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Alexander II 1855-1881
The Nature of Government
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Structure
Local government
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Zemstvo , it’s an elected local council, established to replace the rights and
obligations of a former serf owing gentry
Chosen through a system of ‘electoral colleges’, separate colleges for nobles,
townspeople and church, peasants
Zemstvo given power to improve public services, roads, school, public health, prisons
Establishment of a degree of representative government at local level raised hopes of
intelligentsia who wanted a representative National Assembly
Provided valuable addition to local government, as composed of men who understood
the locality and its needs
However, the voting procedure was arranged in a way that allowed the nobility to
dominate
Power of the zemstvo was strictly limited, no control over state and local taxes
Despite peasant representation, never truly ‘people’s assembles’
District 42% nobles, 38% peasants; provincial 74% nobles, 10
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Repression:
- Third section, Okhrana

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Political opposition
‘Land and liberty’ set up in 1877, split in 1879: Black Partition, wanted to work
peacefully among the peasantry, avoid violence; ‘The People’s will’ bigger group,
advocate violent methods
Assassinations
‘ The People’s Will’ advocated violence as the trigger to general revolution
1866 - an attempted assassination, Dmitry Karakozov ( a young revolutionary ) shot
Alexander but missed
1867- Polish immigrant Antoni Berezowski fired on carriage carrying Alexander but
hit a horse instead
1879 April – Aleksander Soloviev, former student fired Alexander 5 times but failed
1897 Dec – The bombs intended to blow up the Tsar on a railway journey was planted
under the wrong train
1880 – A mine positioned below the dining room in winter palace, killed 12 people
except the Tsar as he was late to dinner
1881 13th March – The People’s Will, 2 bombs missed, Tsar got out of his carriage
and another terrorist threw a bomb and killed him instantly

Growth of radicals
Herzen to Nihilism
Herzen, an exile from Russia by 1848, had moderated his stance as a result of the
revolutions of that year, became more willing to accept reforms
Chernyshevsky took the opposite path, he realised that further worthwhile reform was
impossible without a fundamental alternation of Russia’s political and economic
bases
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Peasant opposition
The Polish Revolt
Populism
A movement that dominated Russian radicalism in the mid 1870s
Founders were Nikolai Mikhailovsky and Pyotr Lavrov
Viewed the Russian peasantry not as a force of great revolutionary potential but as
one which needed re-education
1874-75 some 3000 young radicals invaded the countryside to open the eyes of the
population
The movement ‘ To the people’ was a failure, many peasants were hostile and over
1,600 populists were arrested between 1873 and 1877

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A breakaway group called ‘Land and Liberty’ made some progress in the following
year with a revised plan that involved living with the peasants for longer period to
understand their mentality better

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Nationalities
- The Polish Revolt
- Poland had fall under the power of the Tsars due to the compromise made at the
Congress of Vienna 1815, the allies had preserved its nominal independence, but
they allowed the Tsar to rule as King of Poland
- Desire to re-establish Polish nationhood was the main problem
- In April, the Agricultural Society created unrest, resulting in up to 200 killed
- In May 1862, The Tsar’s brother Constantine ( a liberal ) was appointed to defuse
the situation but failed
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Political
Third section
Pyotr Shuvalov strengthened police, encourage the Third Section
Vetted appointments and made sure conservatives gained posts
Tightened up censorship and closed down some periodicals
Made use of military courts to trial more serious cases
Increased use to rule by decree

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Konstantine Pahlen held open ‘show trials’ , intend to deter others from
revolutionary activities
Show trials of people accused of revolutionary activities
‘Trials of 193’ (1877-78) a sympathetic jury acquitted 153 of the 193 defendants
and gave only light sentences to the rest, while the lawyer’s passionate speeches
were reported in the Pras, give public revolutionaries ideas

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Worker
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Censorship
Initial relaxation of press censorship under Nicholas I
Restriction on publishers were reduced, foreign publications were permitted with
government approval, press was allowed to print editorials with comments with
government policy
Books publish grew from 1020 in 1855 to 1836 in 1864 and 10,691 by 1894
However growth in critical writing brought a re-lightening of government control in
the 1870s
Dimitry Tolstoy was an Orthodox believer, felt control over education was essential to
eradicate Western liberal ideas and growing criticism of the autocracy
Zemstvo’s power over education were reduced, the church regained its authority over
rural schools
Liberal courses replaced by traditional curriculum, subjects encouraged critical
thought: literature, science, languages were forced out; maths, Latin, Greek were
encouraged
Censorship tightened control over student activities
State- teacher training set up, increase tsarist control

Loris- Melikov constitution
Released political prisoners, relaxed censorship, created Okhrana, signed on 13th
March 1881 but killed

The economy
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By 1878 there were 278 municipal banks
Exports rose by 60% in the 1870s and imports were carefully controlled
Grain exports 26 million tonnes 1864, 86 million tonnes 1880

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Railway construction, influence of Britain
Overseas loan financed construction, 800 miles of track 1855, 1861 2000 miles, 1878
22,498 miles
1880 94% of railway lines in private hands
Rail traffic increased x10 1865-75
Vyshnegradsky, minister of Finance, continued Reutern’s policy of developing the
railway

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Success: Average annual growth rate of 6%
Failures : Short lived due to financial collapse in 1878 due to the Russo- Turkish War,
growth was not self- sustaining, no middle class

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Modern/ war ready state
- War cost 45% of government expenditure in 1854, showed Russia had to modernise
and industrialise to improve economy
- Modernise military
- Dimitry Milyutin reorganised the armed force to create a smaller, more professional,
more efficient and less expensive army
- Conscription made compulsory from all classes of age 21, length of service reduced
from 25 to 15 years of active service and 10 years in reserves
- Modern weaponry was introduced
- Military colleges set up, provided better training for non- noble officer crops
- Literacy with army improved, mass army education campaigns in 1870-90s

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5M serfs on private land, 42
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Political representation
- 1864 Zemstvo, were set up to express views of rural people at a local level
- Zemstvo chosen through a system of ‘electoral colleges’ , separate colleges for nobles,
townspeople and church, peasants – Composed of men who understand locality and
its needs
- Underground opposition

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Living conditions
- Poor living conditions
- Russia had not experienced an industrial revolution like Britain and Germany so there
were few large-scale industrial works by 1850s
- Workers might sleep and live alongside their work benches in stinking and filthy
surroundings

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Political representation
- Zemstvo

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Censorship
- 1858-70 initial relaxation of press censorship, foreign publications were permitted
with government approval, press was allowed to print editorials with comments on
government policy
- Books published grew from 1020 in 1855 to 1836 in 1864 and 10,691 by 1894
- Growth in critical writing brought a re-lightening of government control in the 1870s

2
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Religion
- Attempt to eliminate corruption in the lower reaches of the Russian Orthodox church

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Culture

The Empire and the satellite states
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Poland
- Alexander II had combined to give Poland a freer institution than existed anywhere
else in eastern Europe
- Poland enjoyed a constitution, a parliament, and the use of Polish as an official
language
- The polish revolt

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Russification
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Satellite states

Impact of War and Revolution
Crimean war
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1853-56, fought between Russia and Ottoman Empire, Britain and France
750,000 Russians killed, compare to 22,000 Brits and 90,000 French
1865, signed Treaty of Paris, humiliating, prohibited from having naval base on the
black sea, give up Balkans land

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Society
Shows the weakness in Nicholas I rule, maintenance of serfdom
Under strict autocratic rule, didn’t fit in with modern warfare
Emancipation

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Nationalities
- More freedom

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Lives of workers
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