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Imperial Russia Under Alexander III: 1881 — 1894

The Reaction

Aftermath of the assassination
In 1881 Alexander II was killed by a terrorist bomb - the work of a group calling themselves 'The People's Will', but made up of disaffected intelligentsia. Alexander III (1881 - 94) instituted a severe reaction.
The following letter from Count Leo Tolstoy (author and philosopher) to Alexander III was written on the occasion of the death of Alexander II
If you do not pardon, but execute the criminals, you will have uprooted three or four out of hundreds; but evil breeds evil, and in place of those three or four, thirty or forty will grow up, and you will have let slip for ever the moment which is worth a whole age — the moment when you might have fulfilled the will of God, but did not do so — and you will pass for ever from the parting of the ways where you could have chosen good instead of evil, and you will sink for ever into that service of evil, called the Interest of the State ... One word of forgiveness and Christian love, spoken and carried out from the height of the throne, and the path of Christian rule which is before you, waiting to be trod, can destroy the evil which is corroding Russian. As wax before the fire, all Revolutionary struggles will melt away before the man-Tsar who fulfils the laws of Christ. [Quoted in Maude, The Life of Tostoy, pub. Constable, 1908 — 10 in 2 volumes.]
This letter was shown to the Tsar by his brother, Grand Duke Serge. The People's Will also published an open letter stating that he had two alternatives: “either the inevitable revolution, which cannot be obviated by capital punishments; or voluntary compliance with the will of the people on the part of the Government. ... Your majesty has to decide. You have two ways before you; it is for you to choose which you will take.” However, Alexander III did not pay head to these counsels and warnings and chose to institute a reaction against liberalism.
The assassin Grinevtisky was already dead, and Perovskaya was arrested with four others one week later; all five were condemned to death. These included Zelyabov, who claimed to have masterminded the operation, even though he was in custody at the time of the assassination itself; Kibalchich who was the chemist who made the grenades; Rysakov and Michelovitch, two other conspirators. Another conspirator, Jessica Hellman, who was pregnant was sentenced to penal servitude. The conspirators were executed in April 1881.
Alexander III appointed General Nicholas Baranov as prefect of St. Petersburg with responsibility for law and order. Baranov instituted a programme of special vigilance and had the city surrounded by Cossacks under instructions to search anyone who entered or left the city. He created an army of informers, known as the committee of volunteers. Cab drivers, for example, were required to report all destinations to which they took their fares; and servants were encouraged to inform on their masters.
However, Loris Melikov continued to press for reform and asked Alexander III to confirm the manifesto with plans for the constitution that he had prepared for Alexander II. He was opposed behind the scenes by Pobedonostsev. There was a division in the government, with the proposals supported by Grand Duke Constantine, Milyutin and Alexander Abaza, the finance minister appointed by Loris-Melikov, but the conservatives were in the ascendancy. Alexander III authorized Pobedonstsev to write a new manifesto affirming government by autocracy. Loris-Melikov resigned, and was replaced as minister of the interior by Pobedonstsev's nominee, Count Nicholas Ignatev. Most of the liberal ministers were forced out of office. Grand Duke Constantine also resigned as imperial head of the navy.
Security
As minister for the interior Ignatev instituted further counter-terrorism measures. He was joined in this by Plehve, although Plehve had been one of Loris-Melikov's proteges. In August 1881 the Statute Concerning Measures for the Protection of State Security and Social Order was published (also called the Law on Exceptional Measures). In effect martial law was introduced; meetings of any kind could be banned, and the police was given extensive powers of search and arrest. Liberal judges and officials were dismissed from office. An inter-ministerial committee had the power to sentence anyone suspected of political crimes to terms of exile for up to five years, and without trial. Censorship was reintroduced.
Security continued to be very strict. For example, the palace commandant had at his disposal three military units and an additional unit of police. Alexander III took the threats against his life very seriously, allowed himself to be protected by a bodyguard, and moved from the insecure Winter Palace to Gatchina, situated thirty miles outside St. Petersburg. A new division of the police force was introduced — the Okhrannoe Otdelenie — the Security Division — known as the Okhrana. This created a secret police. Whenever the Tsar travelled, two identical trains were used. The palace police were plain clothes agents with connections to the Okhrana.
Although security was strict, terrorism was not eradicated. Suspects were rounded up in hundreds and there were regular mass trials. However, in 1882 General Strelnikov, public prosecutor in Kiev, was assassinated; Easter eggs containing dynamite were sent to the head of Moscow police; and General Sudeiken, chief of the St. Petersburg police was battered to death in his own flat. The Tsar usually slept with a pistol under his pillow and on one occasion accidentally shot dead an aide-de-camp who had inadvertently entered his study. In 1887 a student, Alexander Ulyanov, and brother to Lenin, was arrested carrying a bomb concealed in his medical encyclopaedia. He was executed in May 1887. The Imperial train was bombed in October 1888 whilst travelling to the Caucasus. The Tsar, a man of considerable physical strength, is alleged to have held up the roof of the coach whilst his family crawled to safety. The strain later caused him serious back pains. The Tsarina had a nervous collapse in the period following this incident.
Local government
During the 1880s there was a conflict within the bureaucracy regarding how the 'counter-reform' should be implemented. Another conservative minister of considerable influence was Count Dimitri Tolstoy who opposed proposals of the Kahhanov Committee to reform local government, and he was successful in 1885 in getting the committee dissolved. In July 1889 “land captains” were established. But the policy was a failure, because the land-owners did not like the role, and the quality of the incumbents was low. There continued to be a massive growth of tax arrears. The land captains were not respected.
The government attempted to tamper with elections to the zemstva (1890) and municipalities (1892) so as to favour the upper classes. The 1890 Zemistva Act reduced the powers of the local councils. The zemstva were subjected to increased control from the minister of the interior and lost most of their independence. But this also failed. The Russian equivalent of the squirearchy was unable to provide the basis of a reactionary development in the countryside.
The counter-reform sought to bring the judiciary under control. Rural justices of the peace were replaced by disciplinary boards, and trial by jury was regarded as 'un-Russian'. Cases were often held in camera or by special tribunals.
Education, the universities and censorship
The administration also sought to bring the universities under closer control. The new charter of 1884 required all teaching appointments to be vetted by the education ministry. The 1887 University Statute established state control over the universities. But these measures were unpopular and there were student protests. In 1899 disturbances at St. Petersburg University were quelled by Cossacks using whips. Dissident students could be sent to army disciplinary battalions. The enforcement of this regulation in 1900 caused several public demonstrations to be staged in Moscow and St. Petersburg — in fact, the first such demonstrations in the history of Russia.
Ivan Delyanov was minister for education. His new university charter removed the autonomy of the universities making them directly responsible to the minister of education; university students were prohibited from gathering in groups of more than five.
In 1887 Delyanov, issued a notorious instruction requiring schools not to admit children of families of lower status backgrounds because such children “should certainly not be brought out of the social environment to which they belong.” However, this instruction was not followed to the letter — by 1914 39% of university students and approximately 50% of secondary school students came from poorer social backgrounds. This contraction arose because the government was supporting the policies of industrialisation and economic growth, and these required an educated workforce.
The government also sought to increase censorship, and this was also resisted by the intelligentsia. Newspapers and publishing houses were closed down and editors prevented from taking other jobs in journalism.

The character of Alexander III and the extent of the “liberal” opposition

Alexander III was six foot three inches tall, and physically very strong. He liked to appear like a Russian peasant, and his manner discouraged argument. He was a good family man, but could be blunt or crude when giving orders. He washed in cold water on waking, and during each day would do a stint of manual labour — for example, felling trees or shoveling snow. He liked to mend fences, cook over an open fire, and cut firewood. He was conscientious in fulfilling his duties — for example, administrative paperwork. However, he tended to overwork and did not like to delegate even menial tasks, such as minor appointments. He preferred Russian food to any other — his favourite dish was cabbage and gruel. His children were subjected to a Spartan regime, but he was a loyal husband and a devoted father. He enjoyed beer evenings, and was an amateur musician — he played the trombone and cornet, and he liked to pretend at his parties that he was busking. He was a patron of the composer Tchaikovsky, and conferred the Cross of St. Vladimir on him. The Tsar paid for the costs of Tchaikovsky's funeral in October 1893. The Tsar and Tsarina liked very much the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He liked reading Tolstoy, Pierre Loti and Robert Louis Stevenson. He did not rule by means of a cabinet, but preferred to see his ministers individually and in private. His own policy of strict censorship meant that he had little direct personal experience of the country that he governed. His isolation may have fostered an increasing belief in his own infallibility and he became more intoxicated with power as his reign progressed. In conclusion, Alexander III had an impressive physical demeanour, but is said to have had a second-rate intellect.
His abilities were not sufficient to meet his aims. He was not able to change the character of the Russian bureaucracy, which had adopted Western models as ideals of conduct. This does not mean that the bureaucracy was liberal, but it did mean that a reversion to arbitrary government was not greeted with enthusiasm. Alexander III had an impressive physical demeanour, but is said to have had a second-rate intellect.
Both Alexander III and Nicholas II were unduly influenced by their tutor and advisor, Konstantin Pobedonostev, who was also the lay head (that is, chief procurator) of the Holy Synod. He was a “moralist” without pragmatism. Another powerful influence was Prince V.P. Meshchersky, who as an intimate friend of Alexander III, and advocated a combination of chauvinism and autocracy.
The administration was inefficient, over-bureaucratic, old-fashioned and corrupt. There was no Cabinet and no prime minister, and anyone, like for example Witte in the 1890s who gained a practical ascendancy in the direction of public affairs, could expect to attract a lot of envy. Until 1905 each ministry was directly responsible to the Tsar, and the Tsar had the right to rule by edict ('nominal decrees' — imennye ukazy). However, the Tsar made only rare use of this power. There was a State Council, but most of the approximately fifty members of this were elderly dignitaries.
It has been mooted that there were two parties within the Council and that the Council was a source of opposition to the government. However, this has been very much exaggerated. The uniformity of opinion within the Council outweighs any disagreements. All members of the Council sought to perpetuate its power; there were no “democrats” as such. Even liberals that were excluded from government adopted a paternalistic approach to government. Members of the council who disagreed with government policy did so for individual reasons and to advance their careers. The 'great debate' between reactionary and progressive factions has been exaggerated. Whilst some debate existed, all parties sought to maintain central control, and most acknowledged that some reform of the badly working bureaucracy was necessary.
Ignatev, however, revived the proposal for a zemsky sobor, an elected assembly representing peasants, nobles and merchants. He was opposed by Pobedonstsev, and the Tsar rejected the proposal. Nicholas Bunge, as minister for finance, sought to improve the position of the peasants by reducing the size of their redemption payments and establishing a national bank to improve rural credit. He also introduced schemes of inspection to protect industrial workers.
Thus the long-term solution to Russia's ills — that is, a democratisation of Russian society — was not an option considered by anyone close to the Tsar. This was only adopted by radicals on the fringe of educated opinion.

Ethnic discrimination and 'Russification'

The Jews also came in for intensified persecution. Ignatev claimed that an international Jewish conspiracy had been working against Russian interests since the Near East Crisis. Pobedonostsev joined Ignatev in making anti-Semitic statements. Pobedonostsev was chief Russian minister from 1881 to 1905 and director general of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. There were several pogroms directed against Jews; the Jewish quarter of Elizabethgrad was burned; likewise in Kiev 2000 Jews lost their homes due to arson. The May laws of 1882 debarred any Jew from holding an administrative office, from becoming a lawyer or owning land. Jewish schools were closed; books in Hebrew were banned; Jews could not marry Christians unless they renounced their faith; Jews lost the right of appeal. It is estimated that 225,000 Jews left Russia and emigrated to Eastern Europe during this period.
Michael Reutern, as chairman of the committee of ministers, protested against the persecution of the Jews, and a committee was established under Count Pahlen. In fact, it was established that Jews had to be given equal rights as Russians, and that the policy of discrimination should be replaced by one of emancipation.
Nonetheless, in 1892 Alexander's brother, Grand Duke Serge was appointed governor general of Moscow. He exercised ruthless autocracy in the city and was responsible for the expulsion of 20,000 Jews from the city during the Passover of 1892.
The Jews were the biggest victims of discrimination. They numbered about 6 million by 1900, most of which lived in the 'Pale of settlement'. Anti-Semitic sentiment was increased owing to the fact that one of the assassins of Alexander II was a Jewish girl, G. Gel'fman (Jessica Hellman). There was a anti-Jewish riot in Yekaterinoslav in April 1881, in which some people were killed. Also in 1881 and at Easter 1882 there were violent Anti-Semitic riots in Warsaw and Podolia resulting in 20,000 Jews being rendered homeless. Casualties ran into the hundreds. The authorities suppressed the violence, but only belated. There was a group called the 'Black Hundreds' that conducted many attacks on the Jews. There were over 600 official measures introduced that discriminated against Jews.
The pogroms caused an emigration of Jews. The authorities blamed the outbreaks on the victims and introduced discriminatory laws. In 1882 Jews were prohibited from settling in the Pale's rural areas. They were not allowed to trade on Christian holidays. In 1887 an ethnic quota was introduced into schools. Jews in the army could not be appointed officers. In the winter of 1891-2 10,000 Jewish aritisans were expelled from Moscow. In 1895 the Tsarist secret police fabricated a document called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Despite the pogroms there was a flowering of Russo-Jewish culture, with the Sholom and Aleichem in literature, the Rubinstein brothers in music, Leonid Pasternak, Mark Antokol'sky in the arts. However, whilst some wrote in Russian, others increasingly wrote in Hebrew or Yiddish.
The damage had been done and many Jews started to study Marxism and anarchism, and the Jewish Social Democratic Party became instrumental in encouraging industrial and political unrest. In 1897 Jews formed a revolutionary union.
Non-Russian minorities were increasingly the subject of ethnic discrimination during this period. The Tsarist administration chose to resist nationalism, and if necessary, by means of repression. They effectively based their legitimacy on ethnic rather than dynastic grounds. Orthodox Russians, including Ukrainians, came to occupy the privileged positions; there was a graduated scale of racial status, with Jews at the bottom end. This policy developed organically, and the policy of ethnic discrimination was not acknowledged publicly. The government also refused to acknowledge officially that there was a problem of 'minorities'. There was no systematic policy of 'Russification', meaning assimilation of minorities into Russian culture. To whatever extent there was a policy of Russification, this entailed only the attempt to make all organs of local government structurally similar throughout the empire.
The biggest areas of difficulty were Poland and the Baltic States, in that order. In the Baltic states, the government at St. Petersburg sought to remove the privileges granted to the German nobles and burghers from the C18th. Alexander III refused on accession to confirm these privileges. Russian was introduced into Baltic schools as the language of instruction. These measures resulted in the loss of the goodwill of the peoples of the Baltic states. People were also expected to buy railway tickets and stamps using Russian — a ridiculous measure.
The government also sought to remove Finland's special status, and in 1890 Finland lost its separate postal service. They also intended to deprive Finland of its separate coinage and customs service, but the Finns successfully resisted this development. In 1899 Nicholas II, having originally confirmed Finland's autonomy (in 1894), rescinded it in a declaration that, “We have considered it necessary to reserve to Ourselves final determination of legislative matters concerning the Empire as a whole.”
In Georgia the Georgian language was replaced by Russian in schools. This and other repressive measures provoked the development of Georgian nationalism, which was also influenced by Marxism.
In Armenia the schools and charitable organisations of the Armenian national church were closed down. The Armenians were traditionally inclined to support Russia, but they were alienated in 1896 when the government failed to prevent them falling victim to a Turco-Kurdish pogrom. In 1903 the government confiscated the property of the Armenian Orthodox Church.
The Russians did not interfere with the religion or culture of the Transcaucasian Muslims — the 'Tartars'. There was a revival of Islam in the region following a successful mission from the 1860s onwards lead by N.I. Il'minsky, which was also successful in promoting schooling in local languages.
Paradoxically, there was also a measure of repression of the Orthodox Church. Pobedonostsev instituted a strict rule of over the church as lay procurator (1880-1905). He reinforced Episcopal authority over priests and discriminated against the Old Believers (who numbered about 20 million in 1900).

Political Parties

Up to October 1905 political parties in Russia were illegal, so their activities had become conspiratorial. This meant they were suspicious of each other. The four main parties were (1) The Populists (Narodniks); (2) The Social Revolutionaries (SRs); (3) The Social Democrats (SDs); (4) The Liberals.
The Populists (Narodniks)

The Populists wanted the overthrow of the tsar and for power to be transferred to the peasants. They saw their duty as to educate and revolutionise the peasantry. Their leaders were middle and upper class intellectuals. Failing to develop a mass movement some Populists turned to terrorism. In 1879 one populist group of 400 formed into 'The People's Will', and it was they who in 1881 they assassinated Alexander II. We have seen that there followed a long period of reaction and repression, but the Populist use of direct action influenced later revolutionary action.

The Social Revolutionaries (SRs)

This movement developed from the Populist movement. It attempted to recruit the urban workforce to its ranks and in 1901 Victor Chernov formed the Revolutionary Party. But the SRs were weakened by internal disputes and soon split into Left Social Revolutionaries and Right Social Revolutionaries. The left continued to favour direct, terrorist action, and between 1901 and 1905 they committed over 2000 political assassinations, including Plehve, the interior minister, and Grand Duke Sergei, the uncle to the Tsar. The 1905 Revolution did not especially advance the SR cause. In the first congress of 1906 the SR Party adopted revolutionary socialism and committed itself to a policy of ending the private ownership of land. Peasants were attracted to the SR party. The left wing broke away and chose to represent the industrial proletariat. Chernov was unable to hold the separate factions together.

The Social Democrats (SDs)

In 1898 the Marxist party - the All-Russian Social Democratic Party - was formed. They believed in the Marxist doctrine that the industrial period was the prerequisite for the final end to class conflict, and they were encouraged by the industrial spurt of the 1890s. In 1883 George Plekhanov translated Marx's writings into Russian and he was involved in the formation of the 'Group for the Emancipation of Labour'. He has been called 'the father of Russian Marxism', but the SD party formed in 1898 rejected his theoretical approach and advocated more direct action.

The Liberals

Tsarist Russia had no single Liberal party. Liberals were people generally who believed in reform rather than revolution. Alexander II's land reforms lead to the growth of the progressive middle class in the countryside and the industrial growth of the 1890s created a class of industrialists, financiers and lawyers. Russian liberalism tended to be nationalistic.

Foreign policy

Russia's size determined its foreign policy, and the maintenance of her borders was a major concern. In Europe the growth of Germany, the creation of the dual monarchy in Austria-Hungary, and the decline of the Turkish Empire, all posed threats. Russia was worried that Germany would expand into south-east Europe, especially as Turkey was too weak to resist and there were aggressive nationalist movements in the Balkans. Russia saw herself as a Christian slav nation with a duty to protect the slavs of the Balkans against Turkish oppression. Russia also exported 75% of her grain through the Dardanelles and wanted to ensure that no hostile foreign power controlled them. Russia's approach to European powers was cautious and conciliatory, and Russia was willing to enter into alliances that preserved her borders and maintained her control over Poland. Alexander III agreed to the renewal of the Dreikaiserbund, the Three Emperor's League, an alliance of Austria, Germany and Russia, in 1881, and he met with the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph in August 1885 in Moravia.
Alexander III wanted to extend Russian rule over Bulgaria, but without the financial means to enter into a hot war, waged a campaign of propaganda instead. In 1886 Bulgarian nationalists were successful in annexing the Turkish province of Eastern Roumelia. Russian agents kidnapped the Bulgarian Prince Alexander and he abdicated. However, the successive Bulgarian regime was equally opposed to Russian imperialism. There was a time that only Montenegro was Russia's ally in the region. This tension in the mid 1880s between Austria and Russia over the Balkans meant that the League was not renewed.
Germany and Russia signed the 1887 Reinsurance Treaty. This acknowledged Russian claims in Bulgaria, and bound Germany to neutrality in the event of a Russo-Austrian war. However, the detente with Germany was interrupted by the ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1888, although Wilhelm visited Russia in July 1888 and Alexander III returned the compliment in 1889 by going to Berlin. Regrettably, the visits served only to cement the dislike both monarchs had of each other.
In the 1881 Three Emperor's alliance Russia was the weakest partner. Nationalists within Russia pressed for an alliance with France; but monarchists were distrustful of the Third Republic, and did not want entanglement in a French war of revenge. For a time, the Reinsurance treaty saved Russia from isolation. The chilling of relations between Russia and Germany caused Alexander III to look elsewhere for allies, and when Kaiser Wilhelm II cancelled the Reinsurance Treaty in 1890, this pushed Russia towards what G.F. Kennan has called the 'fateful alliance'. In 1891 the Russian emperor showed respect to the Marseillaise when a French naval squadron visited Kronstadt. There was a vague agreement between France and Russia in August 1891. In 1892 a Franco-Russian Convention was signed, which was confirmed in 1894, and required both partners to provide military assistance in the event of war with Germany. During the 1880s and 1890s France was the main investor in Russia. In 1907 the alliance included Britain as a result of the Triple Entente.
For a time Russia's expansion went Eastward. The trans-Siberian railway was being constructed and China was weak. However, their rivals were Japan, which in 1895 took the Liaotung peninsula, allowing Korea only nominal independence. However, the Liaotung peninsula was handed over to the Russians following diplomatic pressure. Russian expansion into Central Asia brought Russia into conflict with England.
The Russian expansion eastward was launched by Witte. He advocated economic imperialism. Serge Witte was appointed minister of communications in 1892, and was later promoted to minister of finance. He negotiated foreign loans to finance the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway. There was a period of industrial expansion — Coal output in the Ukraine doubled and oil production increased manyfold. Witte instituted a policy of state capitalism, which was supported by the Tsar as a means of improving Russia's strategic military situation.

Illness and death

Alexander III fell ill in August 1893, after a massive nosebleed. In January 1894 he succumbed to an attack of influenza. By July 1894 he was in a further state of physical collapse. Although still only 49 years old he was diagnosed as suffering from a kidney complaint brought on by the a combination of over-work, metal exhaustion and internal damage (nephritis) following the Borki train incident of 1888. By 1894 he was diagnosed as suffering from virulent dropsy, and without prospect of cure. He died on 20th October (1st November) 1894.