Autocracy Of Alexander II And Alexander III

Question 1

What was the main reason for Alexander II’s return to more repressive policies?

Answer 1

The amount of attempted assassinations against his life

Question 2

How many attempted assassinations were attempted on Alexander II’s life?

Answer 2

A total of 5 were attempted, all without success

Question 3

Why did Alexander remove himself from reforming elements in his own family?

Answer 3

In 1865 his eldest son and heir had died, his wife was suffering from tuberculosis and had removed herself from public life

Question 4

Where did the Tsar seek consaltion?

Answer 4

At the hands of his mistress, this not only distanced himself from the reformers in his family but the continued assassinations only made him more aloof. He became less inclined to resist the reactionary conservatives

Question 5

What did the reactionaries fear?

Answer 5

They feared the spread of Western ideas through the liberal universities and free press
They also feared the ethnic minorities, saying that their religions were diluting Russian strength

Question 6

What changes did Alexander II make to his cabinet

Answer 6

In 1866, Alexander replaced his liberal ministers with conservatives replacing his minister of education, minister of internal affairs, head of 3rd section ( secret police) and his minister of Justice

Question 7

Who did Alexander II replace as his minister of Education?

Answer 7

Dmitry Tolstoy replaced the more liberal Golovnin

Question 8

Who did Alexander II replace as his minister of Internal affairs?

Answer 8

Alexander Timashev replaced Photos Valuev

Question 9

Who did Alexander II place as head of the 3rd Section (secret police)?

Answer 9

Pyotr Shuvalov

Question 10

Who did Alexander II place as as his minister of Justice ?

Answer 10

Konstantin Pahlen

Question 11

What reforms were made to Education ( Alexander II) ?

Answer 11

The Zemstvas powers over education were reduced and the church regained its authority over rural schools

The higher gimnaziya were ordered to follow a traditional curriculum and abandon teaching natural sciences
From 1871 only they could progress to universities
Students in the modern technical schools were limited to higher technical institutions

More traditional curriculum
Subjects that encouraged critical thought were pushed out, maths Latin Greek and divinity encouraged
Censorship was tightened over student activities and organizations
More state teacher training colleges were set up- to increase Tsarist
control
There were lectures for women but Tolstoy retained the right to veto university appointments whenever her felt necessary

Many students chose to study abroad rather than at home

Question 12

What reforms were made to Police, Law and Control?

Answer 12

Shuvalov strengthened the police and encouraged the third section
He stepped up persecution of ethnic and religious minorities
Pahlen made sure the judicial system made an example of those accused of political crimes
Searches and arrests increased
New governed generals were established in 1879 - powers to prosecute in military courts and exile political offenders
They sometimes even tracked down those who had fled the country to face justice
They held show trials- to deter others from revolutionary activities
It backfired and in 1878 political crimes were transferred to special secret courts

Question 13

What made Alexander II accept that that violence and unrest might be managed better by widening democratic consultation?

Answer 13

. Eventually the further attempts of Alexander’s life led him to accept this face

Question 14

What was happening in Russia during the late 1870s?

Answer 14

The late 1870s were a time of political crisis in Russia. The Russia army was struggling in the Russo Turkish war and famine swept the countryside

Question 15

Who was Loris Melikov?

Answer 15

He was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs.

Question 16

What reforms did Alexander II make after his reactionary period ?

Answer 16

He released political prisoners, relaxed censorship, removed the salt tax and lifted restrictions on the activities of the Zemstva. The third section was abolished and its powers transferred to the regular police
A special section was made called the Okhrana was created, and soon became just as oppressive

Question 17

What was the Loris Melikov constitution?

Answer 17

In 1880 he produced a report in response to zemstva demands. It included the inclusion of elected representatives of nobility, the zemstva and the town governments in debating the drafts of some state decrees. These became known as the Loris Melikov constitution. It didn’t really create a constitution at all

Question 18

What happened to the Constitution?

Answer 18

Alexander II accepted and signed the report thr morning of the 13 th of March, 1889, calling for a meeting of the Council of Ministers to discuss the document. The same day the Tsar was killed by a bomb
Alexander III later abandoned the Loris Melikov proposals and reforming ministers resigned

Question 19

How did Alexander II die?

Answer 19

On March 13 1881 Alexander was traveling to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg in a closed carriage. Members of the People’s Will ( a revolutionary group) had positioned themselves along the route with concealed bombs. The first 2 bombs thrown missed but when the Tsar got out of his carriage to check on the injured men, a bomb was thrown which killed his instantly

Question 20

What did Alexander III believe?

Answer 20

He believed that with Gods direction he alone could decide what was right for his country the duty of his subjects was not to question but love and obey

Question 21

How did Alexander III’s reign begin?

Answer 21

His reign began with the public hanging of the conspirators involved in his fathers assassination and the 1881 ‘Manifesto of Unshakable Autocracy’

Law on Exceptional measures, which declared that if necessary a Commander in chief could be appointed to take control of a locality, using military police courts and arbitrary powers of imprisonment

The Loris Melikov proposals were abandoned.
He relied heavily on conservatives who replaced many ministers in his cabinet

Question 22

What changes did Alexander III make in local government?(reactionary period)

Answer 22

A new state appointed office of Land captain was created in July 1889 with power to override elections to the zemstva and village assemblies
They could also disregard zemstvo decisions
They were also made responsible for law enforcement and government in the country side and could overturn court judgements

In 1890 he changed election arrangements for the zemstva, so as to reduce the peasant vote and placed the zemstva under under central government control
This channeled their efforts away from the political and towards the social services
In 1892 a similar arrangement was made for the towns. The electoral-ate was reduced to the owners of property above a certain value and the mayor and members of town councils became star employees, subject to government direction

Question 23

How did Alexander’s reforms to government affect the system?

Answer 23

Alexander III greatly increased government powers over the zemstva and other bodies. He saw this as a way of moving towards ruling Russia directly from the throne
The result was confusion in administration, the agencies of government were all set up against each other. The power of government effect stoppped at the provincial capitals were the governors had their offices
The affairs of peasant Russia where 85% of the population lived was unknown to the city bureaucrats

Question 24

What changes did Alexander III make in policing?

Answer 24

The number of police increased and new branches of the criminal investigation department were set up. There was also a drive to recruit spies, counter spies ( to spy on spies) and agents provocateurs who would pose as revolutionaries in order to incriminate others

By the 1882 statue on Police surveillance, any area of the empire could be deemed an area of subversion and police could search , arrest, detain, question, imprison or exile not only rose who had committed a crime but any who Were thought likely to commit a crime or knew or were related to people who had committed crimes and no such arrested person had any right to legal representation.

Question 25

What changes did Alexander III make to the judicial system?

Answer 25

The judicial reforms of alexander II were partially reversed. In 1885, a was decree provided for the minister of Justice to take more control like dismissing judges. In 1887 the Ministry was granted powers to hold closed court sessions and in 1889 it took responsibility for the appointment of town judges
in 1887 the property and educational qualifications needed by jurors was raised and in 1889 the volst courts were put under direct jurisdiction of the Land captains in the countryside and judges in the towns

Question 26

What changes did Alexander III make to education?

Answer 26

New university charter in 1884 made appointments of chancellors, deans and uni professors subject to approval of the education ministry
this was based on religious, moral and patriotic orientation, rather than academia
They also closed universities for women and abolishes separate university courts
all university life was supervised, students could not gather in groups larger than 5
Children from the lower classes were restricted to primary education lest they be taken above their station
Notes:
only 20% of the population was literate by the first census in 1897
These education policies ran counter to the governments attempts to promote economic modernisation and failed to prevent student revolutionary movements, particularly in the 1890s

Question 27

What changes did Alexander III make to censorship?

Answer 27

Tolstoy established a government committee in 1882 which issued the so called ‘temporary regulations’. These allowed newspapers to be closed dow and a life ban placed on editors and publishers. Censors became more active
all literary publications had to be officially approved and libraries and reading rooms were restricted on the books they could stock
Russification was enforced and extended to theatre, art and culture

Question 28

What was the extent and impact of counter reform in Alexander III ‘s reign?

Answer 28

Although Alexander III’s policies helped to reverse the trends set in motion by his father, not all of Alexander II’s reforms disappeared and there was positive change.
In may 1881, a law reduced the redemption payable and cancelled the arrears of ex-serfs in the 37 central provinces of the Empire . In May 1885, the poll tax was abolished and the introduction of inheritance tax kind of shifted the weight of tax off the lower classes
Other reforms include The introduction of the right of appeal to higher courts (after trail by Land Captain), the establishment of the peasants Land Bank in 1883 and some reformist factory legislation.