18th-19th Century Russia

Ali Aparicio, Emily Armstrong, and Caroline Ashcraft

Nicholas Alexander II

Crimean War• Crimea seized 1783, Bessarabia in 1812 (encroaching upon Ottoman Territory)• Ottoman Empire in decline as Eastern European possessions take back independence• Russian window of opportunity (proximity and religious bonds with Greek Orthodox

Christians in Southeastern Europe)• Reasons to go against Russia: Austria wanted land in the Balkans, France and Britain had

interests in the commercial opportunities and potential naval bases in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the all-important preservation of the balance of power

• 1853 Russia claims itself to be protector of Christianity within the Ottoman regions (a right already held by France, causing further tension), leading to the Ottoman proclamation of war on October 4th

• March 28th, 1854 France and Britain join in declaring war on Russia• Britain feared tipping the balance of power in Russia’s favor; Napoleon III was insulted by the

Russian actions at the Congress of Vienna as well as their self-proclaimed position as protector of Christianity that had already been held by the French

• Russia received none of the Austrian support it had been expecting• September 1855 Russian fortress Sevastopol falls 6 months following the death of Tsar

Nicholas; Alexander II sues for peace soon afterwards

Effects of the Crimean War• March 1856 Treaty of Paris signed: Russia loses Bessarabia,

accepts neutrality of Black Sea; Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia are placed under the protection of five great powers

• Over 250,000 deaths, many of which from diseases such as cholera

• Destroyed Concert of Europe• Austria and Russia enemies due to Austria’s refusal of support

in the conflict• Russia and Britain pull back from Continental affairs• Austria has no friends

Economic Development, Literacy, etc.

• Russian economic development was extremely unimpressive until around 1906; it was primarily agrarian through the 19th century

• Extreme labor obligations were enforced to maintain profitable grain exports

• Adult literacy rates steadily improved:13-15% -- 1850’s21-23% -- 189735-40% -- 1915

Political Structure

• Russian Empire (1721-1917)• Tsarist Autocracy• Russian Tsars must belong to the Russian

Orthodox Church and must obey the laws of succession established by Paul I

• Major change in 1906 with the institution of the Imperial Duma

Serfdom, Emancipation, Zemstvos, Mir

• March 3rd, 1861 Alexander II issued the emancipation edict to finally bring an end to the crippling institution of serfdom

• Peasants allowed to own property, marry as they choose, and bring suits to courts of law• Government had to purchase land for newly liberated peasants from landowners, who

kept the best land for themselves• Peasants forced to farm infertile land, crippled by the continued grip of landowners and

later famine• Peasants were expected to pay back the government for their crappy land, and were

subjected to the Mir• The Mir was a village commune that was responsible for the local land payments to the

government• In 1864 Alexander II instituted a system of local assemblies called Zemstvos to provide a

moderate degree of self-government: representatives were to be elected from amongst the nobles, townspeople, and peasants. However, the property-based system of voting gave the nobles an overall advantage.

Liberalization of the Regime

Great Reforms of Alexander II:• Secondary schools open to all classes• 1864 overhaul of judicial system, which

became an independent branch of government topped by the Senate in St. Petersburg

• All classes liable to conscription; education provided for draftees

Role of the Church

Coronation of Alexander II at Dormition Cathedral

Ethnic Minorities in Russia

• Jews: admitted to secondary schools and universities under a quota system, were forced to live in certain parts of the country, widespread persecution

• 1903-1906 pogroms took place in nearly seven hundred towns and villages, mostly in the Ukraine—many were forced to flee, later leading to the Zionist movement

Political Reform

Anarchist Movement and other radical groups

• Socialist thought/parties developed alongside industrialization, but repression forced them underground, and eventually towards revolutionary means.

• Marxist Social Democratic Party held first congress in 1898, leading to the arrest of its leaders and a second meeting in 1903 held in Brussels

• Social Revolutionaries strove to overthrow the tsarist autocratic rule and establish peasant socialism, soon turning to political terrorism and attempted assassination to achieve their ends, bringing the nation to revolution in 1905

Social Realism in Literature: The Russian Condition

• Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), author of War and Peace, “imposed a fatalistic view of history that ultimately proved irrelevant in the face of life’s enduring values of human love and trust”

• Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), believed that a major issue of the time was loss in spiritual belief, “feared that failure to incorporate spirit would result in total tyranny”, and “only through suffering and faith could the human soul be purified”. Wrote Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov

Assassination of Alexander II, Church of the Bloody Savior

Alexander III—political and economic policies

• Police powers & censorship• Land captains• Weakened judiciary and zemstovs• Russification• Russia stays out of war, signs agreement with

France• A few measures to help peasants

Economic Development (Sergei Witte)

• Sergei Witte—minister for finance 1892-1915, saw industrial growth as they key to Russia’s growth and national strength, pushed for massive railroad construction program (by 1900 35,000 miles of rail had been built, including parts of the trans-Siberian line) as well as a system of protective tariffs to protect industry, and persuaded Nicholas II that foreign capital was essential for rapid industrial development

• By 1900 Witte’s efforts made Russia the fourth-largest producer of steel behind the US, Germany, and Great Britain

• Industrialization brought along with it factories, an industrial working class, industrial suburbs around Saint Petersburg and Moscow, and terrible working and living conditions.

• Development of Socialist thought and parties

Nicholas II (style of rule)

• 1905 Issued October Manifesto to create the Duma and grant civil liberties to pacify the working class following “Bloody Sunday”

• By 1907 cut back Duma’s power and fell back upon the army and beaurocracy in order to rule following the murder of Stolypin (chief adviser 1906-11, brought about agrarian reforms dissolving village ownership of land to benefit the peasants)

Russo-Japanese War

• Conflict stirred by Russia’s expansion to the south and east, especially by its occupation of Manchuria and encroachment upon North Korea

• Japanese launched surprise attack February 8th, 1904 upon Russian eastern fleet at Port Arthur, countered by the Russian Baltic fleet only to be defeated by the Japanese navy just off the Eastern nation’s coast

• Russians admitted defeat and sued for peace 1905

1905 Riots• Preexisting discontent mixed with the maladies of war quickly led to

upheaval: middle class of business and professionals wanted liberal institutions and a liberal political system; nationalists were displeased with being dominated by the ethnic Russian population that only consisted of 40% of the total population; peasants still had land distribution issues; laborers felt oppressed by the living and working conditions in the cities

• The conflict with Japan caused a breakdown in the transport system, leading to food shortages in major cities

• January 5th 1905 workers gather at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg to present their petition of grievances to the tsar—troops opened fire upon the peaceful crowd, turning the demonstration into a massacre known as “Bloody Sunday” and launching a revolution

Political Developments (Duma and Power of Parliament)

• Following the “Bloody Sunday” massacre and a general strike in October 1905, Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and agreeing to create a legislative assembly known as the Duma to be elected by a broad franchise, satisfying the middle class which now stood in support of repressing the workers’ uprising in Moscow at the end of 1905

Rasputin