Chapter 1.2 + 1.3 - Changes in structure of central and local government Flashcards
Chapter 1.2 - developments in central administration
chapter 1.2
Government under the tsars: 1855-1917
When was the Personal Chancellery of his Imperial Majesty abolished and what did Alexander II (A2 replace it with)?
What are the 5 key areas of government to know?
Abolished in 1861 and replaced with the Council of Ministers
1. Personal Chancellery of his Imperial Majesty
2. The Council of Ministers
3. The Committee of Ministers
4. The Imperial Council of State
5. The Senate
Who was the chair of the Council of Ministers?
The tsar
What was the role of the Council of Ministers?
To discuss legislation, which could either be given royal assent or passed on to the Committee of Ministers
When did Alexander III (A3) stop using the Council of Ministers?
After 1882
When was the Committee of Ministers established and how many ministers were there in it?
Established in 1861, made up of initially 13 ministers
What were the 4 most important roles in the Committee of Ministers?
- Minister of the Interior (domestic affairs, law and order)
- Minister for war
- Minister of finance
- Chief procurator of the Holy Snyod (religious affairs)
What role did ministers have?
A purely administrative role
When was the Committee of Ministers abolished?
1906
What did the Imperial Council on State do?
Advised the tsar of legal and financial matters
What did the Senate act as until 1905?
The Supreme Court in Russia - final court of appeal on major legal battles
*After 1905
What caused pressure for change in Russia in 1905?
The disaster of the Russo-Japanese war
What two revolutionary events happened in 1905?
- Bloody Sunday
- Naval mutiny on Potemkin
How did Nicholas II (N2) respond to the events of 1905?
He released the October Manifesto
What did the October Manifesto create?
The Duma
What was the structure of government after 1905? (Ranked from top to bottom)
- The tsar
- The Council of Ministers
- The State Council (nominated/elected upper chamber)
- The Duma (elected lower chamber)
- The Senate
What reinforced the autocracy of N2 after the October Manifesto?
The Fundamental Laws of 1906
What did the Fundamental Laws allow the tsar to bypass?
The State Council and the Duma
What did the Fundamental Laws allow N2 to do to the Duma?
Dismiss the Duma
How many Dumas were elected between 1906 and 1917?
4
When did the first Duma sit?
April to July 1906
What was one key debate in the first Duma?
Debate on the ‘Polish Question’ - question as to whether the Poles should be allowed to self-rule
Why did N2 dismiss the first Duma after only 72 days?
The Duma had a radical option on land distribution which quickly gained press coverage, leading to Nicholas claiming that their actions were illegal and thus disbanded the Duma after two months
Who was executed between the first and second Dumas?
Key Kadet and Labourist party members who had signed the Vyborg manifesto
What was Stolypin’s system of quick trials and executions known as?
‘Stolypin’s neckties’
When did the second Duma sit?
February to June 1907
What were there fewer of in the second Duma?
Fewer Kadets and Labourists
What were there more of in the second Duma?
More Social Democrats (SDs), Social Revolutionaries (SRs) and Octobrists
What did N2 and Stolypin mistrust about the second Duma?
Their work over land reform and management of the Russian army
What led to N2 claiming the Duma was subversive and then dissolving it?
A Social Democrat members was framed for attempting to arrange an army mutiny
What did the tsar do after dismissing the second Duma?
He overhauled the electoral system
When did the third Duma sit?
November 1907 to June 1912
What did the third Duma mainly consist of?
People loyal to the tsar
What was there a significant reduction of the in the third Duma?
Reduction in nationalist members from non-Russian parts of the empire
What did the third Duma introduce which favoured the working class?
State-run insurance scheme for workers
How did Stolypin try to destabilise the Duma?
By manipulating Article 87 to create an even greater bias towards autocracy
When did the fourth Duma sit?
November 1912 to February 1917
Who dominated the fourth Duma?
Politicians from the far right
What did the rule of the fourth Duma coincide with?
Brutal repression of civil disorder
What did the fourth Duma become infamous for?
Putting pressure on the tsar to abdicate
What did historian Peter Waldron say about the impact of the Dumas and the Council of Ministers?
Collectively, the Dumas and the Council of Ministers ‘made very little difference to the underlying nature of the Russian state’
Lenin and the Bolshevik government:
When did the Bolshevik government introduce a new constitution?
July 1918
What happened at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the 25th October 1917?
The right-wing SRs and Mensheviks, who favoured a coalition government, walked out of the congress in protest
Why did the SRs and Mensheviks walking out of the Second Congress help the Bolsheviks?
It left the Bolsheviks with little opposition and a clear mandate to rule
What did the Bolsheviks allow elections to in November 1917?
A Constituent Assembly
What happened in the elections to the Constituent Assembly in 1917?
The Bolsheviks failed to win a majority, coming seconds to the SRs
What did Lenin claim about the Constituent Assembly?
It was ‘elected on the old register’ and ‘appeared as an expression of the old regime when the authority belonged to the bourgeoisie’
How long after the assembly started did Lenin shut it down?
Lenin shut down the assembly after one day
When did the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets sanction the closure of the Constituent Assembly and what did the proclaim the establishment of?
January 1918 - also proclaimed the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)
What were the 3 levels of the new Bolshevik structure of government?
- The All-Russian Congress of Soviets and the Central Executive Committee
- The Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom)
- The Cheka
What were the 3 offices of the Central Executive Committee?
- Politburo
- Orgburo
- Ogburo
What was the role of the Politburo?
The Politburo was a small, elite group that formulated policy
What did the Orgburo and Ogburo run respectively?
Orgburo = ran the Bolshevik party
Ogburo = ran the Cheka
What did Russia effectively become when the Mensheviks and SRs were expelled from the Executive Committee in the summer of 1918?
A ‘one-party’ state
What did the Sovnarkom consist of?
Ministers who had specific governmental responsibilities
Who chaired the Sovnarkom?
Lenin
What were Trotsky and Stalin’s role in the Sovnarkom?
Trotsky = foreign affairs
Stalin = nationalities
What was the main aim of the Cheka?
To prevent counter-revolutionary movements
Who was head of the Cheka?
Dzerzhinski, a Polish Communist
What did the 1924 constitution create?
The USSR
Stalin and the USSR:
What was stated about the Communist party in Article 126 of the 1936 Constitution?
That the Communist party was the ‘nucleus of all the public and state organisations of the working people’
What part of government was created in the 1936 constitution?
The Supreme Soviet
What did the Supreme Soviet have the sole power of?
Had the sole power to make laws for the whole of the union
How often did the Supreme Soviet meet?
Twice every year
How often were elections held for the The Soviet of the Union?
Every 4 years
How many members per union republic sat on the Soviet of Nationalities?
25 members per union republic
Chapter 1.3 - CHANGES IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT
chapter 1.3
*Alexander II pre-1861
Who was responsible for running provinces?
The local nobility
Who discussed village issues?
The mir
*Alexander II after 1861
What happened to the role of the nobility in local affairs after the emancipation of the serfs in 1861?
Their role ceased to exist
What was introduced in 1864 to run local areas?
The Zemstva
What % of the Zemstva was nobility?
74%
When was an urban Zemstva, the Duma, created?
1870
Who was prohibited from sitting on the Duma?
The urban proletariat
What was the liberal voice of the Duma and Zemstva called?
The Third Element
Why were the Zemstva and Duma abolished after 1917?
They were labelled bourgeois and counter-revolutionary
*Alexander III
What did Alexander III (A3) want to do to the Zemstva as part of the ‘Reaction’?
He wanted to reduce the power of the Zemstva
When did A3 introduce land captains?
1889
*Lenin and the Soviets
What did Lenin abolish?
The Zemstva and Land Captains
What was the Selsoviet?
An elected rural council
What was the Gorsoviet?
An urban council
What was the Possoviet?
A district council within a city
*Judicial Changes
When was a jury system and a hierarchy of courts introduced?
1864
What was set up in 1877 and what was its purpose?
New department in the Senate set up to try political cases
When were the police centralised under the minister for the interior?
1881
When was terror legalised as a way of deterring crime?
1921
