What reaction was there to Alexander's reforms?
- Created by: jaaaz_v
- Created on: 24-11-16 10:36
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- Reaction to Alexander's reforms
- The peasantry
- Would seem the most obvious group to react badly and criticise the Tsar
- No huge rebellion; more disgruntled acceptance
- Were some "benefits"
- Reform of local government meant they were "more involved" in decision making at a local level
- However, changes remained distant from the struggles of their everyday lives
- Why no reaction?.
- Rather than fighting against the system, peasants bypassed official structures
- NOT because they were happy with reform
- Little time in their lives for political involvement
- Knew from past experience that protest brought harsh punishments
- Group showed deference to authority
- Tsar was the "little father", appointed by God
- Some small groups showed opposition
- Peasant uprisings after the Emancipation Edict was passed
- Largest rebellion in Kazan (200 peasants)
- Pathetic numbers
- Harshly punished for their actions
- Explains why peasants were reluctant to become involved with Intelligentsia attempts to encourage rebellion in the countryside
- Would seem the most obvious group to react badly and criticise the Tsar
- The nobility
- Reform had weakened their position
- Emancipation forced them to give up free labour
- Forced to give up land
- Despite compensation from the government, many were unhappy with the manor of change
- Emancipation forced them to give up free labour
- Other reforms were heavily influenced by the conservative pressure amongst the nobility
- Noble dominance remained in new systems of local government
- Provincial governors
- Dominance of nobility in the Zemstva
- Untitled
- Noble dominance remained in new systems of local government
- Why no major reaction?
- Balance of power didn't shift away from the nobility in many areas
- Continued to dominate the higher echelons of the military and the judiciary despite reform
- Reform had weakened their position
- Demands for further change
- Strongest amongst the intelligentsia, educated middle class, and students
- Some opposed with radical political stances
- Rejecting state control completely
- Nihilists rejected all traditional ways of thinking and political structures in support of a revolution
- Anarchists believe that society should have no government and that it should be a collection of independent communities
- Some became liberals
- Not wanting to completely rejecting existing society and government
- Wanting to work withing current framework to lead Russia into development
- Groups weren't large; hundreds rather than thousands
- Slavophiles
- Rejected western ways as corrupt
- Wanted to seek Russia's future in traditional institutions
- Populism
- Agrarian socialists
- Motivated by writers like Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Chernyshevsky
- Launched a movement in the 1870s called "to the people"
- Dressed as peasants and then officials or teachers
- Neither ploy worked
- Dressed as peasants and then officials or teachers
- Populists were treated with hostility by peasants
- Who refused to take part in radical ideas
- In 1876 over 1600 had been arrested and 800 put on trial
- Trial of the fifty
- Dealt with Moscow-based populists
- Trial of the 193
- 1877-78
- Defendants made long speeches critical of government
- Censorship reform meant defendants pleas were reported in the press
- Spreading populist ideas
- 153 were acquitted and those convicted got light sentences
- Agrarian socialists
- Land and Liberty
- Slavophiles regrouped in 1877
- Assassinated several prominent government officials
- Disagreement over tactics that the group should use
- This group split into 2: Black partition and the Peoples Will
- Black Partition
- Rejected the use of terror
- Non-violent
- Main focus on raising awareness amongst Russian peasants
- Focused on the redistribution of land to peasants
- Rejected the use of terror
- The Peoples Will
- Wanted to end Tsarism
- Focused on the assassination of Alexander ii
- Bomb attempt on the tsars train in 1879
- Bomb on the winter palace in 1880
- Finally killed him on 13th March 1881
- Rejected western ways as corrupt
- Westerners
- Wanted to adopt western liberal ways
- Reform rather than abolish the political system
- Inspiration
- Key beliefs came from the Enlightenment
- French revolution
- Liberal movement was small
- Bases in local government (the Zemstva and Duma)
- Majority of liberals were gentry or professionals
- Active in universities and professional bodies
- Censorship reform allowed liberal material to become widely available
- Wanted to adopt western liberal ways
- The peasantry
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