Russia In The 1800′S Essay, Research Paper

RUSSIA IN THE 1800′S

Since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Russian Tsars had followed a fairly consistent policy of drawing more political power away from the nobility and into their own hands. This centralization of authority in the Russian state had usually been accomplished in one of two ways–either by simply taking power from the nobles and braving their opposition (Ivan the Terrible was very good at this), or by compensating the nobles for decreased power in government by giving them greater power over their land and its occupants. Serfdom, as this latter system was known, had increased steadily in Russia from the time of Ivan the Terrible, its inventor. By the time of Catherine the Great, the Russian Tsars enjoyed virtually autocratic rule over their nobles. However, they had in a sense purchased this power by granting those nobles virtually autocratic power over the serfs, who by this time had been reduced to a state closer to slavery than to peasantry.

By the nineteenth century, both of these relationships were under attack. In the Decembrist revolt in 1825, a group of young, reformist military officers attempted to force the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in Russia by preventing the accession of Nicholas I. They failed utterly, and Nicholas became the most reactionary leader in Europe. Nicholas’ successor, Alexander II, seemed by contrast to be amenable to reform. In 1861, he abolished serfdom, though the emancipation didn’t in fact bring on any significant change in the condition of the peasants. As the country became more industrialized, its political system experienced even greater strain. Attempts by the lower classes to gain more freedom provoked fears of anarchy, and the government remained extremely conservative. As Russia became more industrialized, larger, and far more complicated, the inadequacies of autocratic Tsarist rule became increasingly apparent. By the twentieth century conditions were ripe for a serious convulsion.

At the same time, Russia had expanded its territory and its power considerably over the nineteenth century. Its borders extended to Afghanistan and China, and it had acquired extensive territory on the Pacific coast. The foundation of the port cities of Vladivostok and Port Arthur there had opened up profitable avenues for commerce, and the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway (constructed from 1891-1905) linked the European Russia with its new eastern territories.

In 1894 Nicholas II acceded to the throne. He was not the most competent of political leaders, and his ministers were almost uniformly reactionaries. To make matters worse, the increasing Russian presence in the far east provoked the hostility of Japan. In January of 1905, the Japanese attacked, and Russia experienced a series of defeats that dissolved the tenuous support held by Nicholas’ already unpopular government. Nicholas was forced to grant concessions to the reformers, including most notably a constitution and a parliament, or Duma. The power of the reform movement was founded on a new and powerful force entered Russian politics. The industrialization of the major western cities and the

development of the Batu oil fields had brought together large concentrations of Russian workers, and they soon began to organize into local political councils, or soviets. It was in large part the power of the soviets, united under the Social Democratic party, that had forced Nicholas to accept reforms in 1905.

After the war with Japan was brought to a close, Nicholas attempted to reverse the new freedoms, and his government became more reactionary than ever. Popular discontent gained strength, and Nicholas countered it with increased repression, maintaining control but worsening relations with the population. In 1912, the Social Democrats split into two camps–the radical Bolsheviks and the comparatively moderate Menshiviks. In 1914, another disastrous war once again brought on a crisis. If the Russo-Japanese war had been costly and unpopular, it was at least remote. The First World

War, however, took place right on Russia’s western doorstep. Unprepared militarily or industrially, the country suffered demoralizing defeats, suffered severe food shortages, and soon suffered an economic collapse. By February of 1917, the workers and soldiers had had enough. Riots broke out in St. Petersburg, then called Petrograd, and the garrison there mutinied. Workers soviets were set up, and the Duma approved the establishment of a Provisional Government to attempt to restore order in the capital. It was soon clear that Nicholas possessed no support, and on March 2 he abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael. No fool, Michael renounced his claim the next day.

The Provisional Government set up by the Duma attempted to pursue a moderate policy, calling for a return to order and promising reform of worker’s rights. However, it was unwilling to endorse the most pressing demand of the soviets-an immediate end to the war. For the next 9 months, the Provisional Government, first under Prince Lvov and then under Alexandr Kerensky, unsuccessfully attempted to establish its authority. In the meanwhile, the Bolsheviks gained increasing support from the ever more frustrated soviets. On October 25, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, they stormed the Winter Palace and deposed the Kerensky government.

Although the Bolsheviks enjoyed substantial support in St. Petersburg and Moscow, they were by no means in control ofthe country as a whole. They succeeded in taking Russia out of the war (though on very unfavorable terms), but within months civil war broke out throughout Russia. For the next three years the country was devastated by civil strife, until by 1920 the Bolsheviks had finally emerged victorious.

1801-1825 ALEXANDER I ROMANOV

1801 Acquisition of eastern Georgia Sale of serfs without land prohibited

1802 Formation of ministries

1806 Conquest of Daghestan and Baku

1806-1815 The new Admiralty built by Zakharov

1807-1811 Reforms of Speransky

1809 Krylov’s Fables Annexation of Finland

1812 June 24 Napoleon’s invasion of Russia

August 26 Battle of Borodino

September 14 Napoleon enters Moscow

October 19 Napoleon departs Moscow

1813-1814 Alexander’s pursuit of Napoleon to Paris

1815-1825 Ascendancy of Arakcheev

1816-1819 Abolition of serfdom in Baltic provinces

1817 Transfer of the Makariev Fair to Nizhnii Novgorod

1817-1857 The Frenchman Montferrand builds St. Isaac’s Cathedral

1818 Karamzin’s History of the Russian State

1819 University of St. Petersburg founded

1819-1829 The Italian Rossi builds the General Staff Building on Palace Square

1821 F. M. Dostoevsky born October 30 in Moscow

1825-1855 NICHOLAS I ROMANOV

1825 Decembrist Uprising Griboedov’s comedy Woe from Wit

1830 Briullov’s painting Last Day of Pompeii Alexander Pushkin completes Eugene Onegin

1830-1831 Polish rebellion

1832 Uvarov’s three principles enunciated: autocracy, orthodoxy, nationality Alexandrine

Theater in St. Petersburg opened

1833 Code of Laws

1836 Nov 27 Glinka’s opera Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin) Gogol’s Inspector General

Chadaaev’s Philosophical Letters

1837 A. S. Pushkin shot in a dual with D’Anthes, dies January 29

1838 First Russian railroad–St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo Gubernskie vedomosti first

published by order of the tsar

1838-1847 Belinsky works on the Notes of the Fatherland

1840 Lermontov’s Hero of Our Time

1841 Ban against the sale of peasants individually

1842 Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Ludmila Gogol’s Dead Souls

1846 Abolition of Corn Laws in England; increase of Russian grain exports

May 30 Peter Carl Faberge born in St. Petersburg

1847 Herzen leaves Russia forever Belinsky’s Letter to Gogol

1849 Dostoevsky sentenced to forced labor in Siberia Russian intervention in Hungary

1851 Nov 13 St. Petersburg-Moscow railway opened

1852 Turgenev’s Sportsman’s Notebook

1853-1856 Crimean War

1855 Death of Nicholas I

1855-1881 ALEXANDER II ROMANOV

1858-1860 Acquisition from China of Amur and Maritime provinces

1859 Surrender of Shamil; conquest of Caucasus completed Goncharov’s Oblomov

1860 Founding of Vladivostok

1860-1873 First railway boom

1861 Emancipation of the serfs

1862 St. Petersburg Conservatory founded; Anton Rubinstein, director

The Mighty Five (Balakierev, Cui, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky)

announce intentions to create a school of “true Russian music”

1863 Polish rebellion

1863-1865 Law (courts) and education reform Zemstvo instituted

1864-1885 Conquest of central Asia

1867 March 30 Alaska sold to the United States of America

1870 April 22 Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) is born Mendeleyev’s Principles of Chemistry

1872 Russian translation of Marx’s Capital Carl Faberge takes over his father’s

jewelry business

1873 Beginning of the movement “To the People” (V narod)

1876 Land and Freedom Party

1877 Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake

1877-1878 War with Turkey March 3 Treaty of San Stefano June 13

Congress of Berlin Begins

1879 People’s Will Party and Black Partition

1881 March 1 Assassination of Alexander II

1881-1894 ALEXANDER III ROMANOV

1884 Reactionary regulations for universities

1888 Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade

1890 Borodin’s opera Prince Igor

Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty

1891 Beginning of the Trans-Siberian railway

1891-1893 Making of the Franco-Russian alliance

1892-1903 Witte as minister of communications, finance and commerce

1894-1917 NICHOLAS II ROMANOV

1896 Disasterous production of Chekhov’s The Seagull in St. Petersburg

1897 Jan 28 First all-Russian census counts 128,907,692 people

1898 Moscow Art Theater founded, produces Chekhov’s Sea Gull

1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party (Minsk)

Occupation of Port Arthur

1900 Boxer Rebellion; Russia occupies Manchuria

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