Alexander II Timeline, Society, Culture, Economy

1855

• Lost Crimean War due to underdeveloped military/ technology/ infrastructure after failed siege of Sevastopol

1860

• State Bank established: Investment by govt + Redemption payments + stabilised Russian Rouble + stopped Alexander relying on nobles for finance

1861

• Emancipation Proclamation due to pressure to modernise (Crimean war, liberal ideas (Turgenev), increase rural demand).

• Nobles retained 66% of their land

• 1000 peasant revolts that year (insufficient reform)

1862

• Education reforms: Girls allowed secondary education, university could choose own curriculum, churches control of primary education was reduced (state run primary)

• Finance minister increased accountability of govt institutions and implemented poll tax

1863

• “Young Russia” (liberal students) pushed for reform/ revolution → Govt took back control of university curriculum

• Finns given control of their own currency + right to own language

• Poland and Lithuania were excluded → revolts → martial law → ban on non-Russian publications in the 2 countries

1864

• Hundreds of Poles and Lithuanians sent to Siberia/ executed - uprisings repressed

• Judicial reform: 12 land owning Jurors and 3 Judges for each case

• Zemstvo established - local institutions (education, health, infrastructure) + access to government but favoured land owners

1866

• Attempted assassination by Karakazov (nihilist) stopped by a peasant creating claims that the masses loved the Tsar

• Alexander’s ministers and son persuaded him to roll back liberalism → conservative ministers appointed

1867

• Economy improved enough for foreign loans → used for improving railway system

• Polish immigrant attempted to assassinate Alexander II in Paris as he travelled with Napoleon III

1874

• Military reforms: increased officer education, conscription for all classes, increased size of reserve army, reduced service period

1878

Victory in Russo-Turkish War

1879

• 3rd attempted assassination outside winter palace (People’s will)

1880

• People’s Will set off bomb at winter palace killing 10 people but not the Tsar

1881

• Supreme Executive Committee given more power and instructed to fight revolutionaries

• People’s Will successfully kill Alexander with a bomb (as he was planning to introduce some constitutional powers to a new national assembly)

Opposition

Nihilists 1860s:

• Rejection of morality, traditional religion and social hierarchies due to Western enlightenment influence

• 1866 Karakazov attempted assassination of Tsar

• Some joined People’s Will

Land and Liberty 1860s-70s:

• Focus on peasant welfare, often by education children of nobles/ intelligentsia

• 1874 “Going to the People Movement” - failure to politicise peasant class

• Put pressure on the government but did not achieve significant change

People’s Will (1879-81):

• Aimed to overthrow AII and replace with democracy

• Used terror and assassination (Killing of governor of St Petersburg in 1880 and AII in 1881)

• Spread political propaganda in the form of their manifesto

Economy

• 1861 - Emancipation freed 23Mn serfs (50% of population), crucial step towards industrialisation

• 1860s-80s railroad expansion of 900% (groundwork for Trans-Siberian railway)

• 1860-80 govt debt reduced by 2Bn Roubles due to state bank and 1862-63 tax reforms

• Industrial development represented by 500,000 - 1.1Mn factory workers from 1860-80

• GDP was stagnant in much of AII’s reign, (0.6% in PA in 1860s)

• 1873 Great famine highlighted backward agricultural practices → 500,000 died

Society

• Nobles maintained control: Zemstvo elections favoured land owners, retained most land after 1861, had more access to Tsar + government → favoured by law

• Peasants granted nominal freedoms of education but mainly remained controlled by Mir and Zemstvo sections - restrictions on movement and marriage

• Early industrial workers: low wages + poor conditions due to abundance of unskilled workers → grouped in St Petersburg and Moscow. Beginnings of coming worker movements - Das Kapital introduced to Russia in 1872.

Culture

• Art: Realism represented daily lives of peasantry - Ilya Repin - Barge Haulers on the Volga demonstrated harsh conditions and sometimes subtlety criticized the state

• Golden Age of Russian Literature: Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy explored complex themes of morality, nihilism, religion and societal problems

• Religion was mainly Christian (Orthodox), no separation of Church and state → Jews restricted to Pale of Settlement + minor pogroms that esculated under Alexander III