Alexander III Opposition 1881-1894 (Unit 2, Topic 4) Flashcards
How did the Okhrana prevent Opposition to the Regime?
They recruited thousands of informants and agents who would infiltrate revolutionary groups to uncover terrorist conspiracies and sow confusion. They listened into conversations, read mail. Anyone suspected of being a danger to the state was imprisoned and exiled (many innocent). They mainly targeted the educated class and even whole towns and provinces were put under surveillance known as ‘areas of subversion’. This action became known as the ‘Statute of Surveillance’ implemented in 1882.
What New Laws Prevented Opposition Forming?
-1882, Tolstoy’s ‘temporary laws’ tightened censorship, making it difficult to distribute and sell publications that was seen critical of the government.
-1884, a new statute was passed that completely destroyed any teaching by professors as the state now chose what was taught and who taught it.
-1887, the church had begun to take full control over the primary education and implemented financial barriers to deter peasants from education.
-1887, New closed courts established creating more severe prison conditions.
-1889, Land Captains introduced for loyal nobles who could exercise substantial administrative, judicial and police authority in districts reducing the role of the zemstvo
How did Radicals continue to Form Under Alexander III?
The Nobles and Intelligentsia split into Liberals and Radicals.
Radicals- Also known as ‘Agrarian Socialists’ were the remainder of the Populist groups and Peoples Will. They went underground into Self-education circles to discuss theories and literature to influence others to their cause. Students in St. Petersburg were found making bombs with plans to assassinate the tsar. They were extremely annoyed by the 1891 and 92 famines and exclaimed that the regime wasn’t working.
Why did Liberals Form Under Alexander III?
(What were they angry about and what did they want?)
Liberals-They were the more intelligentsia and liberal thinking individuals. They were annoyed at Land Captains and the churches control of education, the relief work implemented onto the zemvsta and the famine of 1891 and 92. They became more popular than Slavophiles and split into Moderate liberals and Marxist Socialists. Both wanted a constitutional monarchy with rapid and extreme change.
What was Marxism?
Created by Karl Marx, a very influential political philosopher in 1848, Marxism is the slow progressive nature of a country towards communism:
Stage 1-Primitive Communism, everyone lives off the land with no overall authority
Stage 2-Feudalism, rich take charge and social ladder constructed
Stage 3-Capitalism, people are payed for their worth to society and middle class takeover authority
Stage 4-Socialism, workers revolt and take authority making life equal for all
Stage 5-Communsim, people are payed the same with no government or absolute power
Why is the Emergence of Marxism a Growing Issue?
Marxism was intellectually attractive to the Russian intellectuals and after the disastrous Populists movements in 1880, they looked to more of the recent ideology specifically Marxism by Karl Marx. His ideology intrigued them but they didn’t believe in his capitalist path and how peasants needed to become factory hands.
The first Russian Marxist group emerged in Switzerland 1883 by Georgi Plekhanov, (AKA ‘Father of Russian Marxism’). The Emancipation of Labour was founded with active small support from previous Narodniks. They identified the working class as the foundation for Russian revolution. Marxist views began to gain ground with young radicals who realised that socialism was inevitable.
The famine of 1891/92 encouraged further support for Marx’s theory, by 1890’s as industry developed workers organizations, illegal trade unions and Marxist study circles spread radical Marxist ideas more widely. The working class was the key to revolution.
