Exam - Opposition to Alexander & Extent to which they were a threat Flashcards
Opposition to Alexander II
Peasants
647 Peasant revolts in 4 months after the Emancipation . As peasants were 70-80% of the Russian population, uprisings were taken seriously. This was due to 20% reduction in plot size, 44% reduction for state serfs in northern Provinces.
Couldn’t move 20 miles away from Mir.
Nationalities: Polish revolt, 1863. Polish desire for land reform, and re-establishing Polish nationhood, led to unrest and demonstrations killing 200. Planned conscription of Poles into the Russian army led to armed rebellion in February 1863, which lasted a year across the countryside before it was put down by granting land reform. This showed that non-Russian nationalist aspirations within the Russian Empire were not possible, and contributed to the adoption of Russification policies in the future.
Middle Class
Populists / Narodniks - Took inspiration from Marxist ideas but rejected the need for an Industrial proletariat, Instead focusing on agrarian socialism.
In populist thought, the mir was to be the democratic model around which Russia’s socialist future could be built.
'Going to the people', 1873 - 74 - the populist campaign, following Herzen's ideas, that saw thousands of intellectuals and students going out into the countryside to spread the idea of a socialist revolution to the peasants. However, very little was achieved to this end. The movement lacked a clear central organisation. The peasants did not receive the populists favourably, and many called the police - leading to hundreds of the Narodniks to be arrested. The Populists had planned to dress like the peasants to gain their trust, but this backfired, as the peasants believed that they had no authority due to the lack of uniform or more high-class clothing. Examples include one Narodnik, Mikhail Romas, whose shop was burned and assistant murdered by the peasants due to his attempts to convince them of the revolution. 'Going to the People' or 'Mad Summer of 1794' as some call it, led to the Trial of 193, where 193 populist revolutionaries were trialled in 1877-78. Over half were acquitted and the trial allowed the Narodnik defendants to gain some public support through their speeches. 2 of those acquitted were later involved in the successful assassination of Alexander II in 1881.
‘Land and liberty’, 1876 - failure of the ‘going to the people’ led to disappointment and the discrediting of the moderate populists, which then drove the movement towards terrorism and political violence as ‘land and liberty’ was formed. Vera Zasulich shot and wounded the governor of St Petersburg, and then managed to be found ‘not guilty’ in her trial, which shocked AII and drove him to hold such political cases behind closed doors.
Land & Liberty split into 2 groups, People’s Will (Focused on assassinations) & Black partitionists (aimed to get peasant support).
People’s Will assassinated General Mezemstev (Head of the 3rd Section) in 1878, made 7 attempts on AII’s life, with one being successful in 1881
Intelligentsia
The Intelligensia: formed a relatively small proportion of Russian society and were educated. Now that travel abroad was permitted and there were forums for debate it allowed new Western ideas such as Marxism to filter into Russian society through the intelligensia. This group wanted to spread these ideas to the peasantry and create a more equal, westernised society.
How extensive/effective was this opposition
Given the need for such opposition to remain secretive and underground in order to survive, it is difficult to accurately assess the extent of it, and this also made it more difficult to find support. 1873-1877 – Over 1,600 Narodniks Populists were arrested. This suggests there were multiple thousands of Narodniks
They had some impact such as political trials becoming closed doors after Vera Sazulich acquitted after being found not guilty of shooting Governor of St Petersburg. Polish peasants got land reforms. However, judged against the aims they hoped to achieve, were largely ineffective. Even though they succeeded in killing the Tsar, little was achieved in terms of reducing the power of the autocracy or gaining the support of the peasantry for a revolutionary uprising against the state, as highlighted by failure of the Mad Summer of 1874. The peasants were generally horrified by the assassination, as they saw the Tsar as somebody who was ‘on their side’.
The reforms of his reign, AII, (in local administration, the courts and the army) had promised to reshape the country as a modern European state. They had facilitated the development of a public space for the educated classes to collaborate with the government. Instead, they had essentially done the opposite, as Alexander III’s reign, known as ‘The Reaction’, clamped down on political groups and made repression even stronger. A statue of August 1881 introduced the Okhrana (secret police) to clamp down on revolutionaries, imprison without trial, prohibit large public gatherings, increase censorship and cap Zemstvo powers. Russia only moved further towards Despotism than away from it.
These opposition groups were significant, however, insofar as they ‘laid the groundwork’ for later revolutionaries and raised central issues that had had to be addressed - such as were the peasants ready for a revolution? Who should lead the revolution? Clearly, such considerations had an impact on Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The execution of Lenins older brother, who was part of the People’s WIll in 1887, made him pursue a revolution even more fervently.
