RUSSIA AND REVOLUTION

SERFDOM In 1800 90% of Russians depended on agriculture to make a living 80% of these people were serfs System was morally wrong and economically backward

Czar Alexander I An autocrat Contemplated freeing the serfs Died in 1825…peaceful reform died with him

THE DECEMBRIST REVOLT “Constantine and the Constitution”

NICHOLAS I 1825-1855 Resisted change Crushed uprisings Limited education Created secret police Fought Crimean War

ALEXANDER II 1855-1881 Accepted need for reform March 3, 1861: freed the serfs Gave citizens more rights Expanded education Set up zemstvos

FREEING THE SERFS Half of land kept by nobles Half parceled out to serfs Land became community property Each peasant community called a mir Mir owned land, worked land and paid taxes Peasants were tied to the mir Debt to nobles would not be paid off for 60 years

UNREST Peasant riots Censorship Secret societies Nihilism narodniki

ALEXANDER III 1881-1894

Alexander III and his family

NICHOLAS II 1894-1917

Czar Nicholas II 1894-1917 wrong man…wrong place…wrong time

Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna…”Sunny”…grandaughter of Queen Victoria…and carrier of hemophilia

Nicholas and Alexandra

Hemophilia Genetic disorder Passed from the mother to her son Blood lacks the clotting factor Painful bleeding into joints Life-threatening

rasputin A “starets” Won Alexandra’s support since he could “heal” Alexei Helped destroy the Romanov dynasty

How most Russians viewed Rasputin

March, 1917

Ipatiev House, Ekaterinberg July 1918