The reign of Alexander III introduced anti-Semitic policies, which places restrictions on the areas where Jewish people could live, as well as restrictions placed upon the occupations that could be held by Jewish people. Anti-Semitic beliefs also introduced the May Laws in 1882, with the purpose of imposing condition on the Jews as a people for their role that they had played in the assassination of his father, Alexander II. After the assassination of Alexander II, many brutal attacks were made against Jewish people, and they faced humiliation as well as abandonment. “Let us not forget that it was the Jews that crucified Jesus” this quote reflects how the idea of Anti-Semitism that was adapted and the rise in emigration, was due to the strong relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Tsarist regime. The power of the Orthodox Church contributed towards the power that a Tsar had over Russia, as the Orthodox Church would support the Tsar.
The press censorship which had first been introduced by Alexander II, was increased under the reign of his son in 1882, so therefore the control over the peasants was increased by the appointment of the land captains and a law making violation of contracts between landlords and a tenants criminal act. In addition to reversing the Laws which were introduced by his father, in order to strengthen the idea of Russification, the electorate was reduced, for example in Moscow, the voting rights were removed from 13,000 people, and the remaining 7,000 able to vote were of the high class, richer electorates. The reduction in those who could vote was introduced because it had helped to provide more strength to Alexander III’s reign as Tsar, and to adopt Russia into a more autocratic rule, so that he would be able to remain his power, which was strongly believed by not only Alexander III but also his father Alexander II. In addition whilst the Emancipation of the Serfs was introduced as being the freedom of the Serfs, Alexander III still placed restrictions on this reform and therefore the Peasant independence was reduced. Restrictions were placed on Peasantry freedom in fear, to avoid the happenings of any revolts by the Peasants due to their freedom.
To modernise Russia, the modern standards of the power of the Repression was not seen as being an overwhelming element, however instead the restrictions which were placed across the state were considered as being widespread. Writer, teachers, local councillors, peasants, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Finns, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Estonians, reformers, editors and students were all apart of the growing state control under Alexander III. These groups of people were seen as a disturbance towards the idea of Russification, and thus further the Bureaucracy, police and the army were to be dedicated to enforce religious, racial and national orthodoxy whilst Russia was an Orthodox country.
To introduce the idea of Russification further, Alexander III introduced change towards the educational system. The idea of Russification, Alexander III’s political ideal of a nation, which contained only one nationality, one language, one religion and only one form of administration, was successfully created. This was done by, imposing the Russian language as well as the Russian Schools on the German, Polish and all other nationalities present in Russia at the time who were not Russian. In addition, to create more of a sense of appeal towards Russification and achieve this idea, Alexander III persecuted the Jews, and further destroyed the remnants of the German, Polish and the Swedish institutions within the outlying provinces.
Whilst adopting the idea of Russification, modernisation still continued under the reign of Alexander III. Industrial modernisation continued to expand, whilst Sergei Witte was Alexander III’s finance minister, the railway network that had been introduced under the reign of Alexander III, doubled to becoming over 35,000 miles, with the introduction of the famous trans-Siberian railway.
By holding the view of strong autocratic rule, Alexander III reversed the power which was held by the Zemstvo and also placed the autonomous administration of the peasant communes to be under the supervision of the landed proprietors, otherwise known as land captains, who were to be appointed by the government. In addition to removing any possible growing opposition to his power, Alexander III also sought to gain the favouritsm of the Russia population, and he strengthed and centralized the Imperial administration and brought it to be more under his own personal control.
Overall I believe that Alexander II’s death did not act as a turning point in the development of modern Russia. During the reign of his father, Alexander III witnessed the way in which his father led on a autocratic rule, and the introduction of the reforms, which he thought had gone too far, thus could affect the autocratic ruling. Alexander III placed suspension on all political reforms, and wanted to adopt the idea Russification to the Russian population. Thus this therefore allowed Alexander III to adapt to a more strict, yet more peaceful autocratic ruling, which rooted the nickname, Alexander the Peacemaker. Whilst the idea at the time may have seemed successful, Russification was not a as strong idea to have success. It would have been difficult not only to force the idea of Russifcation as Russia was a large continent, and communication at the time was hard, but because the population of Russia was based on a multicultural nation. Whilst his father had worked to modernise Russia, with the introduction of the Railway system, Alexander III had however helped to expand this further, but did no create any signs of new modernisation to bring Russia more forward, and modernised like great powers such as Britian.
In addition to this, in conclusion, I believe that the Crimea War can be seen as being more significant towards the development of Russia, because it brought about different change, and the change which was reflected from the defeat and humilation that was suffered by Russia. Even though the changes which were brought about by the Crimea war by Alexander II, only lasted a short period of time before being slightly reveresed by Alexander III, they were more effective upon Russia, than the death of Alexander II, the reforms enforcer himself. Crimea had done reflect the weakness of Russia, especially the miliarty which was made up of peasants, which led to the Emancipation of the Serfs, even though thereafter this didn’t help to improve the conditions of the peasants.“These reforms improved the army, which was Alexander’s goal, yet they failed to solve domestic problems. The emancipation didn’t bring on any significant change in the condition of the peasants. In some regions it took peasants nearly 20 years to obtain their land. As Russia became more industrialised, larger, and far more complicated, the inadequacies of autocratic Tsarist rule became increasingly apparent”. Overall Crimea War has more of an effect on the modernisation of Russia, than the death of Alexander II, because after the death of Alexander II, the modernisation reforms and strategies were reversed by his son Alexander III.
