The Russian Empire in the 19th century

Nicholas I, the “Gendarme of Europe,” “Crusher of Revolutions”

• Advocated an ideology of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality”

• Devoted his life to preventing revolution

• Crushed the Decembrist Revolt of 1825

• Crushed the Polish National Uprising of 1830

• Crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1848

• Founded Russia’s First Secret Police Force

• Revolutionaries were exiled to Siberia

Causes of the Crimean War• Immediate cause: The Ottoman Sultan declared the

French Empire to be the protector of the Christians of the Ottoman Empire (the Russian Empire had this position up to this point)

• Underlying causes: Russia wanted to expand into the Balkans and seize the straits, if possible

• Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1853 and occupied the Romanian provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia

• Britain and France feared that Russia would upset the balance of power, so they declared war and sent an expeditionary force to invade Russian Crimea.

Crimean War Outcomes, 1853-1856• Even though Britain and France had

problems with their command and control on the battlefield, they were able to supply a large military force far from home

• Russia had problems supplying a large military force on their home territory because of limited railroad and naval options.

• Russia endured a humiliating defeat. Under the terms of the peace treaty, they had to return the Romanian provinces to Ottoman rule and were prohibited from maintaining any naval bases on the Black Sea.

• Russia was forced to reevaluate its economic and social policies.

Political Opposition• Mostly from the educated Russian

middle class, or “Intelligentsia”• Liberals wanted representative

government and civil liberties; a constitutional monarchy

• Slavophiles wanted less Western European influence in Russia

• Socialists and Anarchists wanted to overthrow Tsarist rule and replace it with a revolutionary government that would make radical political, social and economic changes

People’s Will Revolutionary Meeting

Revolutionary Leaders• Alexander Herzen – Russian radical

who published the newspaper The Bell (Kolokol) in exile. The newspaper was smuggled into Russia and read secretly by university students.

• Prince Peter Kropotkin – Revolutionary anarchist who supported a new system based on Russian peasant communes

• Mikhail Bakunin – Radical Revolutionary Anarchist

• Nicholas Chernyshevsky – Revolutionary anarchist who wrote the novel “What is to be Done”

Prince Peter Kropotkin

Reforms of Tsar Alexander II• Emancipated Russia’s serfs [!]

in 1861• Provided newly freed serfs

with some land, but the land had to be paid for by the serfs in “Redemption payments” over 49 years

• Established local government through the Zemstvo System, with representatives from landowners, townspeople and peasant communes. The Zemstvo could levy local taxes to maintain roads, bridges and schools.

Alexander II, the “Tsar Liberator”

Foreign Policy: Russo-Turkish War of 1878

• Russia continued to consider itself the Protector of the Orthodox Christians of the Ottoman Empire

• Russia advocated Pan-Slav Nationalism

• Outcome: new independent states in the Balkans

The People’s Will• Radical Socialist Revolutionary group that

tried to spread revolutionary ideas with agitation among Russia’s peasants

• Russian Peasants were conservative and usually turned revolutionary agitators over to the police

• The People’s Will concluded that the peasants lacked class consciousness, so they turned to terrorism to accomplish their goals. Increasing numbers of public officials were assassinated.

• Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by the People’s Will in 1881.

• Tsar Alexander III turned to the Reactionary policies of his grandfather and worked to wipe out revolutionaries in Russia. Revolutionaries were executed or exiled and censorship was tightened.

Revolutionaries arrested

Assassination of Tsar Alexander II

People’s Will Revolutionaries shortly before their execution, 1881

Conservative Defender of the Old Regime: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• One of Russia’s most brilliant writers

• Former Revolutionary, served time in Siberia

• Emphasized Orthodox Christian themes, human imperfection

• Created an unflattering view of revolutionaries as violent nihilists

• Great works include The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and The DevilsFyodor

Dostoyevsky

Literary Critic of the Old Regime: Leo Tolstoy

• One of Russia’s most brilliant writers

• Former supporter of the Romanovs

• Themes included the futility of war, the irrationality of human behavior, and social change

• Excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church

• Great works include War and Peace and Anna Karenina

Count Leo Tolstoy

Russian Orthodox Church• Staunch Supporter of

the Tsarist Regime• Tens of thousands of

parishes throughout Russia

• Peasants had the highest church attendance

• Intelligentsia tended to oppose the Church Ilya Repin’s Procession of the Cross

The Army• Largest land army in

Europe• Could be used

internally (to stop rebellion) as well as externally

• The Russian Empire continuously expanded in the 19th c., particularly in the Caucasus and Asia

Okhrana, or Secret Police• Trained to infiltrate

revolutionary groups and identify agitators

Young Stalin

The Nobility

• Still wealthy, but politically in decline, less influential than in the past

• Split between liberal and conservative political and social views

Imperial Ball

Dance Lesson at the Smolny Institute, St. Petersburg