Furthermore, given his upbringing at the hands of AIII and Pobedonostsev, NII was firmly committed to tsarist Conservatism. He wished to maintain autocracy as the God-given and ordained structure of political power in Russia. He believed that democracy would lead to the collapse of the Russian empire. and pledged to uphold autocracy as firmly as his father had in his coronation speech in 1895 (in which he also dismissed claims of democrats as "senseless dreams".)
NII’s refusal to adapt politically to the changing social and economic conditions in Russia at the turn of the century was re-inforced by his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, who was a strong believer in autocracy and could persuade NII not to listen to those moderates who argued that some reform was needed to save the tsardom.
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Key Problems
Backwards economy - needs to modernise and industrialisein order to compete with Britain, France etc and remain a ‘Great Power’. A strong industrial economy was essential if Russia were to remain an important military power. This meant a concentrated effort would be needed to move Russia away from its backwards and agriculture-dominated economy.
National poverty- backwards and inefficient agricultural economy struggled to feed the rapidly growing population, let alone provide the government with any surplus for national security etc. Furthermore, the ‘peasant problem - of ‘land hunger’, low income, debt and starvation - was liable to lead to uprisings and revolts which threatened the stability of the tsarist regime. Modernisation as a means to employ, and pacify, overflow of workers in the countryside.
Dangers of modernisationin terms of social and economic forces it released, which would challenge the tsarist regime and leader to still greater political opposition - i.e. calls for parliament and democracy would be greater if an industrial working class living and working in poor conditions develops in cities, and with the growth of an educated workforce and the middle classes. Key issue: how to get the political benefits of economic modernisation without making concessions to opposition calls for political change?
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