Tsarist Russia became an empire during Peter the Great. Russia’s victory over Napoleon raised it to the level of the world’s other super powers. But increasing social backwardness prepared the stage for revolution.
Background
By the 18th century the Age of Absolute Monarchy reached its peak. Compared to Western Europe Russia was still in the Middle Ages. There had been no renaissance, no reformation or scientific revolution.
State and society
Peter the Great radically reformed almost all walks of social and economic life. Catherine the Great granted some additional privileges to nobility and improved the local government system. But the biggest relic was serfdom, which was only formally abolished in 1861.
The next landmark was 1905 when people were finally granted basic civil liberties. By that time it was already a hundred years too late.
Foreign relations
The Swedish supremacy of the Baltic Sea was broken, Crimea taken from the Ottoman Turks and Poland divided. Victory over Napoleon gave Russia a reputation as the world’s supreme military power. That reputation, hurt by the Crimean War, disintegrated further in the years to follow. Entering World War I was a mistake that the empire did not survive.
Culture
By the 20th century the 22,2 million km2 empire was the world’s biggest colonial state. It was by no means a homogeneous state. The colonial policies varied from Russification and military dictatorship to large-scale autonomy.
1725-1762
The period between Peter the Great and Catherine the Great was the Era of Palace Revolutions. During that “second time of troubles” Russia was mostly ruled by women, and power was always seized by force.
Background
When Peter the Great died in 1725 he did not name an heir. He had 13 children with two wives. Only 3 of them survived. Peter himself had beaten his oldest son Alexey to death because Peter was disappointed in him.
Female rulers
Eighteenth-century Russia was dominated by women. Most of them seized power with a coup and had their predecessor murdered.
In 1725 Peter the Great’s wife Catherine I seized power for two years. State matters were left to her ally Alexander Menshikov.
Following young Peter II’s death of smallpox, tsarina Anna Ivanovna was elected to rule by the nobility. Her Baltic-German ally von Biron angered people with his luxurious lifestyle.
Anna had no children and she left her adopted infant child Ivan VI to rule with regent Anna Leopoldovna.
The opportunity was seized by Peter the Great’s daughter Elizabeth, who took the throne with the help of her father’s Guards regiments.
Conclusion
During that period the Guards had major role in the balance of power at the court. Without their support rulers had little ability to stay on the throne.
1762-1796
The reign of Catherine II (the Great) is known to history as the Age of Enlightened Absolutism. Two generations of people grew up enjoying freedom of speech, political stability and great victories.
Background
Peter III ruled disastrously for six months. His wife Catherine launched a coup and seized the throne without difficulty.
Enlightened monarch
Catherine continued Peter the Great’s line of modernization. She prepared drafted laws based on the views of enlightenment, but her plans went nowhere.
Patron of nobility
The great Administration Reform of 1775 increased the administrative power of the nobility, and courts and police institutions were established.
Foreign policy
At the beginning Catherine’s foreign policy was in the hands of Nikita Panin. Her marshals Suvorov, Ushakov and Potemkin greatly expanded Russian’s territory in the south and west. In 1784 Crimea was taken from the Ottomans and three partitions wiped Poland off the map.
Pugachev’s Rebellion
Catherine was an enlightened liberal only in theory. She denounced the French Revolution as a brutal act against the monarchy.
In 1773 the greatest armed revolt, constituting 100,000 Cossacks and led by Yemelyan Pugachev, was put down ruthlessly, its leader publicly executed.
1801-1825
A period of hope for liberal reforms, triumph over Napoleon and disappointment as the first constitution project failed and was replaced by autocratic governing.
Background
Alexander I’s reign began with the murder of his father Emperor Paul I. It is generally believed that he was aware of the conspiracy and hoped his father’s life would be spared.
Liberalism
In the first years of his reign Alexander I launched a series of progressive reforms. He suppressed the secret police, improved the educational system and relaxed censorship.
Expectations were very high: people hoped for a constitutional government and the abolition of serfdom. Constitution projects were presented to Alexander by Mikhail Speransky, his closest advisor. Due to the resistance of the nobility the project again went nowhere.
Napoleon
The Russian army had two shameful defeats against Napoleon, Austerlitz (1805) and Jena-Auerstedt (1806). Alexander formed a compromise alliance with Napoleon in 1807 at Tilsit. It was an alliance that predicted war.
Napoleon launched an attack on Russia in 1812 that proved fatal to France and placed Alexander among the five powers who set the new world order at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Autocracy
The second half of Alexander’s reign was dominated by his reactionary advisor Alexey Arakcheyev. Alexander withdrew into religious mysticism and died mysteriously in 1825.
1825-1855
Russia was turned into a bureaucratic police state where all aspects of life were regulated and punishments imposed. In the era of national revolutions, Russia was the “Gendarme of Europe
Background
Nicholas I was the younger brother of Alexander I. He had no interest in a constitution or liberalism. The Decembrist Revolt at the start of his reign made him constantly fear the threat of revolution.
Police state
Nicholas I’s motto was “Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationalism”, which was formulated by his Minister Sergey Uvarov.
A new organization of secret police called the “Third Department” was formed. People were monitored, books and newspapers censored, spies were everywhere, and suspects were imprisoned or exiled. It was unthinkable to talk about politics or discuss liberal ideas.
Heavy punishments were imposed for ideas that spread doubt about the authority of the tsar. Nicholas I himself was very punctual and loved order in all aspects of life.
Gendarme of Europe
In 1848 a wave of revolutions to depose old monarchies moved over Europe from Paris to Prague. Nicholas I helped other rulers protect their monarchies. In 1848 he helped Austria suppress its Hungarian Revolution.
Crimean War
The Crimean War ended with a shameful defeat and Russia had to withdraw its fleet from the Black Sea.
1855-1881
The era of liberalism and long-delayed reforms. Alexander II abolished serfdom and introduced reforms that modernized the economy and enabled Russia to enter the industrial age.
Background
Alexander II was the eldest son of Nicholas I. He was well-educated and convinced that Russia needed reforms.
Tsardom
The first thing Alexander II did was to sign the 1856 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Crimean War. He also reformed the judicial system, reduced censorship and built a railroad to the Black Sea.
Liberator
Alexander opened a debate about emancipation. The nobility opposed him, but Alexander in a famous speech concluded: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below.”
In 1861 the Emancipation Manifesto was passed. This manifesto finally declared all serfs, about 40 million people in all, free.
In 1864 local government Zemstvos were introduced, but the effect was not as expected. People grew disappointed and members of radical movements such as the Narodniks schemed to assassinate the emperor.
Assassination
In March 1881 a group of terrorists of the radical movement Narodnaya Volya killed Alexander II with a bomb.
It was not known then that he had been secretly working on the so-called Loris-Melikov constitution project.
1881-1894
Alexander III suspended all of his father’s reforms. His reign was all about repression, censorship and Russification. But most importantly it was a time of great industrial development.
Background
Immediately after ascending to the throne, Alexander III put a halt to his father’s reforms. He disbanded the legislative council, who was preparing the constitution, and became vengeful.
Repressions
Large-scale repressions were carried out by the secret police, called the Okhranka, and their network of spies. Progroms against Jews and other ethnic minorities, deportations, and the closing of newspapers and universities occurred.
Alexander III was a Russian nationalist. He launched a campaign of Russification in the border districts.
Economic growth
Alexander III’s reign was also a period of international peace and stability. Not one war took place under his rule. So the economy slowly improved in the 1890s, mainly thanks to Alexander’s Minister of Finance Sergey Witte, who negotiated foreign capital and favourable loans from France.
Soon industrial output was soaring. The construction of the world’s longest Trans-Siberian Railway was begun in 1891.
Death
Despite many assassination attempts, Alexander III died of natural causes, leaving his older son Nicholas to reign as the last emperor of Russia.
1894-1917
The reign of Nicholas II was a chain of disasters and miscalculations that took the country closer to an inevitable revolution and the end of autocratic power in Russia.
Background
The final tsar Nicholas II sincerely believed in the divine right to govern and had no intention to allow the introduction of a constitution or make any liberal reforms.
He had a tendency to take bad advice from the likes of his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna and the monk Rasputin.
Events
The 1904 Russo-Japanese War was expected to be a short, triumphant campaign but turned out to be a disastrous defeat, a reason for international shame and the cause for the loss of the entire imperial fleet.
The Revolution of 1905 began when the tsar’s armed troops opened fire on a peaceful crowd of people. The event is known as Bloody Sunday.
Bloody Sunday resulted in a wave of strikes and mutiny, and Nicholas was persuaded to grant people their basic civil rights. The document was known as the October Manifesto of 1905.
Abdication
The catastrophic results of World War I brought about the February Revolution, and Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in favour of the Provisional Government.
1914-1918
Russia paid a high price during this conflict. Of the 12 million men who fought, over 8 million were lost. The war pushed Russia directly into revolution.
Background
Russia entered World War I in August 1914 after declaring war on Austria-Hungary. Russia was backed by France and Britain. Their main goal was to invade Constantinople and Bessarabia.
Events
At the beginning a wave of patriotism unified the nation. But in two weeks it was clear that Russia had entered the war unprepared.
In August 1914 the Battle of Tannenberg left the Russian army, which was twice as big as the German forces, with 10 times more casualties.
One catastrophe followed another. The main problems were in equipment, logistics and planning. The Russians had a shortage of everything, including arms, food, and clothes.
The supreme commander of Russian forces was Grand Duke Nikolay Nikolaevich, who had no earlier experience on the battlefield. In 1915 Tsar Nicholas II replaced him. The only successful campaign was led by General Brusilov on the Austria-Hungarian front in 1916. That success was only temporary.
Results
After the February Revolution, the Provisional Government decided to continue the unpopular war.
After the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin drove Russia out of the war immediately, and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in 1918.
