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AQA History A-level - Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855-1964 - Trying to…

- - - - His tutor, Zhukovsky
      - His earlier travels around the Empire
      - A circle of nobles known as the Party of St Petersburg Progress, who came into prominence at his court
      - His brother, Grand Duke Konstantin
      - His aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna
      - 'Enlightened' bureaucrats like the Milyutin brothers and Intelligentsia members
    - - Serfdom was seen as morally wrong
      - Peasant uprisings had increased in number since 1840s
    - - Defeat in the Crimean War & consequent humiliation
      - Dmitry Milyutin argued only a free population would provide the labour needed to improve the army
  - - - Positive
        
        Peasants no longer subject to masters' whim & had free status
        
        Some peasants (prosperous kulaks) did well out of land allocations, buying up extra land & exporting surplus grain
        
        Some sold their land, obtained a passport to leave the mir, and found work in the city to increase their living standards
        
        Some landowners used compensation offered to get out of debt
        
        Enterprising landlords profited through investment in industrial enterprises
      - Negative
        
        Fair land allocations were a rarity
        
        As mir distributions had to be equal, the greater the population, the smaller the land the peasants had
        
        Allotments were tiny - difficult to adopt new farming methods
        
        Mirs were highly traditional - subsistence farming/technical backwardness persisted (only 50% of peasantry in '78 were capable of surplus production)
        
        Loss of former benefits, travel restrictions, redemption payments made rural life difficult
        
        Kulak resentment and landholding/redemption payments disputes led to further violence, such as riots/protests in Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan
- - - - Zemstva chosen through 'electoral colleges'; separate colleges were used for nobles, townspeople, Church & peasants,allowing a degree of popular representation
      - Composed of men who knew the locality and its needs
      - Given power to improve public services, develop industrial projects, administer poor relief; 1870 - elected town councils (dumas) set up in the towns
    - - Power was strictly limited
      - No control over taxes
      - Voting procedure favoured nobility
      - Provincial governors continue to appoint officials, take responsibility for law & order, could overturn zemstvo decisions
      - Councils never truly 'people's assemblies' - attracted doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists who used meetings to debate political issues
    - - Elected local councils (zemstva) replaced the rights/obligations of serf-owning gentry
  - - - Emancipation required legal/administrative changes to local justice - previously judge examined written evidence prepared by owner/police
      - No jury system, no lawyers, no witness examinations
      - Accused was guilty until proven innocent, with judge's decision final
    - - Articulate lawyers could criticise regime
      - New juries acquitted some guilty out of sympathy; new decree had to be issued permitting political crimes to be tried by special procedures
      - Were limitations and exclusions, like the ecclesiastical /military courts
    - - News system was modelled on the West
      - Single system of courts established before the law - accused was presumed innocent 'til proven guilty, and could employ a lawyer
      - Criminal cases held before barristers & jury, selected from property owners, w/ judges appointed by Tsar & given improved training/pay
      - Local Justices of the Peace (JPs) elected tri-anually by zemstva, & were independent from political controls
      - Publical courts, & proceedings could be reported; National trials recorded in a government newspaper, the Russian Courier
  - - - Emancipation increased need for basic literacy/numeracy among peasants
      - Golovnin (Minister of Education 1862-67) helmed the reforms
    - - New independence of unis increased number of radical thinkers; after '66, government control was reasserted
    - - Number of school/uni attendees increased
      - Schools declared open to both genders of all classes (from 1870 women could attend secondary school for non-vocational education)
      - Primary/Secondary education was extended; modern schools created at secondary level for those who didn't want a classical gimnaziya educations - both allowed progression to uni
      - School responsibility shifted from Church to zemstva
      - Universities could self-govern and appoint own staff
  - - - Dmitry Milyutin's reorganisation of begun an improved efficiency/reduced cost
    - - Richer people found substitutes to serve for them
      - Officer class remained largely aristocratic
      - Supply and leadership problems persisted
    - - Military Colleges set up to provide better training to non-noble officer corps
      - Compulsory conscription for all classes from 21, but reduction of length of service from 25 to 15yrs in active service, & 10yrs in reserves
      - Creation of new command structure
      - Introduction of modern weaponry
      - Better provisioning, medical care, education were provided; literacy rates increased in '70s-90s
      - Military colony system abandoned
      - Less severe punishments
  - - - Some economic liberalisation
      - Attempts to eliminate corruption in lower levels of corruption
      - Reform of condition of Jews/ethnic minorities initially
      - Between 1858-70 press censorship was relaxed; book publication grew by >10x from '55 to '64
    - - Government control tightened in 1870s after critical writing increased
      - Church reform stopped in reactionary years since 1870s
      - After 1863 Polish rebellion, lenient treatment of Poles/Jews was reversed
      - Economic liberalisation remained, but mostly at peasants' expense