Chapter 25 Part 5

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Chapter 25Part 5
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Russia

• Crimean War defeat signaled need for
  modernization
• Russia lacked a middle class so no liberalism
  economically, politically, socially
• But nobles not interested in modernization

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Alexander II 1855-81

• Understood that serfdom was keeping Russia back
• 90 worked in agriculture
• Serfdom led to peasant uprisings, poor
  agricultural output, exploitation of serfs by
  lords
• Serfs could be conscripted for 25 years
• Could be bought or sold with or without land

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The Emancipation Act 1861

• Abolished serfdom
• Peasants were free to move about, engage in other
  occupations, enter contracts, own property

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But most Russians lived in Mirs

• Highly regulated communes
• Collective ownership of land
• Hard to leave village or make improvements

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Zemstvos

• 1864 assemblies that administered local areas
• Attempt at popular participation
• BUT nobles ended up controlling them

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Reforms

• Relaxed censorship
• Liberalized education
• Some Judiciary improvement

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Industrialization in Russia

• Was stimulated by Railroad construction
• Between 1860-80 RR mileage grew from 1,250 to
  15,500
• Could export grain, supply and move troops, etc
• Stimulated manufacturing, modern factory workers,
  suburbs

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Critics

• Radical populist movements sought a utopian
  agrarian order
• Intelligensia hostile group of intellectuals
  who believed that they should take over society
• Nihilists intellectuals who believed in nothing
  but science. Wanted to wie out the social order
  and start from scratch

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Alexander II

• Became more conservative later in his reign
• Was assassinated in 1881 by radicals who bombed
  his carriage in St. Petersburg

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Count S. Y. Witte

• Oversaw Russian industrialism in 1890s
• Courted Western investors, technology
• Small rise in middle class
• Trans-Siberian railroad 5,999 miles
• Went on the gold standard to strengthen
  government finances
• By 1900 great gains in petroleum export and steel
  production

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Industrial Workers Exploited

• Caused spread of Marxist thought and
  revolutionary movements(timing is everything)

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Economic Problems

• 1/3 of farmland still not used
• Food production could not keep up with population
• By late 19th century Russia the most populous
  nation in Europe
• Depression in 1899 wiped out earlier economic
  gains
• Above caused massive unemployment

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Alexander III 18881-94

• The most reactionary of the 19th century czars
• Encouraged anti-Semitism through pogroms (severe
  persecution of Jews)
• Many emigrated

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Zionism

• Introduced by Theodore Hertzel
• The movement for a Jewish homeland in the holy
  land

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Nicholas II 1894-1917

• Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05
• Background Both Russia and Japan increased
  their spheres of influence in Manchuria and both
  had their eyes on Korea
• 1905 Japan defeated the entire Russian Fleet
• Russia humiliated

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Treaty of Portsmouth

• Teddy Roosevelt
• Japan gained sphere of influence in Manchuria
• Korea
• ½ of Sakhalin Island
• Russia decided to concentrate on the Balkans

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Revolution of 1905

• Bloody Sunday 200,000 peasants and workers
  marched peacefully to the winter palace asking
  for reforms
• Czar was not there but the army fired upon the
  crowd killing many
• Caused a general strike (peasants, workers, army
  staged revolts and mutinies

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Russia was paralyzed

• Forced Nicholas II to make concessions
• Agreed to freedom of speech, assembly, press
• Agreed to a Duma advisory board. Czar retained
  absolute veto and Duma members were divided so no
  real power

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1907-14 mild economic recovery

• Peter Stolypin worked for agrarian reform
• Encouraged enterprising peasants the Kulaks
• Tried to break up collective ownership of land
• Was assassinated by conspiracy of nobles

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Rasputin

• Increasingly dominated Russian court after 1911
• Not popular with masses or with nobles
• Russias poor showing in WWI led directly to
  Russian Revolution