Russification

Who was Konstantin Pobedonostsev?

- tutored Nicholas Il as a young man and held the position of chief minister in the Russian government from 1881 to 1905.

-had a lot of influence over the Tsar and the future of Russia.

- disliked liberalism and democracy so opposed most forms of modernisation.

- called representative government 'the great lie of our time' and he called the peasantry (the majority of the Russian population) the 'dark masses'.

- believed that the Russian people had to be ruled harshly and taught obedience and conformity in every area of their lives. Reform was to be avoided, as it would only encourage trouble makers.

What was Russification?

Russification aimed to promote Russian superiority and diminish non-Russian cultures.

Initiated under Alexander III and expanded by Nicholas II, it mandated the use of Russian in all legal and administrative matters and restricted public office to fluent speakers.

The state systematically suppressed minority cultures and intervened in their education and religion, fostering discrimination.

was Poland a threat

yes it was:

• As a result of industrialisation in Poland, a proletariat began to emerge in the 1890s that showed an interest in Marxism and socialism.

• New nationalist parties emerged, including the National Democrat Party, who sought to use non-violent means to challenge Russification after the Polish language had been banned following the January Uprising in 1863.

no:

• this meant they could not cooperate with other linguistic and ethnic minorities living in the Empire such as Jews and Ukrainians who did not reciprocate the same sentiment.

was russification in ukraine successful?

yes:

-Inspired by Pobedonostsev and encouraged by the fact that nationalist violence was rare in there, Nicholas Il continued the process of Russification in the Ukraine.

-The Valuev circular (1863) and the Ems Ukase (1876) blocked the development of Ukrainian literature and only after 1905 did Ukrainians gain the right to use their own language in publications and education.

-Further, the Hromada association (a secret society network of the intelligentsia), which had about 100 members before the ukaz, had only only 25 in 1900.

no:

- However, Ukrainian remained the spoken language of the Ukrainian peasantry, whilst Kiev Governor-General Mikhail Dragomirov allowed Kievskaia Starina to publish fiction in Ukrainian from 1903.

was russification in caucasus successful?

yes:

-Internal division in the Caucasus between Armenian Christians and Muslim Chechens made Russification easier for Nicholas.

-from 1897, Golitsin (governor of Transcaucasia) closed Armenian schools, cultural associations, newspapers and libraries; increasing nationalism and private Armenian education within the previously-Russified middle-class.

no:

-some populist movements emerged to challenge Russian rule, -eg the Dashnaks and the Georgian Mensheviks.

-Dashnaks organised self-defence military units to combat intrusions by Russian officials, whilst the Georgian Mensheviks provoked the rise of nationalism and campaigned for Georgia to ally with Germany.

was russification in Finland successful?

yes:

• policies included The Language Manifesto of 1900, a decree by Nicholas Il which made Russian the language of administration of Finland (in 1900, there were an estimated 8,000 Russians in all of Finland, of a population of 2,700,000) and the conscription law in 1901, which incorporated the Finnish army into the Imperial Russian Army and forcing Finns to serve in Russian units.

• The assassination also led to a purge of anti-Russification administrative officials and increased censorship, though the conscription law was reversed.

no:

• However, opposition against conscription law was so strong that the governor general was assassinated in 1904 and in 1905 Finland was given full autonomy

• Stolypin quickly reneged on this and it wasn't until 1917 that Finland eventually gained independence.

was russification in baltic provinces successful?

yes:

• Baltic Provinces were relatively stable and prosperous.

• Riga, in Latvia became an important commercial and business centre, which led to the migration of large numbers of Russians.

• As a result, the process of Russification happened quite naturally and there was little opposition.

• Despite increased restrictions following the 1863 uprising, different Russian officials in the 1890s and early twentieth century agreed: the Lithuanian movement was on the whole a positive phenomenon and presented no danger for Russian national interests.

• At this time, officials aiso increasingly called on St. Petersburg to end the law forbidding the printing of Lithuanian in Latin letters.

no:

• Nevertheless, in 1893, the governor of Kovno province, reported of the great quantity of illegally printed Lithuanian material that was being smuggled into his province from neighbouring East Prussia, which contained anti-Russian and anti-government propaganda

were jews a threat during russification

yes:

-Over 600 new measures were introduced against the Jews, including a requirement that Jews had to live in ghettoes.

-In 1902, the Okhrana released the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', a conspiracy theory which claimed Jews were trying to take over the world. Between 1905 and 1916, 14 million copies of 3,000 different antisemitic books were printed.

-In a 1903 pogrom in Kishinev, 47 Jews were murdered, 400 wounded and over 1300 properties destroyed in the space of 2 days.

no:

- Some Jews were social democrats and they set up their own Jewish SD party called the Bund.

-This led to the accusation that they were revolutionaries, which prompted a 1905 pogrom in the Pale Settlement.

-Nicholas Il did make a concession to the Jews by allowing them to sit on the Duma (parliament).

What was Wittes policy for heavy industry? was it successful?

-Witte used railways as a 'springboard for heavy industry'.

yes:

• By 1899, the state owned 2/3 of metallurgical production, controlled 70% of railway and S owned several oil fields and mines.

• Coal output tripled, iron and steel production increased from 9 to 76 million poods (units) per year.

• This led to migration from the countryside to the cities, as well as an increase in education.

no:

Both of these factors led to more politicisation and calls for reform. Further, the focus on heavy industry meant that domestic and lighter industry like textiles were neglected

What was Wittes policy for massive expansion of railways, was it successful

• Witte was previously the transport minister and therefore focussed on improving the rail network.

yes:

• • In 1866 there was 3,000 miles of track, by 1913 there was 43,850 miles. By the end of the 1890s, nearly 60% of all iron and steel was consumed by the railways.

• Witte's famous project was the Trans-Siberian Railway, which connected isolated parts of the country, from the large cities in the West to Vladivostok in the East.

no:

• However, the trans Siberian railway was largely symbolic in nature and unfinished in parts.

What was Wittes policy of foreign loans, investment and expertise

• Foreign companies, engineers and experts from places like France, Britain, Germany and Sweden.

• Especially prevalent in new industrial areas in the South and West, metallurgical production in the Donbass region and the Baku oil industry.

• Although, foreign loans (900 million roubles from France alone) had to be paid back with interest.

• Led to arguments that Russia had become reliant on loans, dragging Russia into political alliances that might not suit them in the future.

What was wittes policy when it came to fiscal policy

• Witte increased taxes, directly and indirectly on items such as kerosene, alcohol and salt. Peasants had to sell more grain to pay for taxes, which in turn gave more grain for Witte to sell abroad.

• Witte also placed high tariffs on foreign goods to promote Russian industry, which led to high prices on agricultural machinery that could not easily be made within Russia.

• Witte kept wages low, so profits were invested into industry and not on wage bills.

was wittes impact socially a success

success:

• The middle classes grew as a result of increased industrialisation and there was a rapidly escalating demand for bankers, doctors, teachers and administrators, as society grew more complex.

• By 1900, Moscow was the fastest growing city East of New York and one of the 10 biggest cities in the world.

not a success:

• growth in middle class was limited though and in the 1897 census there were still no more than half a million people classified as middle class.

• The need for industrial workers led to urbanisation and by 1897, Moscow had 1.5 million inhabitants, with St Petersburg reaching over 2 million.

• The infrastructure of the cities was woefully inadequate for the huge influx of people. In St Petersburg in 1900, 40% of houses had no running water of sewage system.

russification in Poland

• government schools did not teach Polish in any form between 1864 and 1905; even after 1905 use of Polish in ocal schools was quite limited or even forbidden entirely.

• Fines introduced for speaking in Polish in government offices.

• Poles reacted by educating their children in private and unofficial gatherings, despite the penalties imposed when such "secret schools" were discovered by the local authorities, including fines and imprisonment.

what was Finland like before russification

-Prior to Nicholas Il's rule in 1894, Finland had been allowed a separate Finnisn parliament (Diet) and even a constitution.

• Nicholas Il appointed Nikolai Bobrikoy as governor general of Finland and he promptly integrated it into the Russian Empire and began the process of russification

the tsars opinion on jews?

-Nicholas Il was personally anti-Jewish and pursued many of the same hostile policies as his father, Alexander Ill, though the number of pogroms increased sharply, as ultra-conservative Russian nationalists in the 'Black Hundreds' were encouraged by the Tsar's stance.

was wittes fiscal policy successful?

• However, still lagged behind other major powers, e.g. Austria-Hungary expanded national income by 79%, 1894-1913 and Britain 70% compared with Russia 50% in same period

• The peasants and urban workers were squeezed hard.

what was wittes fiscal policy for the gold standard

• Russian currency (roubles) was placed onto the Gold Standard, where a country's currency is directly linked to the value of gold.

• helped to stabilise a currency against rampant inflation. It also allowed Russia to trade more with foreign countries, due to confidence in their fiscal policies.