Russification

Russification

1. Nationalities

   • Ethnic Russians= 1/2 the population
     • Other 1/2= Ukrainian (22.4%), Polish (7.9%), White Russian (5.8%), Jewish (5%), Kirgiz (4%), Tartar (3.4%), Finnish (3.1%); and lots more
       • Many resented Russian control, leading to civil disobedience, riots, disturbances

2. Russification

   • Had to adopt Russian language, culture, customs, religion- lose own national identity
   • Process began under Alexander II, but promoted most vigorously by Alexander III, & continued by Nicholas II
   • In practice meant Russian language in schools, law courts, regional govs
   • Russian officials brought in to run regional govs in non-Russian areas of the empire, like Poland, Latvia, Finland
   • Russians got most important jobs in gov & state-sponsored industry
   • Minorities had to pay large sums to the imperial treasury

3. Response of Minorities

   • Anger- fundamental attack on their way of life, their national & cultural heritage, their religion
   • Unfair policy that discriminated against them
   • Tsarist gov underestimated strength of nationalism- uprisings and protests in C19th from national groups seeking greater personal freedom & more autonomy (self-government) in their parts of the empire
     • Tended to occur in one region at a time, & tsarist gov was able to supress them
   • By antagonising & alienating large section of its population, Gov drove many into the ranks of the revolutionaries
   • Russification actually weakened the Gov in the end

4. Russification & the Orthodox Church

   • Pobedonostev= determined to see Ortho Church at centre of Russification
   • Wanted all citizens of the Empire to become Ortho Christians, and also believed that non-Orthodox subjects= disloyal
   • Ortho churches & cathedrals built all over Empire; clergy= increased to fill them
   • As far as central Asia, OC forced conversion- 100,000 Muslims Tartars becoming Christians (though many reverted to Islam)
   • Determination to exert control over previously autonomous Churches, like Georgian OC- troops used to force clergy
   • Campaign to supplant the Lutheran Church in the Baltic provinces; landless Orthodox peasants were provided w/ farming land, & money poured into Ortho-controlled schools
     • 37,000 Lutherans converted to Ortho during A3's reign
   • In capitals of Estonia & Latvia, huge onion-domed cathedrals built
     • Geoffrey Hosking: "alien monsters looming over... medieval architecture"
   • Created hostility; inc. Catholic Church in Poland, & religious sects= deeply resented gov & their religious interference