Russian Nationalism: Tsar Led Reforms

• Post-Crimean War: Russian tsar, Alexander II, realizes need to catch up to West (Cf., Peter the Great)

• Rapid industrialization– Serf emancipation, 1861 (Cf., US – 1863)

• Most burdensome problem– Subjugation of millions of peasants to land and their landlords

was a corrupt and failing system– Reduced to antiquated methods of production based on serf

labor, Russian landowners were economically pressed and unable to compete with foreign agriculture

– Serfs backbone of Russian infantry – uneducated and couldn’t deal with machines and weapons of war

• Peasants could now own property, marry as they chose, and bring suits in the law courts

• Government provided land for the peasants by purchasing it from the landowners but landowners kept best lands

– Peasants expected to repay the state – Ultimately, emancipation led not to a free, landowning

peasantry along the Western model but to an unhappy, land-starved peasantry that largely followed the old ways of farming

– Zemstvo established, 1864• Local assemblies that provided a

moderate degree of self-government

• Given limited power to provide public services

• Efforts frequently disrupted by bureaucrats who feared self-government

– Legal reforms of 1864– Industrial growth

masterminded by Sergei Witte– Russian railroad building

explodes, 1860-1880– Encouraged foreign

investment

Patience Lacking• Autocratic tsar unable to control

forces he unleashed by his reform program.

• Reformers wanted more and rapid change.

• Conservatives opposed what they perceived as the tsar’s attempts to undermine the basic institutions of Russian society

• Populism – movement whose aim was to create a new society through the revolutionary acts of the peasants

– Some populists resort to violent means to overthrow tsarist autocracy

• People’s Will (group of radicals) assassinated Alexander II in 1881

• His son and successor Alexander III turned against reform and returned to the traditional methods of repression

Alexander III• Convinced that reform had been a

mistake and he quickly instituted what he said were “exceptional measures”

• Powers of the secret police were expanded

• Advocates of constitutional monarchy and social reform along with revolutionary groups were persecuted

• Russification program of numerous nationalities that make up Russian Empire

– Russians only made up 40% of population– Policy only angered national groups and

create new sources of opposition to tsarist policies

• When Alexander III died, his weak son and successor Nicolas II adopted his father’s conviction that the absolute power of the tsars should be preserved

• But conditions were changing, especially with growth of industrialization and the tsar’s approach was not realistic

The1905

Russian Revolutio

n

Russian Nationalism: Anti-Tsar Fever

• Japan defeated Russia in war, 1904-5

• Revolution of 1905: Not against Nicholas II, initially– Bloody Sunday Massacre, St.

Petersburg – Turned workers against the

tsar• October Manifesto: issued by

tsar; granted full civil rights• Duma: Russian parliament;

never attained goals because tsar limited parliamentary powers from outset

• Had these reforms carried, would Communist Revolution have happened?

Nicholas II: The Last Nicholas II: The Last Romanov TsarRomanov Tsar

[r. 1894-1917][r. 1894-1917]

The Tsar & His FamilyThe Tsar & His Family

Hemophilia & the Hemophilia & the TsarevichTsarevich

Alexis and Rasputin• Within a few months of his birth, his parents realized that their precious and only son, Alexis, had

hemophilia. • The first sign had been some unexpected bleeding from the navel, which had stopped after a few days.

Much more serious, however, were the dark swellings that appeared each time the child bumped an arm or a leg. And worst of all was the bleeding into the joints.

• This meant a crippling of the affected limbs in addition to excruciating pain. As the boy grew older, he was obliged to spend weeks in bed, and after he was up, to wear a heavy iron brace. Neither well-experienced doctors nor numerous prayers to God by desperate parents seemed to help the suffering child.

• Distressed over their son’s condition, his parents, the Tsar and Tsarina, turned to the monk Rasputin, a spiritualist who claimed he could help Alexis. Rasputin received an unlimited trust from Alexandra because he was the only person who was able to relieve her son’s sufferings.

• How he managed to do this is uncertain. “A likely explanation is that Rasputin, with his hypnotic eyes and his self-confident presence, was able to create the aura of tranquility necessary to slow the flow of blood through the boys veins. Where the demented mother and the dithering doctors merely increased the tenseness of the atmosphere around the suffering child, Rasputin calmed him and sent him to sleep.”

• While Tsar and Tsarina were preoccupied with the health of their son, the affairs of state deteriorated, culminating in the Russian revolution.

• Alexis did not die from hemophilia. At the age of fourteen he was executed with the rest of the family. His four oldest sisters were also young and didn’t have children, so we don’t know whether any of them was a carrier. But we can make an estimate.

Nicholas II & His Uncle, Nicholas II & His Uncle, George VGeorge V

Causes

1. Early 1. Early 2020cc: :

Russian Russian Social Social

HierarchHierarchyy

2. First Stages of 2. First Stages of IndustrializationIndustrialization

An Early Russian Factory

3. Weak Economy3. Weak Economy

1905 Russian Rubles

Extensive Foreign Extensive Foreign Investments & Investments &

InfluenceInfluence

Building the Trans-Siberian RR[Economic benefits only in a few

regions.]

5. Russo-Japanese War 5. Russo-Japanese War [1904-1905][1904-1905]

The “Yellow Peril”

Russo-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War [1904-1905][1904-1905]

Russo-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War [1904-1905][1904-1905]

Russian & Japanese Russian & Japanese SoldiersSoldiers

Russia Is HumiliatedRussia Is Humiliated

Treaty of Portsmouth Treaty of Portsmouth [NH] - 1905[NH] - 1905

President Theodore Roosevelt Acts as the Peacemake

r

[He gets the Nobel

Peace Prize for his

efforts.]

6. Unrest Among the 6. Unrest Among the Peasants & Urban Peasants & Urban

Working PoorWorking Poor• Socialist thought and socialist parties developed– Marxist Social Democratic Party

• Socialist revolutionaries worked to overthrow the tsarist autocracy and establish peasant socialism– Having no other outlet for their opposition to the

regime, they advocated political terrorism and attempted to assassinate government officials and members of the ruling dynasty

• The growing opposition to the tsarist regime finally exploded into revolution in 1905

Unrest• In midst of war, the growing discontent of increased

numbers of Russians rapidly led to upheaval• A middle class of business an professional people

longed for liberal institutions and a liberal political system• Nationalities were dissatisfied with their domination by

ethnic Russian population• Peasants still suffering from lack of land and laborers felt

oppressed by their working/living conditions • Breakdown of the transport system caused by the

Russo-Japanese War led to food shortages in major cities of Russia

Bloody SundayBloody SundayJanuary 22, 1905January 22, 1905

The Czar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg

Bloody Sunday• January 9, 1905 a massive procession of workers went

to the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg to present a petition of grievances to the tsar

• Troops foolishly opened fire on the peaceful demonstration, killing hundreds and launching a revolution

• Bloody Sunday incited workers to call strikes and form unions

• Zemstvos demanded parliamentary government, ethnic groups revolted, and peasants burned the houses of landowners

The The RevolutioRevolutio

n n SpreadsSpreads

1. The Tsar’s 1. The Tsar’s October October ManifestoManifesto

October 30, 1905

2. The Opening of the 2. The Opening of the DumaDuma::

Possible Reforms?Possible Reforms?

1906 The first two tries were too

radical. The third duma was elected

by the richest people in Russia in 1907.

The Russian Constitution The Russian Constitution of 1906of 1906 Known as the Fundamental Laws

[April 23, 1906]. The autocracy of the Russian Tsar was

declared. The Tsar was supreme over the law,

the church, and the Duma. It confirmed the basic human rights

granted by the October Manifesto, BUT made them subordinate to the supremacy of the law.

Why did the 1905 Why did the 1905 Revolution Fail?Revolution Fail?