Key Information

• Autocracy

  When somebody has absolute power and control
• Tsar

  ‘Emperor’, the person in charge in Russia
• The Romanov family became the ruling family of Russia


  1613
• Transition from Nicholas I to Alexander II as Czar

  1855
• Position of the Tsar

  • Seen as a parental figure to protect Russia and its people
  • Obligation of the people to obey the Tsar
• Powers of the Czar


  • Only person who could make new laws
  • Could ignore advice of ministers and fire them
  • No parliament or elections, no democracy
  • Commander-in-chief of the armed forces
  • Head of the Russian Orthodox Church
  • Believed to be divinely appointed by God
• Key groups and institutions in Russia

  • Nobility
  • Russian Orthodox Church
  • Army
  • Secret police (Third Section)
• Nobility


  • Tiny proportion of population, very wealthy landowners
  • Held senior positions in army, bureaucracy, as provincial governors
• Serfs


  Peasant families obliged to serve in the army
• Cossacks


  • Prestigious part of the army, renowned as world's greatest horsemen
• Third Section (secret police)


  • Carried out surveillance, censorship, arrested opponents of the Czar
• Russia distanced itself from Western ideas, believed its culture was superior
• Tight censorship controlled by the Third Section
• Social hierarchy in Russia

  • Majority of population were serfs, a form of slavery
  • Nobility and clergy paid no taxes, taxes paid by serfs, urban workers and tradesmen
• Nationalities in the Russian Empire

  • Russian (55%)
  • Ukrainian (22%)
  • Polish (8%)
  • Belarusians, Jews, Tatars, Finns, Germans, Georgians, Armenians, Romanians, Estonians, Iranians
• Russian economy in 1855

  • Predominantly rural and agricultural
  • Inefficient agricultural practices, lack of modern machinery and fertilizers
  • Little private enterprise, most economic activity at subsistence level or for the benefit of landowners
• Russia's economic backwardness contributed to its defeat in the Crimean War