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Nicholas I (1825-1855)

Nicholas I (1825-1855). Russia in the deep freeze. The Holy Alliance. 1812 Napoleon invades Russia. 30 March 1814 Russian troops enter Paris. 1814-15 Congress of Vienna: victorious allies divide up Europe, Russia gained Duchy of Warsaw and Finland.

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Nicholas I (1825-1855)

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  1. Nicholas I (1825-1855) Russia in the deep freeze

  2. The Holy Alliance • 1812 Napoleon invades Russia. • 30 March 1814 Russian troops enter Paris. • 1814-15 Congress of Vienna: victorious allies divide up Europe, • Russia gained Duchy of Warsaw and Finland. • Europe divided among great Empires: Russia, Austria, Prussia.

  3. Nicholas and the Decembrists • Seeds of revolution left smouldering in Europe: Greece, Italy. • Russian officers form secret societies with the goal of overthrowing the Russian autocracy. • December 14, 1825, on the death of Alexander I, a coup is attempted. • Nicholas faces down the revolutionaries and they are arrested.

  4. Consequences of Decembrist revolt • Five ringleaders were hanged (Ryleev, Kakhovsky, Murav’ov-Apostol, Pestel, Bestuzhev-Riumin). • Many noble conspirators sent to Siberia. • Famous “Decembrists’ wives” followed them into exile. • Decembrist uprising becomes a “non-event”, not to be mentioned. • Decembrists became the forerunners of revolution in Russia.

  5. The five who were hanged

  6. “Listopad” • In November (Polish listopad) 1830 the Poles rise up against Russian rule. • The revolt is viciously suppressed and Poland ceases to exist as an entity.

  7. Battle of Stoczek, 1831

  8. Result of November uprising… • Many Poles exiled inside Russia, esp. Siberia. • Polish exiles gather in Paris around the poet Adam Mickiewicz. • The image of Nicholas’s Russia suffers greatly.

  9. Nicholas takes control • Emperor creates a vast network of spies. • All signs of dissent suppressed. • Strict censorship imposed. • Universities tightly controlled. • Philosopher Alexander Chaadaev declared insane. • Official doctrine is “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationalism.”

  10. Russian Society under Nicholas • Noblemen (дворяне): small, landowning class...

  11. Pavel FedotovAn Aristocrat’s Breakfast, 1849

  12. Courtship of a Major, 1848

  13. Nicholas’s Russia Bureaucrats…

  14. Newly awarded: morning of an official who has just been awarded his first medal

  15. Russian Society under Nicholas Peasants (крестьяне): the vast majority…

  16. Peasants eating dinner

  17. Russian Society under Nicholas The clergy (духовенство)…

  18. Religious procession, Kursk province, 1880-1883 Ilya Repin

  19. Russian Society under Nicholas Town-dwellers (мещане) and Merchants (купцы)…

  20. The Intelligentsia (интеллигенты) • “Raznochintsy” (individuals of no particular class). • Selflessly devoted to ideas, idealistic. • Fantastic projects for the future of Russia. • Grew into the revolutionary class that created the Bolshevik revolution. • Not to be thought democratic or freedom-loving.

  21. Vissarion Belinsky(1811-1848) Critic, thinker, demanded that literature be a truthful representation of life. “The fate of the individual, of the person, is more important than the fate of the whole world.” Died of tuberculosis.

  22. Seeds of dissent • Small but influential class of the intelligentsia discuss endlessly the situation. • Dissenters gather abroad – Alexander Herzen in Paris, then London, Mikhail Bakunin (anarchist) and Peter Kropotkin. • Berlin, where Hegel was professor of philosophy, becomes a magnet.

  23. Whither Russia? • The issue in Russia in the 19th century was progress and change: evolution or revolution. • Russia was seen as a backward, corrupt and unjust society.

  24. The “Westernizers”(Западники) • “Westernizer” camp promoted change along western lines: Russia should follow in the footsteps of the West. • Tended to be atheist; believed in socialism, progress, women’s rights; demanded the liberation of the serfs.

  25. Slavophiles(славянофилы) • Believed Russia should follow a distinct path as opposed to the corrupt West. • Proponents of Orthodox religion. • Believed in sobornost’ – the collectivist idea as practised in the peasant commune. • Saw the role of Russia as protector of “brother Slavs.”

  26. 1848 • The year of revolution in Europe: France, Germany, Hungary and Italy. • Nicholas sends troops to put down the Hungarian revolutionary forces. • Pan Slavic conference in Prague. • Communist manifesto published.

  27. An empire in need of change • Crimean war of 1853-1856. • France and England invade the Crimea in the South of Russia. • The war arises over growing Russian presence in the Black Sea, threatening the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.

  28. The End of Nicholas • Nicholas dies 2 March 1855. • He leaves the Empire frozen in time. • The failure of the Crimean war shows Russia’s technological backwardness: the need for modern weaponry and railroads to transport troops and materiel. • His son Alexander II ends the war and begins a program of dramatic reforms in Russia.

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