Opposition Flashcards
What was intelligentsia opposition?
1) The Nihilist movement influenced the younger generation into rejecting the Tsar and the Church
2) 1862: the manifesto ‘Young Russia’, published by students, argued for a popular revolution
3) Literary societies distributed revolutionary and scientific literature
What did individual intelligentsia do?
1) Chernyshevksy, in What is to be done advocated for a peasant revolution
2) Herzen advocated for a peasant-based social structure through the radical newspaper, The Bell
3) 1869: Bakunin translated the Communist Manifesto into Russian
What opposition from the Populists was there under Alexander II?
The Chaikovsky circle produced pamphlets and smuggled banned books into Russia from 1869–1872
▪ 1874: Pyotr Lavrov, leader of the Populatists, took 2,000 members to the countryside in an attempt to stir up a peasant revolution
How successful was Populist opposition under Alexander II?
1) The 1874 attempted revolution failed due to the peasant’s solid faith in the Tsar, and 800 Populists were arrested
2) The rural gentry and local officials were radicalised by the Populists
What was Land and Liberty?
1) Tried to stir up a peasant revolution by using their positions as doctors and teachers within the peasant commune
2) 1878: assassinated the head of the Third Section
▪=3) 1879: split into the Black Partition and the People’s Will
What was the Black Partition?
1) Lead by Georgi Plekhanov from St. Petersburg
2) Wanted to distribute land amongst the peasantry through zpeaceful methods
3) 1880–1881: a large portion of the Black Partition was arrested, and others defected to Marxism
What was the People’s Will?
1) Organised and lead by Timofei Mikhailov
2) Spy planted in the Third Section
3) 1881: assassinated Alexander II
4) Only had about 500 members
What were the consequences of opposition movement under Alexander II?
1) Revolutionary thinking (like Marxism) took shape
2) Populism took revolutionary ideas into the countryside, making the government more aware of how great opposition had become
3) The Third Element grew out of Alexander II’s reforms, and was supported by government ministers in the late 1870s. When Alexander III acceded, all moderate liberals resigned
How did underground opposition grow under Alexander III?
1) Alexander III founded a new secret police – the Okhrana – which did not
distinguish violent terrorism and non-violent activism
2) Underground societies continued to translate writings of foreign socialists
3) 1883: Georgi Plekhanov established the Emancipation of Labour group to
smuggle Marxist tracts into Russia
4) 1886: St. Petersburg students attempted to reform the People’s Will
How did Marxist opposition spread under Alexander III?
1) Through pamphlets, discussion circles and propaganda
2) Couldn’t gather real support due to Alexander III’s regime
How did economic opposition grow under Alexander III?
1) Rapid modernisation resulted in poor working conditions
2) Strikes and protests were dealt with by the Okhrana, and there was little mass movement of opposition
