The Six Key Themes: Alexander III

Alexander III did not expect to become Tsar. His older brother had been given the education of his father in order to become Tsar, yet passed away. Coming into power after his father was assassinated, Alexander III was a reactionary. He published the Manifesto of Unshakeable Autocracy in April of 1881, and while he paid respect to his fathers reign, Alexander III announced that he would rule with "faith in the strength and truth of autocratic power" and began the work of reversing reform (the few steps forward made under his rule were in the economy and industrialisation).

• Pobedonostsev, Alexander III's childhood tutor,  was appointed as Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod. He denounced the Loris-Melikov proposals as a slippery slope towards westernisation. After this, Loris-Melikov and Milyutin, along with other liberal ministers, resigned and were replaced with conservatives such as Tolstoy as Minister of the Interior.
• The Statute of State Security was passed in 1881, allowing the government to prohibit gatherings, prosecute any individual for political crime, introduce emergency police rule, create external courts and close schools and media.
• The Okhrana was established as a new secret police.
• The Minister of Justice could order a trial to be held in private and appoint judges, who lost their security of tenure.
• University staff were to be appointed by the Minister of Education, courses for women were closed, the Church gained control of primary education and fees were raised to exclude peasants from the education system.
• The zemstva came under control of the Minister of Interior, where their peasant representation was reduced. However they still took part in helping people during of the famine of 1891-1892.
• The 1892 Municipal Government Act cut those eligible to vote drastically in favour of rich property owners.

Revolutionary groups were suppressed, and became an undercurrent under Alexander III. Any openly revolutionary parties were short-lived, however the ideals of socialism among many remained. The People's Will suffered greatly during this time, as their terrorist acts were always followed by a great wave of arrests. Even so, their name had become no longer fitting, as the public had become repulsed by their violent tactics and disturbed by their assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

The Okhrana uncovered many a plot againsts the Tsar and his buerocracy, however this led them to become paranoid and increase captial punishments for political criminals. One such victim was the older brother of the young Lenin.

Much of the opposition to the Tsar at this time came from those elected to the zemstva, who were mostly liberals. While the Tsar disliked these people, they were reformatory rather than revolutionary and therefore not seen as a threat. Many officials working in the zemstva saw the 1891-1892 famine as proof that they could govern Russia better than the Tsar could - as an elected Parliament.

Alexander III did pass some progressive policies during his reign. They were mainly in relation to the economy and industrialisation rather than he more politically polarizing social reforms of his father, though they helped society too.

• 1883: the Peasants' Land Bank was introduced, helping peasants to buy land.
• 1883-87: Bunge abolished the poll tax and lowered redemption payments. Overall tax was later increased again by Vyshnegradsky, so the tax burden felt by the peasants wasn't changed much overall.
• 1885: the Nobles' Land Bank was set up, helping Nobles pay of debts and invest in land.
• Child labour and hours worked by women at night were given restrictions during this time, as well as provision of compulsory education for younger factory children and factory inspectors monitored their working conditions.
• 1896: Witte put the Russian currency on the Gold Standard, encouraging foreign investment.
• 77.5% of industrial workers worked in metallurgy, and the Russian economy grew 3% per year from 1885 to 1913.

While these reforms were helpful, under Vyshengradsky the social aspect was ignored in favour of the economic gains.

• Taxes, tariffs, and grain exports were all driven up.
• In 1891-1892, multiple failed harvests in the Volga region caused famine while grain continued to be exported. The word "famine" was banned in some newspapers at this time, the government provided lacking aid in the form of a lottery, and the zemstva were left to provide food for the starving people around them. This led many zemstvo liberals to believe themselves to be better at governing than a Tsar, increasing desire for an elected Parliament.

After the stifiling and slow improvements of economy and industry under Alexander II, there was a boom under Alexander III. This was due to economic reforms and heavy industrialisation, and involved:

• Witte contructed 27,000km of railway & telegraph lines, modernising the culture of peasant communes by the rails due to the influx of outsiders and possibility of trade.
• Urban population across whole Empire increased from 7 million in 1867 to 28 million in 1917. Most of these were former peasants who entered the cities to become urban workers in hopes of a better life.
• By 1914: electric street lighting, cinema, theatre, opera, ballet, new museums, department stores and popular press became widespread. However, only 74 towns had access to electricity and many homes were still lit by kerosine lamps.
• St Petersburg became the unhealthiest and most expensive city in the world.

Russification:

• The Orthodox Church carried out a policy of forced conversion, with approximately 100,000 Muslim Tartars becoming Christians before reverting back to Islam, due to the power of Pobedonostsev. In places such as Latvia, however, investments were made into the Orthodox churches and people, and schools taught exclusively orthodox curriculums in order to incentivise people to convert.
• Laws were also passed restricting the use of Polish and Ukrainian as languages in order to prevent the rebellion due to a rise in nationalism, as a large portion of the Empires population was Ukranian, and they provided a large concentration of grain exports.

The mainstream ideology continued to be that of the slavophile, with intense emphasis on Orthodoxy and the Russian people as a collective's way of living. The ideology permiated every facet of government due to the death of Alexander II, which was attributed to the Western ideals that inspired his reforms. Alexander III stated that he "would not grant Russia a consitution for anything on Earth," as slavophile ideals led him (under the influence of Pobedonostsev) to reverse his fathers reforms and enact intense Russification on the national minorities whom he ruled over.

Socialist views were repressed during this period, as the universities in which they were promoted came under heavy survaillence, and the workers who they were promoted to were executed at the first sign of disobedience to the Tsar.

Individuals:

• Lenin's brother was executed under Alexander III, likely furthering his revolutionary stance.
• Trotsky, Martov, Zinoviev and Kaminev were all subject to vicious pogroms and abuse due to their status as Jewish at this time and later became leading members of the Bolshevik party.
• Bunge pulled the economy up with land banks, Vyshnegradsky squeezed the peasants, and Witte encouraged travel and foreign investment.

Groups:

• Women lost the ability to attend university courses, but were given more work regulations.
• The national minorities under Alexander III were horrifically oppressed (many being forced or coerced into converting to orthodoxy and banned from speaking their languages), which led many of them to join revolutionary groups. The nationalist movement was strong in Poland and developing in Ukraine.
• Jewish people were targeted and seen as revolutionaries and Christ killers by the Tsar. They were forced to live in what was known as the "Pale", couldn't own property or land in rural areas, hold government office, vote, trade or sell products like liquor (forcing them to sell their businesses), or work in legal, military, and medical occupations. They could also be deported if found living outside of the Pale. Pogroms were also enacted against them, leading to awful violence, which were backed and even sometimes planned by the Minister of the Interior -  Pobodenostsev said that "a third will convert, a third will leave, and a third will die". Huge numbers of Jews emigrated to western Europe, particularly in the 1880s, while many of those who remained joined revolutionary groups.