Russian History; 1796-1881

The Russian Revolution
1815-1924
Session II
Nineteenth Century Russia
1796-1881

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Major Points of This Session

• Tsar Paul, 1796-1801--A Question of Madness
• Alexander I, 1801-1825--Reform and Reaction
• Nicholas I, 1825-1855--Reaction, Plain and Simple
• Alexander II, 1855-1881--Reform, then Reaction


Introduction
Internal Instability: 1796-1825


Introduction
Internal Instability: 1796-1825

The Battle of Borodino
1812


During the period of the Napoleonic Wars and in the
decade following them, Russia began to show signs of
internal strain; the system of society and government
bequeathed by Catherine II was beginning to lose its
equipoise. Basic to the growing imbalance was the
continuing peasant unrest, now becoming so extended that
the institution of serfdom itself was being questioned….
Before long, wider attention was to be focused on the
emerging question: could the existing system...be
maintained indeﬁnitely without fundamental change.

Sidney Harcave, Russia, A History. p. 205


The fatal ﬂaw of enlightened despotism--everything
depends upon the despot.

RR Palmer


Tsar Paul--A Question of
Madness


Tsar Paul--A Question of
Madness

1754-1796-1801

Tsar Paul’s Childhood

• Catherine suggested that his father
was her lover, Prince Saltykov

• her court, with its intrigues and her
sexual acting-out, was not a healthy
place

• his pug-nosed facial features in later
life are attributed to an attack of
typhus, from which he suﬀered in
1771

• he believed, with some basis, that
his mother intended to murder him
Paul I as a child


Па́вел I Петро́вич -- 1754-1796-1801

• at Catherine’s death, he undid many of her
measures

• his positive accomplishments are forgotten
because of the opprobrium over his eccentricities

• he was ﬁercely hostile towards the nobility and
their privileges. He publicly humiliated them.

• during his ﬁve year reign he became more and
more capricious and vindictive

• his diplomacy during the Napoleonic Wars
became increasingly erratic

Statue before the Pavlovsk Palace

the tsar’s Prussian militarism
a parade before the Mikhailovsky Palace

resentment leads to a crisis
• the nobility became increasingly bitter and concerned as Paul seemed
to become irrational and arbitrary. He alternated draconian
punishments and lavish gifts.

• the tsar’s fear of conspiracies helped produce them
• Count Pahlen, military governor of St Petersburg, led a circle who
planned to force Paul to abdicate in favor of his son Alexander

• the twenty-three year old Tsarevich joined the conspirators
• 23 March 1801, Paul suspected them and ordered his sons arrested
• that night the conspirators went to the tsar with their demand that he
abdicate

• they were received, a quarrel followed, and Paul was strangled to death

Alexander I--Reform and
Reaction

(1777-1801-1825)

Alexander’s Upbringing

Frédéric-César de La Harpe

(1754-1838)

Alexander’s Upbringing

• his grandmother, Catherine II, took
charge of his and his younger brother
Constantine’s education

• there was talk that she planned to remove
his father, Paul, from the succession

• his Swiss republican tutor, La Harpe,
implanted the philosophies of Plato,
Descartes, Locke, and Rousseau

• Catherine did permit Alexander contact
with his parents. So he was torn between
the two warring parties.

Frédéric-César de La Harpe
• “he learned to ride with the hounds and
run with the hares”--Harcave
(1754-1838)

His Character

• he had earned Catherine’s praise by
assimilating La Harpe’s instruction and
Paul’s by displaying a love of Prussian
military drill

• “half a citizen of Switzerland and half a
Prussian corporal”

• “a weak and sly man”--Pushkin

• “too weak to rule, too strong to be ruled”--
Prince Speransky

• “No one knew his mind, and apparently he
himself didn’t always know it”--Harcave


Napoleon


“Sword of the Revolution”
or its destroyer?


Wars of Napoleonic France


• Napoleon’s Italian campaigns (1797-99)


• Egyptian campaign & coup of 18 Brumaire(1798-99)


• Third Coalition (1805) ends at Austerlitz


• “...even I will be good at [war] for only another ﬁve or six years”



• Fourth Coalition (1806-07) ends with Russia’s defeat at Friedland



• Fifth Coalition (1809) Britain’s Peninsular Campaign begins, Austria
is beaten once again




• Sixth Coalition (1812-14)--Napoleon’s hubris




• Sixth Coalition (1812-14)--Napoleon’s hubris
• Seventh Coalition (1815)--the Hundred Days & Waterloo


Alexander wavers


Alexander wavers

• 1800-1801-hero worship, then scorn and hostility
• LaHarpe ﬁrst praised, then denounced


Alexander wavers


• 1803-1805-allies with Austria & Prussia against Napoleon
• Austerlitz(1805) and Friedland (1807)


Alexander wavers



• 1807-treaties of Tilsit--Alexander and Napoleon now allies
• unequal alliance with France, crushing peace for Prussia


Alexander wavers



• 1807-treaties of Tilsit--Alexander and Napoleon now allies
• unequal alliance with France, crushing peace for Prussia

• 1812-invasion!--> unrelenting hostility toward the “greatest tyrant of
the world” and “disturber of the peace of Europe”


scenes from the wars


Alexander and the Concert of Europe


Alexander and the Concert of Europe

Kaiser Franz I
Tsar Alexander

Congress of Verona, 1822

Count Mikhail Speransky (1772-1839)


• Alexander’s liberal advisor



• 1809-his constitutional plan, based on
a series of dumas, never came to be




• 1812-a conspiracy of conservative
aristocrats and clergy forced his
dismissal




dismissal

• 1815-however he inﬂuenced the
constitutions granted to Finland and
Poland




dismissal

• 1815-however he inﬂuenced the
constitutions granted to Finland and
Poland

• 1826-Nicholas I recalled him to codify
Russia’s law codes, a task completed in
1833 with 35,933 enactments!


Post-war Domestic Policy



• at the beginning of his reign Alexander had promised a codiﬁcation
of laws and a liberal constitution, neither was delivered




• new bodies, the State Council and Imperial Senate, theoretically
powerful, “became slavish instruments of the tsar and his favorites of
the moment”




the moment”

• 1818-a foolish plot to kidnap him on the way to the Congress of Aix-
la-Chapelle by his own oﬃcers began his conversion to reaction




the moment”


• other inﬂuences: personal contacts with Metternich, the liberal
revolutions of the 1820s, especially the Greek War for Independence




the moment”


• other inﬂuences: personal contacts with Metternich, the liberal
revolutions of the 1820s, especially the Greek War for Independence

• stirrings among the Russian peasantry, a constant theme which
provoke an authoritarian response


Count Alexey
Andreyevich
Arakcheyev
(1769-1834)
general, War Minister

“That which ceases to grow
begins to rot.”
wartime reforms
military settlements(1816)
symbol of repression


Beginnings of liberal aristocratic dissent

• junior oﬃcers during the last years of the war and especially during
the occupation of France came in contact with western ideas

• 1816-a secret society arose in the Imperial Guards Regiment calling
itself the Union of Salvation

• a charter member, Col. Pavel Pestel, even drew up a republican
constitution modeled on that of the United States

• 1820-after a misﬁred uprising, most drifted away
• the “hard core’ formed the Northern Society in St. Petersburg and
the Southern Society in Tulchin, Ukraine


a strange death


a strange death
• 1825-Alexander travelled south for his wife’s health


a strange death
• he caught typhus and died in the seaport of Taganrog. His body was
shipped back for burial in the fortress of Petropavlovsk


a strange death

• almost immediately rumors began, he hadn’t really died
• he had staged his death, retired incognito to a Siberian monastery
• a soldier was buried in his place or the grave was empty (Soviets in 1925!)
• the British ambassador had seen him board a ship


a strange death

• almost immediately rumors began, he hadn’t really died
• he had staged his death, retired incognito to a Siberian monastery
• a soldier was buried in his place or the grave was empty (Soviets in 1925!)
• the British ambassador had seen him board a ship

• confusion regarding the order of succession
• Nicholas was younger than Alexander’s more liberal brother, Constantine
• liberal army oﬃcers, the Dekabristi, tried to stage a coup


“The Decembrists on Senate Square”
Picture by painter Karl Kolman (1786-1846).


Nicholas I--Reaction, Pure
and Simple


December 14--Nicholas puts in the cavalry
Picture by painter Vasily F. Timm (1820-1895)


Aftermath of the Dekabristi Revolt
• December 14--the afternoon’s demonstration of the Northern
Society was quelled by loyal army troops (9,000 vs 3,000) The
ringleaders were arrested.

• when many fled across the frozen Neva River, artillery fired at them
and opened up the river. Dead and wounded met their end that way.

• 3 January 1826--the Southern Society suffered a significant defeat in
its effort to raise a rebellion. By January 10 all resistance was
overcome. Ringleaders were sent to the capital for trial.

• 24 July 1826--five were sentenced to be hanged, the remaining 116
were sentenced to katorga in Siberia or reduced to private and
sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in the army at that rank.

• Nicholas began his reign with a harsh repression of this abortive
attempt to bring constitutional government to the empire.


Gallows Humor

Kondraty Ryleyev, was one of the five sentenced at first to be
quartered. Nicholas commuted the sentence to hanging. As
the trap dropped all five fell to the ground when the ropes
parted.
Bruised and battered, Ryleyev rose and said “In Russia they
don’t know how to do anything properly, not even how to
make a rope.” An accident of this sort usually resulted in a
pardon, so a messenger was sent to the Iron Tsar to know his
pleasure. Nicholas asked “What did he say?”
“Sire, he said that in Russia they don’t even know how to
make a rope properly.”
“Well, let the contrary be proved.”


Gallows Humor


Life of the Decembrists in Siberia
Paintings from the online Decembrist Museum


Nicholas was deeply aﬀected


Nicholas was deeply affected
“...he dedicated himself to the task of providing lasting
protection from the threat of another revolution. As a
first step he spent several months investigating the
antecedents of the revolt, questioning suspects as to the
programs and the membership of the secret societies….
In itself the revolt was petty….It was essentially a
movement of young noble officers...who represented
neither the nobility nor the lower classes. Its importance
lay in the fact that it was the beginning of organized
revolutionary protest against the regime.”

Harcave, p.225


“...a round peg in a round hole.”
• in contrast to his older brother Alexander, he
had no doubts about himself or his duties

• not raised to be tsar; he, like Kaiser Wilhelm
of Prussia, another younger brother, was
raised for the army

• his tutors main concern was the inculcation
of respect for autocracy, orthodoxy, and
military discipline

• at twenty-nine, when he gained the throne,
he was a well-integrated person

• “He is stern and severe--with ﬁxed principles
of duty which nothing on earth will make
him change; very clever I do not think him…”
in front of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, 1859 --Queen Victoria, 1844
the 1st in the world with only the two back legs
connected to the pedestal

Nicholas’ army parading in the capital


Here [in the army] there is order, there is a strict unconditional
legality, no impertinent claims to know all the answers, no
contradiction, all things ﬂow logically one from the other; no one
commands before he has himself learned to obey, no one steps in
front of anyone else without lawful reason; ever ything is
subordinated to one deﬁnite goal, everything has its purpose. That is
why I feel so well among these people, and why I shall always hold in
honor the calling of a soldier. I consider the entire human life to be
merely service, because everybody serves.

NICHOLAS I

quoted in Riasonovski, vol. i, p. 301


Nicholas reacts to the revolutions of 1830
• July--ﬁrst France, then Belgium, experience real revolution, several
German states attempt to follow their example

• Nicholas’ older brother, Grand Duke Constantine, governor of
“Congress Poland,” makes plans to ignore the Polish constitution and
use Polish troops to suppress the revolutionary disturbances in
central Europe

• liberal Polish oﬃcers use this provocation to rebel against Russian
rule and seek independence based on the pre-1772 borders

• 29 November 1830--Polish cadets seize Warsaw and the Polish army
follows their example

• Lithuania, Belarus (White Russia), and the Western Ukraine join the
revolt


The Polish November Uprising
1830-1831


1830-1831

Emilia Plater


1830-1831

The Lithuanian Joan of Arc

Sergei Sergeivich
Uvarov
(1765-1855)
Education Minister
(1833-1849)

by Orest Kiprensky, 1815-16


Sergei Sergeivich
Uvarov
(1765-1855)
Education Minister
(1833-1849)

ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ (pravoslavieye)
САМОДЕРЖАВИЕ
(samoderzhavieye)
НАРОДНОСТЬ (narodnost)

Orthodoxy
Autocracy
Nationality
by Orest Kiprensky, 1815-16


чиновство (chi•NOVST•vuh= bureaucracy)


• beginning as early as Ivan III, while Moscovy was gobbling up other
principalities, a new class of nobles was being rewarded with lands



• their titles were conditional , not hereditary, based on service, either
military or administrative; hence, service nobility




• Peter I created a table of noble rank with 12 grades (чин-chin)




• Paul, with his admiration for things Prussian, modeled his civil
bureaucracy on that of Frederick the Great’s





• Alexander began and Nicholas completed the reform and
centralization of the Russian state machinery





• Alexander began and Nicholas completed the reform and
centralization of the Russian state machinery

• there was equivalency between civil and military ranks, with a
uniform and honoriﬁc for each


• the Table of 1834 set up the equivalences among oﬃcials of the civil
service, the armed forces and the court



• the rank of Privy Councillor in the civil service = Lieutenant General in the army
= Master of the Hounds at court. Each was addressed as “Excellency”




• a civil oﬃcial Actual Councillor of State = major general. Addressed as “High
Born”




Born”

• Collegiate Secretary = midshipman in the navy (near the bottom of the
hierarchy) rating only the address of “Well-born”




Born”


• below the oﬃcials of the civil service were the numerous rank-and-ﬁle
personnel, like military enlisted people, also in uniform and
hierarchically organized




Born”


• below the oﬃcials of the civil service were the numerous rank-and-ﬁle
personnel, like military enlisted people, also in uniform and
hierarchically organized

• the чиновники (chi•NOV•ni•ki) had all the evils: arrogance, “red
tape,”timidity, rigidity, we associate with the worst bureaucracies
today


Defects of the System
• given its size it’s remarkable that it did as well as it did, holding together an empire
ruling one-eighth the surface of the earth

• however, its defects came from many interacting forces:
• the great expanse of the Russian land, the political immaturity and cultural diversity of
its people, and the backwardness of its economy

• the nature of its personnel: they lacked training and a proper interest in ther work.
Nicholas expanded the university system, but the majority lacked a good education

• Nicholas tried to control things through reports, “complaints books” and forms for
everything

• those who dealt with the public expected “tips” (bribes) for services
• obedience to the state had been created by force and was maintained by force or
the threat of force

• there was no tradition of respect for the law apart from fear. Subjects tried to
“beat the system”

Count Alexander von
Benckendorff
(1783-1844)

warned of the Decembrists,
created the secret police
called the Third Section
(Третье Урок)


Censorship

• begun under Alexander, the severity of centralized press censorship
expanded after 1826

• several agencies had overlapping power and now the Third Section
joined the process

• periodicals which criticized the country or the state were suspended
• one printed an article by Peter Chaadayev comparing Russian
development to the west unfavorably:

• the publication was suspended, the editor exiled
• Chaadayev, a nobleman and retired guards officer, was officially declared insane
and confined to his home


Autocratic Public Works


Pavel Petrovich
Melnikov
(1804-1880)

Minister of Transport
Communications,
the St Petersburg-Moscow
Railroad
(1842-1851)


The Myth of the Tsar’s Finger



the railroad was constructed in
an almost straight line




through swamps, hills, valleys at
great cost in human (serf) life





lamented by Nekrasov in his
poem “The Railway”





lamented by Nekrasov in his
poem “The Railway”

the 17 km bend was [falsely]
attributed to the tsar drawing a
straight line with a ruler, the
bump was caused by his ﬁnger


St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg
(1818-1858)


The
Intelligentsia
“...not the ‘brain’ of the nation,
they are the ‘feces’ of the nation.”
V.I. Lenin


Russia’s long period of intellectual apprenticeship
to the West was coming to an end by the middle
years of the nineteenth century, and her thinkers
and creators were becoming masters in their own
right. The attainment of relatively advanced
intellectual status among the few ser ved to
emphasize the relative backwardness in other
aspects of Russian life. And the recognition of that
backwardness could not fail to aﬀect the direction
and cast of the intellectual activity of the period.
Harcave, p. 243


Alexander Pushkin
1799-1837

the Golden Age of Russian Poetry
Evgenie Onegin, published serially,
1825-1832

by Vasili Tropinin, 1827


Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)

• 1830s-both Pushkin and the poet
Lermontov try their hands at prose

• Gogol is the premier prose writer
of the ﬁrst half of the century

• a Russiﬁed Ukrainian, he uses both
traditions

• his two masterpieces:
• The Government Inspector (Revisor) 1835

• Dead Souls 1842
by Alexandr Ivanov


Why use the foreign-sounding “intelligentsia” when the
English language has the word “intellectuals”? The
answer is that one needs diﬀerent terms to designate
diﬀerent phenomena--in this case, to distinguish those
who passively contemplate life from activists who are
determined to reshape it. Marx succinctly stated the
latter position when he wrote: “the philosophers have
only interpreted the world in various ways; the point,
however, is to change it.” The term “intelligentsia”
describes intellectuals who want power in order to
change the world.
Pipes, p.21


types of inte%igenti

• “repentant nobles”--the Dekabristi were the earliest such
• “persons of various ranks” разночинтси (raznochintsi)--objects of
Nicholas’ special wrath

• “circles” кружоки (kruzhoki)
• at Moscow University: the Slavophils
• at various homes in Skt-Peterburg: the Westernizers
• the Petrashevsky circle


The Кружок (kru•ZHOK)


The Кружок (kru•ZHOK)

with its endless discussions over endless
glasses of tea, became one of the
seminal inﬂuences in Russian thought.

Harcave, p.247


Slavophils
• the fate of the Dekabristi initiated,
motivated, inspired the ﬁrst study
groups at Moscow University in
the 1830s

• German philosophy, Hegel, Kant,
and Feuerbach reigned supreme

• both like and unlike Uvarov’s
oﬃcial narodnost

• some parts of their doctrine
Aleksey Khomyakov
were useful to both
revolutionaries and
reactionaries


Slavophils
the 1830s


oﬃcial narodnost

were useful to both Ivan Kireevsky
revolutionaries and
reactionaries


Slavophils
the 1830s


oﬃcial narodnost

were useful to both
Konstantin Aksakov
revolutionaries and
reactionaries


Slavophils
the 1830s


oﬃcial narodnost

were useful to both
revolutionaries and
Vladimir Solovyov
reactionaries


Slavophils
the 1830s


oﬃcial narodnost

• some parts of their doctrine You wouldn't understand Russia just using
were useful to both the intellect / You couldn't measure her using
revolutionaries and the common scale / She has a special kind
of grace / You can only believe in her.
reactionaries Fyodor Tutchev


Westernizers (Западники)
• 1830s-at the same time an
opposing group was forming

• their hero was Peter the Great

• rationalistic, anticlerical

• Stankevich’s circle--Hegelian

• Herzen’s--French utopian socialist

• Belinsky--a “person[s] of various
ranks” (raznochinik)

• exiles and willing émigrés

Russia’s only domestic
experience of the
Revolution of 1848


Some of the
Petrashevsky
Circle

Russia’s only domestic
experience of the
Revolution of 1848

Petrashevsky

Dostoyevsky
picture from 1872
“civic execution”
a mock execution
in 1849

Count Benckendorﬀ Nechayev


1850--”The Gendarme of Europe”



• Nicholas was furious at the revolutions in Prussia and Austria



• he feared that they would spread to Poland



• he oﬀered his army and General Paskevich who had crushed the
Poles in 1831



Poles in 1831

• Frederick William declined but the young Franz Josef welcomed
Russian aid in subduing the Hungarians



Poles in 1831

• Frederick William declined but the young Franz Josef welcomed
Russian aid in subduing the Hungarians

• liberal forces throughout Europe began to equate Russia with
exporting repression


Foreign Policy
Stability versus Expansion

The Caucasus War
1817-1864


Staunch Conservative
The Original “Gendarme of Europe”

• 1822-for the next forty years this Baltic
German diplomat shaped Russian foreign
policy as Foreign Minister or Chancellor to
Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Alexander II

• backed the Congress System and the Holy
Alliance

• used Russian troops to help crush the
revolutions of 1830-31 and 1848-49

• despite his support for legitimacy and
cooperation between the Great Powers, he
sought to expand Russian inﬂuence in the
Balkans and the Black Sea

• this put Russia at odds with Britain, France,
and Sardinia-Piedmont who all wished to
Count Karl Robert Nesselrode
preserve the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire
1780-1862

The Eastern Question

• [Turkey was] “a sick man...gravely ill”--Nicholas I in 1853
• the Balkans
• the Straits
• Transcaucasia
• the Holy Land


Dismembering the Ottoman Empire


“The Great Game”
Arthur Conolly, 6th Bengal Light Cavalry

• the British and Russian empires were both expanding into central
Asia during the second quarter of the nineteenth century

• Persia and “the Stans”, unlike the Ottoman Empire, were not exactly
pushovers for the western imperialists

• Britain was primarily playing “defense” as she had the more to lose
from Russia’s awakening expansionism

• Afghanistan, then as now, was tremendously diﬃcult terrain, a severe
challenge for conquest

• it was the focal point for British-Russian imperial rivalry


The Russian Bear vs the British Lion


Alexander II--Reform, then
Reaction


Alexander II--Reform, then
Reaction

1818-1855-1881


the reluctant soldier



• ﬁrstborn son of a passionate
militarist father



militarist father

• his mother, Charlotte of Prussia



militarist father


• educated by the liberal poet Vasily
Zhukovsky



militarist father


Zhukovsky

• took little personal interest in
military aﬀairs



militarist father


Zhukovsky

• took little personal interest in
military aﬀairs

“gave evidence of a kind disposition
and a warmheartedness which were
considered out of place in one
destined to become a military
autocrat”


Coronation
August, 1856

at the Dormition Cathedral,
Moscow Kremlin


Александр II Николаевич (1818-1855-1881)
his predisposition was that of a
reformer

his situation was that of autocrat

his intelligence saved him from
utopian advisers

became Tsar in the middle of the
Crimean War

Russia’s wretched performance,
especially that of their serf
conscripts, convinced all of the
need for reform

known as the Tsar Liberator for
freeing the serfs, after ﬁve years of
planning, in 1861

Alexander to an assembly of nobles
in Moscow, March, 1856

“[announced that] the existing order of
ruling over living souls cannot remain
unchanged. It is better to abolish bondage
from above than to wait for the time when
it will begin to abolish itself from below.”


Чтение Положения 19 февраля 1861 года
Reading of the manifesto of February 19, 1861
(on abolition of serfdom in Russia) by Grigori Myasoedov, 1873


the diﬀerence between serfdom and slavery



European Serfdom Trans-Atlantic Slavery
• lasts from late Roman Empire to
1861 (Russia)



1861 (Russia)
•serfs were attached to the land--
could be rented but not sold



1861 (Russia)
•under feudalism there were degrees
of serfdom



• lasts from late Roman Empire to •lasts from 16th century to 1888 (Brazil)
1861 (Russia) America (1619-1865)
of serfdom
•like so many other reforms, the end
of serfdom spread eastward
beginning in the late Middle ages



1861 (Russia) America (1619-1865)
•serfs were attached to the land-- •slaves were chattels, personal; could be sold
could be rented but not sold “downriver”
of serfdom



1861 (Russia) America (1619-1865)
•under feudalism there were degrees •slavery varied from country to country, state
of serfdom to state



1861 (Russia) America (1619-1865)
•under feudalism there were degrees •slavery varied from country to country, state
of serfdom to state
•like so many other reforms, the end •the French Revolution began the end of New
of serfdom spread eastward World slavery


shortcomings of the emancipation edict


the nobility was generously compensated with rents
collected by the peasant village governments (miri,
singular, mir)


singular, mir)
the plan was to give individual allotments of land once
the nobles were compensated


singular, mir)
close to half the allotments were too small to
provide subsistence living


singular, mir)
former serfs, no longer bound to their lords, were
required to get permission from their mir to leave!


singular, mir)
former serfs, no longer bound to their lords, were
required to get permission from their mir to leave!
state peasants (former serfs to the tsar) had slightly less
burdensome terms for repayment and emigration


Sti%


Sti%

“...one writer has called [it] the
greatest single piece of state-directed
social engineering in modern European
history before the twentieth century…”

Craig, loc. cit


Zemstvo Law, 1864


Zemstvo Law, 1864
a step towards representative government


Zemstvo Law, 1864
created an elective council (zemskoye sobranye) and
appointive board (zemskaya uprava) at the lowest
level: mir (village) and volost (rural district)


Zemstvo Law, 1864
the voting, of course, was “stacked to ensure
upper class control”


Zemstvo Law, 1864
74% of the zemstvo members were noblemen,
even though nobles were 1.3% of the
population


Zemstvo Law, 1864
74% of the zemstvo members were noblemen,
even though nobles were 1.3% of the
population
naturally, this ﬁrst step didn’t satisfy


Many Other Reforms


Many Other Reforms
1864 -a new judicial administration based on
the French model


Many Other Reforms
the French model
a new penal code & greatly simpliﬁed civil and
criminal procedure


Many Other Reforms
the French model
criminal procedure
the second country in the world (after
Portugal) to abolish capital punishment


Many Other Reforms
the French model
criminal procedure
1870-local government for large towns modeled
on the Zemstvo Law


Many Other Reforms
the French model
criminal procedure
1870-local government for large towns modeled
on the Zemstvo Law
1874 -army and naval reforms based on Prussia’s


Russia--”Prison House of Nations”--attr. to Lenin

“No dreams” warning to the non-Russian peoples, 1855

Poland, the January Rising, 1863-1864

thousands executed, tens of thousands sent to Siberia

Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belorussian languages
outlawed from printed texts

Polish language, oral as well as written, banned from all
territories except Congress Poland

there it was limited to private conversations

Finland, loyal during the uprising, was rewarded by generous
treatment


Katorga--Precursor to the Gulag

“Farewell to Europe”


Katorga--Precursor to the Gulag

“Farewell to Europe”
The subject of the painting is the Siberian exile of Poles after their defeated January Uprising (1863) against the Russian Empire. The
painting depicts the stop of the exiled convoy by the obelisk that marks the border between Europe and Asia. The artist himself is among the
exiled here, near the obelisk, on the right

Katorga was a system of penal servitude of the prison farm type in Imperial Russia . Prisoners were sent to remote camps in vast
uninhabited areas of Siberia—where voluntary laborers were never available in satisfactory numbers—and forced to perform
hard labor. Katorga began in the 17th century, and was taken over by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution of 1917,
eventually transforming into the Gulag labor camps.


The Last Years of Alexander II


The Last Years of Alexander II
Первомартовцы
The First of Marchers
(Those who did something
[assassinate Alexander II]
on the ﬁrst of March) by
Nicolai Kibalchick


From Tsar Liberator to Samoderzhavets

assassination attempts, beginning in 1866, had their effect
the army reforms of War Minister D.A. Miliutin were both
needed and progressive--a general staff, merit, length of service
reduced from 25 years to 6, compulsory service for all able
males, &c.
still, these were a necessary exception to the general turn to the
right
Count Dimitry Tolstoy, Education Minister, 1866-1880 ended
academic freedom, required professors to give reports to the
police, controlled curriculum to eliminate “dangerous” studies
Alexander came to rely upon ultra reactionary advisors


Нихилизм (Ni•hil•EZM-nihilism)
term coined by Turgenev in
Fathers and Sons (1861) his
anti-hero, Bazarov, was such

this student “extreme realism,”
visible throughout the 19th and
20th centuries, did reject the
present order

but it hardly constituted a threat
to the regime

more serious about reform were
the student narodniki (populists)
Ilya Repin. Student-Nihilist. 1883. Oil on canvas. The
Far East Fine Arts Museum, Khabarovsk, Russia.


This is the ﬁnal word of our young camp: What can be broken,
we should break. Whatever will stand the blow--is of use;
whatever will be smashed to pieces--is rubbish. At any rate
smash right and left, no harm may come of this.

Dmitry Pisarov
a nihilist propagandist


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s
unparalleled access nihilists Narodnaya
to higher education narodniki Volya
• more secondary schools •upper and middle • a hard core of disillusioned
& universities class sons and daughters narodniki turn to violence
• to staﬀ the bureaucracy “go to the people” & •their cause? social justice
& the industrial revolution the countryside •their method? assassinations
• access for “persons of •idealized view of the & bombings
other ranks” peasantry


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s
unparalleled access
to higher education


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s
unparalleled access
to higher education
• more secondary schools
& universities


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s
unparalleled access
to higher education
& universities
• the G.I. Bill


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s
unparalleled access
to higher education
& universities
• the G.I. Bill
• access for “persons of
other ranks”


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s 1960s
unparalleled access
to higher education
& universities
• the G.I. Bill
other ranks”


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s 1960s
unparalleled access “beatniks” &
to higher education “hippies”
& universities
• the G.I. Bill
other ranks”


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s 1960s
• more secondary schools •upper and middle
& universities class sons and daughters
• the G.I. Bill “go to the people” &
• access for “persons of the countryside
other ranks”


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s 1960s
other ranks” •idealized view of the
lower classes


An Uncanny Parallel
1840s & ‘50s 1860s 1870s

1940s & ‘50s 1960s 1968-early ‘70s
other ranks” •idealized view of the
lower classes


Russian History; 1796-1881

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