Tsar Alexander III: A Reassessment?

Transcription

1 Tsar Alexander III: A Reassessment? 1 PART 1: The Reactin 1. Backgrund the Intrductin f Emergency Rule On the very day f his assassinatin, 1 March 1881, Alexander II had been planning t sign new laws that were intended bth t further suppress insurgency t, but als t try t invlve mre Russians directly in the gvernance f the kingdm. This dual strategy had been develped with the guidance f General Lris- Melikv, and it reflected bth the challenge f cuntering scialist revlutinary terrrism, but als the cntinuing desire t mdernise the ruling system. In spite f mdernising refrms t educatin, the law and the armed frces, the 1870s had been a highly destabilising and nervus decade. Repeated attempts had been made against the Tsar s life by the Nardna Vlya, while the 1878 Cngress f Berlin was seen as a humiliatin f Russia s interests by the ther Eurpean pwers, wh were anxius t prevent the cllapse her enemy, Turkey. By this time, many f the ther Eurpean pwers feared Russian ambitins in the Black Sea and the Adriatic, and preferred t prp up the ailing Turkish empire against it. Frm the mment f Alexander III s successin n the death f his father, the trend twards greater participatin in gvernment was abandned, while the security measures were renewed with even greater severity. The sudden death f Alexander II renewed rivalries between the assassinated Tsar s ministers. Bth the Westernisers and the Slavphiles wanted t cntinue refrms; the frmer lked t Eurpean mdels f plitical participatin, while the latter sught remedies in the revival f histric Russian institutins. A third imprtant frce within Russian gvernment circles was that f the Church. The gvernment minister respnsible fr the church (knwn as the Prcuratr f the Hly Synd), Pbednstsev, ppsed any frm f prgress r mdernisatin, whether it was inspired by Westernising r Slavic ideas. Under pressure frm Pbednstsev, Lris-Melikv was frced t resign, and was replaced as interir minister by the Slavphile Ignatiev. Hwever, Ignatiev s prpsals als failed t secure the supprt f the Tsar, and Emergency Rule was intrduced. Dimitri Tlsty became Interir Minister, and he set himself the task f further limiting the effects f the mdernising laws f the previus reign. The Department f the Plice and the Crps f Gendarmes were established in rder t enfrce the new reactinary plicies. Serge Zubatv became ne f the mst imprtant secret plicemen f the Tsarist State. He intrduced mdern plice practices such as phtgraphing suspects and finger-printing. (He was s dedicated t serving the Tsarist state that, n hearing f the news Nichlas II s abdicatin in February 1917, he sht himself.) 2. The frms f Emergency Rule 14 August 1881: Alexander III signed a ryal decree intrducing Emergency Rule. Laws were enacted t enable the gvernment t implement tw frms f States f Emergency: Reinfrced Safeguard The Minister f Interir had the pwer t declare this. It cnferred significant pwers n state gvernrs: t imprisn anyne up t 3 mnths and impse a fine f 400 rubles t frbid all frms f plitical, cultural r scial gatherings t clse dwn all businesses fr as lng as the state f Reinfrced Safeguard lasted t deny individuals the right t live in a particular area t handver any suspected trublemakers t military justice (i.e. t be sht) t rder the dismissal f any paid emplyee f the zemstva, city gvernments r curts

2 2 Emergency Safeguard This gave the Minister fr the Interir even mre significant pwers, in additin t all f the abve: t dismiss any elected fficials f the zemstv t dismiss all but the mst senir civil servants t appint a Cmmander in Chief with special pwers t impse fines f up t 3,000 rubles Ten Russian prvinces were put immediately under the State f Reinfrced Safeguard. Althugh the laws that enabled bth frms f emergency were suppsed t be temprary, they were renewed every year and remained in frce until the fall f the Tsar in February March 1882: The right f gvernment surveillance ver all individuals was intrduced. This gave the plice the pwer t cntrl all aspects f the daily life f thse under surveillance, including whether they shuld receive mail. Effectively Russia had becme a Plice State. Punishments fr any criticism f the Tsar, r any cnspiracy against the Tsarist system, became mre imprtant than thse fr any ther ffences, including thse f murder, mutilatin and rape. Gerge Kennan, [an American diplmat and great-uncle t the same Gerge Kennan wh later wrte the famus telegram f 1946] wrte in 1889: If yu are a Russian, and wish t establish a newspaper, yu must ask the permissin f the Minister f the Interir. If yu wish t pen a Sunday-schl, r any ther srt f schl, whether in a neglected slum f St Petersburg r in a native village in Kamchatka, yu must ask the permissin f the Minister f Public Instructin. The plice, with the Minister f the Interir at their head, cntrl, by means f passprts, the mvements f all the inhabitants f the Empire; they keep thusands f suspects cnstantly under surveillance; they ascertain and certify t the curts the liabilities f bankrupts; they cnduct pawnbrkers sales f unredeemed pledges; they give certificates f identity t pensiners and all ther persns wh need them; they superintend repairs f rads and bridges; they exercise supervisin ver all theatrical perfrmances, cncerts theatre prgrammes, psters and street advertisements; they cllect statistics, enfrce sanitary regulatins, make searches and seizures in private huses, read the crrespndence f suspects, take charge f the bdies f persns fund dead, admnish members wh neglect t lng t partake f the Hly Cmmunin, and enfrce bedience t thusands f multifarius rders and regulatins intended t prmte the welfare f the peple r t insure the safety f the state. The legislatin relating t the plice fills mre than five thusand sectins f the cllectin f Russian laws, and it is hardly and exaggeratin t say that in the peasant villages, away frm centres f educatin and enlightenment, the plice are the mnipresent and mniptent regulatrs f all human cnduct a srt f incmpetent bureaucratic substitute fr divine prvidence. 3. The use f exile as a frm f punishment The Russian gvernment had a range f penalties and punishments at its dispsal fr the plicing and punishment f ppsitin. The penalty f internal exile wuld becme ne f the mst significant t be used by the Tsarist system. First level exile: enfrced life in the cuntryside, under plice surveillance Secnd level exile: Enfrced settlement in Siberia, but with the freedm t farm and earn a living

3 3 Third level exile: Hard labur in Siberia All frms f exile became increasingly imprtant, bth as a frm f punishment and as a prfitable surce f labur fr the Tsarist State. By 1887 the Ministry f the Interir made a prfit f 166,000 rubles frm the prceeds f business carried ut by frced laburers. By 1898 there were 300,000 exiles f all types, and 10,688 serving hard labur sentences. 4. Hw far did the repressive plicies f Alexander III increase the stability f the tsarist autcracy? Fllwing the intrductin f Emergency Rule, there was a wave f arrests acrss the Russian Empire. By 1883 the Nardnya Vlya had been brken up and mst f its leaders had been imprisned r exiled. In 1887 cnspiratrs made a failed attempt against the life f Alexander III. One f the executed cnspiratrs was Alexander Ulyanv, the brther f the future Blshevik leader and revlutinary leader, Vladimir Ulyanv (Lenin). Histrian Anatle Mazur argues: By the end f the reign f Alexander III the undergrund mvement and terrrist activities subsided t a pint that did nt imperil the regime. Hwever, nt all histrians have agreed n the degree and effectiveness f repressin during Alexander III s reign. R. Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, p Yet, when all is said and dne, it wuld be difficult t maintain that imperial Russia was a full-blwn plice state; it was rather a frerunner, a rugh prttype f such a regime, which fell shrt f its full ptential. The system had t many lphles. Mst f these resulted frm the assimilatin by the Russian ruling elite f western institutins and western values, which thugh incmpatible with the patrimnial spirit, they were unwilling t give up. Such lphles quickly vitiated the elabrate set f repressive measures, intrduced in the 1870s and 1880s. Of these cunterfrces perhaps the mst imprtant was private prperty. The institutin came late t Russia, but nce intrduced it sn made itself thrughly at hme. While harassing its subjects fr the slightest plitical ffences, the imperial regime was very careful nt t vilate their prperty rights. Anther lphle was freign travel Russians travelled frequently in Western Eurpe and stayed there fr lng perids f time; in 1900 fr instance, 200,000 Russian citizens spent abrad an average f 80 days. In Wilhelmian Germany, they cnstituted the largest cntingent f freign students. T btain a passprt valid fr travel abrad ne merely had t send an applicatin with a small fee t the lcal gvernr. Passprts were readily granted even t individuals with knwn subversive recrds, evidently n the assumptin that they wuld cause less truble abrad than at hme Thirdly, there were pwerful factrs f a cultural nature inhibiting the full use f repressin. The elite ruling imperial Russia was brught up in the western spirit, and it dreaded disgrace. It hesitated t act t harshly fr fear f being ridiculed by the civilised wrld. It was embarrassed t appear even in its wn eyes as behaving in an Asiatic manner. Q. Hw far des the evidence supprt the cnventinal mdel f Alexander III s Russia as a repressive and regressive state?

4 PART II: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER III 4 1. Backgrund ecnmic grwth since the mid-century Frm the reign f Nichlas I, the gvernments f Russia had identified ecnmic develpment as a crucial pririty. Regardless f whether they were plitically cnservative r mdernising, slavphile r westernising, the servants f the Tsarist state recgnised the need fr ecnmic develpment. Althugh starting frm a lw base cmpared t Britain and the USA, Russia achieved rapid rates f grwth in the secnd half f the 19 th century. Alexander II s Finance Minister, Reutern, had pursued a threefld strategy: (i) railway cnstructin; (ii) attracting freign industrialists t invest in Russia; (iii) attracting freign investment in Russia. Between Russia achieved an annual grwth rate f industrial utput f 6%. Between the number f Russians emplyed wrking in mechanical cttn factries rse frm 95,000 t 163,000. Between pen track railway lines increased frm 3,500 t 22,500 km. 2. The Ecnmic Plicies f Bunge ( ), Vyshnegradsky ( ) and Witte ( ) (i) Bunge The new finance minister, Bunge, believed that t much pwer had been put int the hands f private business during the years f his predecessr, Reutern. Private railway cmpanies were driven ut, and the grwing railway netwrk was placed under state cntrl. In spite f the generally cnservative and repressive tne f Alexander III s rule, this was a perid f ecnmic mdernisatin. Regressive frms f taxatin (thse taxes that penalised the pr mst harshly), were ablished. 1881: Salt Tax was ablished 1886: The Pll Tax was ablished By 1886 direct taxes had been reduced t 1/3 f the level f The burden f redemptin debt was cut by 6%. (ii) The cnsequences f Bunge s plicies Althugh Bunge s plicies were ntably liberal, they were nt always beneficial t the ecnmy. The gvernment s spending pririties were slanted t far t favuring the army (30% f the natinal budget), and nt enugh was invested in the railways (10% f the natinal budget). This grwth in army expenditure reflected Russia s increasing cncern ver the military mdernisatin f its neighburs, and the increasing hstility f many Western pwers including Britain. Anther cnsequence f Bunge s plicies was deflatin, a decline in prices and a reductin in the amunt f mney flwing arund the Russian ecnmy. Hwever, this did starve Russian industry at a time when it needed cnsiderable investment t maintain its grwth.

5 5 (iii) Vyshnegradsky During the 1890s Vyshnegradsky, the successr t Bunge, pursued a plicy f building up Russia s gld reserves. In the 1890s the French and German banks speculated against the value f the ruble, and Vyshnegradsky was cncerned t preserve its value. These purchases f gld helped the Russian gvernment t balance its budget, and by the 1890s the gvernment was running a current accunts surplus. (iv) Witte By the time that Witte came int pwer as finance minister, the state sectr in Russia had grwn enrmusly, and was greater even than that in Prussia. Witte wanted t re-balance the Russian ecnmy, and achieve mre f a spread between private enterprise and the state sectr. Witte s main pririties were: Massive increase in the grwth f railways State encuragement fr the develpment f heavy industry, especially steel prductin T increase freign private investment in Russia T encurage the develpment f a managerial elite capable f effectively cntrlling the new ecnmy. Witte s plicies did enjy cnsiderable success, and supprted the develpment f the ecnmy mre effectively than thse f Vyshnegradsky, wh had been bsessed with building gld reserves at the expense f liquidity in the ecnmy. C. Trebilcck, The Industrialisatin f the Cntinental Pwers, (1980), p In aggregate, it is clear that the Russian ecnmy, and particularly its heavy industries, respnded psitively t these measures: during the Witte era, cal prductin dubled, while that f irn re and steel increased by abut furfld; by 1900 Russia had usted France frm the furth rank in wrld irn prductin and had taken the fifth rank in steel manufacture. The supprting railway prvisin expanded by 87 per cent between 1892 and 1903, and sme advanced technlgies crystallized rapidly arund the cre f the capital gds sectr: il extractin raised its utflw by better than threefld and chemicals by nearly threefld between 1887 and Freign capital, the lifebld f this develpment, pumped in at the phenmenal average annual rate increase f 120 per cent between 1893 and 1898, and the yearly allcatin f funds t new enterprise expanded by sevenfld thrugh the 1890s. The ttal yield, in terms f incme derived frm industrial activity, quadrupled between 1888/1893 and 1893/1897 (frm 42 m. rubles t 161 m. rubles) and, in terms f average annual grwth f industrial prductin, cmpsed a rate f 7.5 per cent, far exceeding Russian achievement fr any cmparable perid befre 1914 and establishing ne f the mst impressive perfrmances in late nineteenth century Eurpe. Q. What evidence is there t supprt the view that the Russian ecnmy under Alexander III experienced ne f the mst impressive perfrmances in late nineteenth century Eurpe?

6 3. The railway expansin 6 By 1892 the main ecnmic hubs f western Russia had been linked by a railway netwrk. Althugh the mst famus line was the Trans-Siberian, by far the mst imprtant were thse that linked the ecnmically prductive areas with prts and cities. Fr example, the cal prducing areas f Dnets were nw linked t the factries f the Ukraine. In Western Russia, where Witte had cncentrated his expenditure, the sudden grwth in Russian railways was the mst significant f the later 19 th century. As well as enabling cttn prducers frm Tashkent t ship their harvest t Russia prts, the railways als enabled the grwth f the internal ecnmy. The wheat prducing areas f the Nrth Caucasus and Lwer Vlga were nw linked t cnsumers in the large urban areas. By 1892 The ttal extent f the netwrk had reached 52,000 kilmetres. Russian railways: cnstructin f track, running ttal in km , , , , , , 684 While the grwth f the railways under Alexander III and Nichlas II seems impressive, ecnmic advantage was nt the sle mtivatin. Railways were becming increasingly integral t military planning, and the wars f German Unificatin against Austria and France had shwn that rapid mbilisatin f the army was essential t mdern warfare. Of curse, the railways culd als be used t mve trps inside Russia fr the plicing f internal discntent. The 1880s and 1890s were a perid f transfrmatin fr the ecnmy, but there were als a significant scial impact. Big businesses sucked large numbers f peple int manufacturing areas, driving up wage csts and causing shrtages f skilled labur in ther areas f the ecnmy 4. The ruble, the gld standard and state finance Whereas Bunge had deliberately lwered taxes, Witte fllwed Vyshnegradsky and raised tax revenues in rder t fund investment and als t purchase gld reserves. In January 1897 the ruble was frmally pegged t the value f gld, knwn as the Gld Standard. Witte hped that this wuld encurage freign investrs t gain cnfidence in the ruble and invest in Russia, but the results were nt impressive. Mrever, sme ecnmic histrians have recently criticised the Witte administratin fr being cstly and inefficient. Administrative csts alne cnsumed 19% f the state budget in 1894, capital which culd have been used t fund further mdernisatin. 5. Agriculture While industry saw cnsiderable innvatin and investment during the reign f Alexander III, there was mre f a mixed picture in agriculture. Due t the security issues surrunding Emancipatin and the perceived threat f unrest and revlutin frm the cuntryside, agriculture came under the cntrl f the Interir Ministry. Its main interests were securing taxes frm the peasants and ensuring that they remained plitically quiescent. Hwever, these plicies were disastrus in their effects.

7 1889: Land Cmmandants were appinted, with the pwer t verrule the lcal decisins taken by the Mir and the Zemstv. These Land Cmmandants were ften members f the lcal nbility, and s this represented a partial recvery f the authrity that they had lst with Emancipatin in Rural taxes went up Debt and redemptin payments cntinued t cripple the peasants State prcurement als grew: the frced purchase f what fr exprt was 25% f the ttal crp by the end f Alexander III s reign. State prcurements f wheat and grain drve up prices fr peasant cnsumers, wh were already suffering under high taxes and debt. Trebilcck: Fr agriculture the Witte system was a disaster The actual tasks assigned t agriculture were the traditinal nes: t stagnate, t remain subservient, t render tribute. Tw views n the ecnmic plicies f Sergei Witte Strengths A bld mderniser wh invested heavily in railways Understd the need t attract freign capital int Russia His plicies helped t develp Russia s internal and external markets Limitatins Witte s bsessin with building gld reserves relied n punitively high taxes Agriculture was ignred and peasants were left t stagnate The csts f gvernment grew and became increasingly inefficient Trebilcck: Generally, Witte s system travelled far and fast but nt sufficiently deeply int Russian ecnmy and sciety. Partly the values f the regime prevented it frm ding s As Prince Mencherskii acutely saw, Witte was an insufficiently cntemprary minister f finance, and t much f a future ne. In this interpretatin, clse t Vn Laue s visin f Witte as a precursr t Stalin, the develpmental tsar was preccius in the scpe f his ecnmic visin, but equipped with the all t frail ecnmic instruments f his day. Q. Hw far des the evidence fr ecnmic perfrmance challenge the cnventinal view the reign f Alexander III as a regressive phase in Russian Histry?