5) Growth and Opposition to Tsarist Rule Flashcards
Westernisers
- Wanted R adopt Western values.
- Western-style economic + military reform.
- Representative assemblies w/ civic liberties + less power OC⛪️🚫.
- Expressed views through zemstva, hoped ⬆️ local decision-making➡️more national representation.
- Disappointed by AIII’s 1890 Zemstva Act restrictions🚫.
Slavophiles
- Wanted preserve R’s culture + heritage as R modernising🔙.
- Retain peasant-based society👨🏼🌾.
- Preserve principles of OC⛪️✔️.
- ⬇️ influence 1890s as industrialisation progressed🏭 + Western-style socialist movements ⬆️.
Moderate liberal opposition
1891-92 famine🥖🚫 marked significant ⬆️ opposition:
govt failed to provide relief➡️zemstva improved conditions + intelligentsia demanded ⬆️ role in public affairs.
Mid 1890s renewed zemstva-led calls for national body to advise govt.
1890s industrialisation➡️intelligentsia split - some remained moderate liberals wanting reform of tsardom 🆚 others attracted by Marxist theory + socialism➡️radicals prepared to use extreme methods.
AII’s reforms set expectation for change so opposition ⬆️ when expectations not met.
Radical opposition: the Narodniks (Populists)
Beliefs: land redistribution + development of mir.
Nechyev (radical activist, exiled, ‘go to the people’) inspired circle of young revolutionaries ‘Chaikovsky Circle’🟠 - produced pamphlets + smuggled banned books 1869-72📝📕.
1874 Lavrov led 2,000 young men + women (mainly nobility + intelligentsia) to win over peasants in countryside to socialist ideas + stir up resentment over lack of land + heavy tax burden💰.
❌peasants too loyal to tsar👑💘, reported to authorities➡️1,600 Narodniks arrested.
Some Narodniks tried dressing + talking like peasants to persuade villagers of their importance to society👨🏼🌾.
❌1876 another attempt ‘go to the people’ failed➡️show trials 1877-78.
✅Spread radical opposition into countryside + showed govt depth of feeling of its opponents.
Radical opposition: Land and Liberty
Set up 1877 more radical + organised than Populists.
Beliefs: Bakunin’s (introduced R Marxism) view that R’s land should be handed to peasants + the state destroyed.
Members sought work in peasant communes👨🏼🌾 discreetly to stir resistance among peasants to Tsar🤴🏻❌.
Some carried out political assassinations - 1878 assassinated head of Third Section☠️.
✅Gained much public sympathy, talks w/ zemstva to press for constitutional reform ❌tsarist govt failed to respond.
1879 LL split into Black Partition + People’s Will.
Radical opposition: Black Partition
Beliefs: share black soil provinces in R among peasants (led by Plekhanov).
Worked peacefully among peasants👨🏼🌾☮️.
Wanted social change w/o violence ⚔️🚫 (rev through peaceful agitation + propaganda).
✅Set up press in Minsk + ⬆️ cooperation w/ R workers trying to gather their support.
❌Ceased to exist after arrests 1880-81.
Some leaders turned to Marxism⚒.
❌Less effective than People’s Will.
Radical opposition: People’s Will
Beliefs: remove Tsar from power through violence methods⚔️ but would cooperate if Tsar agreed to their constitution (led by Mikhailov).
Placed spy within Third Section🕵🏻♂️ to help avoid arrest + gather info.
Undermined govt by assassinating officials🎩🔫.
Attempted to kill AII several times, finally succeeded 1881💣.
Bigger than Black Partition.
Tsarist reaction and the radical opposition after 1881
❌Security + repression ⬆️ after AII’s assassination💣.
❌Populist movement ceased to exist ✳️ some supporters met in secret + committed terrorist acts.
✳️Underground societies continued to translate + reproduce writings of foreign socialist📝.
✳️1886 students St Petersburg tried to reform People’s Will.
❌1887 group who made💣 to assassinate AIII arrested + hanged inc Lenin’s brother.
✳️1890s ⬆️ industrialisation➡️development workers’ organisations👷🏼♀️, illegal TUs + Marxist discussion circles➡️spread radical Marxist ideas widely.
