Russia under the Tsar

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Russia under the Tsar

• A snapshot pre-1905

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Tsar Nicholas II the last Tsar
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Tsar Nicholas II The last Tsar

• Autocratic
• Divine Right Absolute Monarch
• Weak government
• Rules an area 1/6 of globes surface

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Russia c.1900
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His rule

• His word was law
• He appointed his ministers
• But did not have to listen to them
• AND could hire and fire them at will
• He was a true autocrat.
• (And truly deficient as a ruler and intellect)

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and yet

• Many Russians worshipped the Tsar and peasants
• typically had a picture of the Tsar on a wall of
  their hut.
• government/ bureaucracy blamed for problems

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Social Structure
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Social Structure stats.

• Ruling class 0.5
• Upper class (nobility) 12
• Commercial class 1.5
• Working Class 4
• Peasants 82 (roughly half were serfs until 1861
  property of the state/controlled by nobility)

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Political System

• Non-democratic different to European democracy
  political parties banned
• Dissent suppressed repression to keep masses in
  check
• Press censorship
• Ruling class hold a tight grip on power fear of
  majority the dark masses
• Tight restrictions on travel

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Army largest in the world

• Bolstered by conscription from peasantry
• One million soldiers
• Brutal discipline
• Rank linked to class
• Tool of suppression

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Bloody Sunday 1905
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Administration

• Bureaucracy/Government used to maintain Tsars
  authority
• Corrupt, inefficient, incompetent, upper classes

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Orthodox Church

• Clergy adored by some
• seen as corrupt and self-serving by others
• Conservative
• Used to control population (taught obedience a
  sin to not obey Tsar)

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Social Structure - Nobility

• In decline
• To 1861- controlled (owned) serfs
• Better educated than majority of population
• Some more liberal

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Liberals

• Slow emergence of a middle class
• Creation of a Western-educated elite who had
  travelled and seen other, freer political
  systems.
• Intellectual class beginning to support
  democratic reform

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Industrial and urban

• Russia industry had grown rapidly and living and
  working conditions were horrendous
• Average working day was 14 hours
• Trade unions banned but some strikes took place
• Potential for hotbed of political activism

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Peasantry

• Backward, inefficient, ignorant, illiterate.
• Emancipation 1861
• Lack of land. Debts from land bought after 1861.
• Bear full brunt of famines

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And yet

• Some did prosper and it was generally the
  shortage of land rather than shortage of food
  that was the irritant.
• Rural population grew but land owned by peasants
  and land size failed to keep pace.
• Faith in Tsar remained strong
• BUT hunger for land would grow.

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Reform

• Limited reforms to 1900
• Emancipation of the serfs 1861
• Sporadic Tsars will guards power jealously
• Under Alexander II
• some legal reforms
• freedom of expression
• very limited and eventually withdrawn
• repression follows

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As a result political instability and extremism
thrive

• No outlet for political frustrations
• Extreme revolutionary groups emerging
• Only offer radical solutions to Russias problems
• Secret police Okhrana repressive state
  spying on population
• Pressure cooker political environment
• Regular assassinations of officials
• and even Tsars

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