The Reaction

1
The Reaction

• How far did the reaction under Alexander III
  indicate the short-sightedness of the tsarist
  government?

2
Starting point,..

• A.II assassinated.
• Thus tsars response is predictable.
• Forces the abandonment of reform programme and
  adoption of repressive tactics.
• Measures became known as The Reaction

3
Aims and Intentions

• Alexander III unexpectedly came to the throne in
  1881 on the assassination of Alexander II.
• Alexander III was under no illusion that he could
  suffer the same fate as his father. He introduced
  repression of opponents as the corner stone of
  his reign. Alexander had three main beliefs
• 1)   Repression of opponents
• 2)   Undoing the reforms of his father
• 3)   Restore Russias position internationally
  and also her national identity, which he believed
  had been diluted throughout the C19th.

4
Battleground and Character

• Slavophile
• a member of an intellectual movement that wanted
  Russia to be developed upon values and
  institutions derived from its early history.
• Westerners
• Those Russians who believed that for Russia to
  become a great nation she had to adopt Western
  style economic plans, political manifestos and
  democracy.

5
How significant was Konstantin Pobedonotsev?

• Chief minister, 1881-1905 and lay head of the
  Synod
• Sets in place the ultra-conservatism of the
  tsarist regime.
• Believed that representative govt was a great
  lie of our time.
• Tutored both Alexander III and Nicholas II.
• Personified the obstructions in the way of
  Russias necessary political and social reform.
• Irony at a critical phase of economic growth, a
  phase that could have helped Russia modernise,
  tsardom showed a fatal resistance to change.

6
The Reaction

• See Lynch, pages 11 and 13.
• Use these two pages to write your own notes on
  these laws.

7
Restrictive Measures Accompanied Russofication

• Deliberate attempt by A.III to restrict the
  influence of minorities in the Russian Empire.
• Russian the official language, culture, law and
  government.
• Dominance of Russian values at the expense of
  others central.
• Discrimination more open and vindictive.
• Systematic abuse of administration, education,
  religion, etc
• Jews suffered with over 100 new measures imposing
  social, political religious and economic
  restrictions.

8
Russofication

• Heinemann p.61-66
• Make your own notes using the worksheet provided