HISTORY OF RUSSIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-03362A000500160001-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: PAPER

UNCLASSIFIED
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The history of the '_zssian state may be divided into two component
parts--the period from the earliest beginnings of the Russian Slavs to
the revolutionary upheaval in 1917 which marked the down all of the
Russ an empire and the rise of the modern state of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics,
The Early Slavs
The history of the ~17..-.ssian Slavs first takes shape in the ninth and
(Russian) Slavs occupied the southern steppe region of Russia between
the Dnepr and 'Jh.estr (Dniester) rivers as early as the third and four
centuries A.D.
in the marshy Pripyat River area between the Vistula and th,.,eDnepr__.
tDnierer) rivers, Some authorities state that a federation of caste
which had originated, along vd th the movements of other Slavic people
tenth centuries, when these people had already become an organized
political coTmni pity occurVing the main waterways between the Baltic
the Ulack seas.. They had settled in this region after migrations
with the Orient via the Russian vratei-ways. The Varangians first
encountered the Russian Slavs in the Lake Ilmen area, a northern
outpost of Slvaic migration. In the middle of the ninth century the
Varang~ans began their advance toward the Black Sea, taking over
existing trading posts along the water routes and consolidating a
prosperous trading system. By the twelfth century they had been lar
Tissifiod and were the militant ruling class.
By the first of the ninth century a new movement southward had
started{ This originated with the penetration into the northern fore
area of Scandinavian Varangians (Vikings) seeking trade opportunities
Piyovan Russia
Tradition attributes the founding of the so-called Kiyevan state,
which lasted from the ninth into the thirteenth century, to the Varangian
prince Ruik, .who eet ,b ished . hhirnsc lf' at. N&vgoiiad, probably. eueral :rSrcars
b, fora 862, and to his relative, 01eg (879-912)) who, as regent for the
.linor Igor, brought both Novgorod and Kiyov under his power. Kiyev
soon became the "mother of Russian pities" and the center of political
power, the scat of the grand prince a Defencling the river trade route
to Constantinople (ancient Byzantium, modern Istanbul) against nomads
from the steppes, especially the )40 mile cataracts on the Dnepr, became
the task of the grand princes of Kiyovr; The Bulgars, Khazars, and
Pechenogs (Patzinaks) made hazardous the half--trade and half-military
Russian expeditions to Constantinople, of which there were at least
four.
During the reign of Vladimir (980-1015) political power apparently
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was stabilized along the river trade route, the Orthodox Christianity
of. Constantinople was adopted c, 959, and Byzantine institutions
and culture were introduced. Generally, Vladimir gave political and
cultural unity to his state and raised it far above its former pagen
level:
when Vladimir died he was succeeded by Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054),
emerged triumphant after four years of fratricidal
who, of his twelve scns
strife, Ya.roslav crushed the Pecheriegs in 1036, rega _.n3d. Galicia from the
Poles, and fought a last, but indecisive, war with Cons't.antirioplen In his
reign originated the Russian Truth, Russkaya Pravds, the first Russian code
of law? Based on Byzantine models of the eighth and ninth centuries,this
brought order and unity into Russian legal and political institutions. To
regulate the succession, he instituted a remarkable .rotation system, the
succession being vested in the oldest male in the entire family, members
of which ruled over six different regions according to age and importance
in a sort of aristocratic federacy of cities in which there were popular
assemblies. A council of boyars advised the grand prince.
This system, revolving about Kiyev as a pivot and based on the river
trade route known as the Great '"Waterway, lasted about a century. Grand
Prince Vladimir Monomakh (1113-1125), sometimes described as the King
Alfred of Russian history, was the last of its effective rulers. Andrew
Rogolyubsky (1157-1175), who became grand prince of Kiyev in 1169, shifted
his capital to Vl&:dimir, located in the upper Volga River basin, not far
from the future site of Moscow? He also abandoned the rotation system
for'direct descent in his own family. Later, the old system disintegrated
as a result of the decline of Constantinople, begun even before the
domination of the Latins after the Fourth Crusade (1204); the rise of the
and Swedes on the Baltic; and, finally, the Mongol Tatar invasions of
Russia, beginning in 1223 and ending in the sack of Kiyev in 1240? These
factors, coupled with such internal developments as civil strife among
the princes and migration to the Volga Basin, caused the gradual and
total disappearance of the so-called Kiyevan state. Originally based
on agriculture in forest-cleared areas tilled by free peasants, bondmen,
and slaves, and on extensive trade carried on by the boyars in furs, wax,
forest products, and slaves, the old waterway system which had supported
the state declined when its Black and Baltic sea areas ceased to function
as termini of lucrative trade,,.
Rise of the Moscovite State,,
The next period of Russian history has been epitomized as follows:
"Moscow, an insignificant blockhouse, ostrog, built in the first half of
the twelfth century, on an insignificant river b?r an insignificant princeling,
became in the course o time, the pivot of an empire extending into two, and
even three, contients_,,,' The city was built in a region of portages, the
heart of Russian lTesopotamia, making communication possible with all the
major rivers and trade routes of European Russia and Siberia. To a large
extent, this helps to explain how the principality of Moscow became the basis,
first of the Russian or Great Russian nation, and then of the empire.
Besides improved geographical position, Moscow benefited by the (_.ii
acquisition of a line of princes from Daniel, son of Alexander Nevsky,
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who, 1, Ice the princes of VLadim r, established the rule of primogeniture,
and had many sons , These princes particularly ?,mew rihen to bow before
and when to fih their overlords, the Tatar khans,, for whom they became
not only tribute gatherers, but viceroys to the other Russian princes
x~;cosecured
:"hey were gniLed as after 1128 grand princes of Moscow, and t
for L oscow the residence of the metropolitan of Russia,, j' eir influence
helped to create na t!.ona.]. unity to back them when they challenged the
weakening newer of the Tatars, first at Kulikovo in 13f C under Dmitri
Donskoy, and finally under Ivan III in 1.1:80, when they a.-:1.d themselves of
Tatar rule,
Russian 1lationalism
Eventually, by inheritance, purchase, and seizure, the grand princes
of Moscow acquired control of all the major principalities of old
Russia. In addition to i'ovgorod and its vast hinterland, Pormia was
conquered in 1472, and Vyatka in 1489. Under Ivan III (1462-1505),
called the Great, the Russian national state first attained consolidation
and political independence? After his marriage in 1472 to Zoe, daughter
of Thomas of i'Iorea .a'nt?,_?,d"niece of the last Byzantine emperor, the title
of autocrat was used to designate the ruler of Moscow, ir.hic1.yrfter the
fall of Con --antinople in 11,3, was called the Third Rom26 'Stabilization
of the Muscovite state was indicated by a now larw code, ted in 1497;
a now system of precedence for the aristocracy, r,iiestnichestvo; and a
reorganized administration, including a fixed number of members for the
Duma of Boyars and eight to ten bureaus, Prikazes, with secretaries,
Diaki,
~Tho period of two centuries including the reigns of Ivan the
`Terrible, or the Dread (1533-1584), and his successors, to Peter the
Great (1689--1.725), was to pose the fundamental problems of whether
Russia was to be ruled by a feudal aristocracy of boyars or by an
autocratic tsar, and whether the Muscovite state was to remain landlocked
or roach the seas and become an empire. It tires in the reign of Peter
the Great that Russia-became an autocracy and an empire.
Ivan's illness in 1553 led to brooding and to mental instability in
which suspicion that the boyars granted to supplant him played a signifi-
cant part. His wife, to whom he was much dovotcd, died in 1560. In
1564 he suddenly loft the Kremlin in Moscow by sledge, It became apparent
that he wanted to create an autocratic state and to remove the threat of
feudal boyar rule0 He gathered followers, and for two decades the boyars
were banished, their estates confiscatced, while the peasants, still half
serf, half free, began to flee south from the central regions. Ivan the
Dread had begun in earnest the conflict between autocrat and boyar;
between the landlord, who was henceforth. to be a member of the military
serving class, and the peasant, who sought to escape serfdom; and between
Russia and the countries which lay between it and the seas.
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The Time of Troubles
Those elements, under Ivan's son, the subnormal Fydor I (1584-
1598 ). and the latter's brothor-i nR-law, Tsar Boris Godunov (1-598-1605).,
developed into the Time of Troubles, 1505 to 1613, which in many respects
was a political, economic and social revolution. The dynasty had died
out with Fydor I. The boyars conspired to seize power.. first by rceog--
nizing the false Demetrius and, haying attained this ol-'-ectivc., by
elccvy1.n ; as tsar a boyar., Basil Slllt. z sky, who ruled from ~ t .^
..5o6 to 16104
Then, after they had disavowed and dethroned Basil, the :throne remained
vacant while the Poles and Swedes seized territories and the boyars
bargained with Ladislas, son of King Sigismund of Poland., for the crown,
subject to the recognition of their conditions of aristocratic domination,
But King Sigismund wanted the throne for himself, a circumstance which
created a national reaction among the Russians, especially among the
middle landowning groups, serving men, and city represen tatives,
The First Romanovs
National sentiment finally turned to a seventeen-year-old native
son, 2P ichael i omaxzov (1596-162 5 ), who did not belong to the boyar class
but was young enough to be acceptable to it. Ho was elected tsar by
the Zomsky Sobor on Fob,, 21, 1613,,
In the reign of Tsar Michael's successor, Alexis (1645-1676), the
Cossacks, who had played a social revolutionary role in alliance with the
peasants in the Time of 'roubles, swarmed southward into Polish Ukraine
toward the Black Sea. Later defeated by the Polish landlords, their
loader, offered the Ukraine as a protectorate to the tsar. The Zemsky
Sobor, after some hesitation in the face of certainty of war with Poland
and Turkey., accepted the offer in 165L..
The law code, Ul_ozhenie, of 16Li9 confirmed the onsorfmont of the
Russian peasantry and the virtual enserfinent of the other classes. The
patriarch Hikon, who had the old books and rites corrected, inspired the
religious council of 1667 to excommunicate those who believed in the old
texts and practices, and thus created the historic Russian schism,
raskol. T,-iis was not, however, :a. reformation in the 1estorn sense, for
?.lussi was not to experience either the Renaissance or the Reformation,,
Peter the Groat
The Russian Empirc.t It was Peter the Groat (1689--1725) who laid
the basis for the Rw.ssiai empire, During the period after the death of
Fydor III in 1682 and Peter's assumption of powor in 1689 at the ago of
seventeen, his half-sister, Sophia., in collusion with her favorite,
Prince Basil Golitsyn, and with the assistance of the Strolitzy, made .?
herself regent and the feeble Ivan, Peter's half-brother, a co-tsar
AStor reign which was remarkable in internal policy as indc ' g the
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beginnings of changes which wore to come but was a failure in relations
with the Crimean Tatars and the Chinese, she was deprived of power by a
coup dtctat vh.ich sent her to a convent and Golitsyn into exile, and put
Peter on the throne,. The latter continued to play at war games and
consort with foreigners, among them especially Fran9ois Lefort, a Svriss.
The campaign for Azov, a Dort on the Sea of Azov, was undertaken by
Peter in 1695 and led to the inception of the Russian Navy through the
building of a fleet on the Don River at Voronezh, Azov was captured in
1696, but this victory did not and hostilities against the Crimean
Tatars or the Turks, To secure a European alliance against them and to
obtain the latest western knowledge on shipbuilding and war industry,
Peter travel ad in the ;rest in 1697 and 1698. Ho was unable to secure
a coalition against Turkey, and for that reason, after patching up a
temper wry peace with nirkey, ho joined the Northern Coalition a ainst
Sweden, the objective of which was to partition Swcdenrs Baltic empire
when the young and inexperienced Charles XII came to the throne. This
led to the Northern Jar, which was to last for two decades,
Peter's medieval army was disastrously defeated at Narva in 1700
by Charles XII, who, instead of finishing off Russia, which he could
easily have done, turned his efforts toward defeating Poland and Denmark,.
Granted this reprieve, Peter began the reorganization of his armed forces.
He invaded the region of the Nova River from the north while Sheromotiov
came up from the south, founded St. Petersburg in 1703, and in the next
year seized Narva and Tartu, thus securing access to the Baltic. Five
years later, when Charles XII returned from victory in Poland to dispose
of Russia, he was defeated by Peter in the battle of Poltava, July 8,
1709. This led to Russia's involvement in war with Turkey, which came
near to being a complete disaster. At the Peace of Prut (1711) Azov
was lost, but, with control of Poland restored, the Russians, after the
death of Charles XII in 1718, ravaged Sweden, forcing the Peace of
Nystadt (1721) whereby Russia secured Ingormanland, Estonia, and Livonia,
and -carts of Finnish territory west of Lake Ladoga. In other words,
secure access to the Baltic Sea had boon obtained and this was to last
until 1920.
Reforms of Peter the Great
Peter the Groat's reforms wore eminently utilitarian, They came
opportunistically and at critical times, At their base was reorganization
or modernization of the aimed forces, which necessitated reforms in
nearly all aspects of Russian life. Industry was encouraged, especially
that of the Urals, which helped to save Russia than, as in World "Tar II.
A new system of ministries, called colleges after the Swedes, as irefl
as of provinces, bornii, was introduced after 1718. Adoption in 1722
of the new Table Ranks with obligatory service for landowners, either
in the army or civil service, meant that they, like the peasants, were
ensorfod,. After the first census of 1718 a poll tax on serfs tended to
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.algamato them into a single class, In 1711 the now Senate took the
place of the extinct Duna of Boyars,, After 1700, when Patriarch Adrian died,
no new patriarch w-ras appointed, and in 1721 a synod of higher clergy was
ostablis,119
?.jn_his place; it had power only in the affairs of the
church Education for future officials, technicians, and scientists was
encouraged, and in 1724 the Russian Academy of Sciences was established,
Three years before he died, Peter changed the lair of succession so-tha
he could none his successor, but he died Jan, 28, 1725, without naming
one, after helping to put his ovn recalcitrant son, Alexis, to death,
His reign had marked the culmination of three centuries of development-
from the rule of the boyars to that of the autocrat, and from a landlocked
national state to an empire extending over two continents and ruling
many peoples.
Peter the Groat's Successors
So well had Peter the Great reorganized the state that he could be
followed without disaster for three decades by six rulers, including
three women (two dissolute), a boy of ttrelve, an infant of one year, and
a madnan, Russia adopted a single tariff, government banks encouraged
economic development, and such educational institutions as the universities
of St, Petersburg (1747), and ldipscoyr, y(l7 5) wore founded under the advice
of Count Ivan Shuvolo- Sri foreign affairs, Russia played a decisive
role in the Seven ars' "Tar and could easily have decided the fate of
Prussia had it not been for the death of Elizabeth and the accession in
1762 of Peter III (1728-1762), son of Anna Potrovna, whose idol was
Frederick the Groat, Peter II:r, a madnan, reversed the policy of Russia
from war against Prussia to one of alliance? He liberated the gentry
from service to the state and began the confiscation of church lands,
;then he was about to divorce his German wife, Catherine, formerly
Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, she seized power with the help of the gathering
opposition, and banished him to the estate of Ropsha, where he was
murdered,
Catherine II
By contrast with her husband, Catherine II (1762-1796), had become
completely Russian in her outlook. Brilliant, capable, and vain, she
extended the limits of empire over large portions of Poland, and to the
shores of the Black Sea, She made Russia a groat power in Europe.
Interrupted in her ambition to be a law-giver by calling an assembly
and drawing up a code, Catherine II prosecuted triumphantly the war with
Turkey, 1768.1774, forced upon her by France. At the peace of Kuchuk
Kainarji, July 10, 1774, a largo section of the Black Sea coast to the
Bug River was obtained; also, the Orthodox Church was ponnittod in
Constantinople, developing into later claims for the protection of
all Orthodox Christians in Turkey, Although Peter the Greatts Polish
policy had boon to control all of Poland, Russia was obliged by Prussia
during the war with Turkey to participate in Poland's partition in 1772,
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The most important national achievement of Catherine II was the
reorganization in 1775 of the provincial government which provided
political, judicial, and financial functions ,ahd assenblios for the
;entry,. Also, a start in municipal self-government was made in 1785.
The serfs resented the liberation of the gentry from service to the
state and yearned to be free, As a consequence, it was not difficult
for the Cossack malyan Ivanovich Pugachev to call himself Peter III and
in 1773 to arouse the peasants. His hordes olong the Volga, however,,
were no match for the Russian army, which remained loyal to Catherine II,
This rebellion and the French Revolution turned her from the pretense of
liberalism to that of demonstrative reaction, Her system of favorites
cast a lurid light upon a reign othon-dse remarkable,.
In 1796 Paul I (1754-1801), the son of Catherine II and Peter III,
came to the throne at the -go of forty-four, knowing that his mother had
pushed him aside to rule herself, and suspicious that she had wished to
pass him over for his otvan son. His reign was a series of contradictions
and confused efforts to reverse Catherinets policies, He proposed to
help the surfs by indicating that three days of labor per weak for the
landlords was sufficient, but he gave array in grants the land on which
they lived. At first reversing Catherine lies policy toward Fra4nce, he
fought the French Directory in 1798; then, in 1801, he planned an expedition
jointly with Napoleon for the conquest of India. Faced with abdication,
he was murdered on the eve of this campaign. His son Alexander was
implicated. In 1797, by ukase,, Paul had promulgated a law of succession
which established primogoniture in his own immediate family and defined
the appanages, ranks, and titles in the irnnerial family as a whole,
This statute remained the basic law until the end of the dynasty in
1917.
Alexander I
Alexander I (1777-1825), oldest son of Paul I, began his reign in
1801 as a liberal reformer and ended as a reactionary,. He aspired to
J-ve Russia a constitution and Europe a federation. The liberal teachings
in his youth of the Si^iss, Fr 'd(ric Ca"sar do La Harpo, and the advice of
such liberals as Novosiltscv, Stroganov, Prince Kochubey, and the Polish
prince Adam Czartorysky led him at the very start to stop the reactionary
development encouraged by his father and to consider extensive reforms,
a .ong them even a constitution liT.iiting autocracy, and providing for
the abolition of serfdom? Actual developments, however, were very limited,
The Senate was given increased powers in 1802, and lando hers were
permitted to free their serfs by mutual agreement without obligation to
assign land to then,
The ?War of the Third Coalition against Napoleon, in which Russia
joined, broke out in 1805, It led to Russian defeats at Austerlitz in
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December 1805, and Friedland on Juno 1L, 1807, bringing Napoleon to
Poland and East Prussia, The Peace of Tilsit, July 9, 1807, created the
duchy of Warsaw (out of Prussi.a's l793 and 1795 acquisitions) under the
king of Saxony, and gave the area of Bialystok to Russia, The two
powers, unable to bring about peace with England and Turkey, proceeded
to consolidate their positions. Russia went to war with Sweden, winning
Finland as a grand duchy in 1809, and continued the war with Turkey
until 1812, acquiring Bessarabia, with the Prut River and the Kilia
mouth of the Danube as boundaries. In 1809, during this period of
so-called Franco-Russian solidarity, 3-M:ikhail Sperajisky drew up a plan
for a constitution in which the Russian Duma was to be created by
successive elections of deputies from the dumas in cantons, districts,
and provinces. Its power was to be limited to motions on its views of
problems of state, while the Council of State, headed by the emperor, was
to draft the laws. The Senate was to retain only judicial power. Of
these ideas, only the Council of State was established; ministries,
including one for education (the first in Europe), were reorganized in
1810 and 1811. The idea of giving serfs civil rights was abandoned,
The work done by Speransky on the code of law served later as a basis for
one in the reign of Nicholas I,,
l Russian national reaction and friction with Napoleon led to the
break between Russia and France in June 1812. At the bottom, the defection,
of Russia f
th
rom
e Continental System and Russian suspicions of Napoleon's
objectives with regard to the duchy of 'Uarsaw played their part. The
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Al
a
d
,
ex
n
er, as
well as his commander in chief, General 2;LiYtki i Iiutuzov, became immensely
popular as a result of the battle for Smolensk on August 2 and that at
Borodino on September 7. Napoleon captured Moscow on September 1 4., and
the city soon went up in flames, Unable to winter in Moscow or to
bring Alexander to sue for peace, Napoleon began his long retreat on Oct*.
15, 1812, It met disaster on the highway from Moscow to Smolensk, and
on November 26-28, at the crossing of the river at Berezina, the French
Army barely escaped annihilation. Contrary to Russian opinion, Alexander
took an active part in the vrar to liberate Europe, 1813-1815, and in the
Congress of Vienna, at which he sought to secure all of Poland by
offering to give it a liberal constitution. In this he was blocked by
England and Austria, with France assisting, His mystical character
was aroused. His original conception of the Holy Alliance---a confederation
of Christian princes giving their states constitutions in line with
their political development----eras used by Totternich at the congresses of
Troppau (1820) and Verona (1822) as a symbol of reaction to justify
intervention in countries in revolt,
Revolutionary Movement
Russia received the Congress' k'ngdom of Poland (with an organic
statute giving Poles certain rights), which was larger than its previous
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%we
share of that country, but Prussia and Austria retained a large portion
of their previous Polish territories,, Beginning with the Congress of
Troppau, Alexander turned reactionary because of fear of revolution at
home. Ho refused to support the Greek insurrection and, with his reactionary
minister, Aloxci Arakcheyev, watched the growth of secret political
societies until, after much vacillation, he ordered an inquiry. His
sudden death at Taganrog, Dec. 1, 1825, was followed by the December
uprising, caused by the refusal of Nicholas to accept the throne until
his older brother, Constantine, who had refused to leave Viarsaw for St.
Petersburg, had publicly announced that he had secretly renounced the
throne in 1823. It was only on Dec,, 26, 1825, that Nicholas I called on
the troops to swear allegiance to him and to fire on the mutineers and
the public,
Nicholas I
Nicholas I (1796-1855) was trained by a reactionary, but he was a
reactionary sui goneris. He believed in gradual and just reform under
his autocratic control, Hence he had nothing to do with the reactionaries
of the last five years of his father's reign, or with radicals who
wanted take things into their own hands., The Docembrists, or Dokabristy,
were members of the upper classes, They were chiefly army officers who
had sewed in Russian armies which had followed Napoleon into Europe, and
who, upon their return, had joined with intellectuals to transform
baclarard Rassia. Some of them, especially the LIuravi1vs in the north,
were influenced by German prototypos and favored a federal constitutional
monarchy; i i t e south, the Postal advocated a centralized republican
goverrunent.. They wore disporsod on the streets of St. Petersburg after
charging that Nicholas was a usurper, but later the tsar used memoranda
written at their trials for an inquiry into possible reforms for Russia*
Five of the conspirators wore hanged and the others exiled to Siberia.
Believing that ministries should attend only to routine work,
Nicholas I developed the Empororts Personal Chancellery, where he could
watch over and apply executive control to government institutions.
Under this chancellery, he developed the secret police into an important
agency, later knavm as the Third Section, an ancestor of the G.P.U. -
The problem of serfdom, made critical by the numerous peasant mutinies,,
led to the law of 1842, by which landowners were permitted to liberate
their serfs, and, in contrast to the law of 1803, with a grant of the
land they were using. How ever, the law was not compulsory. In 1846-
1847 regulations calling for compulsory liberation with land wore pro--
mulgated in areas formerly held by Poland and in Russian Poland proper?
The Polish revolution of 1830, ahich was put down at the expense of
abrogation of the Polish oonstitution, and the revolutions of 1848 in
western and central Europe influenced Nicholas more and more in a reactionary
sense and caused him to control educational institutions rigidly in line
with Slavophil views. Those opposed the introduction of Western ideas
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and institutions and held that Russian nationalism, based on the mir
(commune),, Orthodoxy, and autocracy, as Uvarov maintained, had the
potentialities of a true civilization. The influence of the Westerners,
however, proved stronger. te6 by Be].insky;, Aks ':-cov, Bakunin,
Samarin, and others, they influenced the next generation in studies
at the University of Moscow.
The Chan 'W&r )o
The Crimean T`?Tar began as an effort on the part of Russia to
retain the dominant position within the Ottoman empire it had established
ini.1829 against the growing influence of Great Britain and Fran~_,,?
The dispute, from 1851 to 1853, between the Orthodox Greeks_,backed
by Russia, and the Roman Catholics, backed by France under Louis
Napoleon, led to the sending of the Menshikov Mission in 1853 by
Russia to reassert its claims as protector of the Orthodox faith.
These claims were rejected by the Turkish sultan upon the advice
of the British and French ambassad;)rsa After the Russians had
occupied the Danubian principalities, the French made a threat against
Belgium to force the British to move their fleet to the Dardanelles
in co-operation with the French squadron. The British did not act
in accordance with the agreement of 1844 with the Russians, who were
not clear as to what to do about the Turkish Straits, The Turks sent
their forces across the Danube in October 1853, when the Russians
refused to evacuate the Danubian principalities. After the Russians
had destroyed the Turkish fleet at,Si.nop on November 30, the British
and French fleets entered the Black Sea and war was declared upon
Russia on Mar. 28, 1854, Threatened by Austria, the Russians with-
drew from the Danubian principalities, and the war thus took place
in the Crimea, in whose stubborn defense Russia displayed great
heroism. Sevastopol, besieged and ruined, surrendered Sept. 11,
1855, and the Peace of Paris was signed Mar. 30, 1856. The Black
Sea was neutralized, and Russia was put at the great disadvantage
of having no fleet and no naval bases or arsenals in that sea, Kars
was restored to Turkey and the southwest corner of Bessarabia was
ceded to Moldavia, The Straits treaty of 7.841 was confirmed and
Russia lost its claim to protect its coreligionists in Turkish
territory. Meanwhile, the disappointed Tsar Nicholas I died on
Mar., 2, 1$55, and was succeeded by his son, Alexander II.
Alexander II.
Backward, medieval Russia had been defeated by the advanced
nations of Western Europe, To reach the level of these nations and
avoid revolution, Russia needed reforms. Hence the Era of Great
Reforms. The medieval, economic, and social structure of society,
which had collapsed, if not also the political superstructure of
autocracy, had to be modernized., Alexander II (1818.1881) was not a
reformer by nature or training. He had no plan, TWrell-inters Toned,
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but vacillating, he advanced along the road of reform, wavering when
attacked by the opposing
extremes. Reform for a decade was followed
by a decade and a half of reaction; then Just before he was assassinated
in 1881, Alexander was again about to start on the road of ref orm*
The most significant reform was that of the emancipation of the serfs,
Mar. 3, 1861, whereby the peasant acquired personal freedom without
any payment there:lljoz,the landowner received government bonds at
5 per cent,, and the peasant agreed to give redemption payments for
the land to the government in forty-nine -mir, or
commune, was held accountable for these payments, Serfdom was the
keystone of the medieval arch, Once it was removed, a new system
of local government and schools, a new judiciary,, a new basis of
taxation and finance,, and a new way to recruit t _--e army had to be
arranged because the landlord had disappeared as the dominating forces
These needs led to these changes: in 1864, the reform of local
governments by the institution of the zernstvos (county councils);
in 1863-1864, a system of courts of three instances and trial by
jury, and in the same year, legislation on un-Liversities, secondary
schools, and elementary education; in 18703 the reform of self-
government in municipalities; and, in 1874, modernization of the army,
These basic reforms, at best compromises, were opposed both
by reactionaries and radicals. The revolution in Poland in 1863
and the attempt by Karakozov on the life c:.f Alexander II in 1866
caused the tsar to forsake reform under the influence of Pyotr
Shuvalov and other reactionary ministers, and to muzzle the press
Some of the reforms were restricted by later legislation. The
younger generation, chiefly university students, became inspired with
revolutionary zeal preached to them by Alexander Fierzen, Mikhail
13akunin, Pyotr Lavrov, Nikolai Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Propotkin, and
Sergei Stepnyak, and took part in the To the People movement.
Numerous secret societies which could not be called political
parties arose, especially that of Land and Liberty. The revolutionary
unrest continued, accompanied by terror and attempts at assassination,
through the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, the outcome of which only
increased.such violence.
Alexander III and Nicholas II.
Alexander II was succeeded by his son, Alexander III (1845-1894),
who at first fully intended to carry out the last step taken by his
father, However, he was influenced to the contrary by his tutor,
Kcnstantinz Pobedonostsev, professor of civil law at Moscow University,
who later was appointed procurator of the Holy Synods Thus, by
1882, was inaugurated the most reactionary era in Russian history-
an era which continued for a decade into the reign of Alexander's
son, Nicholas II (18941917), also a pupil of Pobedonostsev, and
which resulted in the Duma revolution of 1905
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The attempt of General Nikolai Ignatiev to follow in the foot-
steps of Loris->P.Relikov by proposing, in May 1882, to summon a Zemsky
Sobor on the day of coronation was blocked by Pobedonostsev and the
journalist Mikhail Katkov, editor of the Moscow News, who by this
time had become a reactionary. Ignatiev was succeeded by the re-
actionary Dmitri Tolstoy, and others of the old order became ministers
of interior or education at the suggestion of Pobedonostsev. The
press was muzzled, and the revolutionary movement was driven under-
ground, More restrictions were placed.on universities. The importance
of the gentry in the countryside was increased by the creation in
1885 of a bank for the nobility, the appointment in 1889 of land
captains to control the countryside, and the reduction in 1890 of
pea.;~ant representation in the district zemstvos. Religious, racial,
and national persecution became rampant, especially against Jews
and non-Russians, who were driven into the revolutionary movement.
Russian nationalism, Russian Orthodoxy, and Russian autocracy developed
into a reactionary ideology, which fed on the tradition of Moscow
as the Third Rome,-a.nd which saw an expansive future in Europe through
Russian Pan--Slavism and in Asia in alliance with Buddhism. It
evolved a Eurasian complex.
Although Alexander III was no admirer of the Germans and actually
sought to diminish the significant role of Germans in the Russian
administration and armed forces, he agreed to the policy initiated
in 1880 by Alexander II which had resulted in the Three Emperors'
Entente (June 18, 1881). The aim of Russian foreign policy was to
have allies in Europe and Asia who could prevent Great Britain from
attacking Russia (by way of the Turkish Straits) in the Black Sea,
where a fleet was being built, and which would facilitate the
advance of Russia in the Far East. The treaty especially provided
against the event that Turkey might permit the use of the straits
by another power.. The alliance was renewed in 1884, and, after 1887
when Austria was dropped at Russian, insistence because of developments
in Bulgaria, it was continued with Germany until 1890, After the
dismissal of Bismarch, and in line with the German emperor William
II's desire for an alliance with England, the Russo-German alliance
was terminated and was followed the next year by a Franco-Russian
rapprochment, . and in 1894,by a military alliance (the Triple Entente)
which lasted until 1917.
Meanwhile, the course of internal events led to revolution. In
the 1880's and 1890's the position of agriculture and of the farming
classes considerably worsened, while industry rapidly developed and
the working population increased, causing labor organization and
strife. In the forty years since the emancipation of the serfs, the
amount of land per male had decreased 50 per cent, because of increased
population, while land value and rentals had increased, Also,
competition of American grains imported to Europe had lowered the
price of wheat and barley, taxation had increased, and the cost of
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foreign products had risen as a result of the protective tariff for
industry; so that the Russian peasant was caught in a dilemma which
led to economic misery and uncontrollable land hunger. This situation
provoked a demand for expropriation of the remaining lands of the
landowners and institutions which the Social Revolutionary Party
(1898--1901) proposed to exploits The uneven development of industry,
due to government contracts and other causes, and the need of large
returns on foreign capital added further uncertainties, resulting
in a low standard of living among workmen and causing them, through
the D rxists, to organize into the Social Democratic Party (1898)
and other socialist parties, The Liberals formed their Union of
L'ibeationa The famines from 1891 to 1893, in which millions had
starved, had already set off the spark of revolutionary fervor;
Russi~..ns of every political view had joined in relief measures,
leading to a desire to organize both inside and outside Russia. At
the London Conference of the Social Democratic Party in 1903, Nikolai
Lenin' its leader, obtained a mmJority vote (whence the words
Bolshevik and Bolshevism) for political and revolutionary Marxism
against the evolutionary wings, the Mensheviks, with purely economic
objectives,, The mounting internal strife, terroristic acts in the
cities, and gloom and decay in the countryside led Count Sergei
Witte) as finance minister, to oppose the tendency toward war, and
Vyacheslav Pleve, the appointee of Pobedonostsev, to welcome it as
a way'to avoid revolution,
Russ o-Jangnese War.
The Russo-Japanese ':Tar began, on Feb. 5, 1904, when Japan,
without declaring war, attacked Lushun (Port Arthur) and Jinsen
(Chemulpo). Japans victories by land and sea led to the Peace of
Portsmouth, Sept. 5, 1905, whereby Japan secured Russiats leases
in southern Manchuria and acquired the southern half of Sakhalin
Island. This disastrous war hastened revolution,
The First Revolution,
The Revolution of 1905 opened a new period in Russian history.
In spite of its failure, it marked another step in tthe dissolution
of the medieval structure of society. The movement for reform,
beginning in 1904 as a reaction to the Russian military defeats, was
led by the Union of Liberation, consisting of liberals, mostly
zemstvo officials and men of the professions. The Social Democrats
and the Social Revolutionaries were in a revolutionary mood. Pleve
was assassinated on July 28, 1904,. add Prince Syatopolk-iirsky, who
favored moderate reform, succeeded him as minister of the interior.
From November 19 to 22 a congress of the Union of Liberation passed
resolutions demanding full civil rights and a national assembly
which would be freely elected but would not have full legislative
rights. Demands for radical reforms followed, while the government
vacillated. The surrender of Lushun on Jan. 1, 1905, was followed
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by 3 y Sunday, on January 22, when workers who had demonstrated
peacefully under Father Georgi Gapon were fired on and dispersed
with a death toll of about one Lh(Yusand. Grand Duke Sergius,
governor general of Moscowvrf,:s;mterSed in the Kremlin on Feb. 17,
1905, and on March 3 Tsar Nicholas promised an elected assembly
"to share in the drafting and discussion of legislative proposals,"
but this failed to materialize. In May The Union of Uiions under
Professor Milyukov was formed as a political party of zemstvo
liberals and moderates of the professional classes who favored a
constituent assembly. The Zemstvo Congress, June 6--5, and one of
zemstvo and town workers) Julyi9--22, forced a manifesto from the
tsar on August 19 creating The Imperial Duma with advisory functions.
But this was repudiated by the Constitutional Democratic Party
(Cadets), formed in`October, and by the radical Social Democrats
and Social Revolutionaries. The common aim of left wing elements was
a conbtituent assembly, universally elected, as a basis for par-
liamentary government. A series of strikes in October, in the
midst of which Pobedonostsev was dismissed, culminated at the
end of the month In the first general strike---a spontaneous demonstration--
and the issuance of the Manifesto of October 30 which granted civil
rights to all and provided for a duma with full legislative powers..
No law was to be passed without its consent, Count ':-Witte became prime
minister, but Durnovo,-a reactionary, was appointed as minister of
the interior on Nov, 1,. 19054 A partial political amnesty followed.
Land redemption payments were remitted, purchases of land through
the Peas-antis Bank was facilitated, and the press was given greater
freedom. Almost immediately,, however) re,$a.dr3~ak~rens.R#'m do he Union of
True Russian People, who, working through the Black Ilunarodo,
organized pogroms in a program of counter-terrorism. Meanwhile,
the October Manifesto had also brought out a political party for
its fulfillment and defense: the Octobrist Party.
The first general strike, which had ended on November 1, had
been conducted by the Council of WWrorkments Delegatei$, Soviet
rabochikh deputatov. The Soviet called a second general strike on
November 15, but this did not have the nation behind it and led to
the Soviet's arrest, December 12--16. As a result,. the general strike
was discredited as a weapon to attain revolutionary ends, and a
third such strike, called in Moscow from December 20 to Jan. 1,
1905, ended in a bloody fiasco. The government regaindd its confidence
and the Black Hundreds obtained official recognition. Thus the
radical element by its v lolence and lack of political skill and
experience lost the sympathy of the public and created a triumphant
reaction before a disunited opposition. The government took a strong
line in spite of the fact that the First Duma elections went over-
znwhelmingly to the opposition, even with the abstention of the
Socialists. The decree of March 5, 1906, reorganized the Council
of State and reserved to the autocracy its commanding position in
the armed forces, foreign affairs, war and peace, and the dismissal
of ministers.
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The ?pumas
Before the Duma met in May, Witte yielded to Ivan Goremykin
as prime minister, and Pyotr Stolypin became ministeroMiinterior,
Th..:. ministry and the Duma soon found themselves in violent opposition.
They key struggle was over the land question, the Duma standing on
the principle of expropriation, which the government resolutely
opposed. On July 19, the Duma refused to pass any measures not on
its program and was dissolved two days later by the new prime
minister, Stolypin, That evening about 200 former deputies appealed
to the people from Vyborg, Finland, not to pay taxes or provide
recruits until the Duma was restored. Like the Soviet, they had
appealed for revolution and were arrested, Stolypin, whose policy
was "repression and reforms," proceeded to use a firm hand against
the revolutionary opposition, and by the law of November 22 began a
series of land reform measures continuing until 1911, the objective
of which was to create a class of conservative small farmers at the
expense of the poorer peasants.
The Second Duma, after election on the previous electcval basis,
convened from March 5 to June 16,. 1907. Like the first, it was
overwhelmingly in the opposition, but the left center (Cadets) was
weaker', the left and the right were stronger, and all elements
appeared desirous of wrecking it, No cooperation with the govern-
ment was possible, On June 14 Stolypin demanded the prompt exclusion
oB;:.the Social Democrats and a warrant to arrest sixteen of them on
the ground that they had plotted to overthrow the government and
substitute a republic, The Duma was dissolved two days later.
A new electoral law reducing the role of the non--Russaian
nationalities and outlying regions (the Caucasus, Siberia, and
Central Asia) was the basis of the Third Duma,ccalled on Nov. 14, 19074
It lasted until 191L The right and the Ocrobrists (now the center)
held the majority,, For nearly four years, while Stolypin labored
on his gigantic land reform, approved by the Duma, the armed forces
were reorganized, an extensive system of secondary and elementary
schools was created, social insurance was initiated, and other
moderate reforms were planned. Syolypin, however, saw the Duma,
especially the Octobrists, take on more and more of a reforming
zeal, In March 1911;, consequently, he prorogued the Council and
Duma and promulgated a measure for the creation of zcrostvos in the
western provinces, which was hotly opposed by both bodies. He
was assassinated by a revolutionary on Sept. 14, 1911, and was succeeded
by Kokovtsev, who remained in office until February 1914.
In the Fourth Duma, elected in the fall of 19120 the Octobrists
were frequently in opposition to government measures. Finally, in
the summer of 1915, after World War I had begun., they joined the
majority in the progressive bloc' in both the Council and Duma because
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of the disasters on the battlefields, the incompetence of the
bureaucracy and the refusal of the government to co-operate with
the extralegal organizations of the people to help Turin the war.
From that time until the revolution broke out in March 1917, the
government engaged in conflict on two fronts: against foreign armies
and against its :iwn people.
Following the Russian defeat at Gorlice in May 1915, and the
subsequent retreat, the morale of the improperly armed and poorly
fed army began to break. The monk, Resput_'.n, who had gained an
ascendancy over the tsarina because of his purported influence upon
the health of the haemophilic tsarevieh, suggested that the tsar
assume commend of the armies so that he would be separated from the
tsarina, Thereafter, minister after minister was replaced at Rasputints
suggestion until his assassination on Dec, 20, 1916, Thus Gorertykd%.1,
who had succeeded Kokovtsev) madd way in February 1916 for Boris
Sttirmer, suspected of pro-German views, Sergei Saxonot, foreign
minister, went in July 1916. SttTrmer gave way to Dmitri Trepov in
November, while the diseased Alexander ?rotopopov became minister
of the interior. Acting on Rasputin ' s advice, the tsarina believed
the only way to preserve an autocratic Russia for Tsarevich Alexis
was to suppress the Duma. It was the proroguing of the Duma on
Mar. 11, 1917, that precipit.;a ;ed. ths"Rtt~aInft RR tolil+rtonro ,.the. n-xt
day.
riv
UNCLASSIF
?-16--
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