Nicholas I (1825-1855)

Russia in the deep freeze

The Holy Alliance

• 1812 Napoleon invades Russia.

• 30 March 1814 Russian troops enter Paris.

• 1814-15 Congress of Vienna: victorious allies divide up Europe,

• Russia gained Duchy of Warsaw and Finland.

• Europe divided among great Empires: Russia, Austria, Prussia.

Nicholas and the Decembrists

• Seeds of revolution left smouldering in Europe: Greece, Italy.

• Russian officers form secret societies with the goal of overthrowing the Russian autocracy.

• December 14, 1825, on the death of Alexander I, a coup is attempted.

• Nicholas faces down the revolutionaries and they are arrested.

Consequences of Decembrist revolt

• Five ringleaders were hanged (Ryleev, Kakhovsky, Murav’ov-Apostol, Pestel, Bestuzhev-Riumin).

• Many noble conspirators sent to Siberia.• Famous “Decembrists’ wives” followed them into

exile. • Decembrist uprising becomes a “non-event”, not to

be mentioned. • Decembrists became the forerunners of revolution in

Russia.

The five who were hanged

“Listopad”

• In November (Polish listopad) 1830 the Poles rise up against Russian rule.

• The revolt is viciously suppressed and Poland ceases to exist as an entity.

Battle of Stoczek, 1831

Result of November uprising…

• Many Poles exiled inside Russia, esp. Siberia.

• Polish exiles gather in Paris around the poet Adam Mickiewicz.

• The image of Nicholas’s Russia suffers greatly.

Nicholas takes control

• Emperor creates a vast network of spies.

• All signs of dissent suppressed.

• Strict censorship imposed.

• Universities tightly controlled.

• Philosopher Alexander Chaadaev declared insane.

• Official doctrine is “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationalism.”

Russian Society under Nicholas

• Noblemen (дворяне): small, landowning class...

Pavel FedotovAn Aristocrat’s Breakfast, 1849

Courtship of a Major, 1848

Nicholas’s Russia

Bureaucrats…

Newly awarded: morning of an official who has just been awarded his first medal

Russian Society under Nicholas

Peasants (крестьяне): the vast majority…

Peasants eating dinner

Russian Society under Nicholas

The clergy (духовенство)…

Religious procession, Kursk province, 1880-1883 Ilya Repin

Russian Society under Nicholas

Town-dwellers (мещане) and Merchants (купцы)…

The Intelligentsia (интеллигенты)

• “Raznochintsy” (individuals of no particular class).

• Selflessly devoted to ideas, idealistic.

• Fantastic projects for the future of Russia.

• Grew into the revolutionary class that created the Bolshevik revolution.

• Not to be thought democratic or freedom-loving.

Vissarion Belinsky(1811-1848)

Critic, thinker, demanded that

literature be a truthful

representation of life.

“The fate of the individual, of

the person, is more important

than the fate of the whole

world.”

Died of tuberculosis.

Seeds of dissent

• Small but influential class of the intelligentsia discuss endlessly the situation.

• Dissenters gather abroad – Alexander Herzen in Paris, then London, Mikhail Bakunin (anarchist) and Peter Kropotkin.

• Berlin, where Hegel was professor of philosophy, becomes a magnet.

Whither Russia?

• The issue in Russia in the 19th century was progress and change: evolution or revolution.

• Russia was seen as a backward, corrupt and unjust society.

The “Westernizers”(Западники)

• “Westernizer” camp promoted change along western lines: Russia should follow in the footsteps of the West.

• Tended to be atheist; believed in socialism, progress, women’s rights; demanded the liberation of the serfs.

Slavophiles(славянофилы)

• Believed Russia should follow a distinct path as opposed to the corrupt West.

• Proponents of Orthodox religion.

• Believed in sobornost’ – the collectivist idea as practised in the peasant commune.

• Saw the role of Russia as protector of “brother Slavs.”

1848

• The year of revolution in Europe: France, Germany, Hungary and Italy.

• Nicholas sends troops to put down the Hungarian revolutionary forces.

• Pan Slavic conference in Prague.

• Communist manifesto published.

An empire in need of change

• Crimean war of 1853-1856.

• France and England invade the Crimea in the South of Russia.

• The war arises over growing Russian presence in the Black Sea, threatening the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.

The End of Nicholas

• Nicholas dies 2 March 1855.

• He leaves the Empire frozen in time.

• The failure of the Crimean war shows Russia’s technological backwardness: the need for modern weaponry and railroads to transport troops and materiel.

• His son Alexander II ends the war and begins a program of dramatic reforms in Russia.