4) Political Authority in Action

Question 1

The problem of national minorities in Russia

Answer 1

R multi-national empire w/ 100+ different ethnic groups🔯✝️☪️🕎🕉.

1/2 empire pop ethnic R, other 1/2 range of culturally diverse ethnic groups🧔🏻👳🏾🧕🏼🧞‍♂️.

Many national minorities hated R control➡️civil disobedience, riots + disturbances throughout empire = challenge for tsarist autocracy👑.

1863 Polish Revolt⚔️ proof of danger of national liberation movements to autocracy➡️govt came up w/ Russification to instil sense of belonging to R across empire💞.

Question 2

Alexander II and the ethnic minorities

Answer 2

AII used mix of repression❌ + concessions✅ to maintain R control:

✅Decrees 1864 + 1875➡️Latvians + Estonians could re-adopt Lutheranism instead of Orthodoxy⛪️.

❌Firmly suppressed Polish rebellion 1863-64⚔️.

✅No systematic persecution of racial minorities ❌ during ⬆️ reaction from 1866, intolerance of national differences ⬆️.

❌1876 Ukrainian lang in publications/performances banned🚫.

Question 3

Russification under Alexander III

Answer 3

AIII + his ministers intolerant👑🙅🏻‍♂️ of national differences➡️adopted cultural Russification policy to merge all his subjects into single nation w/ shared identity🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺, controlled by autocracy + OC⛪️.

Pobedonovstev placed OC⛪️ @ centre of Russification➡️non-Orthodox subjects disloyal to R Empire.

⬆️OC⛪️ built all over empire.

OC⛪️ forced conversion of 100,000 Muslim Tartars☪️ into Christians✝️ (but many reverted back to Islam).

Laws benefited people of Orthodox faith + restricted freedom of other religions.

Question 4

Russification in Poland

Answer 4

✅Polish serfs more generous terms of emancipation that R serfs to secure loyalty.

❌Schools + unis had to teach subjects in Russian🇷🇺.

❌Polish National Bank closed🇵🇱🏦🚫.

❌Russians took top jobs in govt (e.g. railway🚂).

❌Literature studied in Russian translation📚🇷🇺.

➡️drove many Poles into revolutionary groups👑🚫.

Question 5

Russification in Ukraine

Answer 5

✅Ukraine 2nd largest ethnic group in empire, produced much of empire’s grain💰 = v important to empire.

✅Nationalist movement weaker in Ukraine - more integrated into empire (Cossacks loyal supporters of Tsar)🤴🏻💘.

❌Limited use of Ukraine lang.

❌All theatres closed🏤🚫.

❌Russians took key positions in govt.

Question 6

Anti-Semitism in the Russian Empire

Answer 6

❌Sizeable ethnic group of 5m in empire but mostly confined to ‘The Pale of Settlement’⛓.

✅AII had allowed wealthier Jews to settle elsewhere ❌ withdrew this after 1863 Polish Revolt + restricted Jews’ civil rights⛓.

❌Most lived in poverty🏚 + faced prejudice, persecution🗡 + restrictions on their way of life⛓.

❌Anti-Semitism ⬆️ under AIII - fear of Jewish involvement in revolutionary groups + religious hatred of Jews as ‘Christ killers’.

Question 7

Jewish pogroms 1881-84

Answer 7

• AIII + Pobedonovstev supported pogroms (organised massacre of Jews)👑👺.
• 1881 series of pogroms in Ukraine affecting 16 major cities🏙⚠️.
• Jewish property burned, shops + businesses destroyed, many incidences of rape + murder👎🏼👎🏼.
• Authorities did little to stop attacks - Okhrana may have encouraged them👮🏻‍♂️👺.
• Many Jews fled to Western Europe🗺.
• Outbreaks continued to 1884 + occurred sporadically after this.

Question 8

Anti-Semitic legislation 1882-94

Answer 8

🚫Jews living outside the Pale could be deported➡️1891 Jews expelled from Moscow🏙🥊.

🚫Rights to trade/sell products restricted (e.g. 1886 alcohol🥂❌).

🚫1892 forbidden from participating in local elections.

🚫Couldn’t own property/land even within the Pale.

🚫Couldn’t appeal against court sentences⚖️❌.

🚫Couldn’t work in legal, military or medical professions or hold govt office👩🏻‍⚖️👨🏻‍✈️👩🏼‍⚕️❌.

🚫Entrance to uni restricted👨🏼‍🎓⚠️.

Question 9

Consequences of anti-Semitism

Answer 9

Many Jews who remained driven towards revolutionary groups:

• Significant part of Intelligentsia💼, attracted by socialism + Marxism⚒.
• 1897 Jews formed the Bund which played role in development of SD movement.
• Jews made up disproportionate no. of leading Bolshevik Party members⚒.

Question 10

Results of Russification

Answer 10

Russification ultimately weakened the empire:

• Unrest + mass disturbances broke out in many R provinces (quickly suppressed)⚔️.
• Resentment ⬆️ among more educated + wealthy Finns, Poles + Baltic Germans (prev loyal to R) west of R Empire👑💔➡️constantly petitioned Tsar for more liberties; local lang books secretly published📚; some ethnic schools survived🏫.
• ⬆️national feeling of national minorities + fuelled political opposition 👑💔.

However:
✅AIII policies of repression restored tsarist regime’s political authority👑💪🏼 + gave R 13 years of peace☮️.

✅AIII strengthened traditional elites.