hello and welcome to part one of the as history topic guide and this one's going to be on zaris Russia in this exact episode we're going to be talking about 1855 to 1881 and this is the period of rain for Alexander II in order to do this though going to need a bit of background knowledge on thear and the state of Russia itself so In 1855 Russia was a hugely undeveloped country compared to the ne Western nations with a ratio of video Town dwellers of about 11 to on around 85% of the population were illiterate peasants known as surfs back in the day because in the feudal system we have at the very bottom of the pyramid we have S we have slaves then we go to surfs then we go to peasants then we go to above that like merchants and knights and so on and so forth these surfs um were treated with brutality really by their owners because they could be owned cuz there were only one step up from being slaves but actually had some form of right even though not much at all and these surfs lived in M which were kind of communes where Village Elders regulated their primitive strip farming they paid their Master for land in rent or in some cases labor so they'd work for them produce food for them and that would be their payment and they could be bought sold and beaten by the the elders um the leader of Russia at the time was an autocratic ruler called the Zar who not only ruled the country but was the head of the Orthodox Church of Russia at the time and In 1855 Alexander II became the Zar and continued the Romanov Dynasty which had been going for a few years now at the time of Alexander's Reign there had been a massive war called the Crimean War which had been going on for 1853 so it started two years before he came to power before he got got to power as well um they had just got to the disastrous part of the war where they'd been fighting the British French and Turkish there and had suffered several defeats including the battles of baclava and Inman in 1854 In 1855 however they lost Sebastapol which was a huge major Naval base for them which kind of sensed the end of the war and brought a sense of of loss and gradual defeat their final defeat was In 1855 just a year after Alexander took over and the whole conflict highlighted how backwards Russia was as their army was made up of surf due to conscription the conscription that they had meant that these surfs had to serve for 25 years in total and they weren't allowed to leave the Army however it showed the the wars General showed that there was a huge lack of Railway and out outdated weaponry and despite spending 45% of annual expenditure on the Army Russia still suffered from incompetent officers humiliation and an increas in Surf uprisings afterwards after the war Alexander realized that something had to change as Russia was desperately backward compared to the rest of Europe um to do this he realized that the Surfs were the issue because the Surfs weren't trained they weren't healthy they weren't really smart enough or anything to do with um military knowledge so they could win the war he realizes this is why they lost and there was three main reasons for why uh apart from the one that I just stated that he decided to emancipate the Surfs there was a massive political motive um with the Nobles relying on the Zar and and um vice versa for the Zar and the Nobles for the Zar he needed the Nobles backing and kind of support to be able to run the country but the Nobles um needed some Surs um but these surfs ended up in debt because a growing population of surfs and inadequate agriculture system meant that money was being lost on on the hole at the time due to the fact that um these Nobles traditionally shunned business and relied on surfs to make money out of their Estates and it meant that many of these Nobles had been forced to mortgage their land and even mortgage loan uh mortgage surfs as security for loans and the fact that they could even loan out surfs and kind of mortgage surfs shows that how uh devalued they were in Russia at the time and Society wasn't what it would be in Europe at the time so and even the younger Nobles that had kind of grown up in this system saw that it wasn't really working and it was come to a very end and it was kind of struggling along so they become critical of the regime which of course isn't good for the Zar cuz he wants everyone on board with what doing especially during an autocracy and he also had a big economic motive for this s them kept surfs tied to the land making them unable to move to work uh in town or factories or just keeping the um internal demand for goods low the traditional practices of the M prevented experimentation with new agricultural methods uh and this led to poverty and left many surfs unable to pay their taxes this meant by 1859 the state faced a debt of 45 million Rubles all together which is a drastically large amount however there was a small um moral and intellectual motive behind this change people um who didn't want Russia to remain as backwards as they were and move towards the examples that France and Britain had set during like the French Revolution and just Britain in general and how powerful our Empire was wanted um Russia to move towards the European kind of example and abandoned surom um while slav files favored reforming surom but wanted to keep a traditional peasant Society like had always been the case slav Falls being people who want to keep Russia backwards and they believe that their country is the best the way it is and kind of full support of thear in the church and nothing needs to change kind of people the Emancipation itself came with a lot of reforms um on the left hand side of my table we have the actual reforms themselves on the right hand side we have the evaluation so we're just going to go through the actual terms um surfs were declared free and given rights which is a kind of a massive thing for the Surfs back in the day as it meant that they could uh marry who they chose own property set of businesses enjoy and enjoy legal rights they were also given their own Cottage and allotment of land which is a a big upgrade since some of them might not even have had uh land at their their disposal at any time because they work for the Z they work for the Nobles and therefore probably just worked on the land and only got given like a small section to go and grow vegetables in or something like that um evaluation peasants could grow could now buy up the land uh increase output and make money from the sales of surplus grain so it meant that they uh kind of moving towards more capitalist um properties due to the fact that surfs can now make money for themselves not rely on the Nobles and make a living for themselves those prepared to sell land could move to cities for jobs in theory they were now free and not tied to the land however land allocations varied with uh the Nobles kind of Distributing land how they wanted and not kind of letting the peasants choose what land they want the peasants freedom and rights are theoretical as they couldn't move with the Redemption payments this this is the biggest issue with emancipation because some historians kind of argue that it's not even emancipation itself it's more of kind of like like a change of name for the Surfs really the only thing that really changes is the fact that they're not referred to surfs anymore but peasants um this is because they were still tied to the land as we'll see later on with Redemption payments but it just meant that it was a theoretical kind of like social change rather than a actual AFF in them another term was that landlords were granted government bonds as compensation um land loers could now use that compens compensation to redeem debts some of these landlords could only just about pay off debts and force sell land due to the fact they relied on the the surf so heavily and not actual business themselves so it made a lot of landlords and nobility dislike the S and the regime that he' set forward and kind of broke up brought up a new kind of wave of criticism for the Zar that he hadn't ever faced before and Russia hadn't faced before this was one of the big major issues for emancipation this term of the edict was that surfs were required to make 49 annual Redemption payments for the land they were given 49 been a massive amount of years for back in the day since uh the land the life expectancy was about 30 for Russia so these these Redemption payments would last about one generation and a half if that depending on kind of situation of that family so it meant that the their debt was passed down un to their kids so not only were they tied to their land but their kids were also tied to the land um however Redemption payments provoked unrest as they as you could probably guess they would with the Surfs due to the fact that now they are free they have debt though so financially they chained to the land whether or not they are socially free is different circumstance some peasants now had to work for their Old Masters just to survive and the purchasing power of peasants became I mean remained very low due to the fact that they wouldn't have any money at all due to the fact that they have to kind of Finance all their money into the Redemption payments it meant that realistically just financially just not a great place for any of the Surfs at all due to the fact that all their all their kind of profits for food is going straight back into the government's pocket instead of just the nobility the mayor was responsible for collecting taxes and Redemption fees and freed surfs had to stay in the M till Redemption complete payments were complete this basically just sums up the above due to the fact that may has prevented surfs from leaving the countryside due to the uh economic chains that were placed on them and however the issue was that Mays promoted restricted and backwards farming there was no innovative ideas it meant that if if the Surfs were struggling with uh Harvest due to the harsh condition of Russia then they were kind of screwed by themselves really like there was no chance of them surviving at all um what came with the edict was the fact that land owners were allowed to retain personal land the the the term personal land basically just means whatever they deem as fit for themselves um and a massive issue with this is that the fact that the Surfs lost their landlord's protection due to the the fact that the nobility when when they owned um peasants it meant that the peasants were their proper property so therefore they were able to defend them kind of stick up for them against other nobility other surfs but now they were kind of on their own free independent and without protection also with this even though they were emancipated the Labor Service uh remained for a 2-year period of temporary obligation we basically means they were forced to do so for two years uh whether that be work for um the Zar himself under like his uh rule or just work for the local nobility it meant that for these 49 annual Redemption payments they would struggle very very badly due to the fact that now they were trying to finance enough money to even just survive with these Redemption payments never mind kind of produce food for themselves this took a lot of time away from them and meant that a lot of them ended up struggling as you can probably Guess The Peasants were very very resentful of this however not resentful towards the Zar but the nobility themselves um so we have the Nobles kind of angered at the Zar and The Peasants angered at the nobility so it kind of downwards in the chain of command they blame the person above them um and they had 647 riots in four months which is which is a crazy amount of number so that's about 175 per month which is something like four a day if that more than four a day which is hard to believe he also did a lot more um kind of reforms at the time he changed a lot of uh different things he had a lot of reason for these further reforms uh two major ones um there was disappointment at the end of the Emancipation um with on both both part of the peasants and landlords which continued unrest in the countryside the Emancipation as well left issues needing uh resolution EEG conscription and control of local government and Justice due to the fact that no one stood up for them anymore um this was the judicial changes um that allowed them to kind of be represented and now uh kind of stood up for and introduced no a new form of crime and um Law and Order so in 1864 the Zar made some judicial changes which are arguably the most influential ones that he ended up making because they kind of came into balance with Alexander III and kind of Open the Eyes of society of what could actually be done so this reform established a and a single system of Courts um like the European uh system was at the time criminal cases were now before a jury which was exactly what the European Standard was instead of just having one judge deciding the fate of someone who was usually corrupt um and working on behalf of the Zar all classes were judged equal before the law so nobility and peasants were equal footing when they came into the court rather than beforehand peasants would have probably just been accused of um say whatever stealing they would have been instantly declared guilty whereas even if there's evidence against the Nobles they would probably go free UNP punish due to the fact that the Zar needed their support um for the first time ever proceedings were open to the press this meant that um people could now go in and kind of have a look at how Justice was working how Justice should be and how it compared to the West it meant that um also kind of when it came to writing opposition protocol and like propaganda it meant that people had something to base it off which was quite important for the future due to the fact they're going to Open the Eyes of society and judges training and paying proov due to the fact that they don't want them to be bribed they don't want them to be corrupt uh Alexander decided that this was a necessary step to uh achieving a good orderly Law and Order system the successes of this reform meant that judges were Now Fair and less corrupt and now not for thear but the jury could undermine the government which highlights how free Society could have been if these reforms carried on doing as these juries were giving results that maybe the are probably wouldn't be get wanting to be out there like if someone had committed a terrorist attack against someone that had been terrorizing their local local area The Peasants were more likely to declare declare the person innocent for committing a killing even though they knew he was guilty so it's a bit of a win a win-win for society because he meant that they can give perverse um kind of Assessments and also like represent their uh country which is something that most of them had never done before however weaknesses is that military Court still continued where they could just kind of Court Marshal you on the spot and kind of execute you if they believe uh that you are committing treason or any of the above um and also it didn't apply in Poland which is an interesting weakness for that as well the local government reforms equally as influential um with the Zer being established in 1864 this was basically the first governing body that Russia had ever had uh to represent the people um if you're comparing it to British standards it's basically the local councils that they' have had so people were represented and elected through a voting system however these votes weren't equal for classes so basically you'd have a surf's vote equaling one kind of like if you put it into numbers you'd have one vote one peasant that's what they'd get but one nobility equals 100 votes so they were kind of not rigged but vastly un unjust in how they were performed the zemper however were given power to improve Public Services which was a massive Plus for Russia at the time as it showed that the the Zar cared and kind of um achieved his Nick name of Father Zar that they gave him uh the successes of this was that the Zer provided a local representation which had never been done before they made significant improvements of society and also provided a forum for debate this one if you don't if it doesn't seem major it's probably just because um it just a debate like who cares but the thing is debates back in Russia were most unheard of due to the fact that before before Alexander criticism to the regime would have just ended with execution would have ended in um kind of like just being Outcast and and shinned from society but now the fact that you can argue and kind of criticize what is happening is a massive massive forward step for Russia and kind of you see over the course how with censorship and how it's been lifted and kind of and then put back down it shows that it's kind of like almost like a kettle really like with a steam in there first kind of boil it a little bit so the steam in there but you keep on boiling and boiling and then lifting the lid on and off and on and off and keeping it down for a long amount of time when you finally lift it off all the steam's going to come up up at once so um yeah that's how it work I was referring to Source but I sorry but yes that is basically what was happening with Russia at the time due to the fact that it was kind of like political pressure building and kind of being lifted and closed throughout the whole course and this is where it originally started however a weakness of the local government reforms was that they were dominated by Nobles and professionals as uh was stated with the one peasant vote to 100 um and for some reason they didn't have any control over Taxation and L in order due to the fact that that was the the job of the police force at the time um and they were very very um kind of um violent and forceful in the way that they were they were going about doing this and it wasn't really the method that you'd like to see in society due to the fact that he wasn't really working and he kind of kind of brought a w of fear rather than kind of trust that he wanted to uh the police force at the time was the third section later replaced by many names you'll hear like the ARR czecher n nkvd kind of a lot different ones but the one under Alexander II was called the third section and they were in charge of Taxation um Law and Order and kind of just uh implementing what the Zar wanted the military forms in 1874 um these ones were kind of big for Russia at the time due to the embarrassment of the crime a he wanted to change how the military was run um so kind of in an embarrassment like that when ever happen again um conscription was now made compulsory for all which uh it for over 20 year olds due to the fact that the age limit was lower at the time um of the Crimean War now being lifted up a little bit to get more experience and kind of more competent soldiers um the length of service was reduced from 25 to 15 years um which meant that that um you wouldn't have to be in the Army for 25 years and that would usually be like the whole lifespan of some of the peasants back in the day due to the fact of uh life expectancy back then um and nine of those years were spent in reserve so you could live your normal life go off Farm but still be a part of the Army in the reserve just in case any War kicked off um there were vast welfare improvements during the time which meant that um like the abolition of Corporal punish M and Army service was no longer given as punishment so it just meant that there were more lenient in the Army um and kind of tolerant of surfs military colleges were now established which kind of like increased the education of the country due to the fact that 85% of them were illiterate surfs now to try and raise this kind of education system um through the use of the army and also modern Weaponry was introduced which was kind of highlight of the Crimean loss as well due to the fact that French Turkish and English Weaponry was a lot better than that of the Russians the successes of this was that a smaller but better Army was created they were more trained they had better equipment uh and this was all due to the fact that the cost of military was reduced because there less miles to feed because there a smaller Army and also literacy was improved however on the other hand uh officers were still mainly Aristocrats no experience of war no anything just the fact that they're nobility and able to kind of boss around these peasants made it still an inefficient Army in total um you can see how inefficient this uh Army was cuz the war against turkey took very long and then later on they under Nicholas they lost against Japan which was the first ever um European nation to lose a Warfare battle um against the East well uh in the 18th Cent the 19th century anyways and just before that not including the crime era I mean the Crusades or anything like that but naval battle and kind of land battle it was embarrassing for them now alongside that educational reforms were put in place um Alexander realized that improving education was the key to modernization and man C govin LED these radical reforms the main kind of reforms were that the zemper now took control of primary education instead of the church free primary education was kind of promoted for all vocational secondary scores were set up now kind of like how we did back in Britain before um before they were changed so there'd be like technical colleges where they'd be kind of promoting skills like wood cutting uh engineering that kind of thing if you think about it these days and uh a kind of added feature to this was that both secondary schools could now progress to University so it meant that if you go to kind of do these kind of Hands-On courses it still meant that you could progress to University which was a big plus for them um and universities were now made self-governing instead of run by the church which was a massive kind of Plus for the universities as they could teach what they wanted to teach how they saw fit and it also kind of gave like an opening up to kind of more critical thinking subjects instead of like ones that the church would easily dismiss the successes of this reform from 1856 to 1880 was that the number of primary schools tripled um and therefore alongside that the number of children in primary education more than doubled so this is going along with the trying to reduce the 85% of illiterate people in rer at the time with this primary school education there's going to be a lower illiterate rate which is kind of great for the education of the country and later on um there was now a greater selection of subjects usually more critical thinking one and also number of students at Uni tripled well this is probably due to the fact that Primary School's tripled students at Uni tripled it's kind of like a direct correlation however weaknesses of this was that the primary curriculum was based on religion so even though the Zer took control of it it still meant the the church still kind of implemented their own way to kind of um teach the children because that's the only way that teachers have ever taught before um however even though primary education was free secondary schools were still fee paying so not everyone could afford to go there um and especially with universities more radical students joined opposition groups due to the fact that they were now learn about critical subjects they now kind of got their own opinions for themselves instead of being taught everything that they need to know kind of like more of a free will and kind of knowing what they should be knowing for the first time ever in Russian Uh Russian history there was kind of a big emergence of opposition um these the Alexander's reforms in the 1860s allowed opposition to emerge due to the fact there was relaxation of censorship it allowed critical books to spread um with one of the most influential books in history being allowed to spread under this um period due to the fact that they managed to get Marx's Das Capital which we'll be talking about a little bit later to get through and translated which was devastating for the zaris regime educational changes led to the growth of radical organizations um such as the um the kind of being Tau different things at University and kind of critical thinking kind of groups allowed um these youth to have more of a say in what was going on legal reforms promoted legal careers and people who were critical of the government um this meant that with the Judiciary kind of it promoted people to become judges and kind of opened people up to being um with these special cases being kind of critical of what was happening in Russia at the time two main opposition groups that were kind of um formed on the back of Education were a group called young Russia who were a student organization which were hostile to both the Zar and the church this group was uh responsible for a series of fires in St Petersburg in 1862 in 1863 um the organization uh which was set up by student at a Moscow University to coordinate the Revolutionary activities um this these were the two biggest groups at the time and the most influential at the time due to the fact that they kind of caused uh publicity for opposition against Zar which had never been done before following uh a few assassination attempts on nar's life in 1866 and 1867 uh Alexander kind of adapted did and a period of reaction followed because due to the fact that he thought that people didn't like the regime due to the fact that were trying to kill him and get rid of him so he appointed two reactionary ministers um in the people of tolto and shur yeah shur that's what we're going to go with um and there were two main areas that he decided to kind of react on uh education and police and law with courts the policies that he um first did were that authority of primary schools were handed back to the church uh and Z's actions were restricted subjects uh to encourage critical thinking were now removed that universities had on offer student organizations were banned due to the fact of the actions of the organization and the other ones that were forming such as young Russia University appointments could be vetoed by the government which basically gave them control over University even though even though universities Were Meant To Be self-governing At This stage um and students from vocational studies and the vocational schools couldn't go to university anymore due to the fact that then were they were the kind of ones that were kind of more angered against the regime and wanted to see an end to it the results of these reforms were that religious control was reasserted uh the curriculum was restricted female education strictly and steeply declined uh many students escaped restrictions by studying abroad there this is what many of the critical thinking people of the time did by going abroad seeing what kind of Europe was like at the time such as people like Lenin and Marx but students also did the same um by going abroad and studying at in Europe with the police law and courts the work of the third section the the police force at the time uh was increased in 1878 political crimes were tried in secret in military courts once again and Governor generals were given emergency powers to use military courts and impose Exile which is's kind of a massive reform on the the Western system because that was in place in in Europe until maybe World War one or two where emergency kind of measures were put in place but in a time of non-emergency these were the kind of reforms that were put in place for Russia the results of this was that critics and opponents thrived underground and it kind of made it more tempted to join them because it felt like it was like illegal and kind of people who were against the regime were more tempted to go and join them um show trials were abandoned due to sympathetic juries this was due to the fact that people would have the the people would have made perverse decisions against people and against the zaris regime itself and and a little bit of extra research would be Vera svich uh who was given a massively perverse uh acquisition due to the fact that she killed a member of the government but then kind of went back uh in court and said she was guilty and the jury still said that she was innocent however uh the Zar had a change of heart it appears due to the fact of the Russia Turkish war from 1877 to 78 which explains some of the judicial changes were made with the kind of military courts and the Famine of 1879 to 80 the beginning of an industrial recession and further assassination attempts led to the Zar to establish a commission to investigate revolutionary activity this led to the release of political prisoners which is kind of an issue for the Zar because he wouldn't really want to do it in the best kind of time but he was forced to due to opposition he also relaxed censorship against again which as I said with the analogy of the the um the source p with the lid you can keep taking the lid on and off censorship but now he's he put pressure back down when he lifted it back up again now more uh radical opposition propaganda was spreading such as the book of Das Capital by Marx which is one of the most influential books of all time so realistically if he was going to relax censorship because should have kept it relaxed for the whole time time such as the um the Zars after him but he kept on being throughout this period being relaxed and kind of opened up again and even in the time of Len staling this was kind of an issue uh he also lifted the restrictions on the zere um he removed the tax on salt um salt back in the day was kind of a huge preservative due to the fact that they didn't have fridges and such forth even though Russia is as cold as it is they still need to preserve food so the removal of tax um on salt made it a lot easier to preserve food and joing a famine that's exactly what you want um and he also um led the Abol the abolition of the third section however it was replaced by the ACR of which um Alexander III used but the kind of organization of the third section ceased to exist after Alexander was done with it two major opposition radical thinkers to Alexander II bu bu Cookin um yes an anarchist and socialist and he suggested a model of collective ownership of land um this was among the ideas of Marx but he predict he published a book called CA cism of revolutionary which promoted critics of the regime to be merciless in their pursuit of reev revolutionary change this would have gone alongside kind of propaganda of the people's will that we'll look at later but kind of have more and more radical and merciless pursuit to follow he also translated K Marx's Communist Manifesto into Russian and D Marx's Das Capital was published Marx believed that Society had evolved through struggles and the final stage is a struggle between the poterat and the Bourgeois and after a short dictatorship a perfect so society would merge basically the ideas of Communism were now kind of around and surrounding Russia and this was a major major thing for the Zar to kind of keep a lid on but didn't end up in the end being able to due to the fact that it promoted a Jud uh a government system that was different to the one that was at hand which was more favorable to the people and the workers at the time opposition from 1870 to 80 kind of varied um in 1874 the biggest uh opposition group to to uh R's date at the time called the narod Nicks uh also known as populists were formed and 2,000 people mainly students went to go to the people and started this campaign called go to the people uh this involved going to the countryside to get peasants to agree with their cause however due to the The Peasants ignorance and kind of faith in the Zar um and loyalty to the church as well uh The Peasants believe that the um narodniks were secret police agents and it led peasants to reject them and sometimes even hand them over to the police uh in this time there were, 1600 arrests and um the group disbanded in 1876 though a second nared Nick movement was attempted but also filed with many attempts in 1877 the remaining narodniks established land and Liberty which achieved two big things assassinated General Mendes deev who was head of the third section at the time in 1878 and they also tried many attempts on the Zar life land and Liberty themselves though split into two major groups um one of which being the black partition which was organized by penov uh which aimed to partition the black soil which kind of promised The Peasants land and and kind of provinces Among The Peasants um their methods were that they would work peacefully among peasants they would spread radical materials among students and workers however they were weakened by arrests and in 1880 uh to 1881 they were broken up the people's will on the other hand were led by mik mikov mikov and they were larger than the black partition they advocated violent methods and assassinations and actually acceded uh succeeded in 1881 in assassinating Alexander the SAR at the time um the significance of this spread of opposition shows that uh the government fail failures at the time due to the fact that the Zar regime lacked Authority even though the third section were kind of violent in their methods it was nowhere near the kind of um way that the Zar needed to control the country at the time um demands from reform From Below had grown and spread socially uh it was kind of more of a fear that the peasants would rise up against the the Zar and kind of a belief in this for the first time in history had uh happened also the nobilities to oppos Alexander's reforms forced him to adopt a more Revol reactionary stance and he kind of took a a path of reaction and then kind of liberal reforms throughout the whole period as you could see by the period of reaction but on the on the day he was actually assassinated he was going to make um as as later in uh Russian history a Doomer but he was going to create government representation for the people which had never been done before although Zord were kind of knew this was more on a kind of national stage that they could be represented on and unfortunately for Russian history he was killed on the way there due to the fact that um The People's will had thrown a bomb at his Carriage he had blown her thear being Zar father um went outside to check if anyone was okay someone was injured and a second bomb was thrown at him blowing off both his legs and he later died in The Winter Palace in front of his family which sets us up really nicely for Alexander III due to the fact that this was a major influence on him seeing his father die and what the Alexander was about to do before he died showed that Alexander III should take a more reactionary stance however that is it for today's podcast um yeah catch you for part two and alexand Alexander III