Alexander III Flashcards
How did AIII assert authority and control?
- Statue of state security (1881) allowed the government to prosecute any individual for political crimes, close schools universities and newspapers
- Establishment of a new secret police the ‘Okhrana’
- The Zemstva Act (1890) reduced the independence of the zemstva
- Justices of the peace were abolished and replaced with land captains
What were the economic policies of finance minister Bunge (1881-87)?
Control expenditure to create financial stability and attract foreign capital (problem was a series of budget deficits)
What were the economic policies of finance minister Vyshnegradsky (1888-92)?
Aimed to improve Russian finances and gold reserves, Increased indirect taxation and push up exports (Grain exports increased by 18%)
What were the economic policies of finance minister Sergei Witte (1892-1903)?
- Continued protective tariffs, heavy taxation, forced exports and encouraged foreign investment
- Raised interest rates to attract investment, stabilising the currency and placed Russia on the gold standard in 1897
What social improvements were there AIII’s reign?
- Bunge abolished the poll tax and lowered redemption payments
- 1883 Peasants land bank was set up to help peasants buy land
- Laws were passed to restrict child labour, limiting working hours for women at night
What social issues were there in AIII’s reign?
- Harvest failures in the Volga region caused a massive famine while the government carried on exporting grain (1891-92)
- Vyshnegradsky increased indirect taxes so improvements made under Bunge had less effect
What changes were made to railways during the ‘Great Spurt’?
- Railways were expanded and investment was encouraged
- The trans Siberian railway increased by 20,000 miles from 1881 until 1900
What improvements were made to industrialisation during the ‘Great Spurt’?
- Production of iron and steel had risen from 9 to 76 million poods
- Russia was now a major world producer of iron, steel and oil
- By 1990 Moscow was the fastest growing city east of New York
What changes were made to agriculture during the ‘Great Spurt’?
- Peasants land bank 1883: peasants could now by and sell land (1887-1905: peasant owned land grew from 6 to 26 million hectares
- Production grew by 43% between 1880 and 1913
What social changes were there as a result of the ‘Great Spurt’?
- Huge increase in population: 74 million in 1958 to 128 million in 1897 and the population of Saint Petersburg quadrupled to 2.2 million
- The urban workforce grew rapidly: 3 million by 1900, although this was only 2.5% of the total population
