
• a charter member, Col. Pavel Pestel, even drew up a republican constitution modeled on that of the United States
• 1820-after a misfired uprising, most drifted away
• the “hard core’ formed the Northern Society in St. Petersburg and the Southern Society in Tulchin, Ukraine
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
a strange death
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
a strange death
• 1825-Alexander travelled south for his wife’s health
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
a strange death
• 1825-Alexander travelled south for his wife’s health
• he caught typhus and died in the seaport of Taganrog. His body was shipped back for burial in the fortress of Petropavlovsk
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
a strange death
• 1825-Alexander travelled south for his wife’s health
• he caught typhus and died in the seaport of Taganrog. His body was shipped back for burial in the fortress of Petropavlovsk
• almost immediately rumors began, he hadn’t really died
• he had staged his death, retired incognito to a Siberian monastery
• a soldier was buried in his place or the grave was empty (Soviets in 1925!)
• the British ambassador had seen him board a ship
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
a strange death
• 1825-Alexander travelled south for his wife’s health
• he caught typhus and died in the seaport of Taganrog. His body was shipped back for burial in the fortress of Petropavlovsk
• almost immediately rumors began, he hadn’t really died
• he had staged his death, retired incognito to a Siberian monastery
• a soldier was buried in his place or the grave was empty (Soviets in 1925!)
• the British ambassador had seen him board a ship
• confusion regarding the order of succession
• Nicholas was younger than Alexander’s more liberal brother, Constantine
• liberal army officers, the Dekabristi, tried to stage a coup
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“The Decembrists on Senate Square”Picture by painter Karl Kolman (1786-1846).
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nicholas I--Reaction, Pure and Simple
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nicholas I--Reaction, Pure and Simple
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
December 14--Nicholas puts in the cavalryPicture by painter Vasily F. Timm (1820-1895)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Aftermath of the Dekabristi Revolt• December 14--the afternoon’s demonstration of the Northern
Society was quelled by loyal army troops (9,000 vs 3,000) The ringleaders were arrested.
• when many fled across the frozen Neva River, artillery fired at them and opened up the river. Dead and wounded met their end that way.
• 3 January 1826--the Southern Society suffered a significant defeat in its effort to raise a rebellion. By January 10 all resistance was overcome. Ringleaders were sent to the capital for trial.
• 24 July 1826--five were sentenced to be hanged, the remaining 116 were sentenced to katorga in Siberia or reduced to private and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in the army at that rank.
• Nicholas began his reign with a harsh repression of this abortive attempt to bring constitutional government to the empire.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Gallows Humor
Kondraty Ryleyev, was one of the five sentenced at first to be quartered. Nicholas commuted the sentence to hanging. As the trap dropped all five fell to the ground when the ropes
parted. Bruised and battered, Ryleyev rose and said “In Russia they don’t know how to do anything properly, not even how to make a rope.” An accident of this sort usually resulted in a
pardon, so a messenger was sent to the Iron Tsar to know his pleasure. Nicholas asked “What did he say?”
“Sire, he said that in Russia they don’t even know how to make a rope properly.”
“Well, let the contrary be proved.”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Gallows Humor
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Life of the Decembrists in SiberiaPaintings from the online Decembrist Museum
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nicholas was deeply affected
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nicholas was deeply affected“...he dedicated himself to the task of providing lasting protection from the threat of another revolution. As a first step he spent several months investigating the antecedents of the revolt, questioning suspects as to the programs and the membership of the secret societies…. In itself the revolt was petty….It was essentially a movement of young noble officers...who represented neither the nobility nor the lower classes. Its importance lay in the fact that it was the beginning of organized revolutionary protest against the regime.”
Harcave, p.225
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“...a round peg in a round hole.”
• in contrast to his older brother Alexander, he had no doubts about himself or his duties
• not raised to be tsar; he, like Kaiser Wilhelm of Prussia, another younger brother, was raised for the army
• his tutors main concern was the inculcation of respect for autocracy, orthodoxy, and military discipline
• at twenty-nine, when he gained the throne, he was a well-integrated person
• “He is stern and severe--with fixed principles of duty which nothing on earth will make him change; very clever I do not think him…” --Queen Victoria, 1844in front of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, 1859
the 1st in the world with only the two back legs connected to the pedestal
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nicholas’ army parading in the capital
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nicholas’ army parading in the capital
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Here [in the army] there is order, there is a strict unconditional legality, no impertinent claims to know all the answers, no contradiction, all things flow logically one from the other; no one commands before he has himself learned to obey, no one steps in front of anyone else without lawful reason; everything is subordinated to one definite goal, everything has its purpose. That is why I feel so well among these people, and why I shall always hold in honor the calling of a soldier. I consider the entire human life to be merely service, because everybody serves.
NICHOLAS I
quoted in Riasonovski, vol. i, p. 301
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nicholas reacts to the revolutions of 1830• July--first France, then Belgium, experience real revolution, several
German states attempt to follow their example
• Nicholas’ older brother, Grand Duke Constantine, governor of “Congress Poland,” makes plans to ignore the Polish constitution and use Polish troops to suppress the revolutionary disturbances in central Europe
• liberal Polish officers use this provocation to rebel against Russian rule and seek independence based on the pre-1772 borders
• 29 November 1830--Polish cadets seize Warsaw and the Polish army follows their example
• Lithuania, Belarus (White Russia), and the Western Ukraine join the revolt
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Emilia Plater
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
The Lithuanian Joan of Arc
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Polish November Uprising1830-1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sergei Sergeivich Uvarov(1765-1855)
Education Minister(1833-1849)
by Orest Kiprensky, 1815-16
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sergei Sergeivich Uvarov(1765-1855)
Education Minister(1833-1849)
ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ (pravoslavieye)САМОДЕРЖАВИЕ (samoderzhavieye)
НАРОДНОСТЬ (narodnost)
OrthodoxyAutocracyNationality
by Orest Kiprensky, 1815-16
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)
• beginning as early as Ivan III, while Moscovy was gobbling up other principalities, a new class of nobles was being rewarded with lands
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)
• beginning as early as Ivan III, while Moscovy was gobbling up other principalities, a new class of nobles was being rewarded with lands
• their titles were conditional , not hereditary, based on service, either military or administrative; hence, service nobility
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)
• beginning as early as Ivan III, while Moscovy was gobbling up other principalities, a new class of nobles was being rewarded with lands
• their titles were conditional , not hereditary, based on service, either military or administrative; hence, service nobility
• Peter I created a table of noble rank with 12 grades (чин-chin)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)
• beginning as early as Ivan III, while Moscovy was gobbling up other principalities, a new class of nobles was being rewarded with lands
• their titles were conditional , not hereditary, based on service, either military or administrative; hence, service nobility
• Peter I created a table of noble rank with 12 grades (чин-chin)
• Paul, with his admiration for things Prussian, modeled his civil bureaucracy on that of Frederick the Great’s
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)
• beginning as early as Ivan III, while Moscovy was gobbling up other principalities, a new class of nobles was being rewarded with lands
• their titles were conditional , not hereditary, based on service, either military or administrative; hence, service nobility
• Peter I created a table of noble rank with 12 grades (чин-chin)
• Paul, with his admiration for things Prussian, modeled his civil bureaucracy on that of Frederick the Great’s
• Alexander began and Nicholas completed the reform and centralization of the Russian state machinery
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)
• beginning as early as Ivan III, while Moscovy was gobbling up other principalities, a new class of nobles was being rewarded with lands
• their titles were conditional , not hereditary, based on service, either military or administrative; hence, service nobility
• Peter I created a table of noble rank with 12 grades (чин-chin)
• Paul, with his admiration for things Prussian, modeled his civil bureaucracy on that of Frederick the Great’s
• Alexander began and Nicholas completed the reform and centralization of the Russian state machinery
• there was equivalency between civil and military ranks, with a uniform and honorific for each
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
• the Table of 1834 set up the equivalences among officials of the civil service, the armed forces and the court
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
• the Table of 1834 set up the equivalences among officials of the civil service, the armed forces and the court
• the rank of Privy Councillor in the civil service = Lieutenant General in the army = Master of the Hounds at court. Each was addressed as “Excellency”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
• the Table of 1834 set up the equivalences among officials of the civil service, the armed forces and the court
• the rank of Privy Councillor in the civil service = Lieutenant General in the army = Master of the Hounds at court. Each was addressed as “Excellency”
• a civil official Actual Councillor of State = major general. Addressed as “High Born”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
• the Table of 1834 set up the equivalences among officials of the civil service, the armed forces and the court
• the rank of Privy Councillor in the civil service = Lieutenant General in the army = Master of the Hounds at court. Each was addressed as “Excellency”
• a civil official Actual Councillor of State = major general. Addressed as “High Born”
• Collegiate Secretary = midshipman in the navy (near the bottom of the hierarchy) rating only the address of “Well-born”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
• the Table of 1834 set up the equivalences among officials of the civil service, the armed forces and the court
• the rank of Privy Councillor in the civil service = Lieutenant General in the army = Master of the Hounds at court. Each was addressed as “Excellency”
• a civil official Actual Councillor of State = major general. Addressed as “High Born”
• Collegiate Secretary = midshipman in the navy (near the bottom of the hierarchy) rating only the address of “Well-born”
• below the officials of the civil service were the numerous rank-and-file personnel, like military enlisted people, also in uniform and hierarchically organized
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
• the Table of 1834 set up the equivalences among officials of the civil service, the armed forces and the court
• the rank of Privy Councillor in the civil service = Lieutenant General in the army = Master of the Hounds at court. Each was addressed as “Excellency”
• a civil official Actual Councillor of State = major general. Addressed as “High Born”
• Collegiate Secretary = midshipman in the navy (near the bottom of the hierarchy) rating only the address of “Well-born”
• below the officials of the civil service were the numerous rank-and-file personnel, like military enlisted people, also in uniform and hierarchically organized
• the чиновники (chi•NOV•ni•ki) had all the evils: arrogance, “red tape,”timidity, rigidity, we associate with the worst bureaucracies today
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
• given its size it’s remarkable that it did as well as it did, holding together an empire ruling one-eighth the surface of the earth
• however, its defects came from many interacting forces:
• the great expanse of the Russian land, the political immaturity and cultural diversity of its people, and the backwardness of its economy
• the nature of its personnel: they lacked training and a proper interest in ther work. Nicholas expanded the university system, but the majority lacked a good education
• Nicholas tried to control things through reports, “complaints books” and forms for everything
• those who dealt with the public expected “tips” (bribes) for services
• obedience to the state had been created by force and was maintained by force or the threat of force
• there was no tradition of respect for the law apart from fear. Subjects tried to “beat the system”
Defects of the System
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Count Alexander von Benckendorff
(1783-1844)
warned of the Decembrists, created the secret police called the Third Section
(Третье Урок)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Censorship
• begun under Alexander, the severity of centralized press censorship expanded after 1826
• several agencies had overlapping power and now the Third Section joined the process
• periodicals which criticized the country or the state were suspended
• one printed an article by Peter Chaadayev comparing Russian development to the west unfavorably:
• the publication was suspended, the editor exiled
• Chaadayev, a nobleman and retired guards officer, was officially declared insane and confined to his home
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Autocratic Public Works
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Pavel Petrovich Melnikov
(1804-1880)
Minister of Transport Communications,
the St Petersburg-Moscow Railroad
(1842-1851)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Myth of the Tsar’s Finger
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Myth of the Tsar’s Finger
the railroad was constructed in an almost straight line
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Myth of the Tsar’s Finger
the railroad was constructed in an almost straight line
through swamps, hills, valleys at great cost in human (serf) life
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Myth of the Tsar’s Finger
the railroad was constructed in an almost straight line
through swamps, hills, valleys at great cost in human (serf) life
lamented by Nekrasov in his poem “The Railway”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Myth of the Tsar’s Finger
the railroad was constructed in an almost straight line
through swamps, hills, valleys at great cost in human (serf) life
lamented by Nekrasov in his poem “The Railway”
the 17 km bend was [falsely] attributed to the tsar drawing a straight line with a ruler, the bump was caused by his finger
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Myth of the Tsar’s Finger
the railroad was constructed in an almost straight line
through swamps, hills, valleys at great cost in human (serf) life
lamented by Nekrasov in his poem “The Railway”
the 17 km bend was [falsely] attributed to the tsar drawing a straight line with a ruler, the bump was caused by his finger
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg(1818-1858)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg(1818-1858)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg(1818-1858)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg(1818-1858)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg(1818-1858)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg(1818-1858)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
TheIntelligentsia
“...not the ‘brain’ of the nation, they are the ‘feces’ of the nation.”
V.I. Lenin
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Russia’s long period of intellectual apprenticeship to the West was coming to an end by the middle years of the nineteenth century, and her thinkers and creators were becoming masters in their own right. The attainment of relatively advanced intellectual status among the few served to emphasize the relative backwardness in other aspects of Russian life. And the recognition of that backwardness could not fail to affect the direction and cast of the intellectual activity of the period.
Harcave, p. 243
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander Pushkin1799-1837
the Golden Age of Russian PoetryEvgenie Onegin, published serially,
1825-1832
by Vasili Tropinin, 1827
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)
• 1830s-both Pushkin and the poet Lermontov try their hands at prose
• Gogol is the premier prose writer of the first half of the century
• a Russified Ukrainian, he uses both traditions
• his two masterpieces:
• The Government Inspector (Revisor) 1835
•Dead Souls 1842by Alexandr Ivanov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Why use the foreign-sounding “intelligentsia” when the English language has the word “intellectuals”? The answer is that one needs different terms to designate different phenomena--in this case, to distinguish those who passively contemplate life from activists who are determined to reshape it. Marx succinctly stated the latter position when he wrote: “the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” The term “intelligentsia” describes intellectuals who want power in order to change the world.
Pipes, p.21
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
types of inte%igenti
• “repentant nobles”--the Dekabristi were the earliest such
• “persons of various ranks” разночинтси (raznochintsi)--objects of Nicholas’ special wrath
• “circles” кружоки (kruzhoki)
• at Moscow University: the Slavophils
• at various homes in Skt-Peterburg: the Westernizers
• the Petrashevsky circle
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Кружок (kru•ZHOK)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Кружок (kru•ZHOK)
with its endless discussions over endless glasses of tea, became one of the seminal influences in Russian thought.
Harcave, p.247
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Slavophils• the fate of the Dekabristi initiated,
motivated, inspired the first study groups at Moscow University in the 1830s
• German philosophy, Hegel, Kant, and Feuerbach reigned supreme
• both like and unlike Uvarov’s official narodnost
•some parts of their doctrine were useful to both revolutionaries and reactionaries
Aleksey Khomyakov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Slavophils• the fate of the Dekabristi initiated,
motivated, inspired the first study groups at Moscow University in the 1830s
• German philosophy, Hegel, Kant, and Feuerbach reigned supreme
• both like and unlike Uvarov’s official narodnost
•some parts of their doctrine were useful to both revolutionaries and reactionaries
Ivan Kireevsky
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Slavophils• the fate of the Dekabristi initiated,
motivated, inspired the first study groups at Moscow University in the 1830s
• German philosophy, Hegel, Kant, and Feuerbach reigned supreme
• both like and unlike Uvarov’s official narodnost
•some parts of their doctrine were useful to both revolutionaries and reactionaries
Konstantin Aksakov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Slavophils• the fate of the Dekabristi initiated,
motivated, inspired the first study groups at Moscow University in the 1830s
• German philosophy, Hegel, Kant, and Feuerbach reigned supreme
• both like and unlike Uvarov’s official narodnost
•some parts of their doctrine were useful to both revolutionaries and reactionaries Vladimir Solovyov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Slavophils• the fate of the Dekabristi initiated,
motivated, inspired the first study groups at Moscow University in the 1830s
• German philosophy, Hegel, Kant, and Feuerbach reigned supreme
• both like and unlike Uvarov’s official narodnost
•some parts of their doctrine were useful to both revolutionaries and reactionaries
You wouldn't understand Russia just using the intellect / You couldn't measure her using the common scale / She has a special kind of grace / You can only believe in her.
Fyodor Tutchev
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Westernizers (Западники)
• 1830s-at the same time an opposing group was forming
• their hero was Peter the Great
• rationalistic, anticlerical
• Stankevich’s circle--Hegelian
• Herzen’s--French utopian socialist
• Belinsky--a “person[s] of various ranks” (raznochinik)
• exiles and willing émigrés
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Westernizers (Западники)
• 1830s-at the same time an opposing group was forming
• their hero was Peter the Great
• rationalistic, anticlerical
• Stankevich’s circle--Hegelian
• Herzen’s--French utopian socialist
• Belinsky--a “person[s] of various ranks” (raznochinik)
• exiles and willing émigrés
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Westernizers (Западники)
• 1830s-at the same time an opposing group was forming
• their hero was Peter the Great
• rationalistic, anticlerical
• Stankevich’s circle--Hegelian
• Herzen’s--French utopian socialist
• Belinsky--a “person[s] of various ranks” (raznochinik)
• exiles and willing émigrés
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Westernizers (Западники)
• 1830s-at the same time an opposing group was forming
• their hero was Peter the Great
• rationalistic, anticlerical
• Stankevich’s circle--Hegelian
• Herzen’s--French utopian socialist
• Belinsky--a “person[s] of various ranks” (raznochinik)
• exiles and willing émigrés
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Westernizers (Западники)
• 1830s-at the same time an opposing group was forming
• their hero was Peter the Great
• rationalistic, anticlerical
• Stankevich’s circle--Hegelian
• Herzen’s--French utopian socialist
• Belinsky--a “person[s] of various ranks” (raznochinik)
• exiles and willing émigrés
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Russia’s only domestic experience of the
Revolution of 1848
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Russia’s only domestic experience of the
Revolution of 1848
Some of thePetrashevsky
Circle
Petrashevsky
Dostoyevskypicture from 1872
Nechayev
“civic execution”a mock execution
in 1849
Count BenckendorffTuesday, September 29, 2009
1850--”The Gendarme of Europe”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
1850--”The Gendarme of Europe”
• Nicholas was furious at the revolutions in Prussia and Austria
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
1850--”The Gendarme of Europe”
• Nicholas was furious at the revolutions in Prussia and Austria
• he feared that they would spread to Poland
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
1850--”The Gendarme of Europe”
• Nicholas was furious at the revolutions in Prussia and Austria
• he feared that they would spread to Poland
• he offered his army and General Paskevich who had crushed the Poles in 1831
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
1850--”The Gendarme of Europe”
• Nicholas was furious at the revolutions in Prussia and Austria
• he feared that they would spread to Poland
• he offered his army and General Paskevich who had crushed the Poles in 1831
• Frederick William declined but the young Franz Josef welcomed Russian aid in subduing the Hungarians
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
1850--”The Gendarme of Europe”
• Nicholas was furious at the revolutions in Prussia and Austria
• he feared that they would spread to Poland
• he offered his army and General Paskevich who had crushed the Poles in 1831
• Frederick William declined but the young Franz Josef welcomed Russian aid in subduing the Hungarians
• liberal forces throughout Europe began to equate Russia with exporting repression
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Foreign PolicyStability versus Expansion
The Caucasus War1817-1864
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Staunch ConservativeThe Original “Gendarme of Europe”
• 1822-for the next forty years this Baltic German diplomat shaped Russian foreign policy as Foreign Minister or Chancellor to Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Alexander II
• backed the Congress System and the Holy Alliance
• used Russian troops to help crush the revolutions of 1830-31 and 1848-49
• despite his support for legitimacy and cooperation between the Great Powers, he sought to expand Russian influence in the Balkans and the Black Sea
• this put Russia at odds with Britain, France, and Sardinia-Piedmont who all wished to preserve the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire Count Karl Robert Nesselrode
1780-1862Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Eastern Question
• [Turkey was] “a sick man...gravely ill”--Nicholas I in 1853
• the Balkans
• the Straits
• Transcaucasia
• the Holy Land
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dismembering the Ottoman Empire
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dismembering the Ottoman Empire
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dismembering the Ottoman Empire
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dismembering the Ottoman Empire
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“The Great Game”Arthur Conolly, 6th Bengal Light Cavalry
• the British and Russian empires were both expanding into central Asia during the second quarter of the nineteenth century
• Persia and “the Stans”, unlike the Ottoman Empire, were not exactly pushovers for the western imperialists
• Britain was primarily playing “defense” as she had the more to lose from Russia’s awakening expansionism
• Afghanistan, then as now, was tremendously difficult terrain, a severe challenge for conquest
• it was the focal point for British-Russian imperial rivalry
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Russian Bear vs the British Lion
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Russian Bear vs the British Lion
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Russian Bear vs the British Lion
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Russian Bear vs the British Lion
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander II--Reform, then Reaction
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander II--Reform, then Reaction
1818-1855-1881
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the reluctant soldier
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the reluctant soldier
• firstborn son of a passionate militarist father
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the reluctant soldier
• firstborn son of a passionate militarist father
• his mother, Charlotte of Prussia
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the reluctant soldier
• firstborn son of a passionate militarist father
• his mother, Charlotte of Prussia
• educated by the liberal poet Vasily Zhukovsky
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the reluctant soldier
• firstborn son of a passionate militarist father
• his mother, Charlotte of Prussia
• educated by the liberal poet Vasily Zhukovsky
• took little personal interest in military affairs
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the reluctant soldier
• firstborn son of a passionate militarist father
• his mother, Charlotte of Prussia
• educated by the liberal poet Vasily Zhukovsky
• took little personal interest in military affairs
“gave evidence of a kind disposition and a warmheartedness which were considered out of place in one destined to become a military autocrat”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
CoronationAugust, 1856
at the Dormition Cathedral,Moscow Kremlin
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Александр II Николаевич (1818-1855-1881)
his predisposition was that of a reformer
his situation was that of autocrat
his intelligence saved him from utopian advisers
became Tsar in the middle of the Crimean War
Russia’s wretched performance, especially that of their serf conscripts, convinced all of the need for reform
known as the Tsar Liberator for freeing the serfs, after five years of planning, in 1861
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alexander to an assembly of nobles in Moscow, March, 1856
“[announced that] the existing order of ruling over living souls cannot remain
unchanged. It is better to abolish bondage from above than to wait for the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below.”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Чтение Положения 19 февраля 1861 года
Reading of the manifesto of February 19, 1861
(on abolition of serfdom in Russia) by Grigori Myasoedov, 1873
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to 1861 (Russia)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to 1861 (Russia)•serfs were attached to the land-- could be rented but not sold
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to 1861 (Russia)•serfs were attached to the land-- could be rented but not sold•under feudalism there were degrees of serfdom
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to 1861 (Russia)•serfs were attached to the land-- could be rented but not sold•under feudalism there were degrees of serfdom•like so many other reforms, the end of serfdom spread eastward beginning in the late Middle ages
•lasts from 16th century to 1888 (Brazil) America (1619-1865)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to 1861 (Russia)•serfs were attached to the land-- could be rented but not sold•under feudalism there were degrees of serfdom•like so many other reforms, the end of serfdom spread eastward beginning in the late Middle ages
•lasts from 16th century to 1888 (Brazil) America (1619-1865)•slaves were chattels, personal; could be sold “downriver”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to 1861 (Russia)•serfs were attached to the land-- could be rented but not sold•under feudalism there were degrees of serfdom•like so many other reforms, the end of serfdom spread eastward beginning in the late Middle ages
•lasts from 16th century to 1888 (Brazil) America (1619-1865)•slaves were chattels, personal; could be sold “downriver”•slavery varied from country to country, state to state
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
the difference between serfdom and slavery
European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to 1861 (Russia)•serfs were attached to the land-- could be rented but not sold•under feudalism there were degrees of serfdom•like so many other reforms, the end of serfdom spread eastward beginning in the late Middle ages
•lasts from 16th century to 1888 (Brazil) America (1619-1865)•slaves were chattels, personal; could be sold “downriver”•slavery varied from country to country, state to state•the French Revolution began the end of New World slavery
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
shortcomings of the emancipation edict
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
shortcomings of the emancipation edictthe nobility was generously compensated with rents collected by the peasant village governments (miri, singular, mir)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
shortcomings of the emancipation edictthe nobility was generously compensated with rents collected by the peasant village governments (miri, singular, mir)
the plan was to give individual allotments of land once the nobles were compensated
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
shortcomings of the emancipation edictthe nobility was generously compensated with rents collected by the peasant village governments (miri, singular, mir)
the plan was to give individual allotments of land once the nobles were compensated
close to half the allotments were too small to provide subsistence living
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
shortcomings of the emancipation edictthe nobility was generously compensated with rents collected by the peasant village governments (miri, singular, mir)
the plan was to give individual allotments of land once the nobles were compensated
close to half the allotments were too small to provide subsistence living
former serfs, no longer bound to their lords, were required to get permission from their mir to leave!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
shortcomings of the emancipation edictthe nobility was generously compensated with rents collected by the peasant village governments (miri, singular, mir)
the plan was to give individual allotments of land once the nobles were compensated
close to half the allotments were too small to provide subsistence living
former serfs, no longer bound to their lords, were required to get permission from their mir to leave!
state peasants (former serfs to the tsar) had slightly less burdensome terms for repayment and emigration
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sti%
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sti%
“...one writer has called [it] the greatest single piece of state-directed
social engineering in modern European history before the twentieth century…”
Craig, loc. cit
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Zemstvo Law, 1864
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Zemstvo Law, 1864a step towards representative government
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Zemstvo Law, 1864a step towards representative government
created an elective council (zemskoye sobranye) and appointive board (zemskaya uprava) at the lowest level: mir (village) and volost (rural district)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Zemstvo Law, 1864a step towards representative government
created an elective council (zemskoye sobranye) and appointive board (zemskaya uprava) at the lowest level: mir (village) and volost (rural district)
the voting, of course, was “stacked to ensure upper class control”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Zemstvo Law, 1864a step towards representative government
created an elective council (zemskoye sobranye) and appointive board (zemskaya uprava) at the lowest level: mir (village) and volost (rural district)
the voting, of course, was “stacked to ensure upper class control”
74% of the zemstvo members were noblemen, even though nobles were 1.3% of the population
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Zemstvo Law, 1864a step towards representative government
created an elective council (zemskoye sobranye) and appointive board (zemskaya uprava) at the lowest level: mir (village) and volost (rural district)
the voting, of course, was “stacked to ensure upper class control”
74% of the zemstvo members were noblemen, even though nobles were 1.3% of the population
naturally, this first step didn’t satisfy
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Many Other Reforms
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Many Other Reforms1864 -a new judicial administration based on the French model
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Many Other Reforms1864 -a new judicial administration based on the French model
a new penal code & greatly simplified civil and criminal procedure
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Many Other Reforms1864 -a new judicial administration based on the French model
a new penal code & greatly simplified civil and criminal procedure
the second country in the world (after Portugal) to abolish capital punishment
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Many Other Reforms1864 -a new judicial administration based on the French model
a new penal code & greatly simplified civil and criminal procedure
the second country in the world (after Portugal) to abolish capital punishment
1870-local government for large towns modeled on the Zemstvo Law
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Many Other Reforms1864 -a new judicial administration based on the French model
a new penal code & greatly simplified civil and criminal procedure
the second country in the world (after Portugal) to abolish capital punishment
1870-local government for large towns modeled on the Zemstvo Law
1874 -army and naval reforms based on Prussia’s
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Russia--”Prison House of Nations”--attr. to Lenin
“No dreams” warning to the non-Russian peoples, 1855
Poland, the January Rising, 1863-1864
thousands executed, tens of thousands sent to Siberia
Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belorussian languages outlawed from printed texts
Polish language, oral as well as written, banned from all territories except Congress Poland
there it was limited to private conversations
Finland, loyal during the uprising, was rewarded by generous treatment
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Katorga--Precursor to the Gulag
“Farewell to Europe”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Katorga--Precursor to the Gulag
The subject of the painting is the Siberian exile of Poles after their defeated January Uprising (1863) against the Russian Empire. The painting depicts the stop of the exiled convoy by the obelisk that marks the border between Europe and Asia. The artist himself is among the exiled here, near the obelisk, on the right
“Farewell to Europe”
Katorga was a system of penal servitude of the prison farm type in Imperial Russia . Prisoners were sent to remote camps in vast uninhabited areas of Siberia—where voluntary laborers were never available in satisfactory numbers—and forced to perform hard labor. Katorga began in the 17th century, and was taken over by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution of 1917, eventually transforming into the Gulag labor camps.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Last Years of Alexander II
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Last Years of Alexander IIПервомартовцы
The First of Marchers
(Those who did something
[assassinate Alexander II]
on the first of March) by
Nicolai Kibalchick
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
From Tsar Liberator to Samoderzhavets
assassination attempts, beginning in 1866, had their effect
the army reforms of War Minister D.A. Miliutin were both needed and progressive--a general staff, merit, length of service reduced from 25 years to 6, compulsory service for all able males, &c.
still, these were a necessary exception to the general turn to the right
Count Dimitry Tolstoy, Education Minister, 1866-1880 ended academic freedom, required professors to give reports to the police, controlled curriculum to eliminate “dangerous” studies
Alexander came to rely upon ultra reactionary advisors
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Нихилизм (Ni•hil•EZM-nihilism)
term coined by Turgenev in Fathers and Sons (1861) his anti-hero, Bazarov, was such
this student “extreme realism,” visible throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, did reject the present order
but it hardly constituted a threat to the regime
more serious about reform were the student narodniki (populists)
Ilya Repin. Student-Nihilist. 1883. Oil on canvas. The Far East Fine Arts Museum, Khabarovsk, Russia.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
This is the final word of our young camp: What can be broken, we should break. Whatever will stand the blow--is of use; whatever will be smashed to pieces--is rubbish. At any rate smash right and left, no harm may come of this.
Dmitry Pisarova nihilist propagandist
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50sunparalleled access to higher education
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the lower classes
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960s 1968-early ‘70sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the lower classes
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960s 1968-early ‘70sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the lower classes
Weather Underground& SLA
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960s 1968-early ‘70sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the lower classes
Weather Underground& SLA
• a hard core ofdisillusioned counterculture types turn to violence
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960s 1968-early ‘70sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the lower classes
Weather Underground& SLA
• a hard core ofdisillusioned counterculture types turn to violence• their cause? social justice
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
An Uncanny Parallel
unparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• to staff the bureaucracy& the industrial revolution• access for “persons of other ranks”
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870snihilistsnarodniki
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the peasantry
NarodnayaVolya
• a hard core of disillusionednarodniki turn to violence•their cause? social justice•their method? assassinations & bombings
1940s & ‘50s 1960s 1968-early ‘70sunparalleled access to higher education
• more secondary schools& universities• the G.I. Bill• access for “persons of other ranks”
“beatniks” &“hippies”
•upper and middleclass sons and daughters“go to the people” &the countryside•idealized view of the lower classes
Weather Underground& SLA
• a hard core ofdisillusioned counterculture types turn to violence• their cause? social justice• their method? assassinations & bombings
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
• born in Saratov, the son of a priest
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
• born in Saratov, the son of a priest
• became a university professor and inte%igent
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
• born in Saratov, the son of a priest
• became a university professor and inte%igent
• 1862-imprisoned for printing a handbill that blamed the tsar for shortcomings in the emancipation
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
• born in Saratov, the son of a priest
• became a university professor and inte%igent
• 1862-imprisoned for printing a handbill that blamed the tsar for shortcomings in the emancipation
• while there he wrote What is to be Done?
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
• born in Saratov, the son of a priest
• became a university professor and inte%igent
• 1862-imprisoned for printing a handbill that blamed the tsar for shortcomings in the emancipation
• while there he wrote What is to be Done?
• profound impact: youthful Lenin read it six times in one summer
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
• born in Saratov, the son of a priest
• became a university professor and inte%igent
• 1862-imprisoned for printing a handbill that blamed the tsar for shortcomings in the emancipation
• while there he wrote What is to be Done?
• profound impact: youthful Lenin read it six times in one summer
• motivated the “new people” to form the Narodnik (Populist) movement
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Chernishevsky and his “children”
• born in Saratov, the son of a priest
• became a university professor and inte%igent
• 1862-imprisoned for printing a handbill that blamed the tsar for shortcomings in the emancipation
• while there he wrote What is to be Done?
• profound impact: youthful Lenin read it six times in one summer
• motivated the “new people” to form the Narodnik (Populist) movement
• for this Chernishevsky experienced “civic execution” and seven years Siberian exile
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky1828-1889
“I fight for freedom, but I do not want freedom for myself lest it should be said that I am fighting for interested ends."
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Portraits of Russian narodniki accused in the Trial of the Fifty (1877)
The upper part of the text says: 'Condemned, after two years of solitary confinement in prison, for social-revolutionary propaganda.'
Underneath is a quotation of the Russian radical poet Nikolai Nekrasov: 'Your crown of thorns outshines the victor's crown.'
In the surrounding chain, the punishments of the condemned: (1) Aleksandra Khorzhevskaya, 5 years katorga; (2) Sof'ya Bardina, 9 years katorga; (3) Ol'ga Lyubatovich, 9 years katorga; (4) Vera Lyubatovich, 6 years katorga; (5) Mar'ya Subbotina, exile to Siberia; (6) Anna Toporkova, 4 years house of correction; (7) Yekatrina Gamkrelidze, 6 weeks prison; (8) Yevgeniya Subbotina, exile to Siberia.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Trepov Affair, 1878
• “History moves too slowly, it needs a push!”-- Andrei Zhelyabov
• 24 January--Vera, aged 29, stood in line to press a personal civic matter with the military governor of Skt-Peterburg
• she pulled a small pistol from her purse, shot Trepov in the side, and calmly awaited arrest
• the prosecutor bungled; the defense attorney was brilliant; the jury acquitted
• Zazulich emigrated, a radical who’d “made her bones”
A romanticized portrait of Vera Zazulich, who was tried but acquitted for her
attempt to kill General Trepov. (Sketch published in The Graphic, May 4, 1878
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
From narodnika to Narodnaya Volyauniversity medical student, Kazan & Zurich, became a narodnika (feminine of narodnik)
1876- Russia’s 1st demonstration, 400 gathered in St Petersburg for a speech by Plekhanov
1877-78-working as a doctor’s assistant, she conducted revolutionary propaganda
1879-joined Zemlya i Volya; after it split, Narodnaya Volya,
1880-81-planned assassinations of Alexander II in Odessa (failed) and St. Petersburg (succeeded)
1882-tried to revive Narodnaya Volya after mass arrests
1883-betrayed by police informer, part of “the trial of the 14.” 20 mos in solitary, pre-trial; sentence, 20 years
Vera Figner1852-1942
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
1879--A. Soloviev, missed with 5 shots!
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
1879--A. Soloviev, missed with 5 shots!
1879--Narodnaya Volya bomb plot, killed 11, wounded 20, but missed the tsar’s train
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
1879--A. Soloviev, missed with 5 shots!
1879--Narodnaya Volya bomb plot, killed 11, wounded 20, but missed the tsar’s train
1880--same group, bomb in Winter Palace, 67 killed or injured, tsar late for dinner, unscathed
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
1879--A. Soloviev, missed with 5 shots!
1879--Narodnaya Volya bomb plot, killed 11, wounded 20, but missed the tsar’s train
1880--same group, bomb in Winter Palace, 67 killed or injured, tsar late for dinner, unscathed
13 March N.S. (1 March O.S.) 1881
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
1879--A. Soloviev, missed with 5 shots!
1879--Narodnaya Volya bomb plot, killed 11, wounded 20, but missed the tsar’s train
1880--same group, bomb in Winter Palace, 67 killed or injured, tsar late for dinner, unscathed
13 March N.S. (1 March O.S.) 1881
1st bomb, under carriage--only damaged
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
1879--A. Soloviev, missed with 5 shots!
1879--Narodnaya Volya bomb plot, killed 11, wounded 20, but missed the tsar’s train
1880--same group, bomb in Winter Palace, 67 killed or injured, tsar late for dinner, unscathed
13 March N.S. (1 March O.S.) 1881
1st bomb, under carriage--only damaged
2nd bomb--20 people injured, including Alexander, lost both legs, bled to death
Karakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ASSASSINATION • ”Am I such a beast that they want to kill me?”--Alexander II
1866--D. Karakozov, pistol arm jostled
1867--a Pole in France
1879--A. Soloviev, missed with 5 shots!
1879--Narodnaya Volya bomb plot, killed 11, wounded 20, but missed the tsar’s train
1880--same group, bomb in Winter Palace, 67 killed or injured, tsar late for dinner, unscathed
13 March N.S. (1 March O.S.) 1881
1st bomb, under carriage--only damaged
2nd bomb--20 people injured, including Alexander, lost both legs, bled to death
3rd bomber--present but unnecessaryKarakozov, before his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
two sad footnotes (1) the Katya affair
Princess Katya Dolgorukaya1847-1922
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
two sad footnotes (1) the Katya affair
• 1864-the tsar sponsored her to go to Smolny after she was orphaned, at age 16
Princess Katya Dolgorukaya1847-1922
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
two sad footnotes (1) the Katya affair
• 1864-the tsar sponsored her to go to Smolny after she was orphaned, at age 16
• she was “of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut tresses”
Princess Katya Dolgorukaya1847-1922
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
two sad footnotes (1) the Katya affair
• 1864-the tsar sponsored her to go to Smolny after she was orphaned, at age 16
• she was “of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut tresses”
• totally smitten, Alexander made her a lady in waiting to his tubercular wife
Princess Katya Dolgorukaya1847-1922
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
two sad footnotes (1) the Katya affair
• 1864-the tsar sponsored her to go to Smolny after she was orphaned, at age 16
• she was “of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut tresses”
• totally smitten, Alexander made her a lady in waiting to his tubercular wife
• 1866-she resisted becoming his mistress until the death of his older son and the 1st assassination attempt, age 19
Princess Katya Dolgorukaya1847-1922
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
two sad footnotes (1) the Katya affair
• 1864-the tsar sponsored her to go to Smolny after she was orphaned, at age 16
• she was “of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut tresses”
• totally smitten, Alexander made her a lady in waiting to his tubercular wife
• 1866-she resisted becoming his mistress until the death of his older son and the 1st assassination attempt, age 19
• the royal circle was disgusted with her status and blamed Alexander Princess Katya Dolgorukaya
1847-1922Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(2) a tragic missed opportunity
Count Loris-Melikov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(2) a tragic missed opportunity• outstanding scholar, soldier, statesman
Count Loris-Melikov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(2) a tragic missed opportunity• outstanding scholar, soldier, statesman
• Armenian, hero of the Russo-Turk War
Count Loris-Melikov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(2) a tragic missed opportunity• outstanding scholar, soldier, statesman
• Armenian, hero of the Russo-Turk War
• capable civil administrator, applied “Petraeus-like” strategy to combat terrorism in provinces of Central Russia
Count Loris-Melikov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(2) a tragic missed opportunity• outstanding scholar, soldier, statesman
• Armenian, hero of the Russo-Turk War
• capable civil administrator, applied “Petraeus-like” strategy to combat terrorism in provinces of Central Russia
• Alexander, dissatisfied with mere repression, summons to Skt-Peterburg to apply to the national effort
Count Loris-Melikov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(2) a tragic missed opportunity• outstanding scholar, soldier, statesman
• Armenian, hero of the Russo-Turk War
• capable civil administrator, applied “Petraeus-like” strategy to combat terrorism in provinces of Central Russia
• Alexander, dissatisfied with mere repression, summons to Skt-Peterburg to apply to the national effort
• 13 March 1881-the very day of the assassination, the ukase including root cause reforms to isolate the terrorists, was scheduled to take effect
Count Loris-Melikov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(2) a tragic missed opportunity• outstanding scholar, soldier, statesman
• Armenian, hero of the Russo-Turk War
• capable civil administrator, applied “Petraeus-like” strategy to combat terrorism in provinces of Central Russia
• Alexander, dissatisfied with mere repression, summons to Skt-Peterburg to apply to the national effort
• 13 March 1881-the very day of the assassination, the ukase including root cause reforms to isolate the terrorists, was scheduled to take effect
• when repression became again the order of the day, Loris-Melikov resigned Count Loris-Melikov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“Propaganda of the Deed”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Russian Romeo and Juliette
Sonia (Sophia)Perovskaya Andrei Zhelyabov
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Russian Romeo and Juliette
Sonia (Sophia)Perovskaya Andrei Zhelyabovhigh nobility,
her father a general;age 26 at her execution
born a Ukrainian serf,10 years before the emancipation;
age 30 at his execution
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
After the assassination of Alexander II, the dominant groups in the ruling class, convinced that Russia was crumbling under the assaults of liberalism, socialism, and other dangerous and insidious forces from the West, felt that only an uncompromising reaffirmation and application of the old principles of autocracy, orthodoxy, and Russian nationality could save the country. They had seen one European nation after another fall before the onslaught of liberalism and observed how even Germany and Austria-Hungary had been compelled to make a compromise with it. In the hope of saving Russia from such a fate, they supported the two succeeding emperors, Alexander III (1881-94) and Nicholas II (1894-1917), in every effort to buttress and sustain the autocracy, efforts as grandiose and costly as they were futile.
Harcave, p.304
Tuesday, September 29, 2009