Alexander III Alexandrovich (February 26 (March 10), 1845, Anichkov Palace, St. Petersburg - October 20 (November 1), 1894, Livadia Palace, Crimea) - Emperor of All Russia, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from March 1 (13), 1881 . Son of Emperor Alexander II and grandson of Nicholas I; father of the last Russian monarch Nicholas II.
Alexander III is a significant figure in the history of Russia. During his reign, no Russian blood was shed in Europe. Alexander III ensured long years of calm for Russia. For his peace-loving policy, he entered Russian history as a "tsar-peacemaker."
He adhered to conservative-protective views and pursued a policy of counter-reforms, as well as Russification of the national outskirts.
He was the second child in the family of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna Romanov. According to the rules of succession to the throne, Alexander was not prepared for the role of the ruler of the Russian Empire. The throne was to take the elder brother - Nicholas. Alexander, not at all envious of his brother, did not feel the slightest jealousy, watching how Nicholas was being prepared for the throne. Nikolai was a diligent student, and Alexander was overcome by boredom in the classroom.
The teachers of Alexander III were such distinguished people as the historians Solovyov, Grott, the remarkable military tactician Dragomirov, and Konstantin Pobedonostsev. It was the latter who had a great influence on Alexander III, largely determining the priorities of the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian emperor. It was Pobedonostsev who brought up in Alexander III a true Russian patriot and Slavophile. Little Sasha was more attracted not by study, but by physical activity. The future emperor loved horseback riding and gymnastics. Even before he came of age, Alexander Alexandrovich showed remarkable strength, easily lifted weights and easily bent horseshoes. He did not like secular entertainment, he preferred to spend his free time on improving riding skills and developing physical strength. The brothers joked, they say, - "Sasha is the Hercules of our family." Alexander loved the Gatchina Palace, and loved to spend time there, spending his days walking in the park, thinking about the day ahead.
In 1855 Nicholas was proclaimed Tsarevich. Sasha was glad for his brother, and even more so that he himself would not have to be emperor. However, fate nevertheless prepared the Russian throne for Alexander Alexandrovich. Nicholas's health deteriorated. The Tsarevich suffered from rheumatism from a bruised spine, and later he also contracted tuberculosis. In 1865 Nikolai died. Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov was proclaimed the new heir to the throne. It is worth noting that Nicholas had a bride - the Danish princess Dagmar. They say that the dying Nikolai took the hands of Dagmar and Alexander with one hand, as if urging two close people not to be separated after his death.
In 1866, Alexander III set off on a trip to Europe. His path lies in Copenhagen, where he wooed his brother's bride. Dagmar and Alexander became close when they cared for the sick Nikolai together. Their engagement took place on June 17 in Copenhagen. On October 13, Dagmar converted to Orthodoxy and became known as Maria Fedorovna Romanova, and on that day the young people got engaged.
Alexander III and Maria Fedorovna Romanov lived a happy family life. Their family is a true role model. Alexander Alexandrovich was a real, exemplary family man. The Russian Emperor loved his wife very much. After the wedding, they settled in the Anichkov Palace. The couple was happy and raised three sons and two daughters. The first-born of the imperial couple was the son Nikolai. Alexander loved all his children very much, but the second son, Mishka, enjoyed special paternal love.
The high morality of the emperor gave him the right to ask her from the courtiers. Under Alexander III, the Russian autocrat fell into disgrace for adultery. Alexander Alexandrovich was modest in everyday life, did not like idleness. Witte, the Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire, witnessed how the emperor's valet darned worn things for him.
The emperor loved pictures. The Emperor even had his own collection, which by 1894 consisted of 130 works by various artists. On his initiative, a Russian museum was opened in St. Petersburg. He had great respect for the work of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Alexander Romanov also liked the artist Alexei Bogolyubov, with whom the emperor had a good relationship. The emperor provided all kinds of support to young and talented cultural figures, museums, theaters and universities were opened under his patronage. Alexander adhered to truly Christian postulates, and in every possible way protected the Orthodox faith, tirelessly defending its interests.
Alexander III ascended the Russian throne after the assassination of Alexander II by revolutionaries - terrorists. It happened on March 2, 1881. For the first time, peasants were sworn in to the emperor, along with the rest of the population. In domestic policy, Alexander III embarked on the path of counter-reforms. The new Russian emperor was distinguished by conservative views.
During his reign, the Russian Empire achieved great success. Russia was a strong, developing country with which all European powers sought friendship. In Europe, there were always some political movements. And then one day, a minister came to Alexander, who was fishing, talking about affairs in Europe. He asked the emperor to somehow react. To which Alexander replied - "Europe can wait until the Russian Tsar catches fish." Alexander Alexandrovich really could afford such statements, because Russia was on the rise, and its army was the most powerful in the world. Nevertheless, the international situation obliged Russia to find a reliable ally. In 1891, friendly relations between Russia and France began to take shape, which ended with the signing of an alliance agreement.
According to the historian P. A. Zaionchkovsky, “Alexander III was quite modest in his personal life. He did not like lies, he was a good family man, he was hardworking ", working on state affairs often until 1-2 o'clock in the morning. “Alexander III had a certain system of views... To protect the purity of the ‘faith of the fathers’, the inviolability of the principle of autocracy and to develop the Russian people... - these are the main tasks that the new monarch set for himself... in some issues of foreign policy, he discovered and probably common sense ».
As S. Yu. Witte wrote, “Emperor Alexander III had an absolutely outstanding nobility and purity of heart, purity of morals and thoughts. As a family man, he was an exemplary family man; as a boss and owner - he was an exemplary boss and an exemplary owner ... he was a good owner not because of a sense of self-interest, but because of a sense of duty. Not only in the royal family, but also among dignitaries, I never met that feeling of respect for the state ruble, for the state penny, which the Emperor possessed ... He knew how to inspire confidence abroad, on the one hand, that He would not act unfair to anyone, does not want any captures; everyone was calm that He would not start any adventure ... The Emperor Alexander III never disagreed with the word. What he said was felt by him, and he never deviated from what he said ... Emperor Alexander III was an extremely courageous man ”.
The emperor was a passionate collector, second only to Catherine II in this respect. Gatchina Castle literally turned into a storehouse of priceless treasures. Acquisitions of Alexander - paintings, art objects, carpets and the like - no longer fit in the galleries of the Winter Palace, Anichkov and other palaces. After his death, the extensive collection of paintings, graphics, decorative and applied arts, sculptures collected by Alexander III was transferred to the Russian Museum established by the Russian Emperor Nicholas II in memory of his parent.
Alexander was fond of hunting and fishing. Often in the summer the royal family went to the Finnish skerries. Belovezhskaya Pushcha was the Emperor's favorite hunting ground. Sometimes the imperial family, instead of relaxing in the skerries, went to Poland to the Principality of Loviche, and there they enthusiastically indulged in hunting amusements, especially deer hunting, and most often ended their vacation with a trip to Denmark, to Bernstorf Castle - Dagmara's ancestral castle, where they often gathered from all over Europe her crowned relatives.
For all his outward severity in relation to his loved ones, he invariably remained a devoted family man and a loving father. Not only never in his life did he touch children with a finger, but he did not offend them with a harsh word.
On October 17, 1888, an attempt was made on Alexander III and the entire royal family. The terrorists derailed the train in which the emperor was. Seven wagons were broken, many victims. The king and his family remained alive by the will of fate. At the time of the explosion, they were in the restaurant car. During the explosion, the roof of the car with the royal family collapsed, and Alexander literally held it on himself until help arrived. After some time, he began to complain of back pain. During the examination, it turned out that the king had kidney problems. In the winter of 1894, Alexander caught a bad cold, and soon the emperor became very ill while hunting, and was diagnosed with acute nephritis. Doctors sent the emperor to the Crimea, where on November 20, 1894, Alexander III died.
Alexander III left a big mark in the history of Russia. After his death, the following lines were written in one of the French newspapers: - "He leaves Russia, greater than he received it."
Wife: Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna) (November 14, 1847 - October 13, 1928), daughter of the Danish King Christian IX.
Children:
1. Nikolai Alexandrovich (later Emperor Nicholas II) (May 6, 1868 - July 17, 1918, Yekaterinburg);
2. Alexander Alexandrovich (May 26, 1869 - April 20, 1870, St. Petersburg);
3. Georgy Alexandrovich (April 27, 1871 - June 28, 1899, Abastumani);
4. Ksenia Alexandrovna (March 25, 1875 - April 20, 1960, London);
5. Mikhail Alexandrovich (November 22, 1878 - June 13, 1918, Perm);
6. Olga Alexandrovna (June 1, 1882 - November 24, 1960, Toronto).
The name of Emperor Alexander III, one of the greatest statesmen of Russia, was desecrated and forgotten for many years. And only in recent decades, when it became possible to speak unbiasedly and freely about the past, evaluate the present and think about the future, the public service of Emperor Alexander III is of great interest to everyone who is interested in the history of their country.
Emperor Alexander III was not intended to reign by birth. As the second son of Alexander II, he became heir to the Russian throne only after the untimely death of his elder brother Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich in 1865. Then, on April 12, 1865, the Supreme Manifesto announced to Russia the proclamation of Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich as the Tsarevich's heir, and a year later the Tsarevich was married to the Danish princess Dagmar, who was married to Maria Feodorovna.
On the anniversary of his brother’s death on April 12, 1866, he wrote in his diary: “I will never forget this day ... the first funeral service over the body of a dear friend ... I thought in those moments that I would not survive my brother, that I would constantly cry at just one thought that I no longer have a brother and friend. But God strengthened me and gave me the strength to take on my new assignment. Maybe I often forgot in the eyes of others my purpose, but in my soul there was always this feeling that I should not live for myself, but for others; heavy and difficult duty. But: "Thy will be done, O God". I repeat these words all the time, and they always console and support me, because everything that happens to us is all the will of God, and therefore I am calm and trust in the Lord! Awareness of the gravity of obligations and responsibility for the future of the state, entrusted to him from above, did not leave the new emperor throughout his short life.
The educators of the Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich were Adjutant General, Count V.A. Perovsky, a man of strict moral rules, appointed by his grandfather Emperor Nicholas I. The education of the future emperor was in charge of the well-known economist, professor of Moscow University A.I. Chivilev. Academician Ya.K. Grotto taught Alexander history, geography, Russian and German; prominent military theorist M.I. Dragomirov - tactics and military history, S.M. Solovyov - Russian history. The future emperor studied political and legal sciences, as well as Russian legislation, under K.P. Pobedonostsev, who had a particularly great influence on Alexander. After graduation, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich repeatedly traveled around Russia. It was these trips that laid in him not only love and the foundations of a deep interest in the fate of the Motherland, but formed an understanding of the problems facing Russia.
As heir to the throne, the Tsarevich participated in meetings of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers, was chancellor of the University of Helsingfors, ataman of the Cossack troops, commander of the guards in St. Petersburg. In 1868, when Russia suffered a severe famine, he stood at the head of a commission formed to provide assistance to the victims. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. he commanded the Ruschuk detachment, which played an important and difficult tactical role: he held back the Turks from the east, facilitating the actions of the Russian army, which besieged Plevna. Understanding the need to strengthen the Russian fleet, the Tsesarevich addressed an ardent appeal to the people for donations to the Russian fleet. In a short time the money was raised. Vessels of the Volunteer Fleet were built on them. It was then that the heir to the throne became convinced that Russia had only two friends: its army and navy.
He was interested in music, fine arts and history, was one of the initiators of the creation of the Russian Historical Society and its chairman, was engaged in collecting collections of antiquities and restoring historical monuments.
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The government formed with the participation of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod K.P. Pobedonostsev, focused on strengthening the "traditionalist" principles in the politics, economy and culture of the Russian Empire. In the 80s - mid 90s. a series of legislative acts appeared that limited the nature and actions of those reforms of the 60-70s, which, according to the emperor, did not correspond to the historical destiny of Russia. Trying to prevent the destructive power of the opposition movement, the emperor imposed restrictions on zemstvo and city self-government. The elective beginning in the magistrate's court was reduced, in the districts the execution of judicial duties was transferred to the newly established zemstvo chiefs.
At the same time, steps were taken to develop the state's economy, strengthen finances and carry out military reforms, and resolve agrarian-peasant and national-religious issues. The young emperor also paid attention to the development of the material well-being of his subjects: he founded the Ministry of Agriculture to improve agriculture, established noble and peasant land banks, with the assistance of which nobles and peasants could acquire land property, patronized domestic industry (by raising customs duties on foreign goods ), and the construction of new canals and railways, including through Belarus, contributed to the revival of the economy and trade.
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The state policy in Belarus was dictated, first of all, by the unwillingness of the "violent breaking of the historically established order of life" of the local population, the "violent eradication of languages" and the desire to ensure that "foreigners become modern sons, and not remain the eternal adoptives of the country." It was at this time that the general imperial legislation, the administrative-political administration and the education system finally established themselves in the Belarusian lands. At the same time, the authority of the Orthodox Church rose.
In foreign policy affairs, Alexander III tried to avoid military conflicts, so he went down in history as the "Tsar-Peacemaker". The main direction of the new political course was to ensure Russian interests through the search for reliance on "themselves." Having approached France, with which Russia had no controversial interests, he concluded a peace treaty with her, thus establishing an important balance between the European states. Another extremely important policy direction for Russia was the preservation of stability in Central Asia, which became part of the Russian Empire shortly before the reign of Alexander III. The borders of the Russian Empire pr him advanced to Afghanistan. A railway was laid on this vast expanse, connecting the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea with the center of Russian Central Asian possessions - Samarkand and the river. Amu Darya. In general, Alexander III persistently strove for the complete unification of all the outskirts with native Russia. To this end, he abolished the Caucasian governorship, destroyed the privileges of the Baltic Germans and forbade foreigners, including Poles, to acquire land in Western Russia, including Belarus.
The emperor also worked hard to improve military affairs: the Russian army was significantly enlarged and armed with new weapons; several fortresses were built on the western border. The navy under him became one of the strongest in Europe.
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Parochial schools were extremely important in the era of Alexander III. The emperor saw in the parish school one of the forms of cooperation between the State and the Church. The Orthodox Church, in his opinion, from time immemorial has been the educator and teacher of the people. For centuries, schools at churches were the first and only schools in Rus', including Belaya. Until the half of the 60s. In the 19th century, almost exclusively priests and other members of the clergy were mentors in rural schools. On June 13, 1884, the "Rules on parish schools" were approved by the emperor. Approving them, the emperor wrote in his report about them: “I hope that the parish clergy will prove worthy of their high calling in this important matter.” Parish schools began to open in many places in Russia, often in the most remote and remote villages. Often they were the only source of education for the people. At the accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander III, there were only about 4,000 parish schools in the Russian Empire. In the year of his death, there were 31,000 of them and over a million boys and girls were studying in them.
Along with the number of schools, their position also strengthened. Initially, these schools were based on church funds, on the funds of church brotherhoods and trustees and individual benefactors. Later, the state treasury came to their aid. To manage all parochial schools, a special school council was formed under the Holy Synod, publishing textbooks and literature necessary for education. Taking care of the parochial school, the emperor realized the importance of combining the foundations of education and upbringing in the public school. This upbringing, protecting the people from the harmful influences of the West, the emperor saw in Orthodoxy. Therefore, Alexander III was especially attentive to the parish clergy. Before him, the parish clergy of only a few dioceses received support from the treasury. Under Alexander III, a vacation was started from the treasury of sums to provide for the clergy. This order laid the foundation for improving the life of the Russian parish priest. When the clergy expressed gratitude for this undertaking, he said: "I will be quite glad when I manage to provide for all the rural clergy."
Emperor Alexander III treated the development of higher and secondary education in Russia with the same care. During his short reign, Tomsk University and a number of industrial schools were opened.
The king's family life was distinguished by impeccability. According to his diary, which he kept daily when he was his heir, one can study the daily life of an Orthodox person no worse than according to Ivan Shmelev's well-known book "The Summer of the Lord." True pleasure was given to Alexander III by church hymns and sacred music, which he put much higher than secular.
Emperor Alexander reigned thirteen years and seven months. Constant worries and intense studies broke his strong nature early: he became more and more unwell. Before the death of Alexander III, he confessed and communed St. John of Kronstadt. Not for a moment did the consciousness leave the king; saying goodbye to his family, he said to his wife: “I feel the end. Be calm. I am completely calm… “About half past 3 he took communion,” the new emperor Nicholas II wrote in his diary on the evening of October 20, 1894, “soon, slight convulsions began, ... and the end came quickly! Father John stood at the head of the bed for more than an hour, holding his head. It was the death of a saint!” Alexander III died in his Livadia Palace (in the Crimea), before reaching his fiftieth birthday.
The personality of the emperor and his significance for the history of Russia are rightly expressed in the following verses:
In the hour of turmoil and struggle, having ascended under the shadow of the throne,
He extended a mighty hand.
And the noisy sedition froze around.
Like a dying fire.
He understood Rus''s spirit and believed in its strength,
Loved her space and expanse,
He lived like a Russian Tsar and he went down to the grave
Like a true Russian hero.
Born March 10 (February 26 old style) 1845 in St. Petersburg. He was the second son of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna.
He received a military engineering education traditional for the Grand Dukes.
In 1865, after the death of his elder brother, Grand Duke Nicholas, he became Tsarevich, after which he received more fundamental knowledge. Among Alexander's mentors were Sergei Solovyov (history), Yakov Grot (history of literature), Mikhail Dragomirov (martial arts). The teacher of jurisprudence Konstantin Pobedonostsev had the greatest influence on the crown prince.
In the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, he commanded the Ruschuk detachment in Bulgaria. After the war, he participated in the creation of the Volunteer Fleet, a joint-stock shipping company designed to promote the foreign economic policy of the government.
He ascended the throne on March 1, 1881 after the assassination of Alexander II by terrorists-Narodnaya Volya. The first years of his reign he spent in Gatchina under heavy guard of troops and police.
In his father's reforms, he saw, first of all, negative aspects - the growth of government bureaucracy, the difficult financial situation of the people, imitation of Western models. The political ideal of Alexander III was based on the idea of patriarchal-fatherly autocratic rule, the planting of religious values in society, the strengthening of the estate structure, and national-original social development.
On April 29, 1881, Alexander III issued a manifesto "On the inviolability of autocracy" and launched a series of reforms that were aimed at partially curtailing the liberal undertakings of his father-reformer.
The domestic policy of the king was characterized by increased control of the central government over all spheres of state life.
To strengthen the role of the police, local and central administration, the "Regulations on Measures to Protect State Security and Public Peace" (1881) were adopted. Adopted in 1882, the "Provisional Rules on the Press" clearly outlined the range of topics that could be written about, and introduced strict censorship. In addition, a number of "counter-reforms" were carried out, thanks to which it was possible to suppress the revolutionary movement, primarily the activities of the "Narodnaya Volya" party.
Alexander III took measures to protect the class rights of the noble landlords: he established the Noble Land Bank, adopted the Provision on hiring for agricultural work, which was beneficial for the landowners, strengthened administrative guardianship over the peasantry, helped to strengthen the community of the peasants, the formation of the ideal of a large patriarchal family.
At the same time, in the first half of the 1880s, he took a number of measures to alleviate the financial situation of the people and alleviate social tensions in society: the introduction of compulsory redemption and the reduction of redemption payments, the establishment of the Peasant Land Bank, the introduction of factory inspection, the gradual abolition of the poll tax.
The emperor paid serious attention to enhancing the social role of the Orthodox Church: he increased the number of parochial schools, toughened repressions against the Old Believers and sectarians.
During the reign of Alexander III, the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was completed (1883), parishes closed in the previous reign were restored, and many new monasteries and churches were built.
Alexander III made a significant contribution to the reorganization of the system of state and social relations. In 1884, he issued the University Charter, which curtailed the autonomy of the universities. In 1887, he issued a "circular about the cook's children," which limited the admission of children from the lower classes to the gymnasium.
He strengthened the social role of the local nobility: since 1889, the peasant self-government was subordinate to the zemstvo chiefs - who combined judicial and administrative power in their hands to officials from local landowners.
He carried out reforms in the sphere of city government: zemstvo and city regulations (1890, 1892) tightened the control of the administration over local government, limited the rights of voters from the lower strata of society.
He limited the scope of the jury, restored closed court proceedings for political trials.
The economic life of Russia during the reign of Alexander III was characterized by economic growth, which was largely due to the policy of increased patronage of domestic industry. The country rearmed the army and navy and became the world's largest exporter of agricultural products. The government of Alexander III encouraged the growth of large-scale capitalist industry, which achieved notable successes (metallurgy products doubled in 1886-1892, the railway network grew by 47%).
The foreign policy of Russia under Alexander III was distinguished by pragmatism. The main content was the turn from traditional cooperation with Germany to an alliance with France, which was concluded in 1891-1893. The aggravation of relations with Germany was smoothed out by the "Reinsurance Treaty" (1887).
Alexander III went down in history as the Tsar-Peacemaker - during the years of his reign, Russia did not participate in any serious military-political conflict of that time. The only significant battle - the capture of Kushka - took place in 1885, after which the annexation of Central Asia to Russia was completed.
Alexander III was one of the initiators of the creation of the Russian Historical Society and its first chairman. Established the Historical Museum in Moscow.
He simplified court etiquette and ceremonial, in particular, abolished kneeling before the king, reduced the staff of the court ministry and introduced strict control over the spending of money.
The emperor was pious, distinguished by frugality, modesty, he spent his leisure time in a narrow family and friendly circle. Interested in music, painting, history. He collected an extensive collection of paintings, decorative and applied arts, sculptures, which, after his death, was transferred to the Russian Museum founded by Emperor Nicholas II in memory of his father.
The idea of a real hero with iron health is associated with the personality of Alexander III. On October 17, 1888, he suffered in a railway accident near the Borki station, 50 km from Kharkov. However, saving the lives of loved ones, the emperor held the collapsed roof of the car for about half an hour until help arrived. It is believed that as a result of this excessive exertion, he began to progress kidney disease.
On November 1 (October 20, old style), 1894, the emperor died in Livadia (Crimea) from the effects of jade. The body was taken to St. Petersburg and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
The wife of Alexander III was the Danish princess Louise Sophia Frederica Dagmar (in Orthodoxy - Maria Feodorovna) (1847-1928), whom he married in 1866. The emperor and his wife had five children: Nicholas (later the Russian Emperor Nicholas II), George, Xenia, Mikhail and Olga.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
CHAPTER FIRST
Manifesto on the accession of the sovereign to the throne. - Evaluation of the reign of Emperor Alexander III (V. O. Klyuchevsky, K. P. Pobedonostsev). - General situation in 1894 - Russian Empire. - Royal authority. - Bureaucracy. – Tendencies of the ruling circles: “demophilic” and “aristocratic”. - Foreign policy and the Franco-Russian alliance. - Army. - Fleet. - Local government. – Finland. – Press and censorship. - Mildness of laws and courts.
The role of Alexander III in Russian history
“God Almighty was pleased in his inscrutable ways to interrupt the precious life of our dearly beloved Parent, Sovereign Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich. A serious illness did not succumb to either treatment or the fertile climate of the Crimea, and on October 20, He died in Livadia, surrounded by His August Family, in the arms of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress and Ours.
Our grief cannot be expressed in words, but every Russian heart will understand it, and We believe that there will be no place in Our vast State where hot tears would not be shed for the Sovereign, who untimely departed into eternity and left his native land, which He loved with all His might. Russian soul and on whose well-being He placed all His thoughts, sparing neither His health nor life. And not only in Russia, but far beyond its borders, they will never cease to honor the memory of the Tsar, who personified unshakable truth and peace, never violated in all His reign.
With these words, the manifesto begins, announcing to Russia the accession of Emperor Nicholas II to the ancestral throne.
The reign of Emperor Alexander III, who received the title of Tsar-Peacemaker, did not abound with external events, but it left a deep imprint on Russian and world life. During these thirteen years, many knots were tied - both in foreign and domestic policy - to untie or cut which happened to his son and successor, Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich.
Both friends and enemies of imperial Russia equally recognize that Emperor Alexander III significantly increased the international weight of the Russian Empire, and within its borders he confirmed and exalted the importance of autocratic tsarist power. He led the Russian state ship in a different course than his father. He did not believe that the reforms of the 60s and 70s were an unconditional blessing, but tried to introduce into them those amendments that, in his opinion, were necessary for the internal balance of Russia.
After the epoch of great reforms, after the war of 1877-1878, after this enormous exertion of Russian forces in the interests of the Balkan Slavs, Russia, in any case, needed a respite. It was necessary to master, to “digest” the changes that had taken place.
Estimates of the reign of Alexander III
In the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, a well-known Russian historian, prof. V. O. Klyuchevsky, in his speech in memory of Emperor Alexander III, a week after his death, said:
“During the reign of Emperor Alexander III, before the eyes of one generation, we peacefully carried out a number of deep reforms in our state system in the spirit of Christian rules, therefore, in the spirit of European principles - such reforms that cost Western Europe centuries and often stormy efforts, - and this Europe continued to see in us representatives of Mongolian inertia, some kind of imposed adoptives of the cultural world ...
13 years of the reign of Emperor Alexander III have passed, and the more hastily the hand of death hurried to close His eyes, the wider and more amazed the eyes of Europe were opened to the world significance of this short reign. Finally, even the stones cried out, the organs of European public opinion spoke the truth about Russia, and spoke the more sincerely, the more unusual it was for them to say this. It turned out, according to these confessions, that European civilization had insufficiently and carelessly ensured its peaceful development, for its own safety it was placed on a powder magazine, that a burning wick approached this dangerous defensive warehouse more than once from different sides, and each time the caring and patient hand of the Russian Tsar quietly and cautiously took him away... Europe recognized that the Tsar of the Russian people was the sovereign of the international world, and by this recognition confirmed the historical vocation of Russia, for in Russia, according to its political organization, the will of the Tsar expresses the thought of His people, and the will of the people becomes the thought of its Tsar. Europe recognized that the country, which it considered a threat to its civilization, stood and stands on its guard, understands, appreciates and protects its foundations no worse than its creators; it recognized Russia as an organically indispensable part of its cultural composition, a vital, natural member of the family of its peoples...
Science will give Emperor Alexander III a proper place not only in the history of Russia and all of Europe, but also in Russian historiography, will say that He won in the area where these victories are most difficult to get, defeated the prejudice of peoples and thereby contributed to their rapprochement, conquered the public conscience in the name of peace and truth, increased the amount of goodness in the moral circulation of mankind, encouraged and uplifted Russian historical thought, Russian national self-consciousness, and did all this so quietly and silently that only now, when He no longer exists, Europe understood what He was for her."
If Professor Klyuchevsky, a Russian intellectual and rather a “Westernizer”, dwells more on the foreign policy of Emperor Alexander III and, apparently, hints at a rapprochement with France, the closest collaborator of the late monarch, K.P. Pobedonostsev:
“Everyone knew that he would not give in to the Russian, the history of the bequeathed interest either in the Polish or in other outskirts of the foreign element, that he deeply kept in his soul one faith and love for the Orthodox Church with the people; finally, that he, together with the people, believes in the unshakable significance of autocratic power in Russia and will not allow for it, in the specter of freedom, a disastrous confusion of languages and opinions.
At a meeting of the French Senate, its chairman, Challmel-Lacour, said in his speech (November 5, 1894) that the Russian people are experiencing “sorrow for the loss of a ruler, immensely devoted to his future, his greatness, his security; The Russian nation, under the just and peaceful rule of its emperor, enjoyed security, this highest good of society and an instrument of true greatness.
Most of the French press spoke about the deceased Russian tsar in the same tone: “He leaves Russia greater than he received it,” wrote the Journal des Debats; a “Revue des deux Mondes” echoed the words of V. O. Klyuchevsky: “This grief was also our grief; for us it has acquired a national character; but almost the same feelings were experienced by other nations ... Europe felt that it was losing an arbiter who had always been guided by the idea of justice.
International position at the end of the reign of Alexander III
1894 - like the 80s and 90s in general. - refers to that long period of "calm before the storm", the longest period without major wars in modern and medieval history. This time left its mark on all those who grew up in these quiet years. By the end of the 19th century, the growth of material well-being and foreign education proceeded with increasing acceleration. Technique went from invention to invention, science from discovery to discovery. Railroads, steamboats have already made it possible to "travel around the world in 80 days"; Following the telegraph wires, strands of telephone wires were already stretched all over the world. Electric lighting quickly replaced gas lighting. But in 1894, the clumsy first automobiles could not yet compete with elegant carriages and carriages; "live photography" was still in the stage of preliminary experiments; steerable balloons were only a dream; Heavier-than-air machines have never been heard of before. Radio had not been invented, and radium had not yet been discovered ...
In almost all states, the same political process was observed: the growth of the influence of parliament, the expansion of suffrage, the transfer of power to more left-wing circles. Against this trend, which at that time seemed to be a spontaneous course of "historical progress", no one in the West, in essence, waged a real struggle. The Conservatives, themselves gradually shedding and “lefting”, were content with the fact that at times they slowed down the pace of this development - 1894 in most countries just found such a slowdown.
In France, after the assassination of President Carnot and a number of senseless anarchist attempts, up to the bomb in the Chamber of Deputies and the notorious Panama scandal, which marked the beginning of the 90s. in this country, there has been just a slight shift to the right. The president was Casimir Perier, a right-wing republican inclined to expand presidential power; ruled by the Dupuy ministry, based on a moderate majority. But "moderates" already at that time were considered those who in the 70s were on the extreme left of the National Assembly; just shortly before that - around 1890 - under the influence of the advice of Pope Leo XIII, a significant part of the French Catholics went over to the ranks of the Republicans.
In Germany, after the resignation of Bismarck, the influence of the Reichstag increased significantly; Social Democracy, gradually conquering all the big cities, became the largest German party. The Conservatives, for their part, relying on the Prussian Landtag, waged a stubborn struggle against the economic policy of Wilhelm II. For lack of energy in the fight against the socialists, Chancellor Caprivi was replaced in October 1894 by the aged Prince Hohenlohe; but no appreciable change of course resulted from this.
In England, in 1894, the Liberals were defeated on the Irish question, and Lord Rosebery's "intermediate" ministry was in power, which soon gave way to Lord Salisbury's cabinet, which relied on conservatives and unionist liberals (opponents of Irish self-government). These Unionists, led by Chamberlain, played such a prominent role in the government majority that soon the name of the Unionists in general supplanted the name of the Conservatives for twenty years altogether. Unlike Germany, the British labor movement was not yet political in nature, and the powerful trade unions, already staging very impressive strikes, were still content with economic and professional achievements - meeting in this more support from the conservatives than from the liberals. These correlations explain the phrase of a prominent English figure of that time: “We are all now socialists” ...
In Austria and Hungary, parliamentary rule was more pronounced than in Germany: cabinets that did not have a majority had to resign. On the other hand, the parliament itself opposed the expansion of suffrage: the ruling parties were afraid of losing power. By the time of the death of Emperor Alexander III in Vienna, the short-lived ministry of Prince. Windischgrätz, which relied on very heterogeneous elements: German liberals, Poles and clerics.
In Italy, after a period of domination by the left headed by Giolitti, after a scandal over the appointment of the stealing director of the Tanlongo bank to the Senate, at the beginning of 1894 the old political figure Crispi, one of the authors of the Triple Alliance, came to power again, in the special Italian parliamentary conditions, playing a role conservative.
Although the Second International had already been founded in 1889 and socialist ideas were becoming more widespread in Europe, by 1894 the socialists were not yet a serious political force in any country except Germany (where in 1893 they had already held 44 deputies ). But the parliamentary system in many small states - Belgium, the Scandinavian, Balkan countries - has received an even more straightforward application than that of the great powers. In addition to Russia, only Turkey and Montenegro from European countries did not have parliaments at that time.
The era of calm was at the same time the era of armed peace. All the great powers, followed by the smaller ones, increased and improved their armaments. Europe, as V. O. Klyuchevsky put it, “fitted itself on a powder magazine for its own safety.” Universal conscription was carried out in all the major states of Europe, except for insular England. The technology of war did not lag behind the technology of peace in its development.
Mutual distrust between states was great. The triple alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy seemed to be the most powerful combination of powers. But even its participants did not fully rely on each other. Until 1890, Germany still considered it necessary to "play it safe" by means of a secret treaty with Russia - and Bismarck saw a fatal mistake in the fact that Emperor Wilhelm II did not renew this treaty - and France entered into negotiations with Italy more than once, trying to tear it away from the Triple union. England was in "splendid solitude". France hid the unhealed wound of its defeat in 1870-1871. and was ready to join any enemy of Germany. The thirst for revenge was clearly manifested in the late 80s. the success of boulangism.
The division of Africa was broadly completed by 1890, at least on the coast. Entrepreneurial colonialists rushed from everywhere to the interior of the mainland, where there were still unexplored areas, to be the first to raise the flag of their country and secure "no one's lands" for it. Only in the middle reaches of the Nile did the British still block the path of the Mahdists, Muslim fanatics, who in 1885 defeated and killed the English General Gordon during the capture of Khartoum. And mountainous Abyssinia, on which the Italians began their campaign, prepared an unexpectedly powerful rebuff for them.
All these were just islands - Africa, like Australia and America before, became the property of the white race. Until the end of the 19th century, the prevailing belief was that Asia would suffer the same fate. England and Russia were already watching each other through a thin barrier of still weak independent states, Persia, Afghanistan, semi-independent Tibet. The closest thing came to a war for the entire reign of Emperor Alexander III, when in 1885 General Komarov defeated the Afghans near Kushka: the British vigilantly watched the "gates to India"! However, the acute conflict was resolved by an agreement in 1887.
But in the Far East, where back in the 1850s. The Russians occupied the Ussuri Territory, which belonged to China, without a fight, and the slumbering peoples were just beginning to stir. When Emperor Alexander III was dying, cannons rattled on the shores of the Yellow Sea: small Japan, having mastered European technology, won its first victories over huge, but still motionless China.
Russia towards the end of the reign of Alexander III
Portrait of Alexander III. Artist A. Sokolov, 1883
In this world, the Russian Empire, with its area of twenty million square miles, with a population of 125 million people, occupied a prominent position. Since the Seven Years' War, and especially since 1812, Russia's military power has been highly valued in Western Europe. The Crimean War showed the limits of this power, but at the same time confirmed its strength. Since then, the era of reforms, including in the military sphere, has created new conditions for the development of Russian power.
Russia at that time began to be seriously studied. A. Leroy-Beaulieu in French, Sir D. Mackenzie-Wallace in English published large studies on Russia in the 1870s-1880s. The structure of the Russian Empire was very different from Western European conditions, but foreigners then already began to understand that we were talking about dissimilar, and not about "backward" state forms.
“The Russian Empire is governed on the exact basis of laws emanating from the Highest Authority. The emperor is an autocratic and unlimited monarch,” said the Russian fundamental laws. The tsar had full legislative and executive powers. This did not mean arbitrariness: all essential questions had exact answers in the laws, which were subject to execution until there was a repeal. In the field of civil rights, the Russian tsarist government generally avoided a sharp break, reckoned with the legal skills of the population and acquired rights, and left in effect on the territory of the empire both the Napoleonic code (in the kingdom of Poland), and the Lithuanian Statute (in the Poltava and Chernigov provinces), and Magdeburg law (in the Baltic region), and customary law among the peasants, and all kinds of local laws and customs in the Caucasus, Siberia, and Central Asia.
But the right to legislate was indivisibly vested in the king. There was a State Council of high dignitaries appointed there by the sovereign; he discussed draft laws; but the king could agree, at his discretion, with the opinion of the majority and with the opinion of the minority - or reject both. Usually, special commissions and meetings were formed to hold important events; but they had, of course, only a preparatory value.
In the field of executive fullness of royal power was also unlimited. Louis XIV, after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, declared that he wanted to be his own first minister from now on. But all Russian monarchs were in the same position. Russia did not know the position of the first minister. The title of chancellor, sometimes assigned to the minister of foreign affairs (the last chancellor was His Serene Highness Prince A. M. Gorchakov, who died in 1883), gave him the rank of the 1st class according to the table of ranks, but did not mean any supremacy over other ministers. There was a Committee of Ministers, it had a permanent chairman (in 1894, the former Minister of Finance, N. Kh. Bunge, also consisted of it). But this Committee was, in essence, only a kind of interdepartmental meeting.
All ministers and heads of separate units had their own independent report with the sovereign. The sovereign was also directly subordinate to the governor-general, as well as the mayors of both capitals.
This did not mean that the sovereign was involved in all the details of managing individual departments (although, for example, Emperor Alexander III was “his own minister of foreign affairs”, to whom all “incoming” and “outgoing” reports were reported; N.K. Girs was, as it were, his "comrade minister"). Individual ministers sometimes had great power and the opportunity for broad initiative. But they had them because and so far the sovereign trusted them.
To carry out the plans coming from above, Russia also had a large staff of officials. Emperor Nicholas I once dropped the ironic phrase that Russia is ruled by 30,000 head clerks. Complaints about the "bureaucracy", about the "mediastinum" were very common in Russian society. It was customary to scold officials, to grumble at them. Abroad, there was an idea of almost total bribery of Russian officials. He was often judged by the satires of Gogol or Shchedrin; but a caricature, even a successful one, cannot be considered a portrait. In some departments, for example, in the police, low salaries did contribute to a fairly wide distribution of bribes. Others, such as, for example, the Ministry of Finance or the judicial department after the reform of 1864, enjoyed, on the contrary, a reputation for high honesty. It must be admitted, however, that one of the traits that made Russia related to the eastern countries was the condescending everyday attitude towards many acts of dubious honesty; the fight against this phenomenon was psychologically difficult. Some sections of the population, such as engineers, enjoyed an even worse reputation than officials - quite often, of course, undeserved.
But the top government was free from this disease. Cases where ministers or other representatives of the authorities were involved in abuses were the rarest sensational exceptions.
Be that as it may, the Russian administration, even in its most imperfect parts, carried out, despite the difficult conditions, the task assigned to it. The tsarist government had at its disposal an obedient and well-organized state apparatus adapted to the diverse needs of the Russian Empire. This apparatus was created over the centuries - from Moscow orders - and in many ways has reached a high level of perfection.
But the Russian tsar was not only the head of state: he was at the same time the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which occupied a leading position in the country. This, of course, did not mean that the tsar had the right to touch upon church dogmas; the conciliar structure of the Orthodox Church ruled out such an understanding of the rights of the tsar. But at the suggestion of the Holy Synod, the highest church college, the appointment of bishops was made by the king; and the replenishment of the composition of the Synod itself depended (in the same order) on him. The chief prosecutor of the Synod was the link between church and state. This position was occupied by K. P. Pobedonostsev, a man of outstanding mind and strong will, a teacher of two emperors, Alexander III and Nicholas II, for more than a quarter of a century.
During the reign of Emperor Alexander III, the following main tendencies of power appeared: not an indiscriminately negative, but in any case a critical attitude towards what was called "progress", and the desire to give Russia more internal unity by asserting the primacy of the Russian elements of the country. In addition, two currents were simultaneously manifested, far from being similar, but, as it were, complementing each other. One that aims at defending the weak from the strong, preferring the broad masses of the people to the upper classes that have separated from them, with some leveling inclinations, in terms of our time, could be called "demophile" or Christian-social. This is a trend whose representatives, along with others, were the Minister of Justice Manasein (who retired in 1894) and K.P. Pobedonostsev, who wrote that "nobles, like the people, are subject to curbing." Another trend, which found its expression in the Minister of the Interior, Count. D. A. Tolstoy, sought to strengthen the ruling classes, to establish a certain hierarchy in the state. The first trend, by the way, ardently defended the peasant community as a kind of Russian form of solving the social problem.
The Russification policy met with more sympathy from the “demophile” trend. On the contrary, a prominent representative of the second trend, the famous writer K. N. Leontiev, published in 1888 the pamphlet “National Policy as an Instrument of World Revolution” (in subsequent editions the word “national” was replaced by “tribal”), arguing that “the movement of modern political nationalism is nothing else than the spread of cosmopolitan democratization, modified only in methods.
Of the prominent right-wing publicists of that time, M.N. V. P. Meshchersky.
Emperor Alexander III himself, with his deeply Russian mindset, did not sympathize with the Russification extremes and expressively wrote to K. P. Pobedonostsev (in 1886): “There are gentlemen who think that they are only Russians, and no one else. Do they already imagine that I am a German or a Chukhonian? It is easy for them with their farcical patriotism when they are not responsible for anything. I won’t let Russia be offended.”
Foreign policy results of the reign of Alexander III
In foreign policy, the reign of Emperor Alexander III brought great changes. That affinity with Germany, or rather with Prussia, which remained a common feature of Russian policy since Catherine the Great and runs like a red thread through the reigns of Alexander I, Nicholas I, and especially Alexander II, has been replaced by a noticeable cooling. It would hardly be correct, as is sometimes done, to attribute this development of events to the anti-German sentiments of Empress Maria Feodorovna, a Danish princess who married a Russian heir shortly after the Danish-Prussian war of 1864! It can only be said that the political complications this time were not mitigated, as in previous reigns, by personal good relations and family ties of the dynasties. The reasons were, of course, predominantly political.
Although Bismarck considered it possible to combine the Tripartite Alliance with friendly relations with Russia, the Austro-German-Italian alliance was, of course, at the heart of the chill between old friends. The Berlin Congress left bitterness in Russian public opinion. Anti-German notes began to sound at the top. The sharp speech of Gen. Skobeleva against the Germans; Katkov in Moskovskie Vedomosti waged a campaign against them. By the mid-1980s, the tension began to be felt more strongly; The German seven-year military budget (“septennat”) was caused by the deterioration of relations with Russia. The German government closed the Berlin market for Russian securities.
Emperor Alexander III, like Bismarck, was seriously worried about this aggravation, and in 1887 he was imprisoned - for a three-year term - the so-called. reinsurance agreement. It was a secret Russo-German agreement under which both countries promised each other benevolent neutrality in the event that a third country attacked one of them. This agreement was an essential reservation to the act of the Triple Alliance. It meant that Germany would not support any anti-Russian action by Austria. Legally, these treaties were compatible, since the Triple Alliance also provided only support in the event that one of its participants was attacked (which gave Italy the opportunity in 1914 to declare neutrality without violating the union treaty).
But this reinsurance treaty was not renewed in 1890. Negotiations about it coincided with the moment of Bismarck's resignation. His successor, Gen. Caprivi, with military straightforwardness, pointed out to Wilhelm II that this treaty seemed disloyal to Austria. For his part, Emperor Alexander III, who had sympathy for Bismarck, did not seek to get involved with the new rulers of Germany.
After that, in the 90s, it came to the Russian-German customs war, which ended with a trade agreement on March 20, 1894, concluded with the close participation of the Minister of Finance S. Yu. Witte. This treaty gave Russia - for a ten-year period - significant advantages.
Relations with Austria-Hungary had nothing to spoil: since the time when Austria, saved from the Hungarian revolution by Emperor Nicholas I, “surprised the world with ingratitude” during the Crimean War, Russia and Austria also clashed on the entire front of the Balkans, like Russia and England all over Asia.
England at that time still continued to see the Russian Empire as its main enemy and competitor, "a huge glacier hanging over India," as Lord Beaconsfield (Disraeli) put it in the English Parliament.
In the Balkans, Russia experienced in the 80s. the worst disappointments. The liberation war of 1877-1878, which cost Russia so much blood and such financial upheavals, did not bear immediate fruit. Austria actually took possession of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Russia was forced to admit this in order to avoid a new war. In Serbia, the Obrenović dynasty, represented by King Milan, was in power, clearly gravitating towards Austria. About Bulgaria, even Bismarck caustically responded in his memoirs: "The liberated peoples are not grateful, but pretentious." There it came to the persecution of Russophile elements. The replacement of Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who became the head of anti-Russian movements, by Ferdinand of Coburg did not improve Russian-Bulgarian relations. Only in 1894, Stambulov, the main inspirer of the Russophobic policy, had to resign. The only country with which Russia did not even have diplomatic relations for many years was Bulgaria, so recently resurrected by Russian weapons from a long state non-existence!
Romania was allied with Austria and Germany, offended by the fact that in 1878 Russia regained a small piece of Bessarabia taken from it in the Crimean War. Although Romania received in the form of compensation the entire Dobruja with the port of Constanta, she preferred to get closer to the opponents of Russian policy in the Balkans.
When Emperor Alexander III proclaimed his famous toast to "the only true friend of Russia, Prince Nicholas of Montenegro", this, in essence, corresponded to reality. The power of Russia was so great that she did not feel threatened in this loneliness. But after the termination of the reinsurance agreement, during a sharp deterioration in Russian-German economic relations, Emperor Alexander III took certain steps to rapprochement with France.
The republican system, state disbelief, and such recent phenomena at that time as the Panama scandal, could not dispose the Russian tsar, the keeper of conservative and religious principles, to France. Many considered therefore the Franco-Russian agreement excluded. The solemn reception of the sailors of the French squadron in Kronstadt, when the Russian tsar listened to the Marseillaise with his head uncovered, showed that sympathies or antipathies for the internal order of France were not decisive for Emperor Alexander III. Few, however, thought that since 1892 a secret defensive alliance had been concluded between Russia and France, supplemented by a military convention indicating how many troops both sides were obliged to put up in case of war with Germany. This treaty was at that time so secret that neither the ministers (of course, except for two or three senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military department), nor even the heir to the throne himself knew about it.
French society has long been eager to formalize this union, but the tsar made it a condition for the strictest secrecy, fearing that confidence in Russian support could give rise to militant moods in France, revive the thirst for revenge, and the government, due to the peculiarities of the democratic system, would not be able to resist the pressure of public opinion. .
Russian army and navy towards the end of the reign of Alexander III
The Russian Empire at that time had the largest peacetime army in the world. Its 22 corps, not counting the Cossacks and irregular units, reached a strength of up to 900,000 people. With a four-year term of military service, the annual conscription of recruits gave in the early 90s. three times as many people as the army needed. This not only made it possible to make a strict selection for physical fitness, but also made it possible to provide wide benefits for marital status. The only sons, older brothers, who took care of the younger ones, teachers, doctors, etc., were exempted from active military service and directly enlisted in the second-class militia warriors, to whom mobilization could only come as a last resort. In Russia, only 31 percent of the draftees each year were enrolled in the army, while in France 76 percent.
For the armament of the army, mainly state-owned factories worked; Russia did not have those "cannon dealers" who enjoy such an unflattering reputation in the West.
For the training of officers, there were 37 secondary and 15 higher military educational institutions, in which 14,000-15,000 people studied.
All the lower ranks who served in the ranks of the army received, in addition, a well-known education. The illiterate were taught to read and write, and all were given some of the basic beginnings of a general education.
The Russian fleet, which had been in decline since the Crimean War, revived and rebuilt during the reign of Emperor Alexander III. 114 new warships were launched, including 17 battleships and 10 armored cruisers. The displacement of the fleet reached 300,000 tons - the Russian fleet ranked third (after England and France) in a number of world fleets. Its weak point, however, was that the Black Sea Fleet - about a third of the Russian naval forces - was locked up in the Black Sea under international treaties and did not have the opportunity to take part in the struggle that would have arisen in other seas.
Local self-government in Russia towards the end of the reign of Alexander III
Russia had no imperial representative institutions; Emperor Alexander III, in the words of K. P. Pobedonostsev, believed “in the unshakable significance of autocratic power in Russia” and did not allow for it “in the specter of freedom, a disastrous mixture of languages and opinions.” But from the previous reign, the bodies of local self-government, zemstvos and cities remained as a legacy; and since the time of Catherine II, there was a class self-government in the person of noble assemblies, provincial and district (petty-bourgeois councils and other self-government bodies of citizens gradually lost all real significance).
Zemstvo self-governments were introduced (in 1864) in 34 (out of 50) provinces of European Russia, that is, they spread to more than half of the population of the empire. They were elected by three groups of the population: peasants, private landowners and townspeople; the number of seats was distributed among the groups according to the amount of taxes they paid. In 1890, a law was passed that strengthened the role of the nobility in the zemstvos. In general, private owners, as a more educated element of the village, played a leading role in most provinces; but there were also predominantly peasant zemstvos (Vyatka, Perm, for example). The Russian zemstvos had a broader scope of activity than local self-government bodies in France now have. Medical and veterinary care, public education, road maintenance, statistics, insurance business, agronomy, cooperation, etc. - such was the scope of the zemstvos.
City governments (dumas) were elected by homeowners. Dumas elected city councils with the mayor at the head. The scope of their competence within the cities was in general the same as that of the zemstvos in relation to the countryside.
Reception of volost foremen by Alexander III. Painting by I. Repin, 1885-1886
Finally, the village also had its own peasant self-government, in which all adult peasants and the wives of absent husbands took part. "Peace" resolved local issues and elected representatives to the volost gathering. The elders (chairmen) and the clerks (secretaries) who were with them led these primary cells of peasant self-government.
In general, by the end of the reign of Emperor Alexander III, with a state budget of 1,200,000,000 rubles, local budgets administered by elective institutions amounted to about 200 million, of which about 60 million a year fell to zemstvos and cities. Of this amount, the zemstvos spent about a third on medical care and about one-sixth on public education.
Noble assemblies, created by Catherine the Great, consisted of all hereditary nobles of each province (or county), and only those nobles who had landed property in a given area could participate in the meetings. Provincial noble assemblies were, in fact, the only public bodies in which questions of general policy were sometimes discussed on a legal basis. Noble assemblies in the form of addresses addressed to the Highest Name more than once came up with political resolutions. In addition, the scope of their competence was very limited, and they played a certain role only due to their connection with the zemstvos (the local marshal of the nobility was ex officio the chairman of the provincial or district zemstvo assembly).
The importance of the nobility in the country at that time was already noticeably on the wane. In the early 1890s, contrary to popular beliefs in the West, at 49 lips. In European Russia, out of 381 million acres of land area, only 55 million belonged to the nobles, while in Siberia, Central Asia and the Caucasus there was almost no noble land ownership at all (only in the provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, the nobility owned 44 percent of the land).
In local governments, as everywhere where the elective principle operates, there were, of course, their own groupings, their right and left. There were liberal zemstvos and conservative zemstvos. But real parties did not come from this. At that time, there were no significant illegal groups after the collapse of Narodnaya Volya, although some revolutionary publications were published abroad. Thus, the London Foundation for Illegal Press (S. Stepnyak, N. Tchaikovsky, L. Shishko and others) in a report for 1893 reported that they distributed 20,407 copies of illegal brochures and books in a year - 2,360 of them in Russia, which is not a large number per 125 million population ...
The Grand Duchy of Finland was in a special position. There was a constitution, bestowed by Alexander I. The Finnish Seim, consisting of representatives of the four estates (nobles, clergy, townspeople and peasants), convened every five years, and under Emperor Alexander III he even received (in 1885) the right to legislative initiative. The local government was the senate, appointed by the emperor, and communication with the general imperial administration was provided through the minister-secretary of state for Finnish affairs.
Censorship of newspapers and books
In the absence of representative institutions, there was no organized political activity in Russia, and attempts to create party groups were immediately thwarted by police measures. The press was under the watchful eye of the authorities. Some large newspapers, however, were published without prior censorship - in order to speed up the publication - and therefore bore the risk of subsequent reprisals. Usually two "warnings" were made to the newspaper, and on the third its publication was suspended. But at the same time, the newspapers remained independent: within certain limits, subject to some external restraint, they could, and often carried, views that were very hostile to the government. Most of the big newspapers and magazines were deliberately oppositional. The government only put up external barriers to the expression of views hostile to it, and did not try to influence the content of the press.
It can be said that the Russian government had neither the inclination nor the ability to self-promotion. Its achievements and successes often remained in the shadows, while failures and weaknesses were diligently painted with imaginary objectivity on the pages of the Russian temporary press, and spread abroad by Russian political emigrants, creating largely false ideas about Russia.
Church censorship was the most strict in relation to books. Less severe than the Vatican with its "index", it at the same time had the opportunity not only to put banned books on the lists, but also to actually stop their distribution. So, under the ban were anti-church writings gr. L. N. Tolstoy, "The Life of Jesus" by Renan; when translating from Heine, for example, passages containing mockery of religion were excluded. But in general - especially if we take into account that censorship in different periods acted with varying degrees of severity, and books, once admitted, were rarely withdrawn from circulation later - books forbidden to the Russian "legal" reader constituted an insignificant fraction of world literature. Of the major Russian writers, only Herzen was banned.
Russian laws and court by the end of the reign of Alexander III
In a country that was considered abroad "the kingdom of the whip, chains and exile to Siberia", in fact, very soft and humane laws were in force. Russia was the only country where the death penalty was abolished altogether (since the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna) for all crimes tried by general courts. She remained only in the military courts and for the highest state crimes. For the 19th century the number of those executed (if we exclude both Polish uprisings and violations of military discipline) was not even a hundred people in a hundred years. During the reign of Emperor Alexander III, in addition to the participants in the regicide on March 1, only a few people who attempted to kill the emperor were executed (one of them, by the way, was just A. Ulyanov - Lenin's brother).
Administrative exile, on the basis of the law on the provision of enhanced security, was applied quite widely to all types of anti-government agitation. There were various degrees of exile: to Siberia, to the northern provinces (“places not so remote,” as it was usually called), sometimes simply to provincial cities. Those deported who did not have their own means were given a state allowance for life. In places of exile, special colonies of people united by a common destiny were formed; often these colonies of exiles became the cells of future revolutionary work, creating connections and acquaintances, contributing to "enslavement" in hostility to the existing order. Those who were considered the most dangerous were placed in the Shlisselburg fortress on an island in the upper reaches of the Neva.
The Russian court, based on the judicial statutes of 1864, has stood at a high level since that time; "Gogol types" in the judicial world have receded into the realm of legends. Careful attitude towards the defendants, the broadest provision of the rights of the defense, the selective composition of judges - all this was a matter of just pride for the Russian people and corresponded to the mood of society. The judicial statutes were one of the few laws that society not only respected, but was also ready to jealously defend against the government when it considered it necessary to make reservations and amendments to the liberal law for a more successful fight against crimes.
There were no zemstvos: in 12 western provinces, where non-Russian elements prevailed among the landowners; in the sparsely populated Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan provinces; in the Region of the Don Army, and in the Orenburg province. with their Cossack institutions.
The nobility in Russia did not constitute a closed caste; the rights of hereditary nobility were acquired by everyone who reached the rank of VIII class but the table of ranks (collegiate assessor, captain, captain).
The All-Russian Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov was born on February 26 (old style) 1845 in St. Petersburg in the Anichkov Palace. His father was a reforming emperor, and his mother was a queen. The boy was the third child in a family, in which five children were later born. His older brother Nikolai was preparing to reign, and Alexander was destined for the fate of a military man.
As a child, the Tsarevich studied without much zeal, and the teachers were undemanding to him. In the memoirs of his contemporaries, young Alexander was not very smart, but he had a sound mind and the gift of reasoning.
In temperament, Alexander was kind and a little shy, although he turned out to be a noble figure: with a height of 193 cm, his weight reached 120 kg. Despite his stern appearance, the young man loved art. He took painting lessons from Professor Tikhobrazov and studied music. Alexander mastered playing brass and woodwind instruments. Subsequently, he will support Russian art in every possible way and, with sufficient unpretentiousness in everyday life, will collect a good collection of works by Russian artists. And in opera houses, with his light hand, Russian operas and ballets will be staged much more often than European ones.
Tsarevich Nicholas and Alexander were very close to each other. The younger brother even claimed that there was no one closer and more beloved to him than Nikolai. Therefore, when in 1865 the heir to the throne, while traveling in Italy, suddenly felt ill and died suddenly of tuberculosis of the spine, Alexander could not accept this loss for a long time. In addition, it turned out that it was he who became the contender for the throne, for which Alexander was completely unprepared.
The young men's teachers were horrified for a moment. The young man was urgently assigned a course of special lectures, which were read to him by mentor Konstantin Pobedonostsev. After ascending to the kingdom, Alexander will make his teacher an adviser and will refer to him until the end of his life. Nikolai Alexandrovich Kachalov was appointed another assistant to the Tsarevich, with whom the young man traveled around Russia.
Crowning the throne
In early March 1881, after another assassination attempt, Emperor Alexander II died from his wounds, and his son immediately ascended the throne. Two months later, the new emperor published the "Manifesto on the Inviolability of Autocracy", which stopped all liberal changes in the structure of the state, established by his father.
The sacrament of the wedding to the kingdom took place later - on May 15, 1883 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. During the reign, the royal family moved to the palace in Gatchina.
Domestic policy of Alexander III
Alexander III adhered to pronounced monarchist and nationalist principles, his actions in domestic politics could be called a counter-reformation. The emperor first of all signed the decrees by which he sent liberal ministers to rest. Among them were Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich, M. T. Loris-Melikova, D. A. Milyutin, A. A. Abaza. He made K. P. Pobedonostsev, N. Ignatiev, D. A. Tolstoy, M. N. Katkov the key figures of his entourage.
In 1889, a talented politician and financier S. Yu. Witte appeared at the court, whom Alexander Alexandrovich soon appointed Minister of Finance and Minister of Communications. Sergei Yulievich did a lot for Great Russia. He introduced the provision of the ruble with the country's gold reserves, which contributed to the strengthening of the Russian currency on the international market. This led to the fact that the flow of foreign capital to the Russian Empire increased, and the economy began to develop at an accelerated pace. In addition, he did a lot for the development and construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is still the only road linking Vladivostok with Moscow.
Despite the fact that for the peasants, Alexander III tightened the right to receive education and vote in zemstvo elections, he gave them the opportunity to take loans at low interest rates in order to expand their economy and strengthen their position on earth. For the nobles, the emperor also introduced restrictions. Already in the first year of his reign, he canceled all additional payments from the royal treasury to those close to him, and also did a lot to eradicate corruption.
Alexander III tightened control over students, set a limit on the number of Jewish students in all educational institutions, and tightened censorship. His slogan was the phrase: "Russia for the Russians." On the outskirts of the Empire, he proclaimed active Russification.
Alexander III did a lot for the metallurgical industry and the development of oil and gas production. Under him, a real boom in improving the welfare of the people began, and terrorist threats completely stopped. The autocrat also did a lot for Orthodoxy. Under his rule, the number of dioceses increased, new monasteries and churches were built. In 1883, one of the most majestic buildings, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was erected.
As a legacy after his reign, Alexander III left a country with a strong economy.
Foreign policy of Alexander III
Emperor Alexander III, with his wisdom in foreign policy actions and the prevention of wars, went down in history as the Peacemaker Tsar. But at the same time, he did not forget to strengthen the power of the army. Under Alexander III, the Russian fleet became the third after the fleets of France and Great Britain.
The emperor managed to maintain calm relations with all the main rivals. He signed peace agreements with Germany, England, and also significantly strengthened Franco-Russian friendship on the world stage.
During his reign, the practice of open negotiations was established, and the rulers of the European powers began to trust the Russian Tsar, as a wise arbiter, in resolving all disputes between states.
Personal life
After the death of the heir Nicholas, he was left with a bride, the Danish Princess Maria Dagmar. It suddenly turned out that young Alexander was also in love with her. And even despite the fact that for some time he courted the maid of honor, Princess Maria Meshcherskaya, Alexander, at the age of 21, proposes to Maria Sophia Frederica. So in a short time, Alexander's personal life changed, which he did not regret later even once.
After the sacrament of the wedding, which took place in the large church of the Winter Palace, the young couple moved to the Anichkov Palace, where they lived until Alexander came to the throne.
In the family of Alexander Alexandrovich and his wife Maria Feodorovna, who, like all overseas princesses, converted to Orthodoxy before marriage, six children were born, of which five survived to adulthood.
The elder Nicholas would be the last Russian tsar from the Romanov dynasty. Of the younger children - Alexander, George, Xenia, Mikhail, Olga - only sisters will live to old age. Alexander will die at the age of one year, George will die in his youth from tuberculosis, and Mikhail will share the fate of his brother - he will be shot by the Bolsheviks.
The emperor raised his children in strictness. Their clothes and food were the simplest. The royal offspring were engaged in physical exercises, and received a good education. Peace and harmony reigned in the family, spouses with children often traveled to Denmark to visit relatives.
Failed assassination attempt
On March 1, 1887, an unsuccessful attempt was made on the life of the emperor. Students Vasily Osipanov, Vasily Generalov, Pakhomiy Andreyushkin and Alexander Ulyanov became participants in the conspiracy. Despite many months of preparations for a terrorist act under the leadership of Pyotr Shevyrev, the young people did not manage to carry out their plans to the end. All four were captured by the police and two months after the trial they were executed by hanging in the fortress of Shlisselburg.
Several members of the revolutionary circle, who were also arrested after the terrorists, were sent into exile for a long time.
Death
A year after the assassination attempt, an unpleasant event occurred in the life of the royal family: the train in which Alexander and his family traveled crashed near Kharkov. Part of the composition turned over, people died. The roof of the car, in which the royal people were, was held by the mighty emperor for a long time on his own for 30 minutes. By doing this, he saved everyone around him. But such an overstrain undermined the health of the king. Alexander Alexandrovich developed kidney disease, which slowly progressed.
In the first winter months of 1894, the emperor caught a bad cold and six months later felt very ill. Ernst Leiden, a professor of medicine from Germany, was called in and diagnosed Alexander Alexandrovich with nephropathy. On the recommendation of a doctor, the emperor was sent to Greece, but on the way he got worse, and his family decided to stop in Livadia in the Crimea.
Within a month of a heroic physique, the tsar faded away before everyone's eyes and, due to the complete failure of the kidneys, died on November 1, 1894. During the last month, his confessor John (Yanyshev), as well as Archpriest John Sergiev, in the future John of Kronstadt, was constantly by his side.
An hour and a half after the death of Alexander III, his son Nicholas swore allegiance to the kingdom. The coffin with the emperor's body was brought to St. Petersburg and solemnly buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
The image of the emperor in art
Not as many books have been written about Alexander III as about other conquering emperors. This happened because of his peacefulness and non-conflict. His person is mentioned in some historical books dedicated to the Romanov family.
In documentaries, information about him is presented in several tapes of journalists and. Feature films in which the character of Alexander III was present began to appear from 1925. A total of 5 paintings were published, including "Coast of Life", in which Lev Zolotukhin played the emperor-peacemaker, as well as "The Barber of Siberia", where he played this role.
The last film in which the hero of Alexander III appears was the 2017 film Matilda. He played the king in it.
