1. In this article from the New York Times, Roger Cohen discusses President Trump’s policies towards international security.
“Getting used to an American president who responds through Twitter to what he’s just seen on TV, has no notion of or interest in history, and has turned America’s word into junk, is not easy... The Russification of America has proceeded apace. What happens when the United States begins to be infected with Russian disease? America today has no foreign policy. It’s veering towards scattershot anti-Muslim, anti-trade, what’s-in-it-for-me mercantilism.”
Mercantilism = economic theory (dominant between around ) which promoted government regulation of a nation’s economy, so that state power could be increased at the expense of rival powers.

2. ‘Russification’ was a policy first formulated in 1770.
Before Alexander III, Russification meant that all of the Tsar’s subjects would be accepted for their different ethnic groups, but they had to promise allegiance to the Russian state.
But under Alexander III, Russification intensified. Alexander believed that all cultures and nationalities within the empire should be eradicated, and everyone should become ‘Great Russians’.

3. Was Russification an ‘own goal’
for the Tsarist regime?
In this lesson, you will...
Deepen your understanding of the complex ethnic make-up of Russian society in the 1880s, and of the policy of ‘Russification’.
Decide whether ‘Russification’ helped to solve the problems perceived by Alexander III concerning the presence of ethnic minorities in Russia.
Evaluate the validity of Montefiore’s interpretation, by judging the extent to which ‘Russification’ was an ‘own goal’ for the regime.

4. What can we learn from this map?

5. Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs (2016) p. 471.
“While Russia surged towards industrialised modernity, the emperor [Alexander III] tried to hold the state together by mobilising Russian nationalism and repressing the empire’s minorities. In this multi-national empire of 104 nationalities speaking 146 languages, according to the 1897 census, pure Russians (excluding Ukrainians) were a minority of 44%. Now the emperor ordered that in addition to anti-semitic policies, only Russian was to be taught in Polish, Armenian and Georgian schools: an own-goal for the regime, unnecessarily converting millions of these people into enemies.”
Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs (2016) p. 471.

6. What are the consequences
of an own goal?
An own goal...
Puts the non goal-scoring team behind.
Damages morale.
Needs to be made up for, with more positive play (and goals) in the rest of the game.
Makes the players look silly.
...Did Russification leave the Tsarist regime ‘behind’ the rest of Europe?
...Did Russification damage Alexander III’s morale? Did it cause bad feeling among Russian people?
...Did Russification make Alexander III and his ministers look silly and out of touch? Did it alienate the people of Russia?
...Did Russification require Alexander III to intervene, to consolidate or to re-confirm his position of power?

7. Why was Russification needed?
Russia was a vast empire which contained a number of national groups: Russians formed about half of the population.
This made Russia hard to govern, with some minorities resenting Russian control.
Language
Speakers
Russian
55 million
Ukrainian
22 million
Turkic-Tatar
13 million
Polish
8 million
Belarusian
6 million
Yiddish
5 million
Finnic languages
(the list goes on...)
3 million
A census of 1897 highlighted just how diverse Russian society was...

10. Russification
Russification became an official policy under Alexander III and his successor Nicholas II.
Pobedonostev – one of Alexander III’s most important ministers – was an anti-semite.
Both Poland and Finland suffered attempts to destroy their national culture, as well as provinces like Georgia and Ukraine.
The use of the Russian language was enforced, and risings of ethnic peoples were brutally suppressed.

11. Russification: The Jews
Since 1736, had only been allowed to live in the ‘Pale of Settlement’.
Anti-Jewish pogroms broke out in 1881 in Ukraine, and they spread to other towns.
Authorities didn’t really intervene; it is likely that the Okhrana actually encouraged the rioters.
Troubles continued until 1884, with 16 major cities affected. Jewish property was burnt, shops and businesses destroyed, women raped and many put to death. There was a pogrom in Odessa in 1886.
Anti-Jewish laws were brought in, especially in the professions. Thousands of Jews emigrated.

13. What can we learn from this source about Russian attitudes towards Jews at the end of the 19th century?

14. Was Russification an ‘own goal’
for the Tsarist regime?
On your target map, plot short and long-term consequences of the Russification policies introduced under Alexander III (and maintained by his successor Nicholas II).
Organise these consequences into four areas: consequences for Alexander III and the Tsarist regime; for Russia as a whole (including international prestige); for the ethnic minorities (including Jews); and for revolutionaries.
In some cases, you will need to make inferences from the sources.

15. Was Russification an ‘own goal’
for the Tsarist regime?
What was the most significant short-term consequence of Russification? Mark or highlight it in one colour.
What was the most significant long-term consequence? Mark or highlight it in another colour.

16. Russification: Consequences
“The Tsarist authorities overestimated the power of Russian culture in the Baltic, and underestimated the unfavourable reaction to forced Russification. After the initial shock of the reforms was past by the mid-1890s, for many Estonians the pressure of Russification awakened a greater sense of national identity than might otherwise have been the case.”
Edward Thaden, Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland, , p. 319.
Russification turned the nationalist movements into enemies of Russia. Non-Russians were driven into the new anti-Tsarist parties: in the Baltic provinces, people turned to the Social Democrats, and in Poland they turned to the Polish Socialist Party. By 1905, similar nationalist parties had emerged as a major revolutionary force in most of the non-Russian borderlands. The Tsarist regime had created another instrument of its own destruction.
“Russification, far from stamping out nationalist feeling, served to increase resentment against Great Russian dominance.”
David Warnes, Russia: A Modern History (1897).
The policy lacked common sense: loyal minorities like the Baltic Germans and Finns were treated with the same disregard as the potentially disloyal Ukrainians, Poles and Tartars.
By 1904, Russia was in turmoil: there was widespread unrest in both towns and countryside, and the new Tsar, Nicholas II, didn’t know how to respond.
Russification: Consequences
Map showing the size of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century.
Jews were also attracted to revolutionary parties as a result of Russification.
‘The Bund’ was Russia’s first mass Marxist party. Established in 1897, it had 35,000 members by 1905: it declared the Jews t be ‘a nation’ and demanded fill autonomy for Jewish people, with Yiddish as the official language.
Many other Jews emigrated to the USA and Palestine.
Leon Trotsky, a Jewish revolutionary who had been alienated by Russification policies.
“The effect of Russification policies among the Jews who remained in Russia was to drive a disproportionate number of them towards revolutionary groups, and in particular Marxist socialist organisations. In 1897, the General Union of Jewish Workers was set up, and this became involved in the Marxist Social Democratic Movement, playing an important part in the growth of opposition to the autocracy under Nicholas II. Prominent Jews in the revolutionary movement in Russia in the early 20th century included Trotsky, Martov, Zinoviev and Litvinov.”
Sally Waller, Tsarist Russia, (2009).
“The Russification policy could not be called a success. Those opposed to the Tsarist regime were not quelled [silenced]. Perhaps more importantly, valued friends such as the Finns and the Armenians were alienated... The policy of Russification has to be regarded as one of the great mistakes made by Russia’s last two tsars.”
Martin McColgan, Russia, : From Tsarism to Communism,

17. For Alexander III and Tsarism
For Russia
Long
Shor t
For ethnic minorities
For revolutionaries