History of Russia Lectures for technical students. Part 1. Учебное пособие

second punishment under Nicolas I was connected with famous Russian writer F. Dostoevskiy but that time the plotters were forgiven by Emperor before hanging and sent to exile.

Nicolas I tried to strengthen stability in Russia. New Code of Laws was established by M. Speranskiy. Financial reform was undergone. Russian silver rouble became more powerful and stronger and new paper currency was introduced. This reform was very successful and state budget got additional money. Emperor Nicolas even tried to make lives of peasants better and the reform was written for state peasants but it failed miserably. And some rebellions of state peasants took place.

National doctrine was written by Prince S. Uvarov which proclaimed the main ideas such as “autocracy, orthodoxy and nationality”. The foundation of this theory was Russian traditional values and specific features of Russian culture. After this doctrine Russian society was splitted into 2 parts: “Slavophiles” and “Westernisers”. The first believed that Russia could develop differently from Europe and the second considered Russia as a primitive state which could able to follow Europe in their development.

He encouraged the development of technical education and engineering sciences but he cut the rights and privileges of universities. Numbers of students were limited by increasing fee for the education.

Nicolas expanded territory of Russia by getting control of the Far East and pushing the borders to the Pacific Ocean. But at the end of his reign Nicolas faced to great military disaster in Crimean war of 1853-1856.

For saving the rights of kings Nicholas turned his eyes on Turkey and the Balkans. The Tsar dreamed of extending Russian domain over the remnants of the dying Ottoman Empire in 1853, that's why Russian forces attacked the Turkish Balkans and the Black Sea ports. Russian grab for control of the Ottoman Empire set off alarms in London and Paris. So England and France rushed in to prop up the Turks. The Crimean War for Russia was a war with the Western powers. It would be a rude awakening. Crimean War showed that Russia actually was not

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as powerful as people thought, not as powerful as it so rulers thought. The English and the French fight and move with the technology of the industrial revolution (that means the steamship) was very hard for Russia.

The Russian fight and move with the technology of the pre-industrial era with ill equipped, outgunned and outmaneuvered army was very weak. Tsarist military machine as Nicholas had come to believe was invincible, was thrown back, trapped in trenches. Russian troops waged a losing battle. This was the Russian army that had been defeated. They had an inflated sense of the strength of their own army. There were decades of deterioration in the Russian army after that it really became clear during the war itself. Before the Crimean War Russia was considered the greatest military power in the world. During the Crimean War Russian troops were dying on the Russian soil. There's tremendous shock that they were not able to win. Moreover it was considered as a terrible disgrace for Russian Emperor. In 1855 Tsar Nicholas reviewed his troops under a cold driving rain. The next day he came down with pneumonia, one week later he was dead. Some people thought that Nicolas poisoned himself after one of the catastrophe of Russian army (capture of Sevastopol by English-French army). The crown and the

Empire in crisis fell to Nicholas’ son Alexander.

TASKS

1. Answer the following questions:

1.What were the causes of the Decembrists’ uprising?

2.How can you describe Nicolas I as a personality and Emperor?

3.What kind of reforms took place under Nicolas I?

4.What was the situation in Europe?

5.Why Nicolas was called “gendarme”?

6.What was the result of his reign?

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2.Watch video “History of Russian Empire” (Matteo Zilli, part

16 of 20) and summarize new information.

3.Topics for writing essay.

1.Speranskiy’s role in the life of Russia and his fate in general.

2.Heroic devotion of women who followed their husbands to Siberia.

3.Decembrists’ revolt and its influence in Russian history.

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tion of peasants led other reforms in all spheres of life: education, army, local government and judicial sphere.

In 1863, January Uprising took place in Poland and was suppressed after 18 months of lighting. Thousand of Poles were exiled to Siberia and lands were confiscated. After that strict control Poland was imposed.

In 1864 Alexander II allowed each district to set up a Zemstvo – a local council with powers to build roads, schools and hospitals. Zemstvo could raise money through taxation and had right to elect members. Alexander II introduced judicial reform, a new judicial system in 1864.

Crushing defeat in the Crimean War demonstrated need of military reform. Military reform took place in 1874. After it Russian army was equipped with new weapons and European style uniform. The navy began building the latest class of battle ships. Education was established for officers and soldiers.

Foreign relations were a problem for Russia. Alexander II dreamed to restore the status of Russia in Europe after the Crimean War. Russian army was reformed and met new European standards. In 1876 a Bulgarian revolt against the Turks raised and Russian Emperor declared war next year. Military campaign took place in Bulgaria from 1877 till 1878. Russia had a military triumph.

Alexander II had a romance with Princess Catherine Dolgorukova for 14 years and had four children from her. After a death of his wife Alexander married Princess Dolgorukova but their happiness was not very long.

The reign of Alexander II was a sharp break in Russian public opinion. The new post – 1855 generation of “Positivists” or “Realists” raised the more pragmatic problem, first articulated by N. I. Novikov: what are we to do? In responding, the intelligentsia became polarized into conservative and radical wings, with a small body of liberal opinion uneasily wedged in between. Unlike the preceding era, when ideological opponents continued to meet socially and observe ordinary politeness, in

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the reign of Alexander conflicts of ideas became personalized and not infrequently led to bitter antagonism.

The occasion which brought about this change was the Great Reforms inaugurated by the new monarch. The was the emancipation of the serfs, followed by the introduction of Zemstva and organs of urban selfgovernment, a reform of the court system and the introduction of compulsory military service. This was the most ambitious effort undertaken in the history of Russia. The reform generated a tremendous sense of excitement in society, especially among the young who suddenly saw opportunities opening up for public service such as had never existed before. They could now enter the professions such as law, medicine or journalism; they could work in Zemstva and city governments; they could seek careers in the military service whose officer ranks were opened to commoners; and above all, they could establish contact with the emancipated peasants and help them to raise themselves to the status of citizen.

The first break in the united front occurred in 1861 with the publication of the terms of the Emancipation settlement. The left, led by

Chernyshevskiy and his “Contemporary”, disappointed that the peasant received only half the land he had been cultivating and had to pay even for that, declared the whole Emancipation a cruel hoax. Student unrests of the early 1860-s coupled with the Polish revolt of 1863 and a simultaneous outbreak of mysterious burning in St. Petersburg. “The Russian Messenger”, until then the organ of moderate opinion, now swung sharply to the right and began to attack the left from a patriotic position.

There was a further split within radical ranks themselves. “The contemporary” launched personal attacks on the intelligentsia of older generation, accusing it a lack of serious commitments and inertia. Herzen replied in the pages of his London-based “Bell”, charging the younger generation with chronic biliousness. Chicherin then attacked Herzen for his revolutionary predilections, while Chernyshevsky called Herzen

“the skeleton of a mammoth”. By 1865, Russian opinion was thoroughly

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strengthened. Still, the basic debate as it unfolded was a dialogue between radicals and conservatives who could agree on nothing except their common unwilling of the sensible, pragmatic men of the middle. The 1860 and 1870s were the Golden Age of Russian thought, when all the major themes which have occupied the intelligentsia ever since were stated and examined.

The new radicalism developed on the basis of a scientific or positivistic philosophy which began to penetrate Russia from the west in the closing years of Nicolas’ reign but fully conquered the radical left only under his successor. The spectacular achievements of chemistry and biology in the 1840s, especially the discovery of the laws of conservation of energy and the cellular structure of living organisms, led to the emergence in the Western Europe of an anti-Idealist movement (future form of philosophic materialism). Left-wing youths rejected Idealist philosophy. In “Fathers and Sons” Turgenev depicted this conflict of generations in a manner which the protogonists at once recognized it accurate.

The young “nihilists” viewed the world in which they found themselves as a phase of human development.

Dmitry Pisarev, one of the idols of radical youth of the early 1860s, urged his followers to hit about them right and left, criticizing institutions and conventions, on the premise that whatever fell in the process was not worth saving. Such “nihilism” was motivated not by a total absence of values, but by the belief that the present already belonged to the past, and destruction, therefore, was creative. The radicals of the 1860s wished to create a new man. He was to be totally practical, free of religious and philosophical preconceptions, a “rational egoist” and absolutely dedicated servant of society and fighter for a rightful life.

The radicals were fully conscious how important was their small band confronting the full might of the autocratic state. However, they were not out to challenge the system politically. They were anarchists; their weapons were ideas where they felt they enjoyed clear superiority over

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establishment. The force of ideas would bring down states, churches, economies, and social institutions.

The Social Democrats, who became popular only in the 1890s, first abandoned this belief and shifted the emphasis to impersonal economic forces. Then Bolshevism found necessary to abandon reliance on impersonal economic forces, whose tendency rather pointed away from revolution, and revert to the traditional stress on the intelligentsia.

On March 13, 1881 Tsar’s carriage was bombed by terrorists. Illegal group “Land and Liberty” criticized Russian government, they became real terrorists (“People’s Will”) and they killed the emperor.

TASKS

1. Answer the following questions:

1.What kind of personality was Alexander II?

2.Why the period of Alexander II reign was named the Great Reforms?

3.What reforms were undertaken under Alexander II?

4.Why Alexander II was known in Russian history as The Liberator?

5.Why Alexander II was killed by terrorists?

2.Watch video “History of Russian Empire” (Matteo Zilli, part

17 of 20) and summarize new information.

3.Topics for writing essay.

1.The scientific achievements of the 19 th century and their impact on the Russian society.

2.Changes brought by Great reforms.

3.Nihilists: who they are?

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LECTURE 10. NICOLAS II THE BLOODY

He was the last Emperor of Russia and the last of Romanov’s dynasty.

He ruled from November 1894 till March 1917. Nicolas was the fist, eldest son of Alexander III. Future Emperor received good education; he studied history, foreign languages and many other subjects. When he was 19 he joined the army and spent 3 years there. And after that Nicolas toured Europe and Asia for 10 months. In Japan Nicolas was wounded by religious man and he had a seam on his head.

So Nicolas inherited Russian throne in 1894. Firstly he managed to marry Princess Alex (Alexandra) of Hesse-Darmstadt within a month of his father’s death. His father didn’t approve this choice. The coronation was in May 1896.

The years 1900-1914 are full of events marking this time as extra ordinary years. In 1903 Great Trans-Siberian Railway was completed, it was connected Russia with the Pacific coast. This construction was a part of government’s efforts to strengthen the state. In the same year opposition had the second Congress in Brussels and then in London and created and organization (Marxist Russian Social-Democratic Working Party with V. Lenin at the head) which lead Russia to social revolution.

The main object of foreign policy under Nicolas II was maintenance status quo in Europe rather than conquer new territory. In 1904 Japan attacked Russian port and started the war against Russia. The reason was Russian influence in China and Korea. This war was disastrous conflict. Russian army was surrounded in Port Arthur. By spring of 1905 Russian fleet was decimated in the Battle of Tsushima. Nicolas was forced to start peace negotiations that summer.

After that conservative minister Plehve was replaced by Prince D. Svyatopolk-Mirskiy. This period became “a political spring” in relations

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between state and society and “banquet campaign” took place in Russia.

But revolution came. The beginning of revolution was Bloody Sunday in Saint-Petersburg in 1905 (9 January). A mass procession of workers with a petition for the Tsar was suppressed. Many thousands of people were shot by soldiers. Many different parts of society took part in revolution (workers, soldiers, peasants and students).

Under pressure of the revolution Tsar issued a Manifesto about the introduction of the Duma (a new advisory institution) and guaranteed civil liberties. It was the first time in Russian history. Nicolas’ relations with

Duma were not very good. The first Duma with a majority of Constitutional Democratic Party came into a conflict with Him. And Nicolas disincorporated this Duma after it. The Second Duma resulted in similar problems. After this new Prime-minister P. Stolypin changed the electoral law to allow Duma to have more conservative representative in the future and to be dominated by the liberal-conservative Octobrist Party of

A.Guchkov.

P. Stolypin as a skillful politician had ambitious plans of reforms which included making loans available to peasants to buy land for forming a farm. His plans were cut by conservatives at the Court. Stolypin was able to break up the traditional peasants’ commune and give land to every peasant for a farm. So because of these reforms the years of 19071914 was a period of the relative stability. But in 1911 Stolypin was shot in the Theater in Kiev by a revolutionary man. The year before the writer Leo Tolstoy's death was accompanied by public acts and the wave of strikes broke in 1910 too.

In 1914 The First World War began and Russia took active part in it. Nicolas II appointed himself as a commander-in-chief. He spent much time in Tsarskoe Selo. At that time Empress fell under the influence of G. Rasputin. The only son of Nicolas II, Tsarevich Alexis suffered from hemophilia (a hereditary disease). As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Empress Alexandra carried the gene of this disease, known as a royal disease. When Alexis was taken seriously ill in 1908, Rasputin was

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