DS: Alexander II Flashcards
What are the main debates concerning AII?
- Tsar liberator vs autocratic ruler
- Motivations for reform
- Success of reform
- was failures due to Crimean war?
Definition of a liberal ruler?
Bring about positive reform to benefit people and gain freedom
- A ruler unbound by traditional views or ideas who seek reform for the long term benefit it can bring to their citizens
What is the definition of a reactionary ruler?
Resolving crisis independently and as they occur
- A ruler who introduces reform to solve a short term problem
What are some reforms which show AII as liberal?
- 1861 Emancipation Decree Just over 20 million serfs were now granted free ownership of land released by the state. They were allowed to marry, own property and internal passports were removed. However, 15% of peasants still remained ‘temporarily obligated’ to their landlords until 1881. Peasants were expected to pay redemption taxes for 49 years with a 6% interest charge. and could not leave the Mir until all the payments had been made.
- 1865 - The press and book publishers received a new codification of regulations which reduced some of the restrictions. The press was allowed to print editorials with comment on government policy for the first time. Foreign publications could be sold in Russia, with government approval.
- 1862 – Reutern establishes municipal banks, continuing his economic reforms
- 1880 – Appointment of the liberal Interior Minister Melikov. He abolished the Third Section. He was helping Alex preparing the introduction of a national assembly with nominated (elected) members, including that of the Zemstva. The Salt Tax was also to be reformed to help peasants financially.
What are some reforms which show AII was a reactionary leader?
- 1861 - Military Reforms- Military service was reduced from 25 to 6 years. Abolition of brutal forms of punishment in the army. Military Colleges are introduced to train officers. Modern weaponry was introduced in conjunction with steamships and railways.
- 1864 - Zemstva– locally elected councils. But they were dominated by the nobility both at district and provincial level (74% of all seats occupied between 1865-1867 were nobility at provincial level).
- 1865 – Alexander rejects calls from the Zemstva to grant a constitution.
- 1877-8 - ‘The Trial of 193’ in was widely reported, and the defendants all made impassioned speeches, rousing the people and criticizing the government.
What were the conditions of the Emancipation Edict?
-
All privately owned serfs were freed. state owned serfs emancipated
in 1866. Peasants could now own property, run their own businesses and marry who they wished. - Nobles had to hand over a proportion of land to peasants which was measured and allocated by official surveyors.
- Peasants had to help pay redemption payments, over 49 years at 6% interest. Legal rights to the land were only given after the last payment was made.
- Redemption payments was carried out by the village council of elders (the Mir).
How did AII invest in railway?
- In 1860 there were 1600 kilometres of railway track in Russia, and in 1878 there were over 22,000. Rail traffic also increasedx4 (1865-75).
- The government invested 1.8 million roubles in railways as there was not enough private investment to fund them.
Which industries expanded under AII?
- cotton industry was independent and expanded as the government encouraged further foreign investment. The cotton industry expanded quickly. It only exported 18,000 tons of raw cotton in 1863, but this rose to 158,000 tons in 1881.
How did foreign investment aid Russia?
Foreign expertise (like John Hughes and the New Russia Company) helped to exploit coal and iron ore deposits in the Donbass region. Oil extraction was also begun on the Caspian Sea. Oil rose from 8912 tons in 1865 to 244,000 tons in 1887. Coal production rose from 300,000 tons in 1860 to 4,428,000 tons in1887.
What was the financial crisis under Reutern?
- Reutern’s reforms helped the growth of industry as he freed up more state resources to be invested in industry; but there was never enough. The railway building this encouraged was directly responsible for persuading the French to make massive loans to Russia in the 1880s.
The Russo-Turkish War was followed by a financial crisis and the collapse of the rouble.
Why did revolutionary ideas grow alongside university growth?
The number of students at university rose dramatically from 3600 in 1855 to 10,000 by 1880. However, revolutionary support also grew rapidly over this period in the universities, as greater freedom to discuss Russia’s problems increased anger and frustration in the young educated elite.
How did Milyutin reforms affect the army?
- Service in the army was reduced to 6 years.
- Training was modernised – especially for officers. This resulted in an army that was more in line with Russia’s western rivals. In particular, the engineer section of the army and the navy did well in the Russo-Turkish War.
Why did the Russian Army not perform well in the Russo-Turkish war?
Milyutin’s reforms were slow to take effect and had not improved the performance of the infantry by the Russo-Turkish War (although further reforms were made after that War). Russia could not afford War. This prompted economic reforms at home.
Why were peasants dissappointed with the Emancipation reforms?
Disillusionment in the countryside resulted in numerous peasant revolts in the rural provinces over the 1860s and 70s. These were easily crushed by local governors and troops, but created a fertile breeding ground of resentment towards the state for future agitators to exploit.
What did the zemstvas do?
- New local councils set up in the rural provinces to manage public health, prisons, roads, agriculture, the relief of famine and some areas of education
What was the result of AII relaxation of censorship?
- Relaxation of the censorship laws and control of the university curriculum’s led to new utopian ideas from the West, mostly in the form of socialism or communism, had flooded in and provoked heated debates amongst idealistic students and lecturers.
- Nihilism and Populism emerged from this and would help shape the future of opposition in Russia.
- Political opposition to the regime was still illegal. No trade unions or political parties were allowed
What was the outcome of the Crimean War?
- Russia fights the Ottomans, France and GB, losing horribly
- Revealed how bad and behind the Russian army were- poor supplies, outdated weaponry, awful transportation means
How did defeat in the Crimean lead to the Emancipation?
- 500,000 Russian soldiers died due to poor health, illness and disease- linked to how NI had ruled
- Army recruited from serfs and was uneducated and untrained (not professional armies as in the west)
Why did AII want to Russify Poland?
- Milyutin wanted the Polish gentry to be purged- Russian officials needed to be brought in to carry out administration- Poland to become state of Russia
Milyutin gained complete control of Poland once Wielopolski fled:
- Hundreds of members of the polish military were exiled to Siberia, estates transferred to Russian officials
- Polish peasants emancipated
- Level of nationalism diminished and Poles had less autonomy, became ‘Vistula region’ of Russia
- Russian became the official language of govt, and only taught in schools
- Poland had revealed its importance in fuelling Russian industrialisation. Polish politicians from the Polish socialist party were elected
How much did the Poles oppose/ threaten AII?
- Polish rebllion used guerilla warfare between 1863-64 but were crushed
- National minority groups never really caused AII any really problems, but he was unable to snuff them out completely and they would continue to be a source of future opposition
How did the intelligensia oppose/ threaten AII?
- Trial of the 193: Series of fully press covered criminal trials where 193 students and other revolutionaries were tried for populist ‘unrest’ and propaganda against the Russian empire- largest political trial in Tsarist Russia
- Only a small percent were punished with sentences of hard labour or prison
- Led to an increase in violent militancy among previously peaceful revolutionaries
- Trial served as a staging ground for the prisoners’ well rehearsed speeches and gained support
- Radical intelligentsia introduced movement of nihilism and populism
- Only found on university campuses
How did the Populism oppose/ threaten AII?
- ‘Mad summer of 1874’: thousands of student youth called Narodnichestvo (peasant populist) went to the countryside to educate peasants about govt issues
- After lack of peasant involvement, demonstrated in ST Petersburg leading to further arrests
- Numerous peasant revolts and disillusion about Emancipation, 1860s and 70s
- Mir caused revolts
How did the terrorism oppose/ threaten AII?
People’s will: Wanted to kill AII
- Achieved this, assassinated him in 1881 after 7 attempts
- Radical intelligentsia
What other political opposition threatened AII?
- middle path upset conservatives and liberals
- Led to a ‘crisis of rising expectations’
- AII could not fulfil reforms without undermining autocracy
- Calls for a national assembly
- Call of constitution which would limit the Tsars power
