Lesson plan
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Essay
Alexander II
Revolutionary
Groups
Revolutionary
Groups
Alexander III
Industrialisation
Week 4
Week 5
Web Wiz
Revolutionary Groups
Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Herzen
In the last lesson you looked at Alexander II's reforms. These reforms affected all levels of society but, as you have read, in most cases they did not go far enough. Alexander was known at the beginning of his reign as the 'Tsar Liberator". The first half of his rule was a time of unique intellectual activity in Russia. Great Russian writers and composers flourished during this period. Musical composers like Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and writers such as Dosteoyevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev published their works. However, the period of liberalisation and reform did not last long. A combination of factors brought an end to Alexander's reform program.
- In 1863 there was a Polish rebellion which demanded self-government. The revolt was brutally put down.
- The relaxation of censorship led to open criticism of autocracy by political writers and intellectuals, especially among the young, and a flood of demands for further reforms.
revolt was brutally put down.
- Some of these groups resorted to violence as a means of forcing change. Such a group was responsible for an attempt on Alexander's life in 1866, the first of many such attempts.
Revolutionary Groups
The intellectual debate between the Slavophiles and the Westernisers continued but was now influenced by the ideas of socialism. These groups questioned whether Russia should follow the path to Western industrialisation or build a uniquely Russian form of socialism based upon the village communes or mirs. There was general agreement among the intellectual leaders of Russian society on the need to end the system of autocratic government and to limit the powers of the Tsar. There was, however, no agreement on how this should be done. The philosophies which dominated the revolutionary groups from the 1860s onwards were:
- Populism
- Nihilism and Anarchism
- Marxism
The Populists or Nardoniks (men of the people) were mainly young, noble or wealthy middle-class intellectuals. They were moved by the poverty of the ordinary people, especially the peasants. They were influenced by the ideas of Alexander Herxen who was disgusted by the living and working conditions of the urban working class created by industrialisation in Europe. For him the only answer was socialism. Herzen believed that a uniquely Russian form of socialism could emerge based upon the village commune or Mir. Landowners would lose their land which would be re-distributed among the peasantry. The tsarist government would be overthrown and replaced with a democratic republic. The Populists believed that the peasants only needed leadership to rise up against the landowners and the government.
In 1874 over two thousand university students made a massive effort to cause this uprising. In a movement called "To the People" they left the cities and went to live in the countryside with the peasants. Their slogan was 'Land and Liberty'. They made little impact on the peasants who did not understand the Populists or sympathise with their aims. The peasants had always been loyal to the Tsar. They blamed the landowners and the bureaucrats for their miserable conditions. The Tsar was known as the 'little father' and the peasants believed that he was deeply concerned for their welfare. Thus, the peasants were suspicious of the educated youths who talked about revolution. In some cases they turned the Populists over to the police. The secret police viewed the movement as a revolution and arrested many of the leaders. In 1877 there were two mass trials of these young revolutionaries many of who were exiled to Siberia.
The Demise of the Populists
The failure of the "To the People" movement to achieve a peasant revolution split the populists into two groups:
- The People's Will - a terrorist organisation which resorted to acts of violence to get rid of the government. They assassinated many government officials, some government ministers and eventually Alexander II himself but they failed to bring about a revolution. This group went on to be the basis of the powerful Socialist Revolutionary Party which was formed in 1900.
- The Black Reparation - those populists who did not believe in violence. This group led by George Plekhanov aimed at land distribution but later turned to Marxism and Plekhanov went on to be a founding member of the Socialist Democratic Party in 1898.
The Nihilists and the Anarchists
Both groups were active at the same time as the Populists but were more radical in their ideas. The Nihilists rejected all forms of authority in the name of freedom. Nihilism was a movement of ideas rather than a political organisation and it helped to undermine tsarist authority. Its attitude of defiance appealed to the young who suffered under the restrictions of tsarist repression. The Nihilists published many papers critical of the tsarist regime and contributed to Alexander's return to censorship as a way to end their attacks.Some Nihilists progressed from ideas to violent action. Nihilists planned many assassination attempts and thousands were exiled to Siberia.
Anarchists took Nihilists ideas a step further. They believed in the destruction of centralised government and that society be organised only at local level. To this end they favoured terrorism and displayed a passion for destruction. A small group of anarchists was active in Russia in the 1870s led by Michael Bakunin and Prince Peter Kropotkin. They were associated with the destruction of property and the assassination of many government officials. Anarchism never had wide appeal among the intelligentsia and by the late nineteenth century had dissolved into other socialist groups.
Exercise 3.2: Matching exercise (interactive)
Try the mix and match exercise to check your knowledge.Exercise 3.3: Multiple choice (interactive)
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