Imperial Russia

The Tsars Alexander I1801 – 25 Nikolai I1825 – 55 Alexander II1855 – 81 Alexander III1881 – 94 Nikolai II

Alexander I: liberal rhetoric Verified the Code of Nobility Abolished (but soon reconstructed) the secret police Introduced the Permanent Council Attemt to make administration more efficient through the Ministries Constitutional experiments in Finland and Poland Reform of education Won international prestige after the defeat of Napoleon

Nikolai I: Orthodoxy, Autarchy and nationality Decembrist Revolt 1825 Personal chancellery Showed no interest in liberal reforms Independence of the nobility removed The Third Section and censorship A Russian Intelligentsia emerges Conflict with the Ottomans and the other European Great Powers leads to the Crimean War

Alexander II: the reformer Defeat in the Crimean War a desaster for the tsarist personal regime National debt was high and steadily increasing Unrest in several cities worried Peasant support was declining A growing intelligentsia would demand reforms

Alexander´s Reforms The Emancipation Edict 1861; Serfdom ended Legal reforms 1864: Independent courts introduced; all equal before the law The Zemstvo reform 1864 Army reform Work on a constitution started Industrial development encouraged: focus on railways, oilfields, export of wheat Rise of Russian terrorism Alexander assassinated by radicals in S:t Petersburg 1881

Alexander III: the Reactionary Direct response to the murder of Alexander II was a decisive turn back to a more repressive and autocratic rule. The group ”People´s Will” broken up in a large police offensive, numbers of prisoners in Siberia increased. The power of the ordinary courts was diminished, administrative officials were given more power and military courts introduced. A system of informers developed, the secret police expanded.

Instruments of tsarist control Police apparatus Introduction of Land Captains Censorship tightened Autonomy of the universities ended, steps taken to exclude poor boys from gymnasiums Indepence of the courts reduced More power given to the Orthodox Church, less tolerance for other religions.

Targets/Victims of Tsarist repression National minorities – Russification used Jews – increased discrimination and pogroms under Alexander III; ca 2 million jews left Russia Illegal trade unions in the growing industrial centers Parts of the Intelligentsia

Structural problems Alexander II:s land reforms meant that heavy taxation on the peasants, forced them to sell as much as possible of the production. Desaster after harvest failure Farming methods remained primitive, peasants could hardly afford new machines or were suspicious of them. The population growth put enormous pressure on the cultivable land. Land area owned by nobility decreased, also the nobility suffered from high protection tariffs, slowed the modernisation.

Population Growth

Industrial Development Alexander´s minister of Finance, Sergei Witte, led Russia into a rapid industrialisation. Witte actively spronsored foreign investments and implemented protection tariffs to encourage domestic industry. Direct state investments encouraged, especially regarding railways Transibirian Railroad constructed Industrial output expanded at an annual rate of 8% in the 1890s.

Railway construction ,865km ,596km ,616km ,246km

Nikolai II: the weak tsar Conservative, religious Manipulated by the tsarina