Chapter 3 - The autocracy of Alexander II and Alexander III Flashcards
The autocracy of Alexander II and Alexander III
When was the failed assassination attempt on Alexander II, and what was the consequence?
1866
A more repressive policy was adopted.
How many assassination attempts on Alexander II?
7 in total
What unfortunate events influenced Alexander II’s reaction?
- the death of the heir (his son) and his wife
- distanced himself from the reforming elements within his own family (his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin and his aunt, Grand Duchess Yekaterina)
- 7 asssassination attempts
Reactionaries feared the spead of Western ideas through liberal unis and freer press. So Alexander II did what?
He replaced liberal ministers with conservative ones.
- Dmitry Tolstoy as Minister for Education, replacing the liberal Golovnin
- Aleksandr Timashev as Minister for Internal Affairs, replaing Valuev
- Pyotr Shuvalov as Head of the Third Section (secret police)
- Konstantin Pahlen as Minister of Justice
Changes to education.
Dmitry Tolstoy = Orthodox; believed tight control over education was essential to eradicate Western liberal ideas and growing critisicism of the autocracy
- Zemstva’s powers over education were reduced
- Church regain control over rural schools
- Gimnazii ordered to follow a traditional curriculum
- Subjects that encouraged critical though were out e.g. Science and modern langauge
- Censorship was tightened
- Strict control over student activity and organisations
- More state teacher-training colleges were set up to increase tsarist control rather than to improve education.
- Tolstoy could veto university appointments where he felt necessary
- Many students chose to attend universities abroad rather than at home
Changes to police, law and control
Pyotr Shuvalov (Head of the Third Section):
- strengthened the police
- encouraged the Third Section
- increased the persecution of other ethnic and religious minorities
Konstantin Pahlen (Minister of Justice):
- ensured the judicial system made an example of those accused of political agitation
- searches and arrests increased
- new governor-generals were established in 1879, with power to prosecute in military courts and exile political offenders
- held open ‘show trials’ with the intention of deterring others from revolutionary activity, but the whole experiment backfired and in 1878, political crimes were transferred from the civil courts to special secret courts.
Failure of the Show Trials
1878 onwards, political crimes were transferred from the civil courts to special secrect courts due to the failure of show trials
Trial of 193:
- people accused of revolutionary activity
- a sympathetic jury acquitted 153 of the 193 defendants, and only light sentences were given to the rest
- the defence lawyers’ passionate speeches were published in the press, which gave publicity to revolutionary ideas
Vera Zasulich sympathised with the accused and shot and wounded the governor of St Petersburg, Dmitri Trepov. She was found not guilty in her trial in 1878.
Russia’s state in the 1870s
the political crisis etc etc
- Russo-Turkish War (1877-78)
- Famine in the country side in 1879-80
- Industrial recession began
- Further attempts on Alexander II’s life
All led to Alex II understanding that violence and unrest might be better curbed by widening democratic consultation.
Who was appointed as the new Minister for Internal Affairs in 1880?
Count Loris-Melikov
What did Count Loris-Melikov do?
- release political prisoners
- relax censorship
- remove salt-tax
- lift restrictions on the activities of the zemstva
- Third Section abolished, with its powers being transferred to the regular police, although the Okhrana was created, and soon became just as oppressive
- published a report
What did Loris-Melikov’s report contain?
- response to zemstva demands
- reccommended the inclusion of elected representatives of the nobility, of the zemstva, and of the town gvoernments in debating drafts of some state decrees
Became known as the ‘Loris-Melikov Constitution’
Alexander II accepted and signed the report on 13th March 1881, and called for a meeting of the Council of Ministers to disscuss it.
He was assassinated later that day.
Not really a constitution
The assassination of Alexander II.
13th March 1881.
People’s Will threw bombs at the Tsar’s carriage.
What were Alexander III’s beliefs on autocracy?
- Tutoted by Pobedonostsev
- Brought up with a strong sense of autocracy
- He alone could decide what was right for his country; the duty of his subjects was to love and obey
What were Alexander III’s first actions as Tsar?
The public hanging of the conspirators involved in his father’s assassination.
The 1881 ‘Manifesto of Unshakable Autocracy’.
He also issued a Law on Exceptional Mesaures, which declared that, if necessary a Commander-in-Chief could be appointed to take control of a locality, using military polcie courts and arbitrary powers of imprisonment.
Key profile of Konstantin Pobedonostsev
- Tutor to Alexander III and Nicholas II
- Close to Alex II
- Nickname ‘Black Tsar’
- Probably wrote Alexander’s manifesto on the ‘unshakable autocracy’
- Over-Procurator of the Holy Synod from 1880
- Spoke out for absolutism, naitonalism, and anti-Semitism
