Alexander ii's Opposition

Page 1

Intelligentsia: small but size & influence grew in 1870s eg develop of law courts brought with newly trained lawyers to question & challenge autocracy - similar to zemstva (later dumas) - provide debate & greater understanding via travel to western countries

Nihilist movement: believed in science & hostile to tsar & Russian Orthodox Church - remove past for new society

Mikhail Bakunin: anarchist (no central gov)- belief state crushed individual freedom & should be removed + socialist- peasant superiority

Alexander Herzen: believed existing social/political system removed & peasants centre of new one instead BUT preferred a system of socialism based on mir within a central gov

Chernyshevsky: radical journal 'The Contemporary' wider circulation- placed faith in peasants as rev class- inspired Lenin

-> all thinkers believed Russian state had to change & more individual freedom needed

Series of fires in St Petersburg (destroyed 2000 shops) rumoured radical students responsible &~ commission appointed (recommended Sunday Schools' closure)

Populists: Sergei Nechykev inspired group of students 'The Chaikovsky Circle', produced pamphlets & smuggled books -> Pytor Lavrov to lead 2000 people (mainly from Intelligentsia & nobility) to go to the people in 1874 = narodniks- populists aimed to win over the peasantry to socialist ideas via resentment over land & tax burden (future Russia depended on land redistribution)- met with peasant hostility due to superstition, ignorance, prejudice & loyalty to tsar= 1600 arrested by 1874 & 2nd attempts failure= 'Land and Liberty' in 1877 (more radical & better organised) found work in communes to use positions to cause unrest but peasant apathy & repression = failure but assassinated General Mezemtsev, head of 3rd section- worry for authorities= sympathy from public

Split into Black Partition (wanted to share black provinces, worked peacefully, spread propaganda, weakened by arrests 1880-1881) & The People's Will (planted a spy in 3rd section to evade arrest, attempted to assassinate the tsar 3 times & 3rd was successful)

Revolutionary activity/thought definitive from in Russia eg Marxism & despite 'refroms from above' even more moderate oppostion wanted restrictions on tsar's authority vis representative gov + radical opposition emerged from underground to countryside & embarrassment via failed show trials reveal tsar's lost authority+ reforms provoked nobles (relied on to maintain stability)