RUSSIA IN THE 1800'S

Since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Russian Tsars had followed a fairly consistent policy of drawing more political power away from the nobility and into their own hands. This centralization of authority in the Russian state had usually been accomplished in one of two ways--either by simply taking power from the nobles and braving their opposition (Ivan the Terrible was very good at this), or by compensating the nobles for decreased power in government by giving them greater power over their land and its occupants. Serfdom, as this latter system was known, had increased steadily in Russia from the time of Ivan the Terrible, its inventor. By the time of Catherine the Great, the Russian Tsars enjoyed virtually autocratic rule over their nobles. However, they had in a sense purchased this power by granting those nobles virtually autocratic power over the serfs, who by this time had been reduced to a state closer to slavery than to peasantry.

By the nineteenth century, both of these relationships were under attack. In the Decembrist revolt in 1825, a group of young, reformist military officers attempted to force the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in Russia by preventing the accession of Nicholas I. They failed utterly, and Nicholas became the most reactionary leader in Europe. Nicholas' successor, Alexander II, seemed by contrast to be amenable to reform. In 1861, he abolished serfdom, though the emancipation didn't in fact bring on any significant change in the condition of the peasants. As the country became more industrialized, its political system experienced even greater strain. Attempts by the lower classes to gain more freedom provoked fears of anarchy, and the government remained extremely conservative. As Russia became more industrialized, larger, and far more complicated, the inadequacies of autocratic Tsarist rule became increasingly apparent. By the twentieth century conditions were ripe for a serious convulsion.

At the same time, Russia had expanded its territory and its power considerably over the nineteenth century. Its borders extended to Afghanistan and China, and it had acquired extensive territory on the Pacific coast. The foundation of the port cities of Vladivostok and Port Arthur there had opened up profitable avenues for commerce, and the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway (constructed from 1891-1905) linked the European Russia with its new eastern territories.

In 1894 Nicholas II acceded to the throne. He was not the most competent of political leaders, and his ministers were almost uniformly reactionaries. To make matters worse, the increasing Russian presence in the far east provoked the hostility of Japan. In January of 1905, the Japanese attacked, and Russia experienced a series of defeats that dissolved the tenuous support held by Nicholas' already unpopular government. Nicholas was forced to grant concessions to the reformers, including most notably a constitution and a parliament, or Duma. The power of the reform movement was founded on a new and powerful force entered Russian politics. The industrialization of the major western cities and the development of the Batu oil fields had brought together large concentrations of Russian workers, and they soon began to organize into local political councils, or soviets. It was in large part the power of the soviets, united under the Social Democratic party, that had forced Nicholas to accept reforms in 1905.

After the war with Japan was brought to a close, Nicholas attempted to reverse the new freedoms, and his government became more reactionary than ever.  Popular discontent gained strength, and Nicholas countered it with increased repression, maintaining control but worsening relations with the population. In 1912, the Social Democrats split into two camps--the radical Bolsheviks and the comparatively moderate Menshiviks. In 1914, another disastrous war once again brought on a crisis. If the Russo-Japanese war had been costly and unpopular, it was at least remote. The First World War, however, took place right on Russia's western doorstep. Unprepared militarily or industrially, the country suffered demoralizing defeats, suffered severe food shortages, and soon suffered an economic collapse. By February of 1917, the workers and soldiers had had enough. Riots broke out in St. Petersburg, then called Petrograd, and the garrison there mutinied. Workers soviets were set up, and the Duma approved the establishment of a Provisional Government to attempt to restore order in the capital. It was soon clear that Nicholas possessed no support, and on March 2 he
abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael. No fool, Michael renounced his claim the next day.

The Provisional Government set up by the Duma attempted to pursue a moderate policy, calling for a return to order and promising reform of worker's rights.  However, it was unwilling to endorse the most pressing demand of the soviets--an immediate end to the war. For the next 9 months, the Provisional Government, first under Prince Lvov and then under Alexandr Kerensky, unsuccessfully attempted to establish its authority. In the meanwhile, the Bolsheviks gained increasing support from the ever more frustrated soviets. On October 25, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, they stormed the Winter Palace and deposed the Kerensky government.

Although the Bolsheviks enjoyed substantial support in St. Petersburg and Moscow, they were by no means in control of the country as a whole. They succeeded in taking Russia out of the war (though on very unfavorable terms), but within months civil war broke out throughout Russia. For the next three years the country was devastated by civil strife, until by 1920 the Bolsheviks had finally emerged victorious.
 

1801-1825     ALEXANDER I ROMANOV

1801                Acquisition of eastern Georgia  Sale of serfs without land prohibited

1802                 Formation of ministries

1806                 Conquest of Daghestan and Baku

1806-1815       The new Admiralty built by Zakharov

1807-1811        Reforms of Speransky

1809                  Krylov's Fables    Annexation of Finland

1812 June 24     Napoleon's invasion of Russia
August 26          Battle of Borodino
September 14    Napoleon enters Moscow
October 19        Napoleon departs Moscow

1813-1814         Alexander's pursuit of Napoleon to Paris
 
1815-1825         Ascendancy of Arakcheev

1816-1819         Abolition of serfdom in Baltic provinces

1817                   Transfer of the Makariev Fair to Nizhnii Novgorod

1817-1857         The Frenchman Montferrand builds St. Isaac's Cathedral

1818                  Karamzin's History of the Russian State

1819                  University of St. Petersburg founded

1819-1829         The Italian Rossi builds the General Staff Building on Palace Square

1821                  F. M. Dostoevsky born October 30 in Moscow
 
 

1825-1855     NICHOLAS I ROMANOV

1825             Decembrist Uprising    Griboedov's comedy Woe from Wit

1830             Briullov's painting Last Day of Pompeii  Alexander Pushkin completes Eugene Onegin

1830-1831     Polish rebellion

1832             Uvarov's three principles enunciated: autocracy, orthodoxy, nationality Alexandrine
                     Theater in St. Petersburg opened

1833             Code of Laws

1836 Nov 27  Glinka's opera Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin)  Gogol's Inspector General
                       Chadaaev's Philosophical Letters

1837             A. S. Pushkin shot in a dual with D'Anthes, dies January 29

1838             First Russian railroad--St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo  Gubernskie vedomosti first
                     published by order of the tsar

1838-1847     Belinsky works on the Notes of the Fatherland

1840             Lermontov's Hero of Our Time

1841             Ban against the sale of peasants individually

1842             Glinka's opera Ruslan and Ludmila   Gogol's Dead Souls

1846             Abolition of Corn Laws in England; increase of Russian grain exports
May 30           Peter Carl Faberge born in St. Petersburg

1847             Herzen leaves Russia forever    Belinsky's Letter to Gogol

1849             Dostoevsky sentenced to forced labor in Siberia  Russian intervention in Hungary

1851 Nov 13  St. Petersburg-Moscow railway opened

1852             Turgenev's Sportsman's Notebook

1853-1856     Crimean War

1855             Death of Nicholas I
 

1855-1881     ALEXANDER II ROMANOV

1858-1860     Acquisition from China of Amur and Maritime provinces

1859              Surrender of Shamil; conquest of Caucasus completed   Goncharov's Oblomov

1860              Founding of Vladivostok

1860-1873     First railway boom

1861              Emancipation of the serfs

1862             St. Petersburg Conservatory founded; Anton Rubinstein, director
                     The Mighty Five (Balakierev, Cui, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky)
                    announce intentions to create a school of "true Russian music"

1863              Polish rebellion
 
1863-1865    Law (courts) and education reform   Zemstvo instituted

1864-1885     Conquest of central Asia

1867 March 30 Alaska sold to the United States of America

1870 April 22    Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) is born   Mendeleyev's Principles of Chemistry

1872             Russian translation of Marx's Capital   Carl Faberge takes over his father's
                    jewelry  business

1873             Beginning of the movement "To the People" (V narod)

1876             Land and Freedom Party

1877             Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake

1877-1878       War with Turkey  March 3         Treaty of San Stefano  June 13
                        Congress of Berlin Begins

1879            People's Will Party and Black Partition

1881 March 1    Assassination of Alexander II
 

1881-1894     ALEXANDER III ROMANOV

1884           Reactionary regulations for universities

1888            Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade

1890            Borodin's opera Prince Igor
                 Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty

1891             Beginning of the Trans-Siberian railway

1891-1893        Making of the Franco-Russian alliance

1892-1903        Witte as minister of communications, finance and commerce
 
 

1894-1917     NICHOLAS II ROMANOV

1896             Disasterous production of Chekhov's The Seagull in St. Petersburg

1897 Jan 28     First all-Russian census counts 128,907,692 people

1898             Moscow Art Theater founded, produces Chekhov's Sea Gull
                     1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party (Minsk)
                     Occupation of Port Arthur

1900             Boxer Rebellion; Russia occupies Manchuria