Billy Restivo, Brian O'Connell, Dean Boodakian, Mark Steinbach, Nadia Eshraghi

1. Russian Empire Decline
Billy
Brian
Dean
Mark
Nadia

2. Major Problems
● The Major Problems were:
● Serfdom
● Military Defeat
● Political and Social Imbalance

3. Serfdom
● Arose because landowners could reap the
benefits of cheap labor without labeling the
labor as slavery
● Serfdom was considered a socially stable
form of labor
● Problems among serfdom began because:
● people were morally opposed
● many believed it was economically
insufficient
● peasant revolts caused chaos
● These issues arose in the nineteenth century

4. Military Defeat
● Russia looked to expand the realm in three directions at
the same time
● When it looked southwest to the Mediterranean, they
sparked tensions among the Ottomans
● Getting very involved with the Ottoman Empire meant
upsetting the balance of power in Europe
● To stop this, British, French, Sardinian, and Ottoman
forces joined and defeated Russia in the Crimean War
(1853-1856)
● This defeat showed Russia's military weakness and the
of the Russian economy based on unfree labor

5. Political and Social Imbalance
● Social imbalance arose because landowners had much
more power in society than the peasants
● Even after the emancipation of the serfs, the
government gave landowners compensation, which did
not do much to balance the roles
● Political imbalance arose because the wealthy
landowners had more power in government than
peasants
● Government established zemstvos, giving peasants a
role in politics, but they were still inferior to the nobility
and tsarist autocracy
● These problems arose in the nineteenth century with the
growing imbalance of power among the landowners and
peasants

6. The Reforms
● There are really two parts to the reforms that arise with
the problems, social and political/legal.
● The main part of the social reform was the act of getting
rid of the class of serfs.
● Some people didn't like the idea of the serf class because
it was immoral and unfair, while others were more
worried that it affected their economy too much.
● Serfs were the main cause of rebellions and rural
instability, so they were actually a cause of economic
insufficiency.
● Although the emancipation of the serfs helped the serfs
and the landowners who owned them got reimbursed
for their lost labor and land, it hurt the peasant class.

7. The Reforms continued...
● There were also reforms on the political/legal side of
things.
● zemostvos (elected district assemblies) were created to
deal with health, education, and welfare issues.
● They instituted a system of law courts filled with
independent judges and a system of appellate courts.
● Also, they instituted a trial by jury for criminal offences
and elected justices of peace to deal with minor offences.
● These reforms brought the rise of legal experts, which
also helped to decline the corrupt judiciary system.

8. The Major Players For and Against
Reform
For Reform:
Tsar Alexander II
Count Sergei Witte
intelligentsia
Land and Freedom Party
Against Reform:
Nicholas II

9. Tsar Alexander II
● Signed Treaty of Paris
in 1856, ending
Crimean War
● Abolished serfdom in
Russia in 1861
● Emancipated serfs as
a way to strengthen
labor force for the
industrialization he's
implementing in
Russia

10. Count Sergei Witte
● minister of finance from
1892-1903
● hoped to "kindle a healthy
spirit of enterprise" by
fostering industrialization
● centerpiece of his policies
was a massive railway
project that linked empire
● to raise funds, he
remodeled the state bank
and sought major loans
from Western Europe

11. The Intelligentsia
● university students
and class of
intellectuals who
sought substantial
political reform and
social change
● many were in favor
of socialism and
some were even
anarchists

12. Land and Freedom Party
● group of reformers who promoted the idea of
assassinating prominent officials to bring on
political reform
● a faction of the party, the People's Will, took
down Tsar Alexander II in 1881

13. Nicholas II
● ignored domestic
issues and looked
to expand
● Sergei Witte
convinced him to
set up the Duma,
a parliamentary
institution that
did not end
Russia unrest

14. Military Defeat and Social Reform : REFORMS
FAILED
● Russia tried to establish protectorate over the Ottoman empire,
which was gradually weakening - This effort ended up upsetting the
balance of power in Europe - military conflict between Russia and a
coalition including Britian, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and
the Ottoman Empire
● The Crimean War (1852-1856) exposed the weakness of the Russian
Empire, which could not withstand the western European army
● When the allied forces attacked against Sevastopol, the Russian
army was unable to mobilize, equip, and transport troops to defeat
the European forces (and they were not under amazing command
either) - humiliating defeat on homeland
● Russian economy was not stable enough to support the tsars’
expansion ideas - agrarian economy based on unfree labor

15. Continued...
● Emancipation of the serfs - rural instability, peasant revolts, and
a number of insurrections because it was morally wrong and was
economically inefficient
● Government tried to balance interests of lords and serfs – BUT
the emancipation was not beneficial to most of the peasants -
left peasants in debt for the majority of their lives AND led to
alienation and radicalization à little increase in agricultural
production
● Tried to deal with this issue by creating district assemblies,
zemstvos, to deal with local issues like welfare and education -
ended up staying inferior to tsarist autocracy

16. Legal Reform: REFORMS WERE MORE SUCESSFUL
● Revision of the judiciary system 1864 -
created a system of law courts based on
western European models (independent
judges, appellate courts)
● Developed trial by jury for criminal offenses,
elected justices of peace who dealt with
minor offenses
● Encouraged the appearance of attorneys and
legal experts - decline in judicial corruption

17. Short Term Outcome
● Industrialization
● Russian industrialization was set up
differently then western industrialization
because because the driving force was
political and military gain rather than
entrepreneurial initiative. This set up
discontent of the working class.
● Trans Siberian railway is created and opened
up Siberia to large scale settlement
● developed large steel and coal industries

18. Long Term Outcome
● Industrial discontent
● peasant rebellions and strikes took place due
to the low standard of living that Witte's
policy entailed.
● in 1897 the working conditions got so bad in
the cities (St. Petersburg and Moscow) that
the government limited the work day to 11.5
hours
● due to large scale rebellion, trade unions and
strikes were outlawed (but to no prevail)

19. More Long Term
● Protest
● the last three decades of the nineteenth
century brought about antigovernment
protest and more revolutionary activity
● many of the revolutionaries were anarchists
who wanted all forms of government
abolished
● Tsar's ordered the imprisonment and
banishment of the radicals trying to spread
their ideals

20. Repression
● Tsarist authorities felt threatened enough to
censor all publications and have a secret police
organization to break up radical organizations
● Repression only further angered these radicals
and encouraged them to conspire even more
● the radicals soon turned to a new group called
the Land and Freedom Party which turned to
terrorist schemes and assassination of high
ranking officials to pressure political reform

21. Revolution
● Russian military shot down 130 petitioners
● revolutionaries rioted and paralyzed the
major Russian cities, forcing the government
to make concessions

22. Short Term After Revolution
● Duma (Russia's first parliamentary
institution) was established
● ethnic tensions added to revolutionary
sentiments, and conspiracy continued due to
Duma's lack of power
● government eventually regained their power

23. Longer Term After the Revolution
● clearly the government gained too much
power as they eventually became the soviet
union!

24. Billy: 1. What the problems are, when they arise
and why they arise;
Brian: 2. What the proposed reforms are when
they arise
Mark: 3. Who the players are on both sides--for
and against reform;
Dean: 4. What the outcome is both short term
and long term:
Nadia: 5. If the reforms fail, why do they fail? If
they succeed, why do they succeed?