The Nobility: selling land to the peasants to move into

the cities (emancipation in 1861 gave peasants right to

own land)

The Middle Classes: A small professional and

merchant class was emerging by late 1800s. They

started participating in local government (zemstovo)

and sponsoring education and cultural activities.

The industrial workers (proletariat): As Russia

gradually industrialised in 1890s ex-peasants moved to

the cities to work in industry.

Peasants: Despite emancipation in 1861 peasants had

few liberties; they could not even leave their mir (village

commune) without permission.

Reformers and Repressors

Liberals

‘left wing’

Conservatives

‘right wing’

Moderates

The Russian

Orthodox Church

The Land Owners & noblesThe “Intelligentsia”

(educated, urban Russians)

Russian society needs to be reformed. We

should follow the rest of Europe and

•Have democratic government

•Free the serfs to own land

•Have a free press and education system

•Industrialise

Russian society must stick to its traditions

and national culture. We must:

•Keep the Tsar’s autocratic powers

•Maintain the church’s power

•Ban political dissent, control the media

•Resist liberal change

The Reformers The Repressors

Terrorists/extremists

Dynasty

A succession of people from the same family who rule a nation/empire.

The Romonov family ruled Russia autocratically from 1613-1917

“The Emperor (Tsar) of all the Russias is an autocratic and unlimited monarch. God himself

ordains that all must bow to his supreme power...”

-Fundamental Laws of the Empire (issued by Nicholas Romanov I), 1832 Winter Palace, St Petersburg,

home of the Romonov Tsars

Nicholas I

Reign 1825-1855

Came to power unexpectedly when his older brother, Alexander I died suddenly

of typhus.

Survived a plot by ‘the Decembrists’ – a group of soldiers – to assassinate him and

take power.

Nicholas reacted by violently repressing all forms of resistance to his autocracy. He had the conspirators executed or exiled.

Established a police state dominated by an extensive network of secret police.

Nicholas I

The Russian media was heavily censored and citizens faced travel restrictions.

Education system based on “autocracy, Orthodoxy, and nationality".

Deeply conservative and opposed most suggestions at social reform (eg-emancipation of serfdom)

Nicholas I led an aggressive foreign policy against the Ottoman Empire to Russia’s south-east. This led to the Crimean War against Britain- an

embarrassing defeat for the massive Russian empire.

Died in 1855- some evidence to suggest it was suicide (poison) in response to Russian set-backs in the Crimea.

Alexander II“the see-saw Tsar”

Reign 1855-1881

•Alexander II’s reign described as “a difficult balancing act”- to conserve the autocracy while modernising Russia to

Western European standards.

•Convinced by humiliating Crimea defeat to make some reforms

•BUT... was only open to reform as a means of preserving his own power: “It is

better to abolish serfdom from above rather than wait until it abolishes itself from

below.” (public speech, 1856)

•Alexander II instigated a period

known as “the Great Reform” in

the 1860s

•Freed up the press and allowed the

publication of ‘liberal’ writers

•Alexander’s university reforms

created an intelligentsia- a class of

middle class educated, urban

Russians.

•Created open courts, jury trials

and an independent judiciary

Alexander II“the see-saw Tsar”

Alexander Herzen- a member of

Russia’s intelligentsia and a liberal writer

The Great Reforms

1860s

1. Emancipation of the Serfs (1861)

• Serfs no longer legally owned by the landowners in 1861

• Allowed to purchase the land from the landowners

• Created problems for the nobles: no longer a guaranteed income from free labour

• Created problems for the serfs: forced to buy ‘their’ land at high prices. Their living

conditions declined as Russia’s population exploded.

• Hence, the Emancipation alienated two of Russia’s most important groups

The Great Reforms

1860s

2. Zemstovo Reform, 1864

• Traditionally, local areas were governed by the nobles

• In 1864 Zemstva were established- local councils consisting of elected

representatives from all social classes (incl. the peasants)

• They didn’t fulfill the liberals’ hopes:

• Limited, local powers

• Governors had the power to ignore the Zemstovo decisions

• They were underfunded (had to raise their own funds)

• Imbalanced membership- nobles held 74% of the positions

The Great

Reforms

A step in the right direction?

•A risky step- could easily upset Russia’s

entire social system

•A necessary step to modernise Russia

•A step that tried to please everyone....but

ended up pleasing no one.

•A step towards revolution- many liberals

realised they needed to get radical to bring

about the changes they wanted.

The Great Conundrum

To give the land (to the serfs) meant to ruin the nobility, and to give

freedom without land meant to ruin the peasantry. The state treasury

impoverished by the vast expenses of war, could not afford to indemnify

either party. There lay the problem. Could the serfs made to pay for their

freedom? Could the serf-owners be granted loans on the security of their

estates? Would not twenty-two million slaves suddenly set free combine

to take matters into their own hands.

Stephen Graham, Alexander II (1935)

Alexander II in the 1870s“the see-saw Tsar”

Alexander II’s regime swung to the ‘right’ after an attempt on his life in 1866. “Alexander’s government veered between liberalism and repression, first encouraging criticism of many aspects of his regime, then turning on the

critics...this...had the effect of pushing opposition to extremes and, ultimately, terrorism.”

Liberal reform groups started using terrorism as a tactic to achieve political change

"I was deafened by the new explosion, burned, wounded and thrown to the ground. Suddenly, amid the smoke and snowy fog, I heard His Majesty's weak voice cry, 'Help!' Gathering what

strength I had, I jumped up and rushed to the tsar. His Majesty was half-lying, half-sitting, leaning on his right arm. Thinking he was merely wounded heavily, I tried to lift him but the tsar's legs were shattered, and the blood poured out of them. Twenty people, with wounds of

varying degree, lay on the sidewalk and on the street. Some managed to stand, others to crawl, still others tried to get out from beneath bodies that had fallen on them. Through the snow,

debris, and blood you could see fragments of clothing, epaulets, sabers, and bloody chunks of human flesh.”

1881

Alexander III“the reactionary Tsar”

•Reign 1881-1894

•Instigated ‘The Reaction” to his father’s assassination at the hands of liberal

terrorists.

•The government took control of the courts outside the normal legal system

•Press censored

•Sacked judges and officials sympathetic to liberal views

•Increased power of the secret police, theOkhrana.

•Universities came under strict government control

•Open and widespread discrimination

against minorities- especially Jews.

Numerous ‘pogroms’.

•Created further disunity in Russia at

a time when it needed internal unity.

•Chief Minister Konstantin

Pobedonostev- dismissed

representative government (a

government elected by the people) as

“the great lie of our time.”

•Died in 1894 and passed reign to his

son Nicholas II who would be

Russia’s last Tsar

Alexander III“the reactionary Tsar”

Sergei Witte &

“The Great

Spurt” 1890s

•Minister for Finance 1893-1903

•Drove Russia to develop a capitalist economy by

•Encouraging foreign investment to

•Build Russia’s transport capacity and

•Heavy industry

•Witte

•Introduced Russia’s currency on the gold standard

•Imported Western experts to help Russia industrialise

•Exploited Russia’s large coal and oil deposits to spur economic and industrial growth

Sergei Witte & “The Great Spurt”

1890s•Witte’s reforms rapidly

industrialised Russia- fifth

largest economy in 30 years

•Sparked a massive social

upheaval

•Peasants flocked to the cities to work in

the newly created factories

•Creation of a new class- the proletariat

or industrial working class

•Creation of a new class- the bourgeoise

or commercial middle class (factory

owners and merchants)

•Industrialisation= collision

between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Europe

Tsarism meant that…

•No trade unions allowed

•Bourgeoisie have money- but no

political voice

Industrialisation meant that…

•Workers easily exploited without

trade unions= bad conditions

•Bourgeoisie want political reform to

match their new wealth

Hence….

‘The Great Spurt’ provided Russia with crucial industrial and economic growth

But it also introduced a new tension into Russian society between the ‘new’ social classes and the ‘old’ regime

Nicholas II“Russia’s last Tsar’

Reigned 1894-1917

Tsar during the Russo-Japanese War (1905), World War I (1914) and two

revolutions- 1905 and 1917

Overthrown by force during the March 1917 revolution

Executed by communist revolutionaries with his entire family in 1918

The coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896

"What am I going to do? What is

going to happen to me, to all of

Russia? I am not prepared to be a Tsar.

I have never wanted to become one. I

know nothing of the business of

Ruling. I have no idea of even how to

talk to ministers.”

- Nicholas’ letter to his brother in law shortly after learning

he would succeed his father as Tsar of the Russian

Empire.

Nicholas II the

reluctant ruler

"... it has come to my knowledge that during the last months there have been

heard in some assemblies of the zemstvos the voices of those who have indulged in a senseless dream that the

zemstvos be called upon to participate in the government of the country. I want everyone to know that I will devote all

my strength to maintain, for the good of the whole nation, the principle of

absolute autocracy, as firmly and as strongly as did my late lamented father.”

- Nicholas’ address to Zemstvos representitives who approached him for political reforms shortly after he came

to power

Nicholas II the

committed

autocrat