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When Alexander I inherited the throne in 1801, however, he seemed open to liberal ideas. The new czar eased censorship and promoted education. He even talked about freeing the serfs.
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By the time Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, Alexander had drawn back from reform. Like earlier czars, he feared losing the support of nobles. At the Congress of Vienna, he joined the conservative powers in opposing liberal and nationalist impulses in Europe.
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When Alexander I died in 1825, a group of army officers led an uprising known as the Decembrist Revolt. They had picked up liberal ideas while fighting Napoleon in Western Europe and now demanded a constitution and other reforms. The new czar, Nicholas I, suppressed the Decembrists and cracked down on all dissent.
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Nicholas used police spies to hunt out critics. He banned books from Western Europe that might spread liberal ideas. Only approved textbooks were allowed in schools and universities. Many Russians with liberal or revolutionary ideas were judged to be insane and shut up in mental hospitals. Up to 150,000 others were exiled to Siberia.
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Nicholas realized that Russia needed to modernize. He issued a new law code and made some economic reforms. He even tried to limit the power of landowners over serfs. But he could see no way to change the system completely without angering Russian nobles and weakening the power of the czar. Before he died, he told his son, “I am handing you command of the country in a poor state.”
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To bolster his regime, Nicholas I embraced the three pillars of Russian absolutism symbolized in the motto “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationalism.” Orthodoxy referred to the strong ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the government. Autocracy was the absolute power of the state. Nationalism involved respect for Russian traditions and suppression of non-Russian groups within the empire.
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Alexander II came to the throne in 1855 during the Crimean War
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The war had broken out after Russia tried to seize Ottoman lands along the Danube. Britain and France stepped in to help the Turks, invading the Crimean peninsula that juts into the Black Sea. The war, which ended in a Russian defeat, revealed the country's backwardness. It had only a few miles of railroads, and the military bureaucracy was hopelessly inefficient. Many felt that dramatic changes were needed.
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A widespread popular reaction followed. Liberals demanded changes, and students demonstrated for reform. Pressed from all sides, Alexander II finally agreed to reforms. In 1861, he issued a royal decree that required emancipation, or freeing the serfs.
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Freedom brought problems. Former serfs had to buy the land they had worked for so long. Many were too poor to do so. Also, the lands allotted to peasants were often too small to farm efficiently or to support a family. As a result, peasants remained poor, and discontent festered.
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emancipation was a turning point. Many peasants moved to the cities, taking jobs in factories and building Russian industries. Equally important, freeing the serfs boosted the drive for further reform.
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Along with emancipation, Alexander set up a system of local government. Elected assemblies, called zemstvos, were made responsible for matters such as road repair, schools, and agriculture.
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The czar also introduced legal reforms based on ideas such as trial by jury. He eased censorship and tried to reform the military. A soldier's term of service was reduced from 25 years to 15, and brutal discipline was limited. Alexander also encouraged the growth of industry in Russia, which still relied almost entirely on agriculture
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A movement to liberate women also swept the urban centers of Russia. Since they were denied education in Russia, hundreds of privileged young women left their homes and families to study abroad in the few universities that would accept them. Many came to support revolutionary goals.
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Alexander's reforms failed to satisfy many Russians. Peasants had freedom but not land. Liberals wanted a constitution and an elected legislature. Radicals, who had adopted socialist ideas from the West, demanded even more revolutionary changes. The czar, meantime, moved away from reform and toward repression
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some socialists carried the message of reform to the peasants. They went to live and work among the peasants, sometimes preaching rebellion.
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The failure of this “Go to the People” movement, combined with renewed government repression, sparked anger among radicals. Some turned to terrorism. A revolutionary group calling itself the People's Will assassinated officials and plotted to kill the czar.
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Their first attempts failed. Then, on a cold March day in 1881, terrorists hurled two bombs at Alexander's carriage. One struck down several guards. The second killed the leader known to some as the “czar emancipator.”
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responded to his father's assassination by reviving the harsh methods of Nicholas I. To wipe out liberals and revolutionaries, he increased the power of the secret police, restored strict censorship, and exiled critics to Siberia. He relied on his adviser and former tutor, Constantine Pobedonostsev , who rejected all talk of democracy and constitutional government as “the lies of hollow and flabby." people
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The czar also launched a program of Russification aimed at suppressing the cultures of non-Russian peoples within the empire. Alexander insisted on one language, Russian, and one church, the Russian Orthodox Church. Poles, Ukrainians, Finns, Armenians, and many others suffered persecution. The Russification campaign also targeted Jews and Muslims in the empire
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Russia had acquired a large Jewish population when it carved up Poland and expanded into Ukraine. Under Alexander III, persecution of Russian Jews increased.
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War broke out between Russia and Japan in 1904. Nicholas II called on his people to fight for “the Faith, the Czar, and the Fatherland.” But despite their efforts, the Russians suffered one humiliating defeat after another.
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years of oppression were unleashed, Protesters poured into the streets. Workers went on strike with demands for shorter hours and better wages. Liberals called for a constitution and reforms to overhaul the inefficient, corrupt government.
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As the crisis deepened, a young Orthodox priest, Father George Gapon, organized a march for Sunday, January 22, 1905. The czar, would help his people if only he understood their sufferings.The parade flowed through the icy streets of St. Petersburg toward the czar's lavish Winter Palace. Chanting prayers and singing hymns, workers carried holy icons and pictures of the czar. They also brought a petition for justice and freedom, which was addressed to Nicholas.
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Fearing the marchers, the czar had fled the palace and called in soldiers. As the people approached, they saw troops lined up across the square. Suddenly, gunfire rang out. Men and women ran and fell. More shots left hundreds dead or wounded in the snow. “Bloody Sunday” killed the people's faith and trust in the czar.
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In the months that followed Bloody Sunday, discontent exploded across Russia. Strikes multiplied. In some cities, workers took over local government. In the countryside, peasants revolted and demanded land. Minority nationalities called for autonomy from Russia. Terrorists targeted officials, and some assassins were cheered as heroes by discontented Russians.
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In 1906, the first Duma met, but the czar quickly dissolved it when leaders criticized the government. Nicholas then appointed a new prime minister, Peter Stolypin. Arrests, pogroms, and executions followed as the conservative Stolypin sought to restore order.
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The clamor grew so great that Nicholas was forced to announce sweeping reforms. In the October Manifesto, he promised “freedom of person, conscience, speech, assembly, and union.” He agreed to summon a Duma.
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Stolypin soon realized that Russia needed reform, not just repression. To regain peasant support, he introduced moderate land reforms. He strengthened the zemstvos and improved education. These reforms were too limited to meet the broad needs of most Russians, and dissatisfaction still simmered. Stolypin was assassinated in 1911.
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By 1914, Russia was still an autocracy, simmering with unrest.
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Like many revolutionaries, Ulyanov used an alias, or false name—Lenin. In 1917, Lenin would take power in a revolution that transformed Russia.
