Compare and Contract the policies of Alexander II and Alexander III in Russia?

Economically, Alexander II attempted to improve the auditing of accounts and the collection of revenue but there was no real tax reform. Russia’s currency, the rouble, was not stabilised and a third of government expenditure went to repay old debts. Foreign trade, banking and planned railway network was re-established financial stability after the Crimean war defeat. Greater construction of railways – 1,100 Km at the start of his reign and 20,000Km was built at the end of his reign. Government guarantee of an annual dividend attracted foreign investors and the amount of track and traffic grew.. Alexander III learnt from the Crimean war that Russia was needed to be modernised.  The creation of more railways because an important customer of the iron and steel industries, accounting for 60% of total production by 1890s. The contrasted large amounts of railways was to help speed up travel around Russia which would in turn help trade and the army.  The cotton textile industry also benefited from the coming of the railways, in opening up new areas for the cultivation of raw cotton. Similarly Alexander III had the same aims in improving the economy radically.  Alexander III established land banks in 1883 and this provided cheap credit for peasants to buy land. For the very first time Russia’s budget achieved a surplus. Between 1881 – 85 the labour legislation was introduced to improve working conditions for women and children with factory inspections. Both Alexander II and Alexander III were very weak in trying to improve agriculture in Russia, they make very little change overall.

Socially, Alexander II and Alexander III were similar in being successful in improving issues within education they both gave considerable amount of freedom but at the same time wanting to restrict the Russian people from formulate their own ideas so they wouldn’t be able to question the system, this also apply to judicial reforms. Alexander II was strategically intelligent in the creation of the Zemstva – which was the spreading of power from tsar to the general population, they could better handle local issues that the central government (in comparison to Alexander III who . The standard of teaching improved as responsibility was transferred from the church to the zemstva in 1864. Schools were declared open to all classes and the number of primary schools in the countryside grew from 8000 to 23000 in 1880. Their curriculum aimed to ‘strengthen religious and moral notions and to spread basic knowledge’. Secondary schools grew both in terms of numbers and in an extention to include women (1864) resulting in a doubling of numbers to 800,000 during the 1860s. University numbers grew from 3600 to 10 000. Education under Alexander III were completely opposite, he increased the powers of government appointed inspectors who were made directly responsible to the curators. In 1882, higher courses for women were to be gradually closed. In 1884, University Statue replaced that of 1863. It established state control over the universities in an attempt to stamp out riots, such as had occurred in 1882 in St Petersburgand Kazan. In 1887 there was an increase in university fees to exclude all but the wealthy, and to keep out the students from local social ranks.  Finally, the church was given more control over primary education and was encouraged to set up church schools in the parish, but the amount of pupils attending church schools increased by 900% during his reign. His new legal system, was also seen as successful, as he enforced equality before the law ending the system of separate courts for separate estates and new lower courts, volost, to replace serf owner as local magistrate. He also organised judges to be better trained and better paid; Justices were elected for three years by the local councils but they could also be removed by government if necessary. The very fact he separated the judicial and administrative powers making a more independent judiciary. Before Alexander the II, the accused never saw the judges; evidence was submitted in writing and considered according to a rigid guidline of rules based on its acceptability, e.g a confession, or collaborating statements of two independent witnesses. However there were briberies of the witnesses and the accused has no opportunity to challenge evidence. So Alexander II, allowed evidence to be considered in the open, and a defence counsel was allowed. Trial was by a jury for criminal cases, etc. The system of justice established by these reforms, considered good, fair and less corrupt, made a major contributing to the modernisation of Russia,. According to H. Seton-Watson ‘It raised general moral and even political standards… for a long time the court-room was the one place in Russia where real freedom of speech prevailed, and its main champion was the lawyer’  Alexander’s reforms helped promote a climate based on rule of law. The court of justice of the peace was one of the most valuable new judical institutions.

During the reign of Alexander III his legal reforms were reversed to that of Alexander II, in 1885 the minister of Justice was given increased disciplinary powers over the judiciary, and then in 1887 the Minister of Justice was given the power to order a trial to be held in camera to protect ‘the dignity of state power’. He raised the terms of service on volost courts to three years. There were increased government interference in the law courts, and judges became more liable to dismissal.

Alexander II made it clear that one of his chief reasons for the emancipation of the serfs was to facilitate the transition from a large standing army to a reserve army by instituting territorial levies and mobilization in times of need. Before emancipation, serfs could not receive military training and then return to their owners. Bureaucratic inertia, however, obstructed military reform until the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) demonstrated the necessity of building a modern army. The levy system introduced in 1874 gave the army a role in teaching many peasants to read and in pioneering medical education for women. But the army remained backward despite these military reforms. Officers often preferred bayonets to bullets, expressing worry that long-range sights on rifles would induce cowardice. In spite of some notable achievements, Russia did not keep pace with Western technological developments in the construction of rifles, machine guns, artillery, ships, and naval ordnance.

Alexander III’s reforms of the 1880s-90s succeeded in enhancing the importance of traditional social estates, and satisfied conservatives by undermining Alexander II’s reforms in the 1860s. They partially made the same reforms in the terms of improving education and judical freedom however they were very different in many respects.  Alexander II made many reforms however was inconsistent in his ruling, he tried to be a radical while preserving the autocracy, and this led to the downfall of the Russian economy, leaving Russia backwards. Alexander III however kept a firm stance in ruling, and built the foundation in which Russia could modernise.