Russia in 1800s

1. Russia in 1800s Romanov Autocracy to Reform Alexander I Nicolas I Alexander II Alexander III Nicolas II

2. RUSSIA: EMPIRE UNDER PRESSURE • Post-1812 • Great concern with defense, liberal ideas as threat to old order • Government introduced reforms to improve bureaucracy • Made an alliance with the conservative powers of Europe to maintain order • December Uprising 1825 • Death of Alexander I prompted some western-oriented officers to rebel • Suppressed mercilessly by new tsar • Nicholas I • Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality • State became very repressive, secret police • Policeman of Europe: used army to suppress revolutions • Suppressed rebellion in Poland • Policy of foreign wars to divert domestic problems • Serfdom Issue • Russia needed work force in order to industrial • Serfdom not efficient • Lack of workers in cities an obstacle to economic development • Gap between western, eastern Europe economic systems • Emancipation of serfs by Alexander II begun in 1863 • Due to loss in Crimean War • Serfs gained right to own land, got most of the land from nobles • Nobles kept best and gave worst to serfs • Serfs had no political rights; had to pay a redemption tax on land: kept them in permanent debt • Emancipation did not increase agricultural production • Tsar was careful to preserve aristocratic order; serfs received no political rights • Stolypin Reforms in early 1900s allowed purchase of land and gave rise to a new gentry in Russia called Kulaks • Political and legal reforms followed • 1864: creation of zemstvos • Local assemblies with representatives from all classes • Tended to only see local interests and not national concerns; legal reform more successful • A weak system: nobles dominated, tsar held veto power • Small middle class grew; improved corps of army officers; middle class politicians, bureaucrats • Literacy increased; readership spread; some women enter intellectual community

3. RUSSIAN EXPANSION • Nineteenth-century Russia • Collapse of Napoleon left Russia as great power • Russia dominates Eastern Europe (saved both Prussia, Austria) • Russia increased presence in Central Europe, Northern Europe • Russia wants to push into Ottoman SE Europe, SW Asia • Expands into Central Asia, Pacific • Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Conservatism • Official government policy to uphold conservatism • Pre-destined Russia to oppose revolution, change everywhere • Rise of Pan-Slavic Nationalism • Sought to control all Orthodox, Slavs • Brought Russia into conflict with Ottoman Empire, Austria in Balkans • Also wanted access to Mediterranean Sea • Hoped to seize control of Constantinople • War against the Ottoman Empire • Numerous wars to acquire Turkish lands in SE Europe, Caucasus • Supported rise of Christian Balkan states under Russian influence • Crimean War 1853 - 1856 • France, Great Britain, Sardinia supported Ottomans • Crushing defeat; forced tsars to modernize army, industry • Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 • Russian expansion into China, Korea met Japan • Japanese attack Russia without warning • Defeat two Russian fleets, armies • First defeat of a European by an Asian power • Japan emerges as a world military power

4. RUSSIAN EMPIRE

5. RUSSIAN REPRESSION & MARXISM • Cycles of protest and repression • Peasants • Often landless, no political power • Frustrated by lack of meaningful reform • Peasant uprisings become more common than serf as frustration heightened • Population increased as potato introduced, increasing pressures on society • Social Protest • Antigovernment protest and revolutionary activity increased in 1870s • Middle Class, some aristocrats advocated rights, political representation • Radical Intelligentsia advocated socialism and anarchism, recruited in countryside • Repression by tsarist authorities: secret police, censorship • Russification: sparked ethnic nationalism, attacks on Jews tolerated • Terrorism emerges as a tool of opposition • Radicals wanted solution to social issue from a Russian perspective • Young intellectuals went directly to the peasants • Most opposed westernization, autocracy, capitalism • Many became peasant anarchists • Alexander II, the reforming tsar, assassinated by a bomb in 1881 • Nicholas II (1894-1917), more oppressive, conservative ruler • Marxism and the Reality of Russia • Marx foresaw a revolution by workers • Russia lacked lack worker base; society was largely peasant • Workers tended to be radical but misdirected • Russia lacked a middle class running society prior to revolution • The Bolsheviks (Russian Marxists) & Vladimir Ilyich Lenin • From middle class bureaucratic family, was an intellectual • Argued that proletariat was developing in advance of revolution • Felt Russia could have a revolution without a middle class phase • ‘What is to be done” • Organized an elite revolutionary party to lead workers, peasants • Organized the Bolsheviks • Party was secretive as Russian secret police everywhere • Infiltrated unions, workers organizations, peasant groups • Agitated against government, organized secret cells to lead revolution

6. MARXISM:Workerswill stage arevolution and overthrowcapitalism, stateLENINISM:Will only succeed withthe leadership of an elitegroup ofrevolutionaries

7. RUSSIAN INDUSTRIALIZATION • Russia experienced the 2nd Industrial Revolution • Financed by exportation of minerals, oil, gas, grains • Development of rail system spurred other industries, exports • Strongest development in coal, steel areas of Ukraine • Rise of industrial cities: St. Petersburg. Moscow, Poland, Ukraine • Promoted by tsarist government, French government • France needed Russia as a military ally against Germany • Russia needed a modern economy to compete on world stage • Formula: French loans/investment, sale of Russian grain • Sergei Witte, Minister of finance, 1892-1903 • Top-down Management Style • Supported railway construction • Military rationale: to move troops to border if attacked • But stimulated other industries including exports • Remodeled the state bank • Protected infant industries with tariffs, subsidies • Secured foreign loans especially from France • Industrial discontent intensified • Rapid growth of factories, urban working class • Industrialization fell hardest on working classes • Government reaction • Outlawed unions, strikes • Workers increasingly radical socialists, Marxists, Populists • Business class supported autocracy, not reform • By 1900 produced half the world's oil, significant iron, armaments

8. TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD Cities, industry grew up along railroad; mines farms, opened in area

9. RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1905 • Russian Revolution of 1905 • Military defeat, humiliation in Russo-Japanese War was cause • Russia always diverted domestic tension by short, successful wars • In 1870s, 1880s had expanded against Ottoman Empire • Massive protests followed news of defeat • Workers mounted general strikes in St. Petersburg, Moscow • Peasant insurrections in countryside against landlords • Police repressions ineffective, just upset people • Bloody Sunday massacre • Poor workers of St. Petersburg march to palace to ask tsar for help • Unarmed workers shot down by government troops • Peasants seized landlords' property, killed landlords • Workers formed soviets (worker councils) in cities, factories • Workers tended towards non-Marxist socialists; Marxists marginalized • Sought to achieve ends without full scale revolution • A Fizzled Revolution • Tsar forced to accept elected legislature, the Duma • Many parties elected with conflicting interests • Unable, unwilling to cooperate • Rendered ineffective by tsar, bureaucracy • Stolypin Reforms • Reforms allowed peasants to buy land; end redemptive payments • Small group of very successful peasant landowners began to arise • Rights for workers gradually ignored, cancelled • Army failed to support revolution • For the Future • Nicholas II was weak, ill-advised, unwilling to end autocracy • Russian Marxists emboldened, reorganized, radicalized • Peasants, workers radicalized, unlikely to cooperate in future

10. History of Russian/Soviet Secret Police • oprichnina – secret units used by Ivan IV • The era in the 1550s during which Ivan IV (the Terrible) brutally punished and decimated the boyar class. • Okhara • Cheka 1917 - 1922 • GPU (Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie) • KGB (Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti) • Committee for State Security. The predominant security police organization since its establishment in 1954. • Federal Security Service • Cheka – 1917 – 1921 • period known as the Red Terror • The Cheka later developed into NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Domestic Affairs) • then into the MGB (Ministry for State Security) • and then into the infamous KGB (Committee for the State Security), the dreaded repression machine that executed and imprisoned tens of millions of Russians. • Now it is Federal Security Service