INDUSTRIALIZATION IN RUSSIA

1. INDUSTRIALIZATION IN RUSSIA

2. French Revolution had three effects on Russia: • Determination to avoid revolution • Western policies as model for Russia faded • Community and stability became more important. SO • Russia welcomed Western cultural but not political ideas.

3. Decembrist Uprising 1825 revolt of Western-oriented army officers.

4. Economic and Social Problems • Lagged behind in industrialization • Improved production by tightening labor obligations of serfs • Some Western style factories opened but no significant change • In sum: agricultural, serf-dependent, stagnant

5. Russia Abroad • 1812: Napoleonic Wars resulted in concerns about defense. • 1815: Russia sponsored Holy Alliance with Prussia and Austria to defend religion and established order. • 1830-31: Suppressed Polish uprising in opposition to Russian rule • 1830s: Continued pressure on Ottoman Empire • 1849: Intervened to help Austria put down nationalist revolt in Hungary

6. Crimean War • Russia vs. France, Britain, Ottomans • Tsar Nicholas I claimed Russia responsible for protecting Christian interests in Holy Land, but France and Britain sided with Ottomans. • Russia lost.

7. Emancipation of the Serfs (1861)

8. Reforms under Alexander II • New law codes (fairer to peasants) • Creation of local political councils, zemstvoes • Army: meritocratic promotion, extensive recruitment, skills training • Improvements in education • Women had better access to higher education, the professions • Built trans-Siberian railroad • High tariffs to promote Russian industry, improved banking, encouraged Western investment

9. Road to Revolution • Nationalism  minority agitation • Famines  peasant uprisings, resentment of redemption payments • Strands of movement for change: • Professionals sought greater political voice, press freedoms • Radical Intelligentsia sought political freedoms, social reform but not Western materialism • Anarchists: opposed Tsarist regimes altogether

10. Alexander II • Late 1870s, Alexander II scaled back reforms, imposed censorship, exiled dissidents. • Assassinated in 1881. • As a result of his death: • Set back for reforms • Anti-Jewish pogroms • Suppression of civil liberties • “Propaganda by deed”

11. Marxism • “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.” • 1818-1883 • Born in Prussia to Jewish, middle class parents. • In school, more concerned with drinking than studying. • Most famous for Communist Manifesto andDas Kapital

12. Marxism • Pioneered by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels • All societies progress through class struggle. • Called capitalism “dictatorship of bourgeoisie” • Inevitably produce tensions  socialism • Under socialism, society run by proletariat • This would inevitably be replaced by pure, classless society: communism

13. Marxism in Action • China: Maoism. Communism coupled with iconoclasm and extreme nationalism. • Marxism-Leninism: Seeks to purge anything bourgeois, idealist, or religious and seeks to create totalitarian state.

14. Vladimir Lenin • 1870-1921 • Parents were a schoolteacher and government education official. Noble background. • Members of the intelligentsia, Lenin’s parents taught their children to struggle for higher ideas, a free society, and equal rights.

15. Radicalization of Lenin • January 1886: father died of brain hemorrhage • May 1887: Brother hanged for assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III • His sister, arrested with his brother, was exiled.

16. Studied law at Kazan University but more interested in Marxism. • In 1895 arrested for plotting against Alexander III and exiled to Siberia. • Thereafter he left Russia for Western Europe. • Returns to Russia for Revolution of 1905

17. Made Marxism more Russian • Argued because of spread of capitalism proletarian class has developed worldwide in advance of industrialization, so a proletarian revolution is possible without distinct middle class phase. • Believed in disciplined revolutionary cells to maintain doctrinal purity and effective action even under police repression. • Motivated Bolsheviks

18. Marxism-Leninism • Almost all property owned by state • Economy controlled by the state • Provision of basic social services • Emancipation of women • Liberal divorce and abortion policies initially • “New Man” – class conscious, knowledgeable, heroic proletarian devoted to work and collectivism • Opposes colonialism and imperialism

19. Revolution of 1905 • Working class unrest grew more radical than in West because: • Absence of legal political outlets • Rural unrest • Severe conditions of early industrialization • Russia tried to divert attention abroad with: • Wars in 1870s with Ottomans. Small gains but always pushed back by Britain and France • Helped Serbia and Bulgaria gain independence from Ottomans; some dreamed of pan-Slavic nation under Russia • Russia wanted MORE. Problematic because • Over-extension • Military couldn’t back up aspirations

20. Russo-Japanese War (1905) • Japan worried about Russian expansion in China and Russian influence in Korea. • Japan won because Russia could not move fleet to Pacific quickly enough. • Japan used this opportunity to move into Korea. This would lead to shift in power. • Unexpected defeat in Russo-Japanese war unleashed massive protests in the Russian Revolution of 1905

21. Russian Revolution of 1905 • Police repression  further urban infuriation • Tsar recognized the need for change, so he: • Created duma (parliament) • Stolypin Reforms which gave peasants greater freedom from redemption payments and village controls, could buy and sell land more freely • GOAL: market-oriented peasantry • Result: unrest died down and aggressive entrepreneurial farmers, kulaks, emerged

22. BUT • Some workers’ rights were withdrawn  new strikes, underground activities. • Duma was gradually stripped of power. • Police repression resumed. • To detract attention, turned again to Ottoman Empire and Balkans. • Gained little but determination to back Slavic allies helped lead to WWI.

23. Russia and Eastern Europe • Pattern in Russia paralleled in smaller eastern European states including Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. • Established parliaments but restricted parliamentary powers and voting rights. • Some established monarchies where kings ruled without many limits on power. • Industrialized less extensively than Russia. Mostly agricultural, dependent on western markets.