When Alexander III became Tsar, Russia was in crisis following the assassination of his father. Supreme political authority was unexpectedly handed over to his hands as he suddenly became Tsar of the worlds’ largest country; he had immense challenges that he had to face. He had to bring the country to a stable state. Besides putting an end to the revolutionaries, Alexander III took numerous steps in order to aim to restore Russia like it was before to its pre-situation. In 1884, he established a new University Statue. This statue abolished university independence and restricted students' political activities. The secondary schools were ordered to pay more attention to the teaching of classical languages. The Working class and peasant’s children were prohibited to study in secondary schools. Universities were a particular area singled out for strict government supervision. University fees were increased to exclude all but the very wealthy as a result Universities lost their self government and came under government control.
The assassination of the Tsar threatened the entire social and political system of the Russian empire. At the top were members of the landed aristocracy and senior members of the Russian Orthodox Church. The aristocracy did not have a popular support from the Russian people and the senior members of the Russian Orthodox Church derived much of their power from the Tsar, so a threat to the Tsar meant a threat to their position aswell. Hence as a result when he launched a campaign of repression, it had abolished support from the upper levels of Russian society. This carried on through his Tsar life until 1894, by the time of his death his liberal minister Konstatin Pobendonostev who was the chief Procurator of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church who played a vital role in dominating immense power and was very influential. He was the person who masterminded Alexander III Manifesto. Pobendonostev believed that basis of political and social stability lay in support for autocracy, the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian nationalism. As a result, in 1894 Pobedonostsev had changed this. Most of Alexander III’s work was undone. Russia was firmly back under the control of the Tsar, the landed classes and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The measures he took for his problems which didn’t last until the end of his reign and were unsuccessful are as follow:
He feared his father’s assassination, he had a fear of being assassinated himself since many disappointed people amongst the educated classes began to believe that the only way to truly modernize Russia would be the eradication of Tsarism itself which resulted to some Tsarist officials being murdered while also unsuccessful attempts were made on the Tsars life. He didn’t want any opposition hence immediate task of his new government was to destroy the terror organizations such as ‘The People’s Will’. The government introduced the statue of the state security which set up a government controlled courts to try government opponents. The government could now arrest and put on trial political opponents without the need for a jury. Those who were convicted had to face either execution or were exiled to Siberia. In order to destroy these extremist groups, he implemented several measures for this such as: Press freedom was severely restricted with fourteen major newspapers being banned for displaying liberal tendencies. However, during the end of his reign some of the extremists groups including ‘The People’s Will’ still existed. In order to modernize its economy and increase its economic wealth he had the pressure to maintain the country’s economic growth effectively. Russia was the most economically undeveloped. Russia’s economy was mostly agriculture, which still needed vast improvement and was underproductive due to most of the country being near to North Pole so it was making it difficult to sell enough grain at export to raise money for large scale industrial development. For Russia to maintain its position it was necessary to modernize its economy and increase its economic wealth. Therefore he put more pressure on the importance of economic and financial reforms. His first finance minister Nikolia Bunge implemented laws which reduced the tax burden on peasants. He also established a Peasant Land Bank, which offered loan facilities to peasants to help them increase the size of their landholdings and make them more productive. He funded them money to settle themselves in the regions that were less capable of providing grains so that they could resolve the issue and improve the conditions. But towards the end of his reign, In the countryside, peasant outbreaks increased due to increasing land shortage. The peasant population continued to grow and their problems seemed to be worse than before. Pressure on the land use meant that the increasing peasant population had less hand per family to feed themselves. The land issue in Russia rose into a violent unrest in the early years of twentieth century. As a result the shortage of peasant landholdings continued to be a problem.
As a conclusion, although the autocratic Tsar was successful in using repression to keep his autocratic position safe and he found a solution to all his problems that he was facing during the start. However, most of them didn’t last till the end of reign hence the problems still occurred and even continued till his son Nicholas II came in power.
by
mshereen (student)
