Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In international affairs, Russia found its role sharply diminished. The rise of
a powerful Germany was one sign of Russia's declining role in Europe. So too
was the way in which Britain and Austria blocked Russian expansion in the
Balkans. Meanwhile in Central Asia and the Far East, Russian territory and Rus-
sian influence expanded notably.
Alexander III (r. 1881-94) came to power following the assassination of his
father at the hands of the revolutionary terrorists of the People's Will. He made
his primary goals the repression of revolutionary groups and the preservation
of order. The dominant force of his reign was political and social reaction. He
tried to stabilize the countryside by returning power to the gentry and curbing
the rights of the
zemstvo
, rural institutions of self-government, established by the
Great Reforms of his father. Most other reforms of the 1860s were also cur-
tailed. A policy of Russification of non-Russian groups also aimed at maintain-
ing a stable, conservative order.
And yet, Alexander III was also concerned with promoting industrial growth
to maintain Russia's status as a great power. Paradoxically, this industrial growth
promoted social and political change of the kind that so worried the czar and his
government. In foreign affairs, the key event was the end of Russia's alliance
with Germany, followed by a new link to France, surprising many observers who
could not picture reactionary Russia allied to republican France.
Buffeted by government repression and increasingly convinced that terror-
ism was an ideological dead end, some revolutionaries turned to Marxist ideals
to question the foundations of Russian society and provide a revolutionary
alternative to the agrarian socialist vision that had long dominated debate in
radical circles.
At the turn of the 20th century, the new czar, Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917) and
his government struggled against growing problems at home and abroad.
Nicholas tried to maintain the existing political and social order but faced
increasing opposition. Like those of his father's government, the policies of
Nicholas II produced deep changes that eventually contributed to the destabi-
lization of the imperial order. Under the guidance of Minister of Finance Sergei
Witte, Russia followed a policy of rapid industrialization that was certain to
shake the whole system.
A nationwide revolution exploded as a result of the military disasters and
strains on the home front of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. The revolution
reached its peak in the final months of 1905. Faced with a threat to the monar-
chy itself, Nicholas reluctantly issued the October Manifesto, which seemed to
pledge a constitution and a representative body, or Duma. Between 1906 and
1914, Russians economic development continued and the country moved halt-
ingly toward a constitutional monarchy. One of Nicholas II's few able ministers,
Peter Stolypin, showed that imaginative land reforms could be instituted in the
countryside.
Nonetheless, Russia's future remained uncertain. The monarchy resisted
political change, while radicals were committed to the overthrow of the exist-
ing system. In international affairs, Russia was increasingly involved in a dan-
gerous rivalry with Austria in the Balkans that, in conjunction with a system of
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