alexander's domestic policy Flashcards
How did Peter the Great attempt to change his court and what results did this have?
Tours Europe to see how he can change Russia to become great/economic development. Peter tries to Westernize his court. There becomes a disagreement in the way Russia should become great. Splits Russia into two sections:
Westernizers: Russia will become great on a European model
Slavophile: Russia will be great on a Russian model
This starts a war: the Great Northern War
background of the Polish Revolt
Poland had become part of the Russian Empire in 1830, and was hoping for reprieve under Alexander II. They achieved some successes, i.e., Warsaw University was reopened, however they were still under Russian rule. Two groups in Poland, those who wanted a completely free country, and those who wanted autonomy under the Tsar.
Alexander Wielpolski
Made president of Poland in 1862, as he supports the less liberal group. There was an attempted assassination against him, which led to compulsory conscription into the Polish army
Poland uprising 1862
Soldiers who left the Polish army were now armed, and from January 1863 to spring 1864 there was widespread guerrilla warfare across the country. The Russian Army was called in to help. the revolt had support from groups such as Russian ‘Land and Liberty’, and a commemorated general in the Russian army, Janislaw Dabrowski.
Why does the revolt fail?
Lack of support from the peasantry, who did not trust the ‘enlightened’ noble class who were unable to connect with them. The lack of class distrust means that peasants were willing to sell out pockets of revolutionaries in the villages.
What were the repercussions of the Revolts?
Miliutin’s Reforms:
Absorbed Poland into Russia, renamed the Vistula Region
Purges Polish gentry by sending them to Siberia
Plants Russian officials in local governments i.e. councils, courts
Catholic Church is excommunicated from Poland.
Emancipation of the Serfs 1861
in 1855, 50 million serfs in Russia. ‘Tied to the land’, and payed in ‘obrok’ (grain) ‘barschina’ (physical labour)
Why was the emancipation necessary?
Moral reasons: christianity
Economic crisis had been revealed by the failure in the Crimean War, and it was shown how far behind Russia’s technology was when compared to the West.
Alexander had already proven himself to be a very different Tsar than his father, signing a peace treaty with the Crimean War in 1856.
Great deal of discontent among private serfs about obligations and conditions which had resulted in increased disturbances – Crimean War had seen a big increase in rural unrest – armed force was used on 185 occasions
Leading up to the emancipation
there was a lot of disagreements surrounding the reforms, the nobility split into two groups: the Planters, and the Abolitionists. There was more freedom to discuss opinions due to the relaxation in censorship.
Tsar: ‘it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until it will begin to abolish itself from below’
1857: he created Secret Committee on Peasant affairs and Editing Commissions, to work out details of scheme
Emancipation reforms, key terms
Serfs were freed, they could marry whomsoever they wished, own property and set up own businesses
Land (for the moment) remained property of gentry, though they had to grant use of home and a portion of arable land to each peasant
Each serf guaranteed minimum size of allotment – differed according to area; assessors apportioned these later
75% of allotments were less than 4 dessyatinas (2.7 acres), when, in a good soil area, 5 dessyatinas was usually regarded as minimum to feed family, average peasant families now farmed 20% less than before emancipation, and in Ukraine peasants ended up with a 42% decrease in land owned.
freed serfs were to pay back redemption taxes to State for 49 years, including interest at 6%. Only when these were paid could they have a legal title to land.
state serfs (freed in 1866) were treated marginally better
Reaction to the Emancipation
13% of peasants were left well-endowed, 40% were adequately endowed, 47% were set up to starve.
By 1870, only 55% of peasants had even been able to start to pay to redeem land, partially due to growing arrears of redemption tax and poll tax.
Nobles: 1870, the nobility was indebted by 250million rubles to the government. By 1905 nobles owned 40% less land than in 1861, due to unprofitability of land and slow sale of land to peasants and others. Combination of failings of Emancipation and growing population meant that the industrial base did not expand quickly enough to absorb the growth of landless peasants, and distrust in tsar led to increased revolutionary action.
Why did the Emancipation fail?
Alexander acted rashly due to the hope this would bolster Russian industry, and the growing peasants revolts. Process opposed by krepostniki (defenders of serfdom) who included royalty, leaders of Church, and many other nobles and was long and tortuous. A number of compromises had to be made – A2 heavily involved, sometimes chairing discussions. Led A2 to choose the beggarly and gratuitous option proposed by Gagarin.
Lack of education in Russia meant that peasants were unable to read the edict when it was officially released. Problem was exacerbated by the official edict being written in High Church Slovenic, so peasants were unable to understand the choices, and it was only able to be distributed by the Church. Prince Kropotkin wrote how he struggled to understand due to the confusing way the bill was written.
