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Tsarist and Communist Russia - Section 1, Individuals who moved Russia…

- - - - ratio of 11:1 village to town dwellers
      - Good reasons for Russia's economic backwardness
        
        Most of its territory was inhospitable
        
        Size and climate placed strains on economic developments
        
        However - mid 19th century russia was Europes biggest exporter of agricultural produce
        
        Held vast reserves of timber, coal, oil, gold and other precious metals
        
        Lacked committment to a serf-based economy
        
        Land owning aristocracy, government and the army were all reliant on the serfs
        
        Inhibited economic development by limiting the forces that drive change
        
        wage earners
        
        markets
        
        entrepreneurs
        
        Markets did exist and were still developing
        
        Business was mostly small scale
        
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        Serfs were poor
        
        Relied on their own income and reserves of grain
        
        Grew on land owned by landowners
        
        "Cottage industries" provided little cash they needed for taxes and special purchases
        
        Cottage Industries: Work done in the workers own home / small workshop, i.e, weaving
        
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        Often suffered with starvation through the winter
        
        particularly in years of bad harvest
        
        Often lived in serf communes (mirs)
        
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        Little incentive or opportunity to develop into wage earners
        
        Small landowning elite
        
        Obtained most of what they needed from serfs
        
        Serf-owning meant idleness
    - - Russia was divided by the land-owning elite and the serf majority
        
        Elite consisted of:
        
        Clergy
        
        Nobility
        
        Civil and military officials
        
        Army and Naval officers
        
        The Royal court
        
        Often exempt from paying taxes
        
        Serfs had some:
        
        Urban artisans
        
        Manufacturers
        
        Merchants
        
        Needed to pay taxes (direct and indirect) on top of "dues" to their masters
        
        There was an absence of the middle class in Russia at this time
        
        A small number of professionals existed (Intelligentsia)
        
        often the sons of nobles
- - - - Vasily Zhukovsky
      - As well as the Milyutin Brothers
        
        Nikolai Milyutin
        
        An influential voice in the Ministry of Internal Affairs
        
        Largely responsible for drafting the terms of the emancipation edict
        
        Supported the establishment of the Zmestva
        
        Dmitry Milyutin
        
        Trained in the military academy
        
        Earned a reputation as a military scholar
        
        Alexanders minister for war in 1861 to 1881
    - - Dmitry Milyutin pleaded for reform
        
        He wanted to "strengthen the state and restore dignity"
        
        Believed that the Army had to be modernised
        
        A free population would provide the Labour needed for Military improvement
      - Crimean War
        
        Nicholas I sent the Russian Army into Moldavia and Wallachi
        
        Provoked turks into declaring war in october
        
        Russians were stronger
        
        Britain and France began defending Turkey
        
        Joint expeditionary force of more than 60,000
        
        Death Toll made worse by an outbreak of Cholera
  - - - Made pro-emancipation speeches in order to try and win noble support for emancipation
        
        Decree was not ready until 1861 and came into force in Easter
    - - State serfs gained their freedom in 1866
      - Granted freedom and an allotment of land
        
        Landowners received government compensation
      - Freed Serfs had to pay "redemption payments" over 49 years
        
        Had to remain in their peasant communes (mirs) until these payments were made
        
        Mirs were responsible for distributing the allotments and controlling the farming
        
        As well as collecting and paying the peasants taxes
        
        Volosts were established to supervise the mirs
        
        A peasant community consisting of several villages or hamlets
        
        From 1863, Volosts ran their own courts
        
        Replaced the landlords jurisdictions over the serfs
        
        Two year period of temporary obligation before freedom was granted
        
        allowed time for allocations to be worked out
        
        Landowners kept meadows, pastures, woodlands and personal holdings
        
        Open fields were given to the mirs
    - - 15% of peasants were still in "temporary obligation" until 1881
    - - Some peasants (kulaks) did well out of the land allocations
        
        They bought extra land to produce surplus grain for export
        
        Others who sold their allocation, or obtained a passport, raised their living standard by finding work in the industrialising cities
      - Some landowners used the compensation offered to get out of debt
        
        Enterprising individuals made profits through investment
      - Many peasants felt cheated
        
        Small allotments were increasingly divided
        
        Mir system proved to be a highly traditional institution
        
        Backwardness persisted
        
        1878 only 58% of the peasantry was capable of producing a surplus
        
        Loss of former benefits
        
        Restrictions of travel
        
        Burden of redemption payments
        
        Made rural life difficult
        
        Resentment of Kulaks led to violent outbreaks in the countryside
        
        Landowners resented their loss of influence
        
        Newspapers ran articles about their disappointment
        
        Wave of student protests and riots occurred in st.petersburg
  - - - Dmitry Milyutin reorganised the armed forces to create a smaller, more organised and less expensive army
        
        Conscription was made compulsory for all classes from the age of 21
        
        Length of service reduced from 25 to 15 years of active service and 10 years in the reserves
        
        Punishments were made less severe
        
        System of military colonies was abandoned
        
        Better provisioning and medical care were established
        
        Modern weaponry was introduced
        
        New command structure was established
        
        Military colleges were set up
        
        provided better training for the non-noble officer corps
        
        Literacy within the army was improved
        
        mass army education campaigns in 1870s and 1890s
        
        While there were improvements, the better-off found substitutes to serve their place
        
        officer class remained largely aristocratic
        
        Problems of supply and leadership continued
        
        The army struggled to win the war against Turkey
        
        Defeated at the hands of the japanese and Germans
    - - To replace the rights and obligations of the former serf-owning gentry, a system of elected councils were established
        
        District and provincial levels
        
        Known as a zemstva
        
        Chosen through a system of electoral colleges
        
        Separate colleges for nobles, townspeople, the church and peasants
        
        Given power to improve public services
        
        Develop industrial projects
        
        administer poor relief in times of hardship
        
        Was extended to towns in 1870
        
        Elected town councils (Dumas) were set up
        
        This raised the hopes of members of the intelligentsia who wanted a National Assembly
        
        Powers of the Zemstva were limited
        
        They had no power over state and local taxes
        
        Provided valuable additions to the local government
        
        Comprised of men who understood locality and its needs
        
        Despite some peasant representation, they were never truly peoples assemblies
        
        Attracted doctors, lawyers, teachers and scientists
        
        Used meetings as an opportunity to debate political issues and critique the government
        
        Provincial govenors continued to appoint officials
        
        took responsibility for law and order
        
        Could overturn Zemstvo decisions
    - - Emancipation demanded an overhaul of the law concerning property rights
        
        A change in administration of local justice
        
        Formerly had been in the hands of a judge examining written evidence
        
        No jury system existed
        
        No laywers
        
        No examination of witnesses
        
        Accused was considered guilty until proven innocent
        
        New system was modelled over the system in the West
        
        Equality before the law was established
        
        A single system of local, provincial, and national courts
        
        Volost courts dealt with exclusively peasant cases
        
        Accused was presumed innocent until proven guilty
        
        could hire a lawyer to defend himself
        
        Criminal cases were heard before barristers and a jury
        
        selected from lists of property owners
        
        Judges were appointed by the tsar
        
        Given improved training and pay
        
        Local justices of peace were elected every 3 years by the zemstva
        
        meant to be independent from political control
        
        Courts were open to the public and proceedings cold be freely reported
        
        National trials recorded in a government newspaper (Russian Courier)
        
        The new system was fairer and less corrupt
        
        However the public flocked the the open courts
        
        A new opportunity arose for lawyers to criticise the regime
        
        New juries acquitted the guilty because they sympathised with them
        
        To counter this behaviour a new decree had to be issued to permit political crimes to be tried under special procedures
        
        Other limitations;
        
        Trial by jury was never established in Poland, western provinces or the causcaus
        
        ecclesiastical and military courts excluded from reforms
        
        Peasantry in the volost courts were still treated differently to those from higher status
    - - Abolition of serfdom increased the need for basic literacy and numeracy
        
        Establishment of the zemstva provided an opportunity for a change in the control and funding of Education
        
        Under Alexander Golovnin (Minister for Education 1962-67):
        
        Universities were given the opportunity to govern themselves and appoint their own staff
        
        Responsibility for education was transferred from the Church to the Zemstva
        
        Primary and secondary education was extended
        
        Modern schools established at secondary level for those who did not want the traditional education offered in gimnazii
        
        Students from both could progress to university
        
        Schools were declared "open to all" regardless of class and sex
        
        Allowing women to attend school for non vocational education in 1870
        
        Educational provision grew
        
        New independence given increased the number of radical and militant thinkers
        
        Led to the government needing to re-establish control
    - - Initial relaxation of press censorship
        
        Restrictions on publishers were reduced
        
        Foreign Publications were permitted with government approval
        
        Press were allowed to print editorials with comment on government policy
        
        Led to a short lived growth in the numbers of books, journals and newspapers on sale in russia
        
        A growth in critical writing brought a retightening of government control in the 1870's
    - - Some reform in the condition of Jews and ethnic minorities
      - At the ministry of Finance, Mikhail Reutern brought economic liberalisation
        
        The only reform to have survived
      - Period of reaction in the 1870's ended hopes of a church reform
      - 1863 Polish rebellion ended lenient treatment of Poles and Jews
- - - - Was interrupted by a brief flirtation with a constitutional reform in his final years
    - - 1865, eldest son and heir died
      - Sought Consolation in his mistress
        
        Yekaterina Mikhailovna
        
        Distanced him from the reforming elements within his own family
        
        Became more aloof following many assassination attempts
        
        Less inclined to resist reactionary conservatives who believed the tsars reforming instincts had gone too far
        
        Reactionaries feared the spread of "western ideas" through liberal universities and freer press
        
        Argued that ethnic minorities were diluting Russian Strength
        
        Alexander was persuaded to make a series of new appointments in 1866
        
        Replaced Liberal ministers with conservatives
        
        Dmitry Tolstoy as Minister for Education - Replaced Golovnin
        
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        Aleskandr Timashev as Minister of Internal Affairs - replaced Pyotr Valuev
        
        Pyotr Shuvalov as head of the Third Section (Secret Police)
        
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        Konstantin Pahlen as Minister of Justice
        
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    - - Late 1870's were a time of political crisis in Russia
        
        Russian army bogged down by the russo-turkish war (1877-78)
        
        Famine swept the country side in 1879
        
        Beginning of the industrial recession
        
        Further attempts on the tsars life in 1879 and 1880
        
        Led Alexander to accept that violence and unrest may need to be curbed by democratic consultation
      - Mikhail Loris Melikov was appointed minister for Internal Affairs
        
        Released political prisoners
        
        Relaxed censorship
        
        Removed the salt-tax
        
        lifted restrictions on the activities of the zemstva
        
        Abolished the third section
        
        Powers were transferred over to the regular police
        
        Creation of the Okhrana
        
        Became just as oppressive as the Third Section
        
        Produced a report in response to Zemstva demands
        
        recommended inclusion of elected representatives of the nobility
        
        Alexander accepted and signed the report on the 13th of March 1881
        
        Killed by a bomb the same day (unluckyyy)
  - - - believed that he alone could decide what was right for Russia (with God's guidance)
      - Subjects were not to question him
        
        Rather to love and obey
    - - Implemented the "Manifesto Of Unshakeable Autocracy"
      - Also issued a law on exceptional measures
        
        Declared that a Commander in chief could be appointed to take control of a locality
        
        using military police courts and powers of imprisonment
    - - Reforming ministers (including Milyutin) Resigned
    - - Nationalist Nikolai Ignatiev as the First internal Minister
        
        Was later replaced by Dmitry Tolstoy in 1882
      - Ivan Delyanov
        
        Minister for Education
      - Konstantin Pobedonostsev
        
        Over Procurator of the Holy Synod
      - Mikhail Katkov
        
        A journalist who helped justify Alexanders views to the public
    - - A new state appointed office of "Land Captain" created in July 1889
        
        They had power to override elections to the zemstvo and village assemblies
        
        Could disregard Zemstvo decisions
        
        Land Captains were responsible for Law enforcement and goverment in the countryside
        
        Able to ignore the normal judicial process, overturning court judgements
        
        A further act in 1890 changed election arrangements for the Zemstva
        
        In order to reduce the peasant vote
        
        Placed zemstva under central government control
        
        Channelled away their efforts from political discussion towards social services
        
        I.e Education, Health, local transport and engineering projects
        
        June 1892
        
        Similar arrangement made for towns
        
        Electorate was reduced to the owners of the property above a certain value
        
        Mayor and members of town councils became state employees
        
        Subject to central government direction
    - - Department of Police (Including the Okhrana) was led by Vyacheslav Von Plehve (1881-84)
      - Further led by Pyotr Durnovo
      - Number of police were increased
        
        New branches of Criminal Investigation department were set up
        
        There was also a drive to recruit spies and counter spies
        
        1882 Statute on Police Surveillance
        
        Any area of the Empire could be deemed an area of suberversion
        
        Police agents could search, arrest, detain, question imprison or exile people who could not only:
        
        Have committed a crime
        
        were likely to have committed a crime
        
        Knew or was related too somebody who had committed a crime
        
        Gave the police tremedous power
        
        Anyone who was arrested had no right to legal representation
    - - Judicial Reforms of Alexander II were partially reversed
        
        1885 - A decree allowed the Minister of Justice to exercise greater control
        
        I.e, Dismissal of Judges
        
        1887 the Ministry was granted powers to hold closed court sessions
        
        1889 volost courts were put under the direct jurisdiction of the Land Captains in the country side and judges in the towns
    - - Educational developments were overseen by Delyanov
        
        New university charter in 1884 made appointments of chancellors, deans and professors subject to the approval of the Education Ministry based on religious, moral and patriotic orientation
        
        Closed universities for Women
        
        Abolished separate university courts
        
        University life was closely supervised
        
        Students were forbidden from gathering in groups of more than 5
        
        Children from the lower classes were restricted to primary education
        
        Primary education placed in the hands of the Orthodox Church
        
        Overall number of schools increased
        
        However only 21% of all the population were literate by 1897
    - - Tolstoy established a government committee in 1882 that issued "temporary regulations"
        
        Led to the shut down of newspapers
        
        A life ban was laced on editors and publishers
        
        Censors became more active
        
        All literary publications had to be officially approved
        
        Libraries and reading rooms were restricted in the books they were allowed to stock
        
        Extended to Theatre, art and culture where Russification was enforced