Opposition to Alexander III

Question 1

Two forms of opposition to the Tsar = ?

Answer 1

Radical opposition

Liberal opposition

Question 2

Example of Radical opposition?

Answer 2

-Marxist ideology
-Populists

Question 3

Example of liberal opposition?

Answer 3

Political opposition from zemstvos and nobles

Question 4

Key members/group of opposition = ?

Answer 4

-Karl Marx
-The Tchaikovsky circle
-Young Radicals
-Chernyshevsky

Question 5

Who was Karl Marx?

Answer 5

He was a German Jew (1818-83) who studied law and worked as a journalist. He wrote the communist manifesto with his friend Friedrich Engels in 1848, immediately prior to the European revolutions of 1848-49.

Question 6

What is marxist theory?

Answer 6

Marxist theory was based on the idea that all history was composed of class struggles. Marx had predicted that a struggle between the working class and the factory owning capitalists would ultimately herald the perfect ‘communist’ society in which everyone would be equal.

Question 7

What did Marxist theory advocate for?

Answer 7

A revolution starting from the working class against the capitalist structure.

Question 8

What was the Tchaikovsky circle?

Answer 8

Established in 1868 in ST Petersburg, a literary society that organised the printing, publishing and distribution of certain scientific and revolutionary literature including the first volume of Marx’s Das Capital.

Question 9

What did the circle start doing in 1872?

Answer 9

Started to organise workers with the intention of sending them to work among the peasants in the countryside.

Question 10

What are the young radicals?

Answer 10

Student opposition group from Moscow university. Called for reform.

Question 11

What heightened student opposition?

Answer 11

The counter reforms to free speech imposed by Both Alexander II and III increased student idealism and determination for reform.

Along with this the influence of radical socialist writers.

Question 12

Who were Bakunin and Sergei Nechaev?

Answer 12

In 1869, Bakunin and Sergei Nechaev were student radical activists who fled from Russia illegally after calling on ST Petersburg students to assassinate the Tsar.

Question 13

What was said in Catechism of a revolutionary?

Answer 13

Called for a revolution against the autocracy. People should be merciless in the pursuit of revolution laying aside all other attachments such as friends and family in order to find the steely resolve required to pursue a revolutionary path.

Question 14

Who was Nikolai Chernyshevsky?

Answer 14

Author of a radical journal, the contemporary, along with the book ‘what is to be done?’. He was a radical socialist.

Question 15

What was Chernyshevsky’s ideas about peasants?

Answer 15

His writings suggested that the peasants had to be made leaders of revolutionary change.

He believed that the peasants should lead the new revolution and it should go to the people, the idea of populists.

The peasants should lead because they make up the majority of the population and romanticize the peasants as ‘pure’.

Question 16

Pros and Cons of Alexander III repressive rule?

Answer 16

Pro =. made It a lot harder for opposition groups to organise themselves and produce materials to publicise their causes.

Con = The scale of the repression would push more people towards opposition, many extreme groups thought that repressing people would only lead them to wanting rid of the Tsar.

Question 17

What was the secrete police called in Russia?

Answer 17

The Okhrana

Question 18

What was the Okhrana like after 1881?

Answer 18

Tsar gave them lots of power and resources as a result they were efficient at crushing opposition groups withe them having a number of spies inside these such groups.

Made use of their powers of arrest and imprisonment without trial.

Question 19

Weakness of the Okhrana?

Answer 19

Their power only pushed the groups underground which meant they became more radical and violent.

A number of opposition groups still existed in Russia and key figures like Lenin were influencing these groups in exile.

Question 20

What group assassinated Alexander II in 1881?

Answer 20

The People’s will

Question 21

How many members of the peoples will were arrested in the days following the assassination?

Answer 21

150

Question 22

Was Alexander III scared of opposition?

Answer 22

It can be argued that the assassination of his father coupled with the increasing growth of radical groups that yes he was scared we can see this with the example of the new Tsar moving to the heavily fortified castle of Gachina.

Question 23

What did the Great Famine do to Alexander III leadership?

Answer 23

-Many radical revolutionaries gained influence and favour over the peasants as they helped the starving peasants rather then pursuing radical politics.

-Failure of government action during the famine highlighted the need for significant change to the rural economy, leading to populist ideas in mid 1890s.

-The starting basis for the social revolutionaries sprung from this period and from populist groups.

Question 24

Effectiveness of Alexander III with dealing with opposition?

Answer 24

Effective in the way that active opposition to the Tsarist system was limited in the time period between 1881 - 1894.

Question 25

How was Alexander not effective with dealing with opposition?

Answer 25

Russification created much greater potential opposition within Russia’s national and ethnic minorities.

Repression led to resentment against the Tsar, which was amplified by the states failures to provide help to the people during the 1891-92 famine.

Economic transformation of Russia led to an urban proletariat which would be the perfect breeding ground for radical ideas such as marxism to flourish.