Tsarist Russia 1881-94

• Who succeeded Nikolai Bunge as Minister of Finance?

  Ivan Vyshnegradsky
• Why did Nikolai Bunge resign as Minister of Finance?

  He came under pressure from Conservatives over budget deficits
• What did Nikolai Bunge do as Minister of Finance?

  He pursued protectionist policies and spearheaded Labour protection laws, including laws curtailing some child labour
• Who was Finance Minister between 1881-87

  Nikolai von Bunge
• Payment in kind


  Payment in goods or services, e.g. accommodation, rather than money wages
• How large was the middle class in 1897?

  Half a million
• How many strikes took place between 1886-1894?

  33
• How many former serfs in the Tambov region were unable to feed their families without falling into debt?

  2/3
• Average life expectancy in Russia compared to Britain

  Russia: 27 years for men and 29 for women

  UK: 45 years
• Other churches

  - Uniate church

  - Armenian Church

  - Roman Catholic Church

  - Lutheran Church
• Old Believers'

  A sect of Orthodox Christian Russians who broke away from the main church
• How much of the population subscribed to the Russian Orthodox church?

  70%
• Rye production in the 1880s compared to France and USA (puds per desatin)

  Russia: 54

  USA and France: 68
• Grain production in the 1880s compared to UK, Germany (puds per desatin)

  Russia: 45

  UK and Germany: 146
• Creation of land banks

  - Peasants' land bank in 1883

  - Noble's Land Bank in 1885
• Foreign investment 1880-95 (in roubles)

  1880: 98 million

  1890: 215 million

  1895: 280 million
• Witte's financial reforms

  - Huge expansion of the rail network y foreign workers

  - Sought investment into mining, metal trades, oil and banking

  - Russia became the 4th largest economy in 1897
• Vyshnegradsky's financial reform

  - 30% protective tariff on the value of materials

  - Negotiated valuable loans from the French by 1888

  - Increased indirect taxes

  - Pushed for grain export drive, seeing an 18% increase by 1891

  - By 1892, the Russian budget was in surplus

  - This resulted in low grain stores and little money for peasants and this harshened the Great Famine 1891-92
• Ivan Vyshnegradsky


  Finance minister 1887-1892, he oversaw an import drive that ended in the Great Famine of 1891-92 and his subsequent dismissal
• Georgi Plekanov


  - Father of Russian Marxism

  - Argued that Marx's stages of development were inevitable

  - Later became a menshevik
• Results of Anti-Semitism

  - 10,000 Jewish artisans were expelled from Moscow in Winter 1891

  - 20,000 were expelled from the city during Passover 1892 and a newly built synagogue was closed
• Anti-Semitic legislation 1882-94

  1882: May Laws and Army law, the Governor-General of St Petersburg shuts down 14 Jewish apothecaries

  1886: No Jew can be elected to an orphan asylum board vacancy, Jews selling alcohol can only do so from their personal property

  1887: Jews with non-Russian university qualifications no longer have the right to live outside of the Pale, quotas restrict Jewish admittance into schools (10% in Pale, 5% outside, 3% in capitals), Jews are prohibited from living in Finland while Rostov-on-Don and Taganarog are removed from the Pale

  1889: Jews required a special permit from the Minister of Justice to be elected to the bar or become a barrister

  1991: Jews are banned from local elections and the Turkestan mining industry is closed to Jews

  1893: It is illegal for Jews to adopt a 'Christian' name

  1894: Jews from veterinary college can no longer serve the state and are ineligible for alcohol licenses
• Pale of Settlement

  - Established in 1791

  - An area of Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Poland where Jews were allowed to settle

  - Following the assassination of Alexander II, government authorities encouraged pogroms, with pogroms breaking out in Yelizavetgrad (April 1881) with the Holy League, supported by Pobedonostsev, helping coordinate them until 1882 when it was banned

  - Riots spread throughout Ukraine to cities such as Kiev and Odessa and into Warsaw in Poland

  - Most pogroms had ended by 1884, but some occurred as late as 1886
• Russification under Alexander III

  - Reorganisation of the Finish Diet to weaken it

  - Increasing demanding of Russian language and coinage

  - Closure of Polish National Bank in 1885 while all subjects had to be taught in Russian except Polish language and religion

  - Russification of Baltic Germans, e.g. the russification of the University of Dorpar into Iurev University between 1889-93

  - Further restrictions on the Ukrainian Language in 1883 and closure of all Ukrainian theatres in 1884

  - Suppression of Siberia and Asian empire, put-down of uprisings in Georgia 1892, Bashkira 1884 and Fergana and Armenia in 1886

  - Forced conversions of 'heathens and muslisms
• What was Alexander III's nickname?

  'The Peacemaker
• How many ethnic groups lived in Russia in the late 19th century?

  Over 100
• Anti-semitic

  Prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people
• Russification

  The intentional suppression of non-Russian cultures, languages and religions within the empire and the promotion of Russian alternatives.
• Pogrom

  An organized attack on a particular ethnic group.
• Chauvinism


  Unreasonable and exaggerated sense of nationalism
• Censorship changes under Alexander III

  - Enforcement of Russification in theatre, art and culture

  - Creation of a government committee for censorship in 1882

  - 'Temporary regulations' including powers to close newspapers, give editors and publishers life bans and required the approval of the government for all literary publications.
• Changes in Education under Alexander III

  - New Education Minister, Delyanov

  - 1884 charter made appointments of chancellors, deans and professors subject to Education Ministry approval based on 'religious, moral and patriotic orientation'

  - Children from the lower classes were restricted to primary education

  - Only 21% of the population were literate in 1897
• Changes in the Judicial System under Alexander III

  - Reversal of judiciary reforms

  - 1885 decree provided greater control for the Minister of Justice, e.g. dismissal of judges

  - 1887 saw the minister granted powers to hold closed court sessions and the raising of qualifications required for jurors

  - 1889 saw the Ministry of Justice become responsible for town judge appointments and the volost courts being put under direct control of land captains
• Vyacheslav von Plehve

  Made director of the Secret Police between 1881-84, vice-Minister for Internal Affairs in 1884-99, State Secretary for Finland in 1899-1902 and Minister for Internal Affairs between 1902-1904, he was committed to autocracy and pursued Russification, anti semitic Pogroms, suppression of political opposition and promoted a war against Japan in 1904. He would be assassinated that same year by the SRs.
• Particularism


  Concern for the immediate locality and an area of personal interest
• Changes in local government under Alexander III

  - Creation of Land Captains in 1889

  - An 1890 act changed election arrangements for the Zemstva to reduce peasant influence

  - In 1892, similar arrangements were made for town Dumas
• Mikhail Katkov


  A right-wing slavophile Journalist and editor of the Moscow News from 1863-1887, he was favoured by Alexander III for his conservatism and opposition to Polish Nationalism.
• Konstantin Pobedonostsev


  Nicknamed the 'Black Tsar', he was chosen by Alexander II to tutor Alexander III due to his impressive scholarly record and would later tutor Nicholas II. He is suspected of having written Alexander III's manifesto on unshakeable autocracy and became Over-procurator in 1880, using the platform to promote absolutism, nationalism and anti Semitism.
• Alexander III


  A short-reigning Tsar of only 13 years, he had long been a staunch reactionary opposed to his father's reforms and his father's assassination in 1881 only solidified this. He refused to live in the Winter Palace due to assassination fears, instead living in a fortified fortress in Gatchina. Despite surviving multiple assassination attempts, he would unexpectedly die of a nephritis (kidney ailment) aged 49.
• Okhrana


  Secret police