Section 1 - Chapter 3

Question 1

What event triggered Alexander II to take a more reactionary stance on policy?

Answer 1

The 1866 attempted assassination, by a former student Dmitry Karakozov.

Question 2

List the attempts of assassination on Alexander II’s life.

Answer 2

1) 1866 - by Dmitry Karakozov.
2) 1867 - a Polish immigrant Antoni Berezowski fired on a carriage carrying Alexander.
3) 1879 - Aleksander Soloviev fired at the tsar 5 times.
4) December 1879 - bomb planted on a train that Alexander was going to take.
5) February 1880 - a mine positioned below the Winter Palace dining room.

Question 3

What events in Alexander’s personal life cause him to have more reactionary policies?

Answer 3

→ His eldest son died.
→ His wife was suffering from TB.
→ His family didn’t like his mistress Yekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova this distanced him from liberals in his family.

Question 4

Give examples of conservative ministers Alexander places in his government in 1866.

Answer 4

→ Dmitry Tolstoy - Minister for Education.
→ Aleksander Timashev - Minister of Internal Affairs.
→ Pyotr Shuvalov - Head of the Third Section.
→ Konstantin Pahlen - Minister of Justice.

Question 5

What changes did Dmitry Tolstoy make to education?

Answer 5

• The zemstva’s powers were reduced.
• Only gimnazii students could go to university.
• Liberal courses were replaced with traditional ones.
• More state teacher training colleges were established.

Question 6

What changes occurred under Shuvalov’s appointment as head of Third Section?

Answer 6

• Conservatives gained government positions.
• Magazines were closed down.
• Tighter restrictions on students.
• Increased persecution of ethnic minorities.

Question 7

What did Pahlen do as Minister of Justice?

Answer 7

• Searches and arrests were increased.
• New governor-generals were set up in 189 with emergency powers to prosecute in military courts.
• ‘Show trials’ were held with the intention of deterring others from revolutionary activity.

Question 8

Why did show trials backfire?

Answer 8

At the trial of 193, a sympathetic jury acquitted 153 of the 193 convicted. The lawyers of the defendants used their position to criticise the Tsarist autocracy.

Question 9

Why was Loris-Melikov appointed as Minister for Internal Affairs in 1880?

Answer 9

Increased attempts on Alexander’s life led the tsar to consider whether a different approach should be used to stop the civil unrest in Russia. He appointed Loris-Melikov to widen democratic consultation.

Question 10

What did Loris-Melikov do?

Answer 10

• Released political prisoners
• Relaxed censorship
• Removed the salt tax
• Lifted restrictions on the zemstva
• Abolished the Third Section

Question 11

What was the Loris-Melikov ‘constitution’?

Answer 11

Loris-Melikov produced a report in response to the demands of the zemstva: it was essentially the start of the first people’s assemblies in Russia.

Question 12

What day did Alexander II sign the Loris-Melikov Constitution?

Answer 12

13th of March 1881.

Question 13

How was Alexander II assassinated?

Answer 13

On the 13th of March 1881 Alexander II’s carriage was attacked by ‘People’s Will’ the first two bombs didn’t kill Alexander, but when he got out of his carriage to check on the injured men a third bomb killed him.

Question 14

How did Alexander III start his reign?

Answer 14

• Publicly hung those who had killed his father
• Introduced the ‘Manifesto of Unshakeable Autocracy’ and Law on Exceptional Matters.
• All liberal ministers were removed.

Question 15

What was the ‘Law on Exceptional Matters’?

Answer 15

Declared that a Commander-in-Chief could be appointed to take control of locality, using military police courts and arbitrary powers of imprisonment.

Question 16

What changes did Alexander III make to local government?

Answer 16

• Role of ‘Land Captain’ was created in July 1889 - had the power to override elections to the zemstvo and zemstvo decisions.
• Land Captains made responsible for law enforcement and government in the countryside.
• 1890 - an act limited the peasants’ vote in the zemstva and placed the zemstva under central government control.
• 1892 - Municipal Government Act the electorate was reduced to the owners of property above a certain value.

Question 17

What changes did Alexander III make to policing?

Answer 17

• The Department of Policing was led by Vyacheslav von Plehve between 1881 and 1884 and then by Pyotr Durnovo from 1884 onwards.
• The number of police was increased and new branches of criminal investigation were established.
• There was a drive to recruit spies, counter-spies and ‘agent provocateurs’.
• 1882 - the Statute on Police Surveillance - any area in Russia could be subject to search by the police.
• The police were able to search, arrest, detain, question, imprison or exile both those who had committed a crime and those who were suspected of having done so.

Question 18

Changes Alexander III made to the judicial system?

Answer 18

• In 1885 a decree provided for the Minister of Justice meant they could dismiss judges.
• In 1887 the Ministry was granted powers to hold closed court sessions.
• In 1887 the property and education qualifications needed by jurors were raised.
• In 1889 the Ministry became responsible for the appointment of town judges.
• In 1889 the volost courts were put under the jurisdiction of the Land Captains in the countryside and judges in the towns.

Question 19

Changes made by Alexander III to education?

Answer 19

• Changes overseen by Delyanov.
• 1884 university charter made appointments of chancellors, dean and professors subject to the approval of the Education Ministry.
• Universities closed to women.
• Students forbidden from gathering in more than groups of 5 at uni.
• Children in lower classes were restricted to primary education.
• Only 21% of the population was literate in 1897.
• Fees in secondary schools were raised to exclude children from lower ranks from learning.

Question 20

Changes made under Alexander III to censorship?

Answer 20

• Tolstoy established a government committee in 1882 which issue the ‘temporary regulations’ - this allowed for newspapers to be closed down and a life ban place on editors and publishers.
• Censors became more active: all literary publication had to be officially approved and libraries and reading rooms were restricted.
  Censorship was extended to theatre and art where ‘Russification’ had to be shown.

Question 21

List the positive reforms made by Alexander III.

Answer 21

• In May 1881 the redemption fees were reduced.
• In May 1885 poll tax was abolished.
• Establishment of the Peasants’ Land Bank in 1883.