Russian Empire
Russian Empire Россійская Имперія Российская Империя Rossiyskaya Imperiya | |||||||||||
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1721–1917 | |||||||||||
Motto: "Съ нами Богъ!" S' nami Bog! ("God is with us!") | |||||||||||
Anthem: "Боже, Царя храни!" Bozhe Tsarya khrani! (1833–1917) ("God Save the Tsar!") Other used anthems:
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Religion (1897 ) |
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• 1810–1812 (first) | Nikolai Rumyantsev[c] | ||||||||||
• 1917 (last) | Nikolai Golitsyn[d] | ||||||||||
Legislature | Alaska | 18 October 1867 | |||||||||
Jan 1905 – Jul 1907 | |||||||||||
30 October 1905 | |||||||||||
• Constitution adopted | 6 May 1906 | ||||||||||
8–16 March 1917 | |||||||||||
• Proclamation of the Republic | 14 September 1917 | ||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||
1866[7][8] | 22,800,000 km2 (8,800,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
Population | |||||||||||
• 1897 | 125,640,021 | ||||||||||
Currency | Russian ruble | ||||||||||
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The Russian Empire, also known as Tsarist Russia, Tsarist Empire or Imperial Russia, and sometimes simply as Russia,
The rise of the Russian Empire coincided with the decline of neighbouring rival powers: the
Peter I transformed the tsardom into an empire, and fought numerous wars that turned a vast realm into a major European power. He moved the Russian capital from
From 1721 until 1762, the Russian Empire was ruled by the
When Russia entered the First World War on the side of the
History
The foundations of a Russian national state were laid in the late 15th century during the reign of
Population
Much of Russia's expansion occurred in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian colonization of the Pacific, the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) which led to the incorporation of left-bank Ukraine, and the Russian conquest of Siberia. Poland was partitioned by its three neighbours in 1772–1815, with much of its land and population being taken under Russian rule. Most of the empire's growth in the 19th century came from gaining territory in central and eastern Asia south of Siberia.[19] By 1795, after the Partitions of Poland, Russia became the most populous state in Europe, ahead of France.
Year | Population of Russia (millions)[20][21] | Notes |
---|---|---|
1720 | 15.5 | includes new Baltic & Polish territories |
1795 | 37.6 | includes part of Poland |
1812 | 42.8 | includes Finland |
1816 | 73.0 | includes Congress Poland, Bessarabia |
1897 | 125.6 | Russian Empire census,[g] excludes Finland |
1914 | 164.0 | includes new Asian territories |
Background
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Narva_1700.png/220px-Narva_1700.png)
The foundations of the Russian Empire was laid during
Following the reforms, the governance of Russia by an absolute monarch was enshrined. The Military Regulations made a note of the autocratic nature of the regime.[h] During the reign of Peter I, the last vestiges of the independence of the boyars were lost. He transformed them into the new nobility, who were obedient nobles that served the state for the rest of their lives. He also introduced the Table of Ranks and equated the votchina with an estate. Russia's modern fleet was built by Peter the Great, along with an army that was reformed in the manner of European style and educational institutions (the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences). Civil lettering was adopted during Peter I's reign, and the first Russian newspaper, Vedomosti, was published. Peter I promoted the advancement of science, particularly geography and geology, trade, and industry,[28] including shipbuilding, as well as the growth of the Russian educational system. Every tenth Russian acquired an education during Peter I's reign, when there were 15 million people in the country.[29] The city of Saint Petersburg, which was built in 1703 on territory along the Baltic coast that had been conquered during the Great Northern War, served as the state's capital.
This concept of the triune Russian people, composed of the
18th century
Peter the Great (1672–1725)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Peter_de_Grote.jpg/220px-Peter_de_Grote.jpg)
Peter I (r. 1672–1725), also known as Peter the Great, played a major role in introducing the European state system into Russia. While the empire's vast lands had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those in the West.[31] Nearly the entire population was devoted to agriculture, with only a small percentage living in towns. The class of kholops, whose status was close to that of slaves, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus counting them for poll taxation. Russian agricultural kholops had been formally converted into serfs earlier in 1679. They were largely tied to the land, in a feudal sense, until the late 19th century.
Peter's first military efforts were directed against the
As a result, Peter acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland, securing access to the sea. There he built Russia's new capital, Saint Petersburg, on the Neva river, to replace Moscow, which had long been Russia's cultural center. This relocation expressed his intent to adopt European elements for his empire. Many of the government and other major buildings were designed under Italianate influence. In 1722, he turned his aspirations toward increasing Russian influence in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea at the expense of the weakened Safavid Persians. He made Astrakhan the centre of military efforts against Persia, and waged the first full-scale war against them in 1722–23.[32] Peter the Great temporarily annexed several areas of Iran to Russia, which after the death of Peter were returned in the 1732 Treaty of Resht and 1735 Treaty of Ganja as a deal to oppose the Ottomans.[33]
Peter
As part of Peter's reorganisation, he also enacted a church reform. The Russian Orthodox Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure, in effect making it a tool of the state. Peter abolished the patriarchate and replaced it with a collective body, the Most Holy Synod, which was led by a government official.[34]
Peter died in 1725, leaving an unsettled succession. After a short reign by his widow,
The discontent over the dominant positions of
Catherine the Great (1762–1796)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Rouble_-_Catherine_II_%D0%9C%D0%9C%D0%94.jpg/320px-Rouble_-_Catherine_II_%D0%9C%D0%9C%D0%94.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/%D0%98%D0%B7%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BB_%D1%88%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BC.jpg/220px-%D0%98%D0%B7%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BB_%D1%88%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BC.jpg)
Catherine the Great was a German princess who married Peter III, the German heir to the Russian crown. After the death of Empress Elizabeth, Catherine came to power after she effected a coup d'état against her very unpopular husband. She contributed to the resurgence of the Russian nobility that began after the death of Peter the Great, abolishing State service and granting them control of most state functions in the provinces. She also removed the Beard tax instituted by Peter the Great.[36]
Catherine extended Russian political control over the lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, supporting the Targowica Confederation. However, the cost of these campaigns further burdened the already oppressive social system, under which serfs were required to spend almost all of their time laboring on their owners' land. A major peasant uprising took place in 1773, after Catherine legalised the selling of serfs separate from land. Inspired by a Cossack named Yemelyan Pugachev and proclaiming "Hang all the landlords!", the rebels threatened to take Moscow before they were ruthlessly suppressed. Instead of imposing the traditional punishment of drawing and quartering, Catherine issued secret instructions that the executioners should execute death sentences quickly and with minimal suffering, as part of her effort to introduce compassion into the law.[37] She furthered these efforts by ordering the public trial of Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova, a high-ranking noblewoman, on charges of torturing and murdering serfs. Whilst these gestures garnered Catherine much positive attention from Europe during the Enlightenment, the specter of revolution and disorder continued to haunt her and her successors. Indeed, her son Paul introduced a number of increasingly erratic decrees in his short reign aimed directly against the spread of French culture in response to their revolution.
In order to ensure the continued support of the nobility, which was essential to her reign, Catherine was obliged to strengthen their authority and power at the expense of the serfs and other lower classes. Nevertheless, Catherine realized that serfdom must eventually be ended, going so far in her
Catherine's expansionist policy caused Russia to develop into a major European power,
State budget
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Russia_1771_Sestroretsk_Rouble.jpg/300px-Russia_1771_Sestroretsk_Rouble.jpg)
Russia was in a continuous state of financial crisis. While revenue rose from 9 million rubles in 1724 to 40 million in 1794, expenses grew more rapidly, reaching 49 million in 1794. The budget allocated 46 percent to the military, 20 percent to government economic activities, 12 percent to administration, and nine percent for the Imperial Court in St. Petersburg. The deficit required borrowing, primarily from bankers in Amsterdam; five percent of the budget was allocated to debt payments. Paper money was issued to pay for expensive wars, thus causing inflation. As a result of its spending, Russia developed a large and well-equipped army, a very large and complex bureaucracy, and a court that rivaled those of Versailles and London. But the government was living far beyond its means, and 18th-century Russia remained "a poor, backward, overwhelmingly agricultural, and illiterate country".[40]
First half of the 19th century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Peter_von_Hess_002.jpg/240px-Peter_von_Hess_002.jpg)
In 1801, over four years after Paul became the emperor of Russia, he was killed in
Following a dispute with Emperor Alexander I, in 1812, Napoleon launched an
Although the Russian Empire played a leading political role in the next century, thanks to its role in defeating Napoleonic France, its retention of serfdom precluded economic progress to any significant degree. As Western European economic growth accelerated during the Industrial Revolution, Russia began to lag ever farther behind, creating new weaknesses for the empire seeking to play a role as a great power. Russia's status as a great power concealed the inefficiency of its government, the isolation of its people, and its economic and social backwardness. Following the defeat of Napoleon, Alexander I had been ready to discuss constitutional reforms, but though a few were introduced, no major changes were attempted.[45]
The liberal Alexander I was replaced by his younger brother
In order to repress further revolts, censorship was intensified, including the constant surveillance of schools and universities. Textbooks were strictly regulated by the government. Police spies were planted everywhere. Under Nicholas I, would-be revolutionaries were sent off to Siberia, with hundreds of thousands sent to katorga camps.[47] The retaliation for the revolt made "December Fourteenth" a day long remembered by later revolutionary movements.
The question of Russia's direction had been gaining attention ever since Peter the Great's program of modernization. Some favored imitating Western Europe while others were against this and called for a return to the traditions of the past. The latter path was advocated by
Foreign policy (1800–1864)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Aivazovsky%2C_Brig_Mercury_Attacked_by_Two_Turkish_Ships_1892.jpg/220px-Aivazovsky%2C_Brig_Mercury_Attacked_by_Two_Turkish_Ships_1892.jpg)
After Russian armies liberated the
Russian emperors quelled two uprisings in their newly acquired Polish territories: the November Uprising in 1830 and the January Uprising in 1863. In 1863, the Russian autocracy had given the Polish artisans and gentry reason to rebel, by assailing national core values of language, religion, and culture.[52] France, Britain, and Austria tried to intervene in the crisis but were unable to do so. The Russian press and state propaganda used the Polish uprising to justify the need for unity in the empire.[53] The semi-autonomous polity of Congress Poland subsequently lost its distinctive political and judicial rights, with Russification being imposed on its schools and courts.[54] However, Russification policies in Poland, Finland and among the Germans in the Baltics largely failed and only strengthened political opposition.[53]
Second half of the 19th century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Imperial_Standard_of_the_Emperor_of_Russia_%281858%E2%80%931917%29.svg/220px-Imperial_Standard_of_the_Emperor_of_Russia_%281858%E2%80%931917%29.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Karazin_-_Entry_of_Russian_troops_into_Samarkand_1868.jpg/220px-Karazin_-_Entry_of_Russian_troops_into_Samarkand_1868.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Russians_entering_khiva_1873_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Russians_entering_khiva_1873_%28cropped%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Zahvat_grivickogo_reduta.jpg/220px-Zahvat_grivickogo_reduta.jpg)
In 1854–1855, Russia fought Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War, which Russia lost. The war was fought primarily in the Crimean peninsula, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic during the related Åland War. Since playing a major role in the defeat of Napoleon, Russia had been regarded as militarily invincible, but against a coalition of the great powers of Europe, the reverses it suffered on land and sea exposed the weakness of Emperor Nicholas I's regime.
When Emperor Alexander II ascended the throne in 1855, the desire for reform was widespread. A growing humanitarian movement attacked serfdom as inefficient. In 1859, there were more than 23 million serfs in usually poor living conditions. Alexander II decided to abolish serfdom from above, with ample provision for the landowners, rather than wait for it to be abolished from below by revolution.[55]
The
Seeking more territories, Russia
In the late 1870s, Russia and the Ottoman Empire again clashed in the Balkans. From 1875 to 1877, the Balkan crisis intensified, with rebellions against Ottoman rule by various Slavic nationalities,
Another significant result of the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War in Russia's favour was the acquisition from the Ottomans of the provinces of
Alexander III
In 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by the
Foreign policy (1864–1907)
Russia had little difficulty expanding to the south, including conquering Turkestan,[71] until Britain became alarmed when Russia threatened Afghanistan, with the implicit threat to India; and decades of diplomatic maneuvering resulted, called the Great Game.[72] That rivalry between the two empires has been considered to have included far-flung territories such as Outer Mongolia and Tibet. The maneuvering largely ended with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907.[73]
Expansion into the vast stretches of Siberia was slow and expensive, but finally became possible with the building of the
Meanwhile,
Early 20th century
In 1894, Alexander III was succeeded by his son,
Economic conditions steadily improved after 1890, thanks to new crops such as sugar beets, and new access to railway transportation. Total grain production increased, as well as exports, even with rising domestic demand from population growth. As a result, there was a slow improvement in the living standards of Russian peasants in the empire's last two decades before 1914. Recent research into the physical stature of Army recruits shows they were bigger and stronger. There were regional variations, with more poverty in the heavily populated central black earth region; and there were temporary downturns in 1891–93 and 1905–1908.[79]
By the end of the 19th century, the Russian Empire dominated its territorial extent, covering a surface area of 22,800,000 km2, making it become the world's third-largest empire.
On the political right, the reactionary elements of the aristocracy strongly favored the large landholders, who, however, were slowly selling their land to the peasants through the Peasants' Land Bank. The Octobrist party was a conservative force, with a base of landowners and businessmen. They accepted land reform but insisted that property owners be fully paid. They favored far-reaching reforms, and hoped the landlord class would fade away, while agreeing they should be paid for their land. Liberal elements among industrial capitalists and nobility, who believed in peaceful social reform and a constitutional monarchy, formed the Constitutional Democratic Party or Kadets.[80]
On the left, the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs) and the Marxist Social Democrats wanted to expropriate the land, without payment, but debated whether to distribute the land among the peasants (the Narodnik solution), or to put it into collective local ownership.[81] The Socialist Revolutionaries also differed from the Social Democrats in that the SRs believed a revolution must rely on urban workers, not the peasantry.[82]
In 1903, at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, in London, the party split into two wings: the gradualist Mensheviks and the more radical Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks believed that the Russian working class was insufficiently developed and that socialism could be achieved only after a period of bourgeois democratic rule. They thus tended to ally themselves with the forces of bourgeois liberalism. The Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin, supported the idea of forming a small elite of professional revolutionists, subject to strong party discipline, to act as the vanguard of the proletariat, in order to seize power by force.[83]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/%D0%91%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B0_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8_%D0%9C%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5.jpg/220px-%D0%91%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B0_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8_%D0%9C%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5.jpg)
Defeat in the
In October 1905, Nicholas reluctantly issued the October Manifesto, which conceded the creation of a national Duma (legislature) to be called without delay. The right to vote was extended and no law was to become final without confirmation by the Duma. The moderate groups were satisfied, but the socialists rejected the concessions as insufficient and tried to organise new strikes. By the end of 1905, there was disunity among the reformers, and the emperor's position was strengthened, allowing him to roll back some of the concessions with the new Russian Constitution of 1906.
War, revolution, and collapse
Origins of causes
Russia, along with France and Britain, was a member of the Entente in antecedent to World War I; these three powers were formed up in response to Germany's rival[85] Triple Alliance, comprising itself, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Previously, Saint Petersburg and Paris, along with London, were belligerents in the Crimean War. The relations with Britain were in disquietude from the Great Game in Central Asia until the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention, when both agreed to settle their differences and joined to oppose the new rising power of Germany.[86] Russia and France's relations remained isolated before the 1890s when both sides agreed to ally when peace was threatened.[87] France also granted loans for building infrastructure, especially railways.[88]
The relations between Russia and the Triple Alliance, especially Germany and Austria, were like those of the League of the Three Emperors. Russia's relations with Germany were deteriorating,[89] and tensions over the Eastern question had reached a breaking point with Austria-Hungary.[90] The 1908 Bosnian Crisis had nearly led to war and in 1912–13 relations between Saint Petersburg and Vienna were tense during the Balkan Wars.[91]
The
Declaration of War
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Nicholas_II_declaring_war_on_Germany_from_the_balcony_of_the_Winter_Palace.jpeg/250px-Nicholas_II_declaring_war_on_Germany_from_the_balcony_of_the_Winter_Palace.jpeg)
As a result of Vienna's declaration of war on Serbia, Nicholas II ordered the mobilisation of 4.9 million men. Germany, Austria-Hungary's ally, saw the call to arms as a threat; when Russia mustered its troops, Germany affirmed the state of "imminent danger of War",[94] followed by the declaration of war on 1 August 1914.[95] The Russians were imbued with patriotic earnestness and Germanophobic sentiment, including the name of the capital, Saint Petersburg, which sounded too German for the sake of words Sankt- and -burg; and was thus renamed to the Russianised Petrograd.[96]
The Russian entry into the First World War was followed by France, which both had been allied with Russia since 1892, fearing the rise of Germany as the new power.[97] The German General Staff had therefore devised the Schlieffen Plan, which first eliminated France via nonaligned Belgium before moving east to attack Russia, whose massive army was much slower to mobilise.[98]
Theatres
German theatre
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Russian_prisoners_tannenberg.jpg/250px-Russian_prisoners_tannenberg.jpg)
By August 1914, Russia had invaded with unexpected speed the German province of East Prussia, ending with a humiliating defeat at Tannenberg, owing to a message sent without wiring and coding,[99] causing the destruction of the entire second army. Russia suffered a massive defeat at the Masurian Lakes twice, the first ending with a hundred thousand casualties;[100] and the second suffering 200,000.[101] By October, the German Ninth Army was near Warsaw, and the newly-formed Tenth Army had retreated from the frontier in East Prussia. Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian commander-in-chief, now had the order to invade Silesia with his Fifth, Fourth, and Ninth armies.[102] The Ninth Army, led by Mackensen, retreated from the frontline in Galicia and concentrated between the cities of Posen and Thorn. The advance took place on 11 November against the main army's right flank and rear; the First and Second armies were severely mauled, and the Second army was nearly surrounded in Łódź on 17 November.
Exhausted Russian troops began to
Austrian theatre
Austria-Hungary went to war with Russia on 6 August. The Russians started to invade Galicia, held by Austrian Cisleithania on 20 August, and annihilated the Austro-Hungarian Army at Lemberg, leading to the occupation of Galicia.[108] While the fortress of Premissel was besieged, the first attempt to capture the fortress failed, but the second attempt seized the redoubt in March 1915.[109] On 2 May, the Russian army was broken through by joint Austro-German forces, retreating from the Gorlice to Tarnów line and losing Premissel.
On 4 June 1916, General Aleksei Brusilov carried out an offensive by targeting Kovel. His offensive was a great success, taking 76,000 prisoners from the main attack and 1,500 from the Austrian bridgehead. But the offensive was halted by inadequate ammunition and a lack of supplies.[110] The eponymous offensive was the most successful allied strike of World War I,[111] practically destroying the Austro-Hungarian army as an independent force, but the slaughter of many casualties (approximately one million men) forced the Russian forces not to rebuild or launch any further attacks.
Turkish theatre
On 29 October 1914, a prelude to the Russo-Turkish front, the Turkish fleet, with German support, began to raid Russian coastal cities in Odessa, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Feodosia, Kerch, and Yalta [112] This led Russia to declare war on the Ottoman Empire on 2 November.[113] The Russians, led by Baltic German General Georgy Bergmann, opened the front by crossing the frontier but failed to capture Köprüköy. In December, Russia obtained success at Sarikamish, where the Russian General Nikolai Yudenich routed Enver Pasha.[114]
Problems in the empire
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Tikhon_mitropolit_and_russian_soldiers_1917_in_Moskow_Krasnaja_square.jpg/220px-Tikhon_mitropolit_and_russian_soldiers_1917_in_Moskow_Krasnaja_square.jpg)
By the middle of 1915, the impact of the war was demoralizing. Food and fuel were in short supply, casualties were increasing, and inflation was mounting. Strikes rose among low-paid factory workers, and there were reports that peasants, who wanted reforms of land ownership, were restless. The emperor eventually decided to take personal command of the army and moved to the front, leaving his wife, the Empress Alexandra, in charge in the capital. She fell under the spell of a monk, Grigori Rasputin (1869–1916). His assassination in late 1916 by a clique of nobles could not restore the emperor's lost prestige.[115]
End of imperial rule
On 3 March 1917, International Women's Day, a strike was organized at a factory in the capital, followed by thousands of people took to the streets in Petrograd to protest food shortages. A day later, protesters rose to two hundred thousand, demanding that Russia withdraw from the war and the emperor be deposed. Eighty thousand Russian troops, half of the men sent to restore order, had gone on strike and refused the senior officers' orders.[116] Any imperial symbols were destroyed and burned. The capital was out of control and gripped by protest and strife.[117]
In the city of
Territory
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Russian_Empire_Map.jpg/220px-Russian_Empire_Map.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Russian_Empire_1745_General_Map_%28Latin%2C_HQ%29.jpg/220px-Russian_Empire_1745_General_Map_%28Latin%2C_HQ%29.jpg)
By the end of the 19th century the area of the empire was about 22,400,000 square kilometers (8,600,000 sq mi), or almost one-sixth of the Earth's landmass; its only rival in size at the time was the
Geography
The administrative boundaries of
An important feature of Russia is its few free outlets to the open sea, outside the ice-bound shores of the Arctic Ocean. The deep indentations of the
Territorial development
From 1860 to 1905, the Russian Empire occupied all territories of the present-day Russian Federation, with the exception of the present-day Kaliningrad Oblast, Kuril Islands and Tuva. In 1905 Russia lost southern Sakhalin to Japan, but gained Tuva as a protectorate in 1914. Prior to 1917 the Russian Empire included most of Dnieper Ukraine, Belarus, Bessarabia, the Grand Duchy of Finland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Central Asian states of Russian Turkestan, most of the Baltic governorates, a significant part of Poland, and the former Ottoman provinces of Ardahan, Artvin, Iğdır, Kars, and the northeastern part of Erzurum Province.
Henry Kissinger noted that the methodological procedure how the Russian Empire started to expand their territory was in comparable to that of how the United States had done the same. Russian statesman Alexander Gorchakov justified the Russian expansion in consonance of the Manifest destiny of the United States; thereafter, the Russian territorial expansion only encountered nomadic or feudal societies which is strikingly similar to the Westward Expansion of the United States.[120]
Between 1742 and 1867, the Russian-American Company administered Alaska as a colony. The company also established settlements in Hawaii, including Fort Elizabeth (1817), and as far south in North America as Fort Ross Colony (established in 1812) in Sonoma County, California just north of San Francisco. Both Fort Ross and the Russian River in California got their names from Russian settlers, who had staked claims in a region claimed until 1821 by the Spanish as part of New Spain.
Following the Swedish defeat in the Finnish War of 1808–1809 and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on 17 September 1809, the eastern half of Sweden, the area that then became Finland, was incorporated into the Russian Empire as an autonomous grand duchy. The emperor eventually ended up ruling Finland as a semi-constitutional monarch through the Governor-General of Finland and a native Senate appointed by him. The emperor never explicitly recognized Finland as a constitutional state in its own right, although his Finnish subjects came to consider the grand duchy as such.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Evropayskye_gubernii_Rossii_1910.png/220px-Evropayskye_gubernii_Rossii_1910.png)
In the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812), and the ensuing Treaty of Bucharest (1812), the eastern parts of the Principality of Moldavia, an Ottoman vassal state, along with some areas formerly under direct Ottoman rule, came under the rule of the empire. This area (Bessarabia) was among the Russian Empire's last territorial acquisitions in Europe. At the Congress of Vienna (1815), Russia gained sovereignty over Congress Poland, which on paper was an autonomous kingdom in personal union with Russia. However, this autonomy was eroded after the November Uprising in 1831, and was finally abolished in 1867.
Saint Petersburg gradually extended and consolidated its control over the
The Russian Empire expanded its influence and possessions in Central Asia, especially in the later 19th century, conquering much of Russian Turkestan in 1865 and continuing to add territory as late as 1885.
Newly discovered Arctic islands became part of the Russian Empire: the New Siberian Islands from the early 18th century; Severnaya Zemlya ("Emperor Nicholas II Land") first mapped and claimed as late as 1913.
During World War I, Russia briefly occupied a small part of East Prussia, then a part of Germany; a significant portion of Austrian Galicia; and significant portions of Ottoman Armenia. While the modern Russian Federation currently controls the Kaliningrad Oblast, which comprised the northern part of East Prussia, this differs from the area captured by the empire in 1914, though there was some overlap: Gusev (Gumbinnen in German) was the site of the initial Russian victory.
Imperial territories
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Russian_Sloop-of-War_Neva.jpg/220px-Russian_Sloop-of-War_Neva.jpg)
According to the 1st article of the
Between 1744 and 1867, the empire also controlled
Furthermore, the empire at times controlled concession territories, notably the Kwantung Leased Territory and the Chinese Eastern Railway, both conceded by Qing China, as well as the Russian concession of Tianjin.
In 1815,
In 1889, a Russian adventurer,
Government and administration
History of Russia |
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From its initial creation until the
Conservatism was the ideology of most of the Russian leadership, albeit with some reformist activities from time to time. The structure of conservative thought was based upon anti-rationalism of the intellectuals, religiosity rooted in the Russian Orthodox Church, traditionalism rooted in the landed estates worked by serfs, and militarism rooted in the army officer corps.[122] Regarding irrationality, Russia avoided the full force of the European Enlightenment, which gave priority to rationalism, preferring the romanticism of an idealized nation state that reflected the beliefs, values, and behavior of the distinctive people.[123] The distinctly liberal notion of "progress" was replaced by a conservative notion of modernization based on the incorporation of modern technology to serve the established system. The promise of modernization in the service of autocracy frightened the socialist intellectual Alexander Herzen, who warned of a Russia governed by "Genghis Khan with a telegraph".[124]
Emperor of Russia
Peter the Great changed his title from tsar to emperor in order to secure Russia's position in the European states system.[125] While later rulers did not discard the new title, the Russian monarch was commonly known as the tsar or tsaritsa until the imperial system was abolished during the February Revolution of 1917. Prior to the issuance of the October Manifesto, the emperor ruled as an absolute monarch, subject to only two limitations on his authority, both of which were intended to protect the existing system: the emperor and his consort must both belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, and he must obey the Pauline Laws of succession established by Paul I. Beyond this, the power of the Russian autocrat was virtually limitless.
On 17 October 1905, the situation changed: the ruler voluntarily limited his legislative power by decreeing that no measure was to become law without the consent of the Imperial Duma, a freely elected national assembly established by the Organic Law issued on 28 April 1906. However, he retained the right to disband the newly established Duma, and he exercised this right more than once. He also retained an absolute veto over all legislation, and only he could initiate any changes to the Organic Law itself. His ministers were responsible solely to him, and not to the Duma or any other authority, which could question but not remove them. Thus, while the emperor's personal powers were limited in scope after 28 April 1906, they remained formidable.
Imperial Council
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Sadovnikov_1258.jpg/220px-Sadovnikov_1258.jpg)
Under Russia's revised Fundamental Law of 20 February 1906, the State Council was associated with the Duma as a legislative
State Duma
The Duma of the Empire or Imperial Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), which formed the
In the college itself, the voting for the Duma was by secret ballot and a simple majority carried the day. Since the majority consisted of conservative elements (the
. These elected their delegates to the Duma directly, and though their votes were divided (on the basis of taxable property) in such a way as to give the advantage to wealth, each returned the same number of delegates.Council of Ministers
In 1905, a Council of Ministers (Sovyet Ministrov) was created, under a minister president, the first appearance of a prime minister in Russia. This council consisted of all the ministers and of the heads of other principal departments. The ministries were as follows:
- Ministry of the Imperial Court
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
- Ministry of War;
- Ministry of the Navy;
- Ministry of Finance;
- Ministry of Commerce and Industry (created in 1905);
- Ministry of Internal Affairs (including police, health, censorship and press, posts and telegraphs, foreign religions, statistics);
- Ministry of Agriculture and State Assets;
- Ministry of Ways of Communications;
- Ministry of Justice;
- Ministry of National Education.
Most Holy Synod
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%82_%D0%B8_%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B4%2C_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D1%82-%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B3.jpg/220px-%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%82_%D0%B8_%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B4%2C_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D1%82-%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B3.jpg)
The Most Holy Synod (established in 1721) was the supreme organ of government of the Orthodox Church in Russia. It was presided over by a lay Procurator, representing the emperor, and consisted of the three metropolitans of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kiev, the Archbishop of Georgia, and a number of bishops sitting in rotation.
Senate
The Senate (Pravitelstvuyushchi Senat, i.e. directing or governing senate), originally established during the Government reform of Peter the Great, consisted of members nominated by the emperor. Its wide variety of functions were carried out by the different departments into which it was divided. It was the supreme court of cassation; an audit office; a high court of justice for all political offences; and one of its departments fulfilled the functions of a heralds' college. It also had supreme jurisdiction in all disputes arising out of the administration of the empire, notably in differences between representatives of the central power and the elected organs of local self-government. Lastly, it promulgated new laws, a function which theoretically gave it a power akin to that of the Supreme Court of the United States, of rejecting measures not in accordance with fundamental laws.
Administrative divisions
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Subdivisions_of_the_Russian_Empire_in_1914.svg/220px-Subdivisions_of_the_Russian_Empire_in_1914.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Tverskaya13_Moscow_06-2015.jpg/220px-Tverskaya13_Moscow_06-2015.jpg)
As of 1914, Russia was divided into 81 governorates (
Judicial system
The judicial system of the Russian Empire was established by the statute of 20 November 1864 of Alexander II. This system – based partly on English and French law – was predicated on the separation of judicial and administrative functions, the independence of the judges and courts, public trials and oral procedure, and the equality of all classes before the law. Moreover, a democratic element was introduced by the adoption of the jury system and the election of judges. This system was disliked by the bureaucracy, due to its putting the administration of justice outside of the executive sphere. During the latter years of Alexander II and the reign of Alexander III, power that had been given was gradually taken back, and that take back was fully reversed by the third Duma after the 1905 Revolution.[i]
The system established by the law of 1864 had two wholly separate
Local administration
Alongside the local organs of the central government in Russia there are three classes of local elected bodies charged with administrative functions:
- the peasant assemblies in the mirs and the volosts;
- the zemstvos in the 34 governorates of Russia;
- the municipal dumas.
Municipal dumas
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Old_city_duma.jpg/220px-Old_city_duma.jpg)
Since 1870, the municipalities in European Russia had institutions like those of the zemstvos. All owners of houses, tax-paying merchants, artisans, and workmen were enrolled on lists, in descending order according to their assessed wealth. The total valuation was then divided into three equal parts, representing three groups of electors very unequal in number, each of which would elect an equal number of delegates to the municipal duma. The executive was in the hands of an elected mayor and an uprava, which consisted of several members elected by the municipal duma. Under Alexander III, however, by-laws promulgated in 1892 and 1894, the municipal dumas were subordinated to the governors in the same way as the zemstvos. In 1894, municipal institutions, with still more restricted powers, were granted to several towns in Siberia, and in 1895 to some in the Caucasus.
Baltic provinces
The formerly Swedish-controlled Baltic provinces of
Economy
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/%D0%93%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%2C_%D0%A1%D0%9F%D0%B1%2C_~1905.jpg/250px-%D0%93%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%2C_%D0%A1%D0%9F%D0%B1%2C_~1905.jpg)
Before the liberation of the serfs in 1861, Russia's economy mainly depended on agriculture.[127] By the census of 1897, 95 per cent of the Russian population lived in the countryside.[128] Nicholas I attempted to modernise his country, and have it not be so dependant on a single economic sector.[129] During the reign of Alexander III, many reforms occurred. The Peasants' Land Bank was founded in 1883 to provide loans for Russian peasants, both as individuals and in communes. The Nobles' Land Bank, in 1885, made loans at nominal interest rates to the landed nobility. The poll tax was abolished in 1886.[130]
When Ivan Vyshnegradsky was appointed as the new minister of finance in 1886, he increased the pressure on peasants by increasing taxes on land and prescribing how they harvested grain. These policies led to the severe Russian famine of 1891–1892 that lasted from 1891 to 1892, with four hundred thousand perishing from starvation. Vyshnegradsky was succeeded by Count Sergei Witte in 1892. Witte began by raising revenues through a monopoly on alcohol, which brought in 300 million rubles 1894. These reforms returned the peasants to essentially being serfs again.[131] In 1900, a peasant class (also known as kulak) had emerged, representing less than 20 per cent of the population, who were characterised by owning some of their land, machinery, and livestock.[132] An income tax was introduced in 1916.
Agriculture
Russia had a long-standing economic bargain on fundamental agriculture on large estates, which was worked by Russian peasants (also known as serfs), who did not get any rights from slave masters under the system of "barshchina".[j] Another system was called obrok,[k] in which serfs worked in exchange for cash or goods from the master, allowing them to work outside the estate.[133] These systems were based on a legal code called the Sobornoye Ulozheniye, which was introduced by Alexis I in 1649.
From 1891 to 1892, peasants were faced with new policies carried out by Ivan Vyshnegradsky, causing a famine and disease that took the lives of four hundred thousand people,[134][135] especially in the Volga region, eliciting the greatest decline in grain production.[136]
Mining and heavy industry
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/100_roubles_%C3%A9dit%C3%A9s_durant_le_r%C3%A9gime_tzariste%2C_1910.jpg/220px-100_roubles_%C3%A9dit%C3%A9s_durant_le_r%C3%A9gime_tzariste%2C_1910.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Russian_and_US_equities_1865_to_1917.jpg/220px-Russian_and_US_equities_1865_to_1917.jpg)
Ural Region | Southern Region | Caucasus | Siberia | Kingdom of Poland | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gold | 21% | – | – | 88.2% | - |
Platinum | 100% | – | – | – | – |
Silver | 36% | – | 24.3% | 29.3% | – |
Lead | 5.8% | – | 92% | – | 0.9% |
Zinc | – | – | 25.2% | – | 74.8% |
Copper | 54.9% | – | 30.2% | 14.9% | – |
Pig Iron | 19.4% | 67.7% | – | – | 9.3% |
Iron and Steel | 17.3% | 36.2% | – | – | 10.8% |
Manganese | 0.3% | 29.2% | 70.3% | – | – |
Coal | 3.4% | 67.3% | – | 5.8% | 22.3% |
Petroleum | – | – | 96% | – | – |
Infrastructure
Railways
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Tzarskoselskaya_Railway_-_Watercolour.jpg/220px-Tzarskoselskaya_Railway_-_Watercolour.jpg)
After 1860, the planning and building of the railway network had far-reaching effects on the economy, culture, and ordinary life of Russia. The central authorities and the imperial elite made most of the key decisions, but local elites made demands for rail linkages. Local nobles, merchants, and entrepreneurs imagined a future of promoting their regional interests, from "locality" to "empire". Often they had to compete with other cities. By envisioning their own role in a rail network they came to understand how important they were to the empire's economy.[137]
During the 1880s, the Russian army built two major railway lines in
Religion
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Entry_Processin.jpg/220px-Entry_Processin.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Subdivisions_of_the_Russian_Empire_by_largest_ethnolinguistic_group_%281897%29.svg/220px-Subdivisions_of_the_Russian_Empire_by_largest_ethnolinguistic_group_%281897%29.svg.png)
The Russian Empire's state religion was Orthodox Christianity.[139] The emperor was not allowed to "profess any faith other than the Orthodox" (Article 62 of the 1906 Fundamental Laws) and was deemed "the Supreme Defender and Guardian of the dogmas of the predominant Faith and is the Keeper of the purity of the Faith and all good order within the Holy Church" (Article 64 ex supra). Although he made and annulled all senior ecclesiastical appointments, he did not settle questions of dogma or church teaching. The principal ecclesiastical authority of the Russian Church—which extended its jurisdiction over the entire territory of the empire, including the ex-Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti—was the Most Holy Synod, the civilian Over Procurator of the Holy Synod being one of the council of ministers with wide de facto powers in ecclesiastical matters.
The ecclesiastical heads of the national Russian Orthodox Church consisted of three metropolitans (Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev), fourteen archbishops and fifty bishops, all drawn from the ranks of the monastic (celibate) clergy. The parochial clergy had to be married when appointed, but if left widowers were not allowed to marry again; this rule continues to apply today.
Religious policy
All non-Orthodox religions were formally forbidden from
Anti-semitism
After Catherine II annexed eastern Poland in the Polish Partitions,[142] there were restrictions placed against Jews known as the Pale of Settlement, an area of Tsarist Russia inside which Jews were authorized to settle, and outside of which were deprived of various rights such as freedom of movement or commerce.[143] Particularly repressive was Emperor Nicholas I, who sought the forced assimilation of Jews,[144] from 1827 conscripted Jewish children as Cantonists in military institutions in the east aiming to compel them to convert to Christianity,[145] attempted to stratify Jews into "useful" and "not useful" based on wealth[144] and further restricted religious and commercial rights within the Pale of Settlement.[143][146] Emperor Alexander II ceased this harsh treatment and pursued a more bureaucratic type of assimilation,[144] such as compensating the Cantonists for their previous military service, including those who remained Jewish,[143] although certain military ranks were still limited to Christians.[144] In contrast, Emperor Alexander III resumed an atmosphere of oppression, including the May Laws, which further restricted Jewish settlements and rights to own property, as well as limiting the types of professions available,[147][143] and the expulsion of Jews from Kiev in 1886 and Moscow in 1891. The overall anti-Jewish policy of the Russian Empire led to significant sustained emigration.[143]
Persecution of Muslims
Islam had a "sheltered but precarious" place in the Russian Empire.[148] Initially, sporadic forced conversions were demanded against Muslims in the early Russian Empire. In the 18th century, Catherine II issued an edict of toleration that gave legal status to Islam and allowed Muslims to fulfill religious obligations.[149] Catherine also established the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly, which had a degree of imperial jurisdiction over the organization of Islamic practice in the country.[150] As the Russian Empire expanded, tsarist administrators found it expedient to draw on existing Islamic religious institutions that were already in place.[151][150]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/%D0%9C%D1%83%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B6%D0%B8%D1%80%D1%8B.jpg/280px-%D0%9C%D1%83%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B6%D0%B8%D1%80%D1%8B.jpg)
In the 19th century, the restrictive policies became much more oppressive during the Russo-Turkish Wars, and the Russian Empire perpetrated persecutions such as the Circassian genocide during the 1860s.[149][153] Following its conquest of Circassia, around 1 to 1.5 million Circassians – almost half of the total population – were killed or forcibly deported.[154][155][156][157][158] Many of those who fled persecution also died en route to other countries. Today, the vast majority of Circassians live in diaspora communities.[159][160][161][162] Throughout the late 19th century, the term "Circassian" became a common adage for "highwayman" across the Balkan and Anatolian regions, due to the prevalence of homeless Circassian refugees.[163]
Many groups of Muslims such as Crimean Tatars were forced to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire following the Russian defeat in the Crimean War.[164] During the latter portion of the 19th century, the status of Islam in the Russian Empire became associated with the tsarist regime's ideological principles of Official Nationality requiring Russian Orthodoxy.[151] Nonetheless, in certain areas Islamic institutions were allowed to operate, such as the Orenburg Assembly, but were designated with a lower status.[150]
Policy towards non-Eastern Orthodox Christian sects
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Pogrom_de_Bialostok.jpg/220px-Pogrom_de_Bialostok.jpg)
Despite the predominance of Orthodoxy, several Christian denominations were professed.
Tsarist religious policy was focused on punishing Orthodox dissenters, such as uniates and sectarians.[140] Old Believers were seen as dangerous elements and persecuted heavily.[170][23] Various minor sects such as Spiritual Christians and Molokan were banished in internal exile to Transcaucasia and Central Asia, with some further emigrating to the Americas.[171] Doukhobors came to settle primarily in Canada.[172]
In 1905, Emperor Nicholas II issued a religious
Demography
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Demographics_of_pre-WW1_Europe.png/400px-Demographics_of_pre-WW1_Europe.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/%D0%AD%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%98%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B8_%D0%A5%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B0.png/400px-%D0%AD%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%98%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B8_%D0%A5%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B0.png)
Imperial census of 1897
According to returns published in 1905, based on the Russian Empire census of 1897, adherents of the different religious communities in the empire numbered approximately as follows.
Religion | Count of believers[178] | % |
---|---|---|
Russian Orthodox | 87,123,604 | 69.3% |
Muslims | 13,906,972 | 11.1% |
Roman Catholics | 11,467,994 | 9.1% |
Rabbinic Jews | 5,215,805 | 4.2% |
Lutherans[l] | 3,572,653 | 2.8% |
Old Believers | 2,204,596 | 1.8% |
Armenian Apostolics | 1,179,241 | 0.9% |
Buddhists (Minor) and Lamaists (Minor) | 433,863 | 0.4% |
Other non-Christian religions | 285,321 | 0.2% |
Reformed
|
85,400 | 0.1% |
Mennonites | 66,564 | 0.1% |
Armenian Catholics | 38,840 | 0.0% |
Baptists | 38,139 | 0.0% |
Karaite Jews | 12,894 | 0.0% |
Anglicans | 4,183 | 0.0% |
Other Christian religions | 3,952 | 0.0% |
Russian Central Asia
Russian Central Asia was also called Turkestan. As of the 1897 census, Russian Central Asia's five oblasts contained 5,260,300 inhabitants, 13.9 percent of them urban. The largest towns were Tashkent (156,400), Kokand (82,100), Namangan (61,900), and Samarkand (54,900). By 1911, 17 percent of Semireche's population and half of its urban residents were Russians, four-fifths of them agricultural colonists. In the other four oblasts in the same year, Russians constituted only 4 percent of the population, and the overwhelming majority lived in European-style settlements alongside the native quarters in the major towns.[179]
Military
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Vasily_Surikov_-_Suvorov_Crossing_the_Alps_in_1799_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/250px-Vasily_Surikov_-_Suvorov_Crossing_the_Alps_in_1799_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
The military of the Russian Empire consisted of the Imperial Russian Army and the Imperial Russian Navy. Its poor performance during the Crimean War of 1853–56 caused great soul-searching and resulted in proposals for reform. However, the Russian forces fell further behind the technology, training, and organization of the German, French, and particularly the British militaries.[180]
The army performed poorly in World War I and became a center of unrest and revolutionary activity. The events of the February Revolution and the fierce political struggles inside army units led to irreversible disintegration.[181]
Society
The Russian Empire was predominantly a rural society spread over vast spaces. In 1913, 80% of the people were peasants. Soviet historiography proclaimed that the Russian Empire of the 19th century was characterized by systemic crisis, which impoverished the workers and peasants and culminated in the revolutions of the early 20th century. Recent research by Russian scholars disputes this interpretation. Mironov assesses the effects of the reforms of latter 19th-century, especially in terms of the 1861 emancipation of the serfs, agricultural output trends, various standard of living indicators, and taxation of peasants. He argues that those reforms brought about measurable improvements in social welfare. More generally, he finds that the well-being of the Russian people declined during most of the 18th century, but increased slowly from the end of the 18th century to 1914.[182][183]
Estates
Subjects of the Russian Empire were segregated into
A majority of the population, 81.6%, belonged to the peasant order. The other classes were the nobility, 0.6%; clergy, 0.1%; the burghers and merchants, 9.3%; and military, 6.1%. More than 88 million Russians were peasants, some of whom were former serfs (10,447,149 males in 1858) – the remainder being "state peasants" (9,194,891 males in 1858, exclusive of the Archangel governorate) and "domain peasants" (842,740 males the same year).
- Other status
Serfdom
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Maslenitsa_kustodiev.jpg/220px-Maslenitsa_kustodiev.jpg)
The serfdom that had developed in Russia in the 16th century, and had become enshrined in law in 1649, was abolished in 1861.[184][185]
Household servants or dependents attached to personal service were merely set free, while the landed peasants received their houses and orchards, and allotments of arable land. These allotments were given over to the rural commune, the
Serfs lived in deplorable conditions, working in the fields for nearly seven days a week and being exiled to the harsh land of Siberia or sent to military service. Owners had the right to sell slaves, depending on whether they were targeting land or accused (i.e., had escaped from working). Children of serfs received less education. These serfs were heavily taxed, making them the poorest in any Russians.[133] In 1861, Emperor Alexander II saw serfs as a problem that held back Russia's development, so he liberated 23 million serfs to become free,[188] but they remained indigent throughout the former enslaved population despite their rights. The zemstvo system was introduced in 1865 as a rural assembly with administrative authority over the local population, including education and welfare, which ex-serfs were unable to acquire.
- Exceptional status
Peasants
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Prokudin-Gorskii-08.jpg/220px-Prokudin-Gorskii-08.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Gorskii_04422u.jpg/220px-Gorskii_04422u.jpg)
The former serfs became peasants, joining the millions of farmers who already had peasant status.[187][185] Most peasants lived in tens of thousands of small villages under a highly patriarchal system. Hundreds of thousands moved to cities to work in factories, but they typically retained their village connections.[189]
After Emancipation reform, one-quarter of peasants received allotments of only 1.2 hectares (2.9 acres) per male, and one-half received less than 3.4 to 4.6 hectares (8.5 to 11.4 acres); the normal size of the allotment necessary for the subsistence of a family under the three-fields system is estimated at 11 to 17 hectares (28 to 42 acres). This land was of necessity rented from the landlords. The aggregate value of the redemption and land taxes often reached 185 to 275% of the normal rental value of the allotments, not to speak of taxes for recruiting purposes, the church, roads, local administration, and so on, chiefly levied on the peasants. This burden increased every year; consequently, one-fifth of the inhabitants left their houses and cattle disappeared. Every year more than half the adult males (in some districts three-quarters of the men and one-third of the women) quit their homes and wandered throughout Russia in search of work. In the governments of the
The average allotment in
Landowners
The situation of the former serf-proprietors was also unsatisfactory. Accustomed to the use of compulsory labor, they failed to adapt to the new conditions. The millions of rubles of redemption money received from the crown was spent without any real or lasting agricultural improvements having been effected. The forests were sold, and the only prosperous landlords were those who exacted rack-rents for the land allotted to peasants. There was an increase of wealth among the few, but along with this a general impoverishment of the mass of the people. Added to this, the peculiar institution of the mir—framed on the principle of community ownership and occupation of the land—the overall effect was not encouraging of individual effort.
During the years 1861 to 1892 the land owned by the nobles decreased 30%, or from 850,000 to 610,000 km2 (210,000,000 to 150,000,000 acres); during the following four years an additional 8,577 km2 (2,119,500 acres) were sold; and since then the sales went on at an accelerated rate, until in 1903 alone close to 8,000 km2 (2,000,000 acres) passed out of their hands. On the other hand, since 1861, and more especially since 1882, when the
In November 1906, however, Emperor Nicholas II promulgated a provisional order permitting the peasants to become freeholders of allotments made at the time of emancipation, all redemption dues being remitted. This measure, which was endorsed by the third Duma in an act passed on 21 December 1908, was calculated to have far-reaching and profound effects on the rural economy of Russia. Thirteen years previously the government had endeavored to secure greater fixity and permanence of tenure by providing that at least twelve years must elapse between every two redistributions of the land belonging to a mir amongst those entitled to share in it. The order of November 1906 provided that the
Media
Censorship was heavy-handed until the reign of Alexander II, but it never went away.
Education
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Saint_Petersburg_University.jpg/220px-Saint_Petersburg_University.jpg)
Educational standards were very low in the Russian Empire, though they slowly increased in its last century of existence. By 1800, the level of literacy among male peasants ranged from 1 to 12 percent and from 20 to 25 percent for urban men. Literacy among women was very low. Literacy rates were highest for the nobility (84 to 87 percent), merchants (over 75 percent), then the workers and peasants. Serfs were the least literate. In every group, women were far less literate than men. By contrast in Western Europe, urban men had about a 50 percent literacy rate. The Orthodox hierarchy was suspicious of education, seeing no religious need for literacy whatsoever. Peasants did not need to be literate, and those who did — such as artisans, businessmen, and professionals — were few in number. As late as 1851, only 8% of Russians lived in cities.[195]
The accession in 1801 of Alexander I (1801–1825) was widely welcomed as an opening to fresh liberal ideas from the European Enlightenment. Many reforms were promised, but few were actually carried out before 1820 when the emperor turned his attention to foreign affairs and personal religion and ignored reform issues. In sharp contrast to Western Europe, the entire empire had a very small bureaucracy – about 17,000 public officials, most of whom lived in two of the largest cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Modernization of government required much larger numbers; but that, in turn, required an educational system that could provide suitable training. Russia lacked that, and for university education, young men went to Western Europe. The army and the church had their own training programs, narrowly focused on their particular needs. The most important successful reform under Alexander I was the creation of a national system of education.[196]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Zemskaya_shkola.jpg/220px-Zemskaya_shkola.jpg)
The
Emperor Nicholas I was a reactionary who wanted to neutralize foreign ideas, especially those he ridiculed as "pseudo-knowledge". Nevertheless, his minister of education, Sergey Uvarov, at the university level promoted more academic freedom for the faculty, who were under suspicion by reactionary church officials. Uvarov raised academic standards, improved facilities, and opened the admission doors a bit wider. Nicholas tolerated Uvarov's achievements until 1848, then reversed his innovations.[198] For the rest of the century, the national government continued to focus on universities, and generally ignored elementary and secondary educational needs. By 1900 there were 17,000 university students, and over 30,000 were enrolled in specialized technical institutes. The students were conspicuous in Moscow and Saint Petersburg as a political force typically at the forefront of demonstrations and disturbances.[199] The majority of tertiary institutions in the empire used Russian, while some used other languages but later underwent Russification.[200] Other educational institutions in the empire included the Nersisian School in Tiflis.
See also
- Expansion of Russia (1500–1800)
- Panjdeh incident - Russian conquest of Afghanistan
- Russian imperialism
Notes
- ^ Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1829–1856.
- ^ In 1914, the city was renamed Petrograd to reflect anti-German sentiments of Russia during World War I.[1]
- ^ As Chairman of the Committee of Ministers.
- ^ As Prime Minister.
- ^ Russian: Россійская Имперія, tr. Rossiyskaya Imperiya, IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə ɪmˈpʲerʲɪjə] ⓘ; Российская Империя in modern Russian spelling.
- ^ Historiographically known as Imperial Russia, Tsarist Russia, pre-revolutionary Russia, or simply Russia.
- ^ First and only census carried out in the Russian Empire.
- ^ "His Majesty is an autocratic monarch, who should not give an answer to anyone in the world in his affairs"
- justice of the peace. In 1889, Alexander III abolished the election of justices of the peace, except in certain large towns and some outlying parts of the Empire, and greatly restricted the right of trial by jury. The combining of judicial and administrative functions was introduced again by the appointment of officials as judges. In 1909, the third Duma restored the election of justices of the peace.
- ^ Russian: барщина, IPA: [ˈbarɕːɪnə]
- ^ Russian: оброк, IPA: [ɐˈbrok]
- Baltic Provinces, of Ingria, and of the Grand Duchy of Finland
References
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Further reading
Surveys
- Ascher, Abraham. Russia: A Short History (2011) excerpt and text search Archived 24 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Bushkovitch, Paul. A Concise History of Russia (2011) excerpt and text search Archived 25 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Freeze, George (2002). Russia: A History (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 556. ISBN 978-0-19-860511-9. Archivedfrom the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
- Geoffrey, Hosking (2011). Russia and the Russians: A History (2nd ed.). Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06195-8. Archivedfrom the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-300-08266-1.
- Kamenskii, Aleksandr B. The Russian Empire in the Eighteenth Century: Searching for a Place in the World (1997) . xii. 307 pp. A synthesis of much Western and Russian scholarship.
- Lieven, Dominic, ed. The Cambridge History of Russia: Volume 2, Imperial Russia, 1689–1917 (2015)
- Lieven, Dominic. Empire; The Russian Empire and Its Rivals (Yale UP, 2001)
- Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias (1983) excerpt and text search Archived 25 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine, sweeping narrative history
- Longley, David (2000). The Longman Companion to Imperial Russia, 1689–1917. New York: Longman Publishing Group. p. 496. ISBN 978-0-582-31990-5.
- McKenzie, David & Michael W. Curran. A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0-534-58698-8.
- Moss, Walter G. A History of Russia. Vol. 1: To 1917. 2d ed. Anthem Press, 2002.
- Pares, Bernard. A history of Russia (1947) pp 221–537, by a famous historian online free to borrow
- Perrie, Maureen, et al. The Cambridge History of Russia. (3 vol. Cambridge University Press, 2006). excerpt and text search Archived 17 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 800 pages. online 4th edition free to borrow
- Ziegler; Charles E. The History of Russia (Greenwood Press, 1999) online edition
Geography, topical maps
- Barnes, Ian. Restless Empire: A Historical Atlas of Russia (2015), copies of historic maps
- Catchpole, Brian. A Map History of Russia (Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1974), new topical maps.
- Channon, John, and Robert Hudson. The Penguin historical atlas of Russia (Viking, 1995), new topical maps.
- Chew, Allen F. An atlas of Russian history: eleven centuries of changing borders (Yale UP, 1970), new topical maps.
- Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of Russian history (Oxford UP, 1993), new topical maps.
- Parker, William Henry. An historical geography of Russia (Aldine, 1968).
1801–1917
- ISBN 978-0-14-310955-6. Archivedfrom the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
- Manning, Roberta. The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia: Gentry and Government. Princeton University Press, 1982.
- Pares, Bernard. The Fall Of The Russian Monarchy (1939) pp 94–143. Online
- Pipes, Richard. Russia under the Old Regime (2nd ed. 1997)
- Seton-Watson, Hugh (1967). The Russian empire 1801–1917 (PDF).
- Waldron, Peter (1997). The End of Imperial Russia, 1855–1917. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-312-16536-9.
- Westwood, J. N. (2002). Endurance and Endeavour: Russian History 1812–2001 (5th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 656. ISBN 978-0-19-924617-5.
Military and foreign relations
- Adams, Michael. Napoleon and Russia (2006).
- Dowling, Timothy C. (2014). Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-948-6. Archivedfrom the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-86064-847-2.
- Fuller, William C. Strategy and Power in Russia 1600–1914 (1998) excerpts Archived 25 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine; military strategy
- Gatrell, Peter. "Tsarist Russia at War: The View from Above, 1914 – February 1917." Journal of Modern History 87#3 (2015): 668–700.
- Jelavich, Barbara. St. Petersburg and Moscow: Tsarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, 1814–1974 (1974) online
- Sanborn, Joshua A. (2014). Imperial Apocalypse: The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-964205-2. Archivedfrom the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- Lieven, D.C.B. Russia and the Origins of the First World War (1983).
- Lieven, Dominic. Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace (2011).
- LeDonne, John P. The Russian empire and the world, 1700–1917: The geopolitics of expansion and containment (1997).
- McMeekin, Sean (2011). The Russian Origins of the First World War. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06210-8. Archivedfrom the original on 7 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
- Neumann, Iver B. "Russia as a great power, 1815–2007." Journal of International Relations and Development 11#2 (2008): 128–151. online Archived 18 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Saul, Norman E. Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Foreign Policy (2014) excerpt and text search Archived 25 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Seton-Watson, Hugh. The Russian Empire 1801–1917 (1967) pp 41–68, 83–182, 280–331, 430–460, 567–597, 677–697.
- Stone, David. A Military History of Russia: From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya excerpts Archived 25 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Tucker, Spencer C., ed. (2014). World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection [5 volumes]: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851099658. Archivedfrom the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- Tucker, Spencer C., ed. (2019). World War I: A Country-by-Country Guide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-6369-1. Archivedfrom the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
Economic, social, and ethnic history
- Chapman, Tim (2002). Imperial Russia, 1801-1905. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-57970-9. Archivedfrom the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. Vol. 1: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire. (Blackwell, 1998). ISBN 0-631-20814-3.
- De Madariaga, Isabel. Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great (2002), comprehensive topical survey
- Dixon, Simon (1999). The Modernisation of Russia, 1676–1825. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-521-37100-1.
- Etkind, Alexander. Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience (Polity Press, 2011) 289 pages; discussion of serfdom, the peasant commune, etc.
- Franklin, Simon, and Bowers, Katherine (eds). Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600–1850 (Open Book Publishers, 2017) available to read in full online Archived 5 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Freeze, Gregory L. From Supplication to Revolution: A Documentary Social History of Imperial Russia (1988)
- Kappeler, Andreas (2001). The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History. New York: Longman Publishing Group. p. 480. ISBN 978-0-582-23415-4.
- Milward, Alan S. and S. B. Saul. The Development of the Economies of Continental Europe: 1850–1914 (1977) pp 365–425
- Milward, Alan S. and S. B. Saul. The Economic Development of Continental Europe 1780–1870 (2nd ed. 1979), 552pp
- Mironov, Boris N., and Ben Eklof. The Social History of Imperial Russia, 1700–1917 (2 vol Westview Press, 2000) vol 1 online Archived 29 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine; vol 2 online Archived 29 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- Mironov, Boris N. (2012) The Standard of Living and Revolutions in Imperial Russia, 1700–1917 (2012) excerpt and text search Archived 25 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Mironov, Boris N. (2010) "Wages and Prices in Imperial Russia, 1703–1913", Russian Review (Jan 2010) 69#1 pp 47–72, with 13 tables and 3 charts online
- Moon, David (1999). The Russian Peasantry 1600–1930: The World the Peasants Made. Boston: Addison-Wesley. p. 396. ISBN 978-0-582-09508-3.
- Pipes, Richard (2011). A Concise History of the Russian Revolution. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-78858-0. Archivedfrom the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- Stein, Howard F. (December 1976). "Russian Nationalism and the Divided Soul of the Westernizers and Slavophiles". Ethos. 4 (4): 403–438. .
- Stolberg, Eva-Maria. (2004) "The Siberian Frontier and Russia's Position in World History", Review: A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center 27#3 pp 243–267
- Wirtschafter, Elise Kimerling. Russia's age of serfdom 1649–1861 (2008).
Historiography and memory
- Burbank, Jane, and David L. Ransel, eds. Imperial Russia: new histories for the Empire (Indiana University Press, 1998)
- Cracraft, James. ed. Major Problems in the History of Imperial Russia (1993)
- Hellie, Richard. "The structure of modern Russian history: Toward a dynamic model." Russian History 4.1 (1977): 1–22. Online Archived 5 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- Lieven, Dominic. Empire: The Russian empire and its rivals (Yale UP, 2002), compares Russian with British, Habsburg & Ottoman empires. excerpt Archived 5 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine
- Kuzio, Taras. "Historiography and national identity among the Eastern Slavs: towards a new framework." National Identities (2001) 3#2 pp: 109–132.
- Olson, Gust, and Aleksei I. Miller. "Between Local and Inter-Imperial: Russian Imperial History in Search of Scope and Paradigm." Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History (2004) 5#1 pp: 7–26.
- Sanders, Thomas, ed. Historiography of imperial Russia: The profession and writing of history in a multinational state (ME Sharpe, 1999)
- Smith, Steve. "Writing the History of the Russian Revolution after the Fall of Communism." Europe‐Asia Studies (1994) 46#4 pp: 563–578.
- Suny, Ronald Grigor. "Rehabilitating Tsarism: The Imperial Russian State and Its Historians. A Review Article" Comparative Studies in Society and History 31#1 (1989) pp. 168–179 online Archived 28 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- Suny, Ronald Grigor. "The empire strikes out: Imperial Russia,'national' identity, and theories of empire." in A state of nations: Empire and nation-making in the age of Lenin and Stalin ed. by Peter Holquist, Ronald Grigor Suny, and Terry Martin. (2001) pp: 23–66.
Primary sources
- Golder, Frank Alfred. Documents Of Russian History 1914–1917 (1927), 680pp online
- Kennard, Howard Percy, and Netta Peacock, eds. The Russian Year-book: Volume 2 1912 (London, 1912) full text in English
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Wikivoyage-Logo-v3-icon.svg/40px-Wikivoyage-Logo-v3-icon.svg.png)
- Film «Moscow clad in snow», 00:07:22, 1908 on YouTube
- The Empire that was Russia: color photographs from Library of Congress