1 - Political Authority And The State Of Russia Flashcards
What was Mid-19th Century Russia like?
Large but economically underdeveloped
What was the ratio of villagers to town dwellers?
11:1
How much of the population were illiterate peasants?
85%
What 2 places did Serfs belong to?
Village communes/Mirs
In what 2 ways were Serfs owned?
Private/State
In what 2 ways did Serfs pay their master?
What 3 things could their masters do to them?
Rent and labour
Bought/Sold/Beaten
What was Russia ruled as in 1855? How was it run?
An empire
An Autocratic Tsar
What was the Tsar head of?
Russian Orthodox Church
What was the Tsar believed to have possessed?
Semi-divine powers
What were edicts? What could the Tsar choose?
Law
His own advisers
When did Alexander II become Tsar? What was Russia involved in?
March 1855
Crimean War
Which 3 countries had Russia been fighting in the Crimean War since 1853?
Britain/France/Turkey
What 2 battles did Russia lose in 1854?
Battles of Balaclava/Inkerman
What did Russia lose in August 1855? What was it?
Sevastopol
Major naval base
What 2 things did Russia’s 1856 final defeat highlight?
Reliance on Serf armies/Conscripts
Economic backwardness
How much of Russia’s expenditure was spent on the army? What 3 things did the army suffer from?
45%
Incompetent officers/Humiliation/Increase in Serf uprisings
What 3 things had Alexander II done prior to Serf emancipation?
Travelled the empire/Served on father’s Council of State/Led a Serfdom committee
What 2 benefits did Alexander II believe Serf Emancipation would have?
To curb tensions/Stimulate the economy
Which 2 groups also believed in the idea of Serf emancipation? Who were 2 key figures of the latter?
Family/Bureaucrats
Nicholas and Dmitri Milyutin
What were the 4 types of motives behind Alexander II’s reforms?
Political/Economic/Moral/Intellectual
What type of motive was nobility debt? Why did nobility debt occur?
Political
Nobles shunned business and relied on serfs
What type of motive was declining incomes? What 2 things caused this? What 2 things were masters forced to do?
Political
Growing Serf population/Inadequate agriculture
Mortgage/Sell Serfs as security for loans
What type of motive was Serfdom? What 2 things prevented reform?
Economic
Inability to move to town factories/Internal demands for goods low
What type of motive was experimentation? What 2 things prevented reform? What did the latter lead to?
Economic
Mirs prevented experimentation/Rural poverty led to a state debt of 54 million roubles
What type of motive were the Westernisers? What did they believe?
Moral/Intellectual
Russia should abandon Serfdom
What type of motive were the Slavophiles? What 2 things did they believe?
Moral/Intellectual
Serfdom should be reformed/Russia should stay as a traditional peasant society
What type of motive were the Intellectuals? What did they believe?
Moral/Intellectual
People were treated like animals
What type of motive were the Nihilists? What did they believe?
Moral/Intellectual
Sweep all tradition
What did Historian John Gooding about Russia in the Mid-19th century?
“It was more backwards now than at the beginning of the century”
