The Russian Autocracy In 1855

Question 1

How was the Tsar regarded ?

Answer 1

The Tsar regarded as the embodiment of God on earth, controlling the Russian Orthodox Church.

Question 2

What did the Tsar own in the eyes of the Church

Answer 2

Russian lands and the Russian people were his children

Question 3

What were Russians taught ?

Answer 3

To shown devotion to their Tsar and accept their conditions on earth as Gods will

Question 4

What was closely entwined ?

Answer 4

The church and state

Question 5

Who was chosen by the Tsar ?

Answer 5

Advisers and ministers

Question 6

What was the purpose of the nobility

Answer 6

To keep order k. Their estates and might serve as provincial governors or in special committees appointed by thenTsar

Question 7

How where orders passed down in the government?

Answer 7

Through a bureaucracy orders were passed down from the central government to the provinces and In turn to the districts and towns

Question 8

What was the conditions of the bureaucracy like?

Answer 8

Riddled with corruption and incompetence

Question 9

How much of the army was full of serfs ?

Answer 9

1.5 million

Question 10

How long was service in the army in 1855 ?

Answer 10

25 years

Question 11

How much of the governments annual expenditure was spent on the military

Answer 11

45%

Question 12

Who where the higher ranks in the army taken by ?

Answer 12

Prestigious posts for nobles

Question 13

What did the elite regiments in the army do ?

Answer 13

They had special social privileges and acted both as a personal body guard to the Tsar and as police reinforcements

Question 14

What had Russia developed into

Answer 14

A police state

Question 15

What was rights were prevented in 1855?

Answer 15

Freedom of speech, press and travel abroad were prevented

Question 16

What was enforced in 1855

Answer 16

Censorship

Question 17

Who tan the secret state security

Answer 17

Third section

Question 18

What did the agents of the Third section have the right to do ?

Answer 18

Ultimate powers to carry out raids arrest and ensure the imprisonment or exile of anyone suspected of anti tsarist behaviour

Question 19

How much of the population in 1855 was made up of peasants serfs

Answer 19

50%

Question 20

How many serfs were privately owned ?

Answer 20

Over half

Question 21

What did state serfs pay ?

Answer 21

Taxes and rent

Question 22

Where did most state serfs reside ?

Answer 22

Worked and lived in the village communes and these conditions where primitive

Question 23

What were most serfs ?

Answer 23

Illiterate but deeply religious, superstitious and hostile to change

Question 24

What was the political developments ?

Answer 24

By the 19th century liberal ideas were spearfish from the west and many Russian intellectuals were arguing for a civil society based in the rule of law

Question 25

What did Tsar Nicholas 1st sought to maintain ?

Answer 25

Autocracy and to distance Russia from the west

Question 26

What did Nicholas 1sr reign culminate in ?

Answer 26

Military defeats in the Crimea war which bought the need to for change to the new Tsars attention

Question 27

What was the Economic situation by 1855

Answer 27

Britain, grand and the German states were industrially advanced meanwhile the Russian economy trained predominantly rural

Question 28

What was Russians economy so backwards ?

Answer 28

Inhospitable territory and climate limited Russias economic progress as well was the serf based economy

Question 29

What did the serf based economy limit ?

Answer 29

Forces thag drive change , wage earners, markets and entrepreneurs

Question 30

Why are there no Wage earners in Russia

Answer 30

There was little Opportunity for them to develop into wage earners

Question 31

Why was there little opportunity for serfs to develop into wage earners ?

Answer 31

Serfs were poor and most only manage to survive on the produce they grew starvation was common in the winter Land management systems meant that individual serf families worked in scattered strips following communal farming patterns.

Question 32

Why was there a low internal market demand ?

Answer 32

Money was irrelevant and there was no internal market demand

Question 33

Describe the internal market in Russia in 1855

Answer 33

Few goods were purchased but exchanged, some areas market forces were beginning to develop as peasants sought wage work in towns when farming was slack

Question 34

How could Russian people become entrepreneurs in 1855 ?

Answer 34

Small landowning elite could largely obtain what they needed by squeezing it from their serfs through service and feudal dues

Question 35

Why was there not many entrepreneurs in Russia in 1855?

Answer 35

Landowners were in debt money was of little use to them therefore there was little incentive to seek alternative ways of making money

Question 36

Describe the social context of Russia in 1855

Answer 36

Russia was divided between the privileged land owning elite and the serf majority

Question 37

Who was in the non productive classes

Answer 37

Royal court Clergy Nobility Civil and Army and Military Naval officials Officers

Question 38

How much of the population owned 75% of the land

Answer 38

10%

Question 39

Who was in the productive classes

Answer 39

Urban artisans Manufactures Merchants Peasant serf

Question 40

What classes was not present in 1855

Answer 40

No coherent middle class, but there was a small number of professionals some of who comprised ab educated intelligentsia

Question 41

What caused the Turks to declare war on Russia in October 1853 ?

Answer 41

Nichols attempts to increase Russian influence across the Black Sea in which the Ottoman Empire was

Question 42

What did the Russians loose by September 1855

Answer 42

Sebastopol a major naval base

Question 43

What added the final humiliation to Russia ?

Answer 43

Treaty of Paris 1856, prevented Russia warships from using the black sea in peacetime

Question 44

What had the Crimea war revealed about Russians military

Answer 44

- outdated technology - poor transport - inadequate leadership - the problems of having a conscripted army

Question 45

What did the Crimean war kick start ?

Answer 45

Trade had been disrupted Peasant uprising had escalated Intelligentsia were appealing for action to close the gap between Russia and the West

Question 46

What did Russias failure in the Crimean War proved ?

Answer 46

Wake up call 1855 marked the accession of a new Tsar and a nee generation of liberal minded nobles