Russia 1848-1914
The Bear
Alexander II
I. Alexander
II (1855-1881)
• Perhaps the most liberal ruler prior to 20th
century
• Russian conditions
– 90 % Russians lived on farms
– Serfdom still a problem
• Uprisings
• Poor production
– Serfs bought/sold
– Serve military 25 yr terms
• Emancipation Act (Edict) 1861
–Alexander II abolished Serfdom
–Most Russians unaffected
• Lived in Mirs (highly regulated communes)
• Collective ownership
• Zemstvos established in 1864
–Local assemblies
–Step toward political participation
–Lords, however, controlled Zemstvos
• Judicial system improved
• Censorship relaxed (not
removed)
• Liberal education programs
• Put on Gold Standard
• Growth of Industry helped
spread popularity of Marxism!
• Railroads and Industry
–1860-1880 RR built: 1,250 miles to
15,500 miles
• Domestic manufacturing
–Suburbs grew around Moscow and
St Petersburg
–Modern factory workers
–Strengthen military: Expansion
South & East
Critics of Alexander II’s reign
• Alexander became increasingly
conservative (realism replaced
romanticism)
• Radical populist movement
advocated utopian agrarian society
• Intelligentsia and Nihilism grew
• Alexander II assassinated in 1881
Intelligentsia and Nihilism
• Intelligentsia
–Hostile group of intellectuals
–Believed they should take over Russia
• Nihilism
–Intellectual philosophy
• Science only is real
• No spiritual ‘meaning’ to life
• Said society should be torn down and
rebuild
Alexander
III
II. Alexander III (1881-1894)
• Most reactionary czar of 19th century
• Slogan:
–Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Russification”
• Encouraged anti-Semitism
–Pogroms initiated: resulted in
persecution of Jews
–Zionism was Jewish reaction (Herzel
led: Jewish home in Holy Land
Count Witte oversaw Industrialization
• Brought West Tech & built factories
• Rise in Russian middle class (small #’s)
• More railroads (35,000 miles by 1900)
–Trans-Siberian Railway biggest rail line
• Moscow to Vladivostok (5,000 miles)
• By 1900 became 4th in steel industry
(US, Germany, Britain, Russia)
• ½ World’s petroleum supply
Nicholas II
III. Nicholas II (1894-1917)
• Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)
–Sphere of influence in Manchuria
–Sought Korea
–Japan moved to stop Russia
expansionism
–Japanese defeated Russians
• Very Humiliating!
• Russia turned away from Asia
• Revolution of 1905
–Poor economy
–Russo-Jap war hurt
–“Bloody Sunday” Jan 1905
• 200,000 worker/peasants march to
Winter Palace
• Czar not in town
• Fires shot; many killed
–General Strike and troop mutinies
–Czar forced to make concessions
• Duma created
–Assembly serving as advisory board
to Czar
–Freedom of speech, assembly, and
press
–Czar could veto
• Revolutionaries politically divided
–Unable to agree
• Propertied classes benefit at
expense of workers
• Brief mild economic recovery 19071914
• Peter Stolypin make reforms
–Agrarian reforms
–Broke down collective village ownership
–Encouraged enterprising peasants
• Post 1911, Nicholas II’s court
dominated by Gregorii Rasputin
–Caused doubt about Czar’s ability to
rule