How "liberal" was the Russian Government from 1855-81? (Depth Study 1)
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- Created on: 24-10-20 13:49
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- How "liberal" was Russian government from 1855-1881?
- Changes to government
- The Tsar made only a minor change to the central government - Personal Chancellery was abolished in 1861 and replaced with Council with Minister
- Changes to local government
- Introduction of zemstva (regional councils) after the emancipation of the serfs
- The Tsar was forced to introduce an element of democracy at the local level
- Liberal members of the zemstva were critical of the regime as they felt the Tsar was unresponsive to their demands
- Zemstva were dominated by nobility which made the democracy questionable
- Zemstva actually did some good work with education, public health and local economies
- local knowledge lead to effective help
- Education reforms
- schools open to all classes
- Number to students increased to 800,000 during the 1860s
- 23,000 primary schools in the countryside by 1880 (from 8,000 in 1856)
- University numbers increased
- Short-lived independence after revolution disturbances
- schools open to all classes
- Other reforms
- Judicial reforms
- Aimed to make a more just and uncorrupted system
- Positives: introduced trial by jury, replaced serf owners with local magistrates, and made judges independent from the gov. and better paid
- Negatives: shortages of lawyers, and peasants were trialled in different courts so not fully equal
- Censorship
- relaxation of censorship to encourage the growth of books
- Around 800 books published between 1855-64, and the public was more educated
- Strict censorship returned after growth in radicalism in the 1870s
- Economic reforms
- Encouraged foreign investments into railways
- Boosted fuel and engineering industries and helped grain producers
- Few railways produced a profit
- Judicial reforms
- Opposition
- Populist Movement: Slavophiles who wanted peasant communes
- Splinter group (People's Will) who was very radical and assainated gov. officials
- including the Tsar in 1881
- Didn't like the zemstva as it was a western idea
- Changes to government
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