A2 Opposition.

Question 1

Who killed A2? When?

Answer 1

People’s Will group. 3rd April 1881.

Question 2

Who were the moderate liberals? What did they believe?

Answer 2

• Relatively small group composed of the liberally thinking intelligentsia.
• The size and influence of the Russian intelligentsia grew over the 19th century in line with economic changes and reforms.
• They had the time, money, education and interest to invest in political matters. Many had travelled abroad and despaired at the state of their own country in comparison.
• Most fell into two groups: Westernisers (copy the West) or Slavophiles (follow a Russian path).

Question 3

What role did the zemstvo play in the moderate liberal opposition?

Answer 3

• They became a natural home for Westernising liberals, as local decision making encouraged them to think more nationally.
• They hoped that they would reform autocracy, and work alongside the Tsar. A2 was not prepared to reform autocracy.
• If the Loris-Melikov proposals had taken effect they would have increased zemstvo representation.

Question 4

Who made up the radical opposition?

Answer 4

• Young members of the middle classes. Wanted to go further than their liberal parents.
• Young Russia were claimed to be responsible for a series of fires in Moscow in 1862. Destroyed over 2000 shops.
• ## in 1863 ‘The Organisation’ was set up at Moscow Uni, their aims were heightened with crackdowns in the late 1860s and the influence of radical thinkers like Herzen and Chernyshevsky.

Question 5

Who came up with ‘going to the people’?

Answer 5

• Initially suggested by people such as Nechaev and the Tchaikovsky circle (a mainly literary group who pushed for social change).
• Became associated with Narodnyism/populism: taking politics to the people.

Question 6

What was ‘going to the people’? How many people went? Why did it fail?

Answer 6

• in 1874 Pyotr Lavrov encouraged ~2000 young people (mainly from the nobility and intelligentsia) to travel into the country and persuade peasants that the future of the country lay in the development of the peasant commune. They aimed to exploit the failings of emancipation.
• Some dressed and talked like peasants, but the peasants were to loyal to the Tsar.
• 1600 were arrested and a series of trials occurred.

Question 7

How many people were freed in the trial of the 193?

Answer 7

• Over 150. The jury felt sympathy’s for them.

Question 8

What did Narodnyism succeed in doing?

Answer 8

• Took more radical opposition out of underground and secret meetings. Showed the regime that there was considerable discontent.

Question 9

Which populist group carried out political assassinations (during A2)? Who did they kill?

Answer 9

• Land and Liberty.
• Assassinated General Mezemstev, the head of the Third Section (1878).
• They garnered mass public sympathy and even held talks with the zemstva to try and put pressure on the regime for constitutional reform.
• Set up after the failure of the larger ‘going to the people movement’.

Question 10

How did Land and Liberty go to the people?

Answer 10

• Tried to enter the peasant sphere less intrusively, e.g in the roles of doctors or builders.

Question 11

When did Land and Liberty split? Into which groups?

Answer 11

• Black Repartition and People’s Will (Narodnaya Volya).
• 1879.

Question 12

What was the Black Repartition group?

Answer 12

• Wanted to split the black soil provinces among the peasants. It continued to work peacefully under Georgi Plekhanov.
• It published radical materials.
• A series of arrests 1880-81 ended its operating.

Question 13

What was the People’s Will group (Narodnaya Volya)?

Answer 13

• Led by Aleksandr Mikhailov.
• Successfully planted a spy in the Third section.
• Bigger than the Black Partition and advocated for violent methods, undermining the government by assassination of government officials.
• They declared the Tsar had to be removed in 1879. They said they would remove the threat if he agreed to a constitution.
• They assassinated him in 1881 after multiple unsuccessful attempts and many rejections of a constitution by the Tsar.

Question 14

What were Westernisers? What did they believe?

Answer 14

• One of the main groups within the liberal intelligentsia.
• Wanted to copy Western ways as they had brought greater progress than there had been in Russia.
• One key figure was the writer Ivan Turgenev who had travelled through much of Western Europe.
• Many in the Zemstvo wanted a National Assembly which the Loris-Melikov proposals may have delivered.

Question 15

What were Slavophiles? What did they believe?

Answer 15

• Believed Russia to be unique and its history and culture needed to be preserved by maintaining the influence of the Orthadox Church and a peasant society.
• A key figure of this movement was the writer Leo Tolstoy.
• They became less vocal after the 1891-92 famine in which the Tsarist government were inactive and zemstva provided relief.

Question 16

What was the Polish revolt? When was it? How did A2 respond?

Answer 16

• Polish nationalism had been growing significantly during the early years of A2’s reign, and in 1861 strong demonstrations encouraged A2 to introduce reforms such as opening a new university in Warsaw.
• It continued to grow and in 1863 it broke out into armed rebellion. It took over a year to suppress. A2’s attempts at reform and conciliation had failed and so he responded with hostility.
• Seizure of all the property of the Polish Roman Catholic Church in 1864. Warsaw University closed in 1869. Russian replaced Polish as the language of government and hundreds of Russian officials were drafted in to replace Poles in the civil service.