Russia (1825-1855)
• Assess the message of
Nicholas I’s rallying cry
“Orthodoxy, Autocracy,
Nationalism” as way to
understand Russia’s
conservatism.
• Predict how the
Crimean War will result
in change within Russia.
Russia (1825—1914)
• After the death of Tsar Alexander I, the
Decembrist Revolt occurred in 1825
– Under Alexander I, modernization of Russia began and
greater freedoms were offered to the people
• Nicholas I crushed the Decembrist Revolt and
continued autocratic policies
– Created the Third Sectionsecret police
• “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” became
rallying cry of Nicholas I’s Russia
• CONFLICT: Westernizers wanted Russia to
industrialize and set up a constitutional gov’t
versus Slavophiles who wanted Russian culture
to remain isolated from Europe
Russia and the Crimean War
• After its poor showing in the Crimean War,
people were calling for reform
• Nicholas I would not contemplate reform BUT
his successor Alexander II knew reform was
needed
Reform and Repression
Alexander II
Alexander III
Russian Reforms under Alexander II
• Emancipation Proclamation of 1861 ended serfdom
– positives – serfs gain rights to marry without
permission, to buy and sell land, to sue in court
and to pursue trades
– negatives – serfs had to buy the land from their
landlords; usually were given the poorest lands
• local government reform – local governments called
zemstvos were a district assembly that dealt with
local issues like education and social service.
• Zemstvos were still dominated by the landed
aristocracy, but did provide a glimmer of political
freedom
Reforms cont’d
• judicial reform – included equality before the
law, impartial hearings, uniform procedures,
judicial independence, and trial by jury
• military reform – service requirements
lowered from twenty-five to fifteen years and
discipline is relaxed slightly
• repression in Poland – Poland basically
becomes a Russian province under Russian
laws and language
Alexander II’s assassination
• Alexander was unwilling to introduce a written
constitution and parliamentary bodies
• Ideas of anarchism and populism (communism)
began to circulate against Alexander II
• A revolutionary organization called the People’s
Will assassinated Alexander II in 1881
– Led by Mikhail Bakunin and Alexander Herzen
– Dedicated to the overthrow of the autocracy
– Wanted a social revolution based on the communal life
of Russian peasants
Alexander III
• Alexander III (r.1881-1894) will enhance
repression and attempt to weaken the reforms
of his father, Alexander II
• autocratic and repressive “Orthodoxy,
Autocracy, Nationality” returns as motto of
gov’t
• strengthened secret police and censorship of
the press
• Placed a greater importance of traditional
values
p. 909--911
Industrial Development
• What economic successes
did Russia experience
between 1890—1914?
• Identify the figure and
industrial reforms
Social Unrest
• What factors led to the rise
of social unrest?
Industrial Growth in Russia
• Between 1870 and 1900, Russia expanded railroad network
significantly
• Russian industry prospered throughout the 1890s primarily
due to the work of Sergei Witte
• Sergei Witte – served as first Russian minister of finance first;
wanted to modernize Russian economy through
– economic development
– protective tariffs
– high taxes
– Russian currency on gold standard with rest of Europe
• steel, iron, and textile industries expand as Trans-Siberian
Railroad is completed (1903)
• Suppressed organized laboreliminate strikes for industrial
progress
Unrest in the Cities and Countryside
• By 1900, depression had led to high
unemployment and industrial shutdowns
• social unrest – growth of industry does not
improve lives of the peasants, many who have
to work on the land of prosperous farmers
known as kulaks
Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917)
• Alexander III died in 1894
• Nicholas II lacked political wit and a firm will
to lead Russia
– Situation will worsen
• The Russian Social Democrats and the Social
Revolutionaries began to gain strength in
Russia
– Both were Marxist
Vladimir Lenin – future leader of the
communist revolution
• led Social Democrats who rejected the German ideas
of gradual socialism and called for a revolution
• Social Democratic Party split into two:
– Lenin’s faction, the majority or Bolsheviks
– the moderate faction, the minority or the Mensheviks
• wanted to unite workers and peasants to overthrow
the tsar (idea came about in 1905, but revolution
didn’t occur till 1917)
The Revolution of 1905
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gQ-s8W26Lk
• Bloody Sunday – tsar’s troops violently put down a protest
leading to ordinary Russians no longer trusting the tsar
• worker groups called the soviets, not the tsar, basically
control city of St. Petersburg
• Nicholas II issues October Manifesto promising a
constitutional government
– representative body, the Duma, put into place in 1907 –
conservative in nature basically kept the power of the tsar
in place
– Civil liberties were extended to include freedom of speech,
assembly, and press
– Nicholas II announced he would reorganize his gov’t
Factionalism in the Duma
• The Duma was convened in 1906, but was plagued by internal
factionalism
– Monarchists constitutionalists who wanted to maintain the
power of tsar vs. Constitutional Democrats who wanted a liberal
representative system
– improves agricultural production by encouraging individual
ownership
• By 1907 Russia began a gradual economic recovery that quelled
rebellion
– Agricultural production was improved
• From 1907 to 1914, Nicholas II lacked the leadership needed to
guide Russia
• Grigory Efimovich Rasputin – became the minister of finance to the
tsar because his wife could heal the tsar’s hemophiliac son
• Uncouth and strange, tsar’s power is undermined after 1911