Motives for reform

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  • Created by: keisha_
  • Created on: 11-03-15 20:13
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  • Motives for reform.
    • Nicholas I says to his son in 1855 as he is dying 'I hand over to you my command, not in as good an order as I would have liked.'
    • Russia had just have two defeats in the Crimean war. One at Inkerman in November 1854 and one at Sebastopol in October 1854.
    • Sebastopol, Russia's great naval base, had fallen to its enemies. The country was shocked and humiliated.
    • The Crimean war was started with confidence but ended badly in many respects.
    • The Crimean war had show Russia's administrative and military weaknesses, disrupted trade through the Black sea, and provoked peasant uprisings.
    • The war was concluded in 1856 when the Treaty of Paris was signed. this restricted Russia's access to the Black sea and stated that it was a neutral zone, meaning that Russia could not keep its warships there in times of peace.
    • The Russian belief that it was one of the great powers of Europe was brought into question after the Crimean war.
    • The shameful defeat led some of the more educated people such as the intelligentsia to to question the state of Russian society and its army of Serf conscripts.
    • Milyutin decided the army needed to be modernised.
    • A new way of enlisting soldiers was needed.
    • Russia's lack of communications systems and railways was also seen to contribute to wartime failures.
    • Clearly, if the systems of Serfdom were changed and the communications opened up, there was a chance for Russia to develop economically.
    • The need to reform in order to prevent further defeats found willing ears among the St Petersburg 'Party of Progress' who were Liberal civil servants and kicked about with the Tsars brother Grand Duke Constantine and his Aunt Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.

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