Alexander II Flashcards
What was Alexander’s tsar nickname?
‘The Tsar liberator’
What year was the emancipation?
1861
What event stared the emancipation?
Russia losing the Crimean war
What was the nobility of landowners called?
Dvoriane
What year was the Crimean war?
1854-6
What did Alexander say about serfdom?
‘It is better to begin to destroy serfdom from above than to wait until that time when it begins to destroy itself from below’
Who essentially decided the terms of the emancipation?
The dvoriane
How much land did the peasants actually receive?
1/3
Who were the peasants essentially now tied to?
The village commune (Mir)
How much of a peasants income came from farming after the emancipation?
Only half by 1900
How long were redemption payments held for?
49-years
How much land did peasants lose after the emancipation? Where was this particularly bad?
Ukraine- lost 30.8%
How many peasants didn’t have land following the emancipation?
2-3 million
How did the Mir control peasants?
Needed a passport to travel more than 20 miles
Good policies of the emancipation?
Able to marry without third party consent, hold property, couldn’t be bought or sold
Example of judicial reform following the emancipation
Trial by jury
What were the new local governments called?
Zemstva
Example of educational reforms?
Curriculum modernised
How much had students increased by?
Doubled to 800,000 during the first decade of Alexander’s reign
Who was minister of war?
Militin
What was the aim of military reforms?
More effective
Example of military reform?
Length of service reduced from 25 to 15 years
Evidence that military position was improved?
Participation in the Congress of Berlin in 1878
Example of economic reform?
Unified treasury
Were economic reforms successful?
Yes
Evidence the emancipation failed
Polish revolt 1863
‘Going to the people’ 1874
Failed assassination attempt 1866
Assassination in 1881
What was the significance of the populist ‘going to the people’?
Developed political consciousness- later insurrections
Key group against the tsar?
The Third Element
Example of a political change?
Abolished the ‘personal chancellery of his imperial majesty’ with the ‘council of ministers’
What did the Polish Uprising show about Alexander II?
his repression, not necessarily the ‘Tsar Liberator’
Treatment of nationalities under Alexander II
Poland- russification after Polish revolt
Ukraine- 2 decrees in 1863 and 1876 tat stopped the publication and importation of books in Ukranian
Finland- 1865 own constitution (diet)
Treatment of Jews under Alexander II
Allowed them to migrate from the Pale of Settlement
two treaties that ended the Russo-Turkish war
San Stefano and the Congress of Berlin
What does Glastnost mean?
Openness
Alexander II and the police force?
Replaced the ‘third section’ with the Okhrana in 1880
Who were the economic ministers under Alex II?
Reutern and Hughes
What economic changes did Reutern make?
railway construction, foreign technical expertise and investment
What were economic policies inhibited by?
Russo-Turkish war
treatment of Poles after the Polish revolt
the Milyutin plan: hundreds of members of the Polish nobility were exiled, Polish peasants were emancipated, rural district councils were set up. Poland fully integrated into Russia as the ‘vistula region.’
Russification: criminalizing displays of Polish culture and the Polish language, Catholic churches shut down and their land given to Russians, Russian made the official language
Group that assassinated Alexander II.
The People’s Will
Stats for the increase of railway construction.
7-fold increase in number if railway track from 1862-1878
Doubled industrial output whilst Reutern was in office
