Liberalization in Tsarist Russia: Alexander II

1. Liberalization in Tsarist Russia: Alexander II Section 13.67

2. Tsarist Russia after 1856 • Outcomes of the Crimean War showed the strength of the western nations and the backwardness of the “enormous village” • Huge empire (Poland to Pacific) was unable to repel the limited but efficient attacks of the west • Alexander II (1855-1881) • Assumed tsardom during the war • Not a born liberal but knew he had to act • The European examples again become the model for Russian reforms • Two major perspectives of what Russia was: • Westernizers: Russia is destined to become more like Europe • Slavophiles: Russia is destined to be unique (Just not sure what!)

3. Autocracy of the Tsar • Russia’s 1st fundamental institution was tsar’s autocratic rule • But it wasn’t exactly like absolutism (Louis XIV fashion) • European conceptions were missing • Like that spiritual authority is independent of state authority (separation of Church and State) • People have certain rights or claims for justice (English Bill of Rights, Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen) • Rule by law was substituted with ukase (arbitrary laws created by tsar), police action, and the army • Developing technology was replaced with importing technology and forcing reforms onto the population • “the Russian empire was a machine superimposed upon its people without organic connection (bureaucracy pure and simple)” • Those within Russia that were exposed to western ideals objected to the pure bureaucracy • ‘poisoned’ with foreign ideas (liberty, fraternity, just and classless society, value of the individual, freedom of consciousness • Huge government was actually afraid of its own people • Press and universities were censored

4. The Severity of Russian Serfdom • 2nd fundamental institution was serfdom • Majority of population were serfs • Resembled American slavery • Serfs were owned, could be bought and sold, used in occupation other than agriculture (factories, mechanics, evening migrating city workers) • Serfs that had some mobility had to pay fees to the lord • Serfs lot depended on the personality or economic circumstances of their owners (paternalistic) • Gentry served as local government of sorts • Law did little to interfere with gentry privilege over his serfs • Many conservatives and liberal Russian began to feel that serfdom must end (mid 1800s) • Wasn’t profitable anymore • Made the muzhiks into “illiterate and stolid drudges, without incentive, initiative, self-respect, or pride of workmanship • Made for very poor soldiers

5. Western Ideas and Education • 3rd fundamental institution (arose in mid 1800s was the intelligentsia • Educated Russians were full of Western Ideas • Estranged from the government, from the Church, from the uneducated peasants • And felt some guilt for the condition of the peasants • Became the “intelligentsia: felt themselves a class apart • Free to think, not free to do much • Made up of students, university graduates, people who had time to read • They tended to adopt sweeping and all-embracing philosophies • Believed that intellectuals should play a large role in society • Had an exaggerated view of the influence thinkers have had on historical events • Some turned to revolution and terrorism • Government responded with more repression

6. The Emancipation Act of 1861 & Other Reforms • 1855 Alexander II became tsar and sought the support of intelligentsia • He eased the controls on the universities • Censorship was reduced and followed by a great outburst of public opinion • Polar Star of Alexander Herzen (a revolutionary) in London gained wider audience • Resulted in outburst of public opinion • One point of agreement was the emancipation of the serfs • Even reactionary Nicholas I (who hated liberalism and used the “Third Section” (secret political police) wanted to alleviate serfdom • How to achieve the goal of emancipation was unclear • Alexander II set up a special branch of gov to figure this out • Needed to avoid throwing the labor system into chaos • Did not want to ruin the gentry class • Serfdom was abolished by an imperial ukase of 1861decree • Subjects of the government not of their owners • No longer could forced or unpaid labor be demanded

7. It did: Allocated about 50% of cultivated land to gentry and 50% to former serfs Serf had to pay redemption to gentry It did not: Weaken the gentry Now had possession of ½ arable land, received redemption $, free of serf responsibility Act of Emancipation of 1861

8. Land allocation • Peasants did not own property in western sense (private individual) • Peasant land became mir or village (collective) property • Village was responsible to the gov for payment of the redemption • Could demand forced labor from members that defaulted on their portion of the redemption • Could prevent peasants form moving away (would leave them with burden of paying redemption) • Mir periodically reassigned lands to village members (depending of family size) & supervised cultivation • Land could not be sold outside the village • Discouraged the investment of outside capital • Agriculture in Russia would lag behind the technical advancements of the west

9. Inequality Among Peasants • Some had right to work more land than others while others were lowly day laborers • Some had inheritance rights to land (not all land was controlled by the mir • Some rented gentry land • Some peasants leveraged their position by renting land from the gentry and hiring other peasants to work (kulaks) • Others ended up displaced from the land and destitute • None possessed full individual freedom of action in the western sense

10. Legal Reforms • Void of the gentry was replaced with westernized legal system • Edict of 1864 sought to alleviate the evils associated with arbitrary lord serf relationship • Public trials • Right to representation (with lawyers of their own choosing) • Class distinctions in judicial matters were abolished • A clear sequence of lower and higher courts was established • Training for judges on state salaries • Jury trials

11. A System of Self-Government • Alexander II hoped to win over liberals and to give upper and middle classes some public responsibility • Another edict of 1864 established a system of provincial and district councils (IE. Regional governments) • Called Zemstvos • Members were elected by peasants and other elements • Took care of education, medical relief, public welfare, food supply and road maintenance • Developed a sense of civic responsibility among its members • Some liberal members wanted a Zemsky Sobor (a Duma) • A representative body for all Russia • Alexander II would not allow it • Rebellion in Poland led by liberals caused Alexander II to pull in the reigns of reform Zemstvo having a dinner by Grigoriy Myasoyedov. 1872

12. Revolutionism in Russia • Several assassination attempts were made against Alexander II • 1866, shot at in 1873, 1880 missed explosion by ½ hr • 1881 Alexander was killed in a bombing • Revolutionaries were not pleased with the reforms • Reforms only strengthened the existing order • These dissatisfied intelligentsia began to call themselves nihilists (said they believed in nothing, except science • Took a cynical view of the reforms of Alexander II • Peasants were saddled with heavy redemption payments • Intellectuals fanned the peasant discontent • They had a mystic belief in the role the peasant would play in a future revolution • Socialists came to believe that the future of socialism was with Russia • Weakness of capitalism in Russia • Kind of collectivism was already established in the village communes

13. Bakunin and anarchism • Ultra radicals Bakunin and Nechaiev • Promoted terrorism (assassination) to remove the existing government • Pamphlet called People’s Justice called for terrorism against tsarist officials and liberals too! • Catechism of a Revolutionist stated • that true revolutionary is “devoured by one purpose, one thought, one passion—the revolution.” • “Every that promotes the success of the revolution is moral, everything which hinders it is immoral.” • Marxism rejects terrorism because socialism needed no prodding (it was inevitable) • In order to stem the rise of radical socialist the Czar turned to the liberalism 1880 • Liberals demanded follow through with earlier reforms • Czar abolished the secret police (Third Section) of Nicholas I • Allowed more freedom of the press • Agreed to a pseudo-parliamentary system on March 13, 1881 • March 13, 1881 Alexander II was assassinated by the People’s Will

14. Alexander III • Alexander III (1881 to 1894) • Abandoned his father’s idea of parliamentary-like gov • Brutally resisted liberal and revolutionary interests • He did allow peasant emancipation, judicial reform and zemstvos to continue • Even Russia (with autocracy on the right & revolutionaries on the left) was caught up in the liberalism of the times