Was Alexander III: The Great Reactionary

Question 1

Repression and the Police?

Answer 1

Richard Pipes, the Statute was “a blueprint for police despotism,” and it enabled the government to take “arbitrary and capricious action against any individual or group whose activities it deemed undesirable.”

• August 1881 - Statute on exceptional measures set out to eradicate the ‘vile sedition disgracing Russian land’
• Any area of the empire where trouble was suspected could be designated ‘extraordinary security’
• Would appoint a commander in chief –> full power to search property, arrest and interrogate exile supsects
• ‘untrustworthy’ = No legal rights
• March ‘82 - Statute on Police surveilance -
• Permits the police to conduct searches and expand the police force secret network
• Signalled a drive to recruit spies to watch the universities etc:
• The Statute also established a system of “administrative exile,” whereby individuals could be sent to remote regions of the country without trial or due process.

Question 2

Education

Answer 2

New minister appointed: Ivan Delyanov

• 1884 - Unis deprived of their independence
• Professors had to be approved by the ministry of education –> Chosen according to their ‘religious,moral and patriotic orientation’
• 1887 - Uni fees were raised and seperate univerisity courts abolished
• Only the upper class became eligible for higher education –> had to pay to attend lectures and to take examinations
• Legislation (‘82-‘86) - barred women from unis
• 1887 Fees were raised for secondary education to keep the ‘lower orders’ out
• Number of elementary schools increased but put under control of the Church –> Lessons reinforced the value of humiluty and obediece –> Taught to accept Russia was the ‘holy land’

Question 3

Judicial Changes?

Answer 3

• Partial reversals of moves towards fairer trials
• 1855: Minister of justice given reater control over the dismissal of judges whose decisions he disliked
• 1887: ‘Closed court sessions’ - No observers for court trials where the ‘dignity of state power was in question’
• Jurors now needed more property and higher educational qualifications in order to serve on juries
• 1889 Local magistrates dissapeared and the cnetral ministry of justice took control of the appointment of town judges

Question 4

Politics?

Answer 4

Created the idea of a land captain

• Would be under the direct control of the minister of internal affairs
• They were picked from eligible hereditary nobles and were made responsible for enforcing government orders in their areas –> 57% of nobles in places of the zemstva
• They could override elections to the zemstva and village assemblies and overturn the decisions of local courts
• Could remove unreliable village elders –> undermining the tradition of self-goernment in the mirs
• Richard Charques - ‘no single act of government in the reign of Alexander II stirred the Russian peasant to more bitter resentment’

-The political criticisms andsupport for Loris-Melikov’s proposals suggested they were centres for ‘dangerous liberal thinking’

• 1892 - property qualification for voters to the municipal dumas was also raised –> Electorate was reduced by 2/3’s
• Dumas, therefore, became a change for social and political discussions.

Question 5

Perspectives on his education policies?

Answer 5

• Number of schools 40,636 in 1881 to 61,732 in 1894.
• ## Similarly, the number of secondary schools increased from 757 to 1,012 during the same period.-1897 Russian Census,literacy rate 21.8% in 1881 to 28.4% in 1897.

Question 6

Russification

Answer 6

• Multinational empire –> Single country
• With the encourgamenet of Pobedonostev
• Removal of 40 million russians (60% of the empires population) would strengthen the tsar’s autocracy
• Enforced use of Russian language schools in Poland + Ukranian languages forbidden and their churches persecuted
• 1883 - Publication of Ukrainian literature was outlawed
• 1885 - Poland the national bank was closed
• 1892 - Finnish Senate was reorganised to weaken political influence –> The independent postal service was abolished and the use of Russian coinage was made complusory
• 1899 - Finish constituion was abolished altogejter

Jews:

• 1882 - ‘May laws’ –> further reduced Jew’s rights –> Jewrs were not allowed to purchase ‘immovable property’

-1891 - Jewish artisans forbidden to live in Moscow –> 17 k forced to move during thw winter