ALEXANDER II: GOALS

• To improve the tarnished image that Russia received as a result of its defeat in the Crimean War

• To correct the internal problems which had contributed to this defeat

IMPROVING RUSSIA’S IMAGE• Took advantage of Franco-

Prussian War to void provisions of Treaty of Paris that restricted Russian activities in Black Sea region

• Won Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78– Gained control of

Bulgaria (temporarily)• Established control of

Caucasus and Central Asia• Won territorial concessions

from China

IMPROVING INTERNAL STATUS QUO

• Not motivated by liberal principles– Simply realized that certain changes

had to be made to domestic status quo if Russia was to remain a great power

• Primary issue was serfdom– Few nobles could afford serfs– New laborers required for changing

economy– 1500 peasant rebellions between

1800-1860– Uneducated, docile serfs had fought

poorly in Crimean War– Educated Russian objected to

serfdom on moral grounds

THE GREAT EMANCIPATION• March 3, 1861: Alexander signs

imperial order freeing 40 million serfs– Nobles gave up ½ of the land they

formerly controlled• Compensated by govt.

– Land given to serfs to work as their own

• Legal title held by village assemblies

• Each serf family had to accept allotment, assume tax liability, and make annual “redemption” payments for 49 years to cover cost of compensating landlords

WEAKNESSES• Terms not generous enough to

improve their lives– Redemption payments were high– Each family only received an

average of six or seven acres– Little surplus income to buy more

land• Edict did not provide crucial resources

(such as timber and pasture lands and water rights)

• Did legally abolish serfdom but left peasants with inadequate amount of land and huge financial burden of increased taxes and redemption payments– Many peasants felt betrayed

ZEMSTVOS• Provincial and district assemblies

– 1864– Administer local affairs– Representatives chosen by a

complicated electoral system• Peasants received significant

representation but nobles dominated

– Met once a year and selected committees that met regularly all year

– Responsibilities limited to local finances, public health, road maintenance, and education

• Improved conditions and gave people some experience with representative government

OTHER REFORMS• Legal reforms

– Administration of justice made separate branch of government

– Jury trials introduced– Freedom of speech

granted to lawyers– Equal treatment before law

guaranteed• Military reforms

– Conscription expanded to include all Russians

– Term of service lowered from 25 to 6 years

– Reserve force created

REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

• Revolutionary movement had developed into several distinct branches– Remained upper-

class movement centered in universities of Moscow and St. Petersburg

– Never a mass movement

RUSSIAN INTELLIGENTSIA (I)• Slavophils

– Nationalists who sought a return to the Russian state as it was before Peter the Great

– Ideal was an isolated nation based on the peasant commune, a purified Orthodox Church, and an autocracy free from all bureaucratic interference

• Westerners– Advocated a secular, rational

approach to development• Based on increase use of

Western technology, thought, and social structures

• Inspiration was Peter the Great

RUSSIAN INTELLIGENTSIA (II)

• Petrashevtsi– Leader was Mikhail

Petrashevsky– Followed teachings of Charles

Fourier– Spread socialist literature

and opposed Nicholas I– Some members arrested and

executed• Fedor Dostoevsky

SOURCES OF POPULISM I• Narodnichestvo

• Influenced by Alexander Herzen– Westerner and moderate revolutionary– Embraced socialism but adapted it to

Russian conditions• Socialism would spring from a

peasant revolution and would be based on traditional socialistic tendencies of the peasant commune

– Published Kolokol (“The Bell”) from Paris

• 1857-1867• Found eager audience among

educated Russians

SOURCES OF POPULISM II

• More radical than Herzen• Called for a violent revolution

that would abolish the state and church and establish a society in which no class would dominate

• Envisioned political authority being held by self-governing communes—no state

• Spent most of adult life in exile– Participated in Revolutions

of 1848– Leader of anarchist wing of

the First International

Mikhail Bakunin

SOURCES OF POPULISM III

• Wrote What Is To Be Done?– Outlined vision of Russia under

socialist system• Postulated existence of “new

man”—an elite corps of intellectuals who would strive to improve conditions

– Argued that Russia could skip capitalist phase and go directly to socialism

– Exhorted followers to violently pull down existing system

• Inspired future revolutionaries, especially Lenin

Nicholas Chernyshevsky

“GO TO THE PEOPLE” MOVEMENT• Thousands of university students

go into countryside to work with peasants– 1873– Inspired by Herzen’s notion of

“natural socialism” of peasants– Purpose was to awaken

peasants to their socialist potential and inspire them to revolution

• Students did not receive warm welcome– Beat up and chased away by

frightened peasants– Government also arrested many

participants

AFTERSHOCKS• Failure of “Go to People” convinced many that

a revolutionary elite should act for the people, not necessarily with the people

• Land and Freedom (Zemlya i Volya)– Founded in 1876– Dedicated to overthrow of government by

any means necessary, ending private land ownership, redistribution of land to peasants, and self-determination for national minorities

– Vera Zasulich tried to kill governor of St. Petersburg

• Jury refused to convict her even though she made no attempt to deny her crime

PEOPLE’S WILL (NARODNAYA VOLYA)

• Land and Freedom splits into two groups by 1879– One group wanted to

prepare people for revolution through propaganda and education

– Other group dedicated to immediate reign of terror that would destroy tsarist regime

• People’s Will• Kills Alexander II on

March 1, 1881 with hand grenade

ALEXANDER III• Tsar from 1881-1894• Determined to re-establish law and order

and reassert complete authority of the autocracy

• Determined to crush all revolutionary activity– Strengthened powers of secret police– Banned all student associations– Further restricted university curriculums– Established government bank to make

loans to nobles– Restricted access of lower classes to

educational institutions– Forced non-Orthodox subjects to

convert to Orthodox Christianity

POGROMS• Alexander was an intense nationalist and

anti-semite• Discriminated against national minorities

– Suppressed their local culture, language and religion

• Organized pogroms against Jews– Organized against Jews who lived in

cities– Resulted in many deaths and massive

property destruction– Forced Jews to live in “Pale of

Settlement” (Ukraine)– Restricted number of Jews admitted

to schools– Over one million Jews fled Russia as

a result