How, and how oppressively, was Russia governed before 1905? FINAL Flashcards
When did Nicholas II become the Tsar of Russia?
1894.
Nicholas II’s rule was particularly…
reactionary and oppresive.
Who was the Tsar assisted by?
Cabinet, the Senate and the State Council.
The Tsar’s power was not constrained by any constitutional checks. Therefore:
- The Tsar’s power was not limited by law
- Russian subjects had no right to free speech or a fair trial because these rights would effectively limit the Tsar’s power
What were the three core beliefs of the Tsarist regime,?
Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality.
Who coined the three core Tsarist beliefs, and when?
Sergei Uvarov, minister for education under Nicholas I, in 1833.
Which belief out of the three was the most important?
Autocracy.
What is autocracy?
A form of government in which one person possesses unlimited power.
Where did Tsar Nicholas II believe his right to wield unlimited power derived from?
The will of God - it was therefore beyond challenge.
What did Tsar Nicholas II dismiss reforms as, early in his reign?
‘Senseless dreams’.
What were the consequences of Autocracy?
- Corruption - government officials claimed to be representatives of the Tsar, and therefore acted as if they had absolute power
- Limited civil society - Nicholas II’s government outlawed some groups such as trade unions, and persecuted religious groups which could have played a role in generating civil society
- The Tsar’s isolation - Tsar refused to recognise Russia’s problems, and his advisers were unwilling to contradict him - as a result he had little understanding of the poverty in Russia, or of the government’s corruption
What were the main ways in Russia could be determined as an autocratic state, in the late 19th Century?
There was no constitution. There was no parliament - laws were made by the Tsar issuing decrees. There were no legal safeguards protecting the rights of individuals.
What did Konstantin Pobedonostsev advise the Tsar to do?
Promote Orthodoxy as an essential part of Russian identity.
What measures between 1894 and 1905 did Nicholas II introduce to promote Orthodoxy?
- The number of parish clergy increased by around 600%
- There was a tenfold increase in church schools, the number of students they educated increased around 15 times
- Orthodox missionaries were sent to establish new churches in the Baltic states where Protestantism was popular
How was the Orthodox Church firmly under state control?
- It was run by a government department headed by a minister whose title was procurator of the Holy Synod
Why, by the end of the 19th century, was the Orthodox Church’s value to the Tsarist regime diminishing, and an institution in decline?
- The reputation of its priests, often drunken and corrupt, was low and it was struggling to get a hearing in Russia’s fast-growing towns and cities
What happened as a result of the promotion of Orthodoxy?
Between 1881 and 1902, the number of people converting to Orthodoxy doubled - but in urban areas, there was a decline in Orthodox Church attendance.
How did Nicholas II persecute other faiths?
- No Christian Churches other than the Orthodox Church were allowed to proselytise (convert people)
- Catholic, Protestant and Islamic schools were closed down and replaced by schools run by the Russian government
- The Russian government confiscated the property of the Armenian Church
What else did aggressive Russification and the promoting of Orthodoxy lead to, in terms of religion?
Anti-Semitism.
How were educational opportunities for Jewish students limited by the enforcement of quotas?
Jews could make up no more than:
- 10% of students at universities within the Pale of Jewish Settlement
- 3% in Russia’s major cities, Moscow and St Petersburg
What were the limitations on Jews, in terms of residency?
- The May Laws, introduced in 1882, banned Jews from living in Russia’s rural areas - the law was repealed in 1905
- In some cities, such as Moscow and Kiev, campaigns were organised to expel Jews from cities
What increased, in terms of violence, in 1903 and 1904? And how many were there?
The number of pogroms - in 1903-04 there were 49 pogroms in Russia.
What did the increase in anti-Semitic violence Jews lead to?
Emigration - Jews left Russia in large numbers - most went to the US but a significant minority headed for Latin America, particularly Argentina and Peru.
What was the government’s view in Jewish emigration?
They viewed it as a good solution to the ‘Jewish problem’.
What two claims did the doctrine of Nationality make?
- The domination of the tsar’s multi-national Empire by Russia and the Russians was an entirely right and proper state of affairs. Russians, it was argued, had built the Empire and were therefore entitled to control it
- Russia and Russians were unique; separated from the peoples of Western Europe by a distinctive language, religion and culture. As a result, claimed supporters of Tsarist, liberal and socialist ideas had no place in Russia because they were unRussian
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, what did the doctrine of Nationality provide a justification for?
The Tsarist regime’s ‘Russification’ policies (the oppression of nationalities).
What was Russification, and where was it implemented most aggressively?
Russification was an attempt to impose Russia’s language, culture and religion on the Empire’s non-Russian minorities. It was implemented most aggressively in those parts of the Empire where nationalist feeling was strong - Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and, to a lesser extent, the Caucasus region.
What was Russification in response to?
The development of nationalist feelings in various parts of the Empire, which the Tsar believed threatened the unity of the Empire.
Where, in the 19th century, had there been considerable growth of nationalism?
The Ukraine, Finland, Georgia, and Poland.
What happened to Poland and Baltic provinces, in relation to Russification?
- The use of the Russian language in court proceedings and in school lessons became compulsory, despite the fact that it was not the native language of most people in these places
In what forms did Russification take?
- The imposition of Russian as the official language of government and the justice system in the government of the Baltic states
- The promotion of Russian culture through primary schools
- The suppression of non-Russian cultures
- Establishing Russian-language universities such as Iur’ev University in Estonia
What were the consequences of Russification?
- It was counterproductive, as it led to a backlash among groups who had been loyal to the Empire
- Indeed, cultural persecution turned the Finns, the Armenians and the people of the Baltic against the Tsar
How was the Orthodox Church involved with Russification?
- It was given government money to support its efforts to convert non-Russians to Orthodoxy
- Churches that had deep roots in non-Russian areas were bullied and harassed
- In the Baltic provinces, no new Protestant church could be built without government permission
Why was Russification a counter-productive policy?
Its aim was to halt the growth of nationalist movements in non-Russian areas. Instead, it aroused resentment within minority nationalities and stimulated the growth of nationalism.
When did the Russian Empire acquire its Jewish population?
When Russia seized control of large parts of the previously independent Kingdom of Poland in the late 18th century. By 1900, there were nearly five million Jews in Russia.
Nationalism in which countries became a powerful anti-government force, which would later feed into the 1905 Revolution?
Poland and the Baltic states.
Why did the Jewish population of Russia suffer more than any minority, at the hands of the Tsarist regime?
- Discriminatory, anti-semitic policies especially in the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II
- In the 1880s, Jewish access to higher education was severely restricted and Jews were banned from living in the Pale of Settlement’s rural areas, forcing them into towns and larger villages
What instruments of repression did the Tsarist regime have at their disposal?
- It censored newspapers and other publications in an attempt to halt the spread of subversive ideas
- It the event of large-scale disorder, it could turn to the army
- At the forefront of its struggle against its internal enemies, however, was the Okhrana, the Tsarist police force
What sometimes resulted from anti-Polish, anti-Finnish and anti-Semitic feeling in Russia?
Violence against minority communities living in Russia.
On which country did Russification have a major impact on? How?
Finland - in 1899 General Nicholas Bobrikov, the governor general of Finland, abolished the Finnish legal system and replaced it with Russian law
- He also effectively abolished the Finnish parliament and the Finnish army.
Who were the Okhrana?
The secret-police force of Russia that had a reputation for being ‘all powerful, all-knowing and all-capable’ - its goal was to destroy subversive organisations.
What was the role of the Okhrana?
To infiltrate and destroy revolutionary and terrorist networks - it was generally effective, despite being a relatively small organisation.
How did the Okhrana destroy subversive organisations?
- It had extensive powers to arrest and infiltrate opposition groups
- In reality it was small, but it was effective and before 1905 it had infiltrated the leadership of the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries
How many Okhrana agents were there in 1900?
2,500 - one third stationed in St Petersburg.
What was the key to the Okhrana’s success?
The use of informants: in the early 1900s, the leadership of both the Socialist Revolutionary and the Socialist Democratic Parties were riddled with Okhrana agents
Who Sergei Zubatov?
- Became head of the Moscow Okhrana in 1896
What did Zubatov do, besides repression?
Introduced ‘Police Socialism’ - consequently, the Okhrana:
- investigated workers’ complaints about abuses in factories
- attempted to take control of emerging unions
- provided sick pay and unemployment benefit
It spread to other Russian cities.
What did Zubatov’s experiment result in?
He was sacked by the government in 1903
How were the Okhrana involved in policing Russia’s universities?
The University Statute of 1884:
- banned clubs and societies on university campuses
- emphasises that students should study traditional subject
- banned women form higher education
How did the Okhrana engage in widespread surveillance?
- By 1900 they had records on 55,000 people, collections of 5,000 publications by revolutionary groups and 20,000 photographs of suspected radicals
