Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary in the 19th century

In the 19th century, the rulers of the multinational Austrian Empire had to fight against revolutionary and national liberation movements on their territory. Ethnic conflicts, which could not be resolved, led Austria-Hungary to the threshold of the First World War.

background

The Austrian ruler Franz II proclaimed the hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs an empire, and himself - Emperor Franz I, in response to the imperial policy of Napoleon Bonaparte. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian Empire suffered defeats, but in the end, thanks to the actions of Russia, it was among the winners. It was in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire, that an international congress took place in 1815, at which the fate of post-war Europe. After the Congress of Vienna, Austria tried to resist any revolutionary manifestations on the continent.

Events

1859 - defeat in the war with France and Sardinia, loss of Lombardy (see).

1866 - defeat in the war with Prussia and Italy, loss of Silesia and Venice (see).

Problems of the Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was not a strong nation-state with a common history and culture. Rather, it represented the heterogeneous possessions of the Habsburg dynasty accumulated over the centuries, the inhabitants of which had different ethnic and national self-consciousness. Actually, the Austrians, for whom German was their native language, were a minority in the Austrian Empire. In addition to them, in this state there were a large number of Hungarians, Serbs, Croats, Czechs, Poles and representatives of other peoples. Some of these peoples had a full experience of living within an independent nation-state, so their desire for at least wide autonomy within the empire, and at most full independence, was very strong.

At the same time, the Austrian rulers made concessions only to the extent necessary to maintain the formal unity of the state. In general, the desire of peoples for independence was suppressed.

In 1867, with the granting of broad autonomy to Hungary, a constitution was also adopted in Austria and a parliament was convened. There was a gradual liberalization of the electoral legislation up to the introduction of universal suffrage for men.

Conclusion

The national policy of Austria-Hungary, within the framework of which the peoples inhabiting it did not receive equal status with the Austrians and continued to strive for independence, became one of the reasons for the collapse of this state after the First World War.

Parallels

Austria is a clear evidence of the instability of the empire as a type of state formation. If several peoples coexist within the framework of one state, while power belongs to one of them, and the rest are in a subordinate position, such a state sooner or later has to spend huge resources to keep all these peoples in the orbit of its influence, and in the end eventually becomes unable to cope with this task. Similar was the history of the Ottoman Empire, which at the time of its heyday conquered many peoples, and then found itself unable to resist their desire for independence.

The Russian Empire entered the new 19th century as a mighty power. The capitalist structure has become stronger in the Russian economy, but the nobility, which was united during the reign of Catherine II, remained the determining factor in the economic life of the country. The nobility expanded its privileges, only this “noble” class owned all the land, and a significant part of the peasants who fell into serfdom were subordinated to it on humiliating conditions. The nobles received under the Charter of 1785. corporate organization which had a great influence on the local administrative apparatus. The authorities vigilantly followed public thought. They brought to trial the freethinker - the revolutionary A.N. Radishchev - the author of "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", and then imprisoned him in distant Yakutsk.

Successes in foreign policy gave a kind of brilliance to the Russian autocracy. The borders of the empire were pushed apart in the course of almost continuous military campaigns: in the west, it included Belarus, Right-bank Ukraine, Lithuania, the southern part of the Eastern Baltic states in the west, after two Russian-Turkish wars, the Crimea and almost the entire North Caucasus. Meanwhile, the internal situation of the country was precarious. Finances were under the threat of constant inflation. The issue of banknotes (since 1769) covered the reserves of silver and copper coins accumulated in credit institutions. The budget, although reduced without a deficit, was supported only by internal and external loans. One of the causes of financial difficulties was not so much fixed costs and the maintenance of an expanded administrative apparatus, but the growth of arrears in taxes from the peasants. Crop failure and famine were repeated in individual provinces every 3-4 years, and in the whole country every 5-6 years. Attempts by the government and individual nobles to increase the marketability of agricultural production at the expense of better agricultural technology, which was taken care of by the Free Economic Union created in 1765, often only increased the corvée oppression of the peasants, to which they responded with unrest and uprisings.

The class system that had previously existed in Russia gradually became obsolete, especially in cities. The merchant class no longer controlled all trade. Among the urban population, it was increasingly possible to single out the classes characteristic of capitalist society - the bourgeoisie and the workers. They were formed not on a legal, but on a purely economic basis, which is characteristic of a capitalist society. In the ranks of entrepreneurs were many nobles, merchants, wealthy petty bourgeois and peasants. The workers were dominated by peasants and philistines. In 1825 there were 415 cities and towns in Russia. Many small towns were agricultural in nature. Gardening was developed in the Central Russian cities, wooden buildings prevailed. Due to frequent fires, it happened that entire cities were devastated.

The mining and metallurgical industry was located mainly in the Urals, Altai and Transbaikalia. St. Petersburg, Moscow and Vladimir provinces, and Tula became the main centers of metalworking and textile industry. By the end of the 20s of the 19th century, Russia was importing coal, steel, chemical products, linen fabrics.

Some factories began to use steam engines. In 1815, in St. Petersburg, at the Berd machine-building plant, the first domestic motor ship "Elizabeth" was built. From the middle of the XIX century in Russia began industrial revolution.

The system of serfdom, brought to the limit of non-economic exploitation, turned into a real “powder magazine”, under the building of a powerful empire.

The beginning of the reign of Alexander I. The very beginning of the 19th century was marked by a sudden change of faces on the Russian throne. Emperor Paul I, a tyrant, despot and neurasthenic, on the night of March 11-12, 1801, was strangled by conspirators from the highest nobility. The murder of Paul was committed with the knowledge of his 23-year-old son Alexander, who ascended the throne on March 12, stepping over his father's corpse.

The event of March 11, 1801 was the last palace coup in Russia. It completed the history of Russian statehood in the 18th century.

With the name of the new tsar, everyone pinned hopes not for the best: the “lower classes” for weakening the oppression of the landlords, the “tops” for more more attention to their interests.

The noble nobility, who put Alexander I on the throne, pursued the old tasks: to preserve and strengthen the autocratic-serf system in Russia. Remained unchanged social nature autocracy as a dictatorship of the nobility. However, a number of threatening factors that had developed by that time forced the Aleksandrov government to look for new methods for solving old problems.

Most of all, the nobles were worried about the growing discontent of the “lower classes”. By the beginning of the 19th century, Russia was a power vastly spread over 17 million square meters. km from the Baltic to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and from the White to the Black Sea.

About 40 million people lived in this space. Of these, Siberia accounted for 3.1 million people, North Caucasus- about 1 million people.

The central provinces were most densely populated. In 1800, the population density here was about 8 people per 1 sq. km. verst. To the south, north and east of the center, population density has declined sharply. In the Samara Trans-Volga region, the lower reaches of the Volga and the Don, it was no more than 1 person per 1 sq. km. verst. More less density population was in Siberia. Of the total population of Russia, there were 225,000 nobles, 215,000 clergy, 119,000 merchants, 15,000 generals and officers, and the same number of government officials. In the interests of these approximately 590 thousand people, the king ruled his empire.

The vast majority of the other 98.5% were disenfranchised serfs. Alexander I understood that although the slaves of his slaves would endure a lot, even their patience had a limit. Meanwhile, oppression and abuse then were boundless.

Suffice it to say that corvee in areas of intensive agriculture was 5-6, and sometimes all 7 days a week. The landowners ignored the decree of Paul I on a 3-day corvee and did not comply with it until the abolition of serfdom. Serfs then in Russia were not considered people, they were forced to work like draft animals, sold and bought, exchanged for dogs, lost at cards, put on a chain. This was unbearable. By 1801, 32 of the 42 provinces of the empire were covered by peasant unrest, the number of which exceeded 270.

Another factor that influenced the new government was pressure from noble circles, demanding that they return the privileges granted by Catherine II. The government was forced to take into account the spread of liberal European trends among the noble intelligentsia. The needs of economic development forced the government of Alexander I to reform. The rule of serfdom, under which manual labor million peasants, was gratuitous, hindered technical progress.

The industrial revolution - the transition from manual to machine production, which began in England in the 60s, and in France from the 80s of the XVIII century - in Russia became possible only from the 30s of the next century. Market links between different regions of the country were sluggish. More than 100 thousand villages and villages and 630 cities scattered across Russia did not know well how and how the country lives, and the government did not want to know about their needs. Russian communication routes were the longest and least well-maintained in the world. Until 1837, Russia did not have railways. The first steamboat appeared on the Neva in 1815, and the first steam locomotive only in 1834. The narrowness of the domestic market hindered the growth of foreign trade. Russia's share in world trade was only 3.7% by 1801. All this determined the nature, content and methods domestic policy tsarism under Alexander I.

Domestic policy.

As a result palace coup On March 12, 1801, the eldest son of Paul I, Alexander I, ascended the Russian throne. Inwardly, Alexander I was no less a despot than Paul, but he was adorned with outward gloss and courtesy. The young king, unlike his parent, was distinguished by his beautiful appearance: tall, slender, with a bewitching smile on an angel-like face. In a manifesto issued the same day, he announced his commitment to political course Catherine II. He began by restoring the abolished by Paul Letters of Companion 1785 to the nobility and cities, freed the nobility and clergy from corporal punishment. Alexander I was faced with the task of improving the state system of Russia in a new historical situation. To conduct this course, Alexander I brought close to him the friends of his youth - European-educated representatives of the young generation of noble nobility. Together they formed a circle, which they called the "Secret Committee". In 1803, a decree on "free cultivators" was adopted. According to which the landowner, if desired, could free his peasants, endowing them with land and receiving a ransom from them. But the landowners were in no hurry to free their serfs. For the first time in the history of autocracy, Alexander discussed in the Unspoken Committee the question of the possibility of abolishing serfdom, but recognized it as not yet ripe for final decision. More boldly than in the peasant question, there were reforms in the field of education. By the beginning of the 19th century administrative system the state was in decline. Alexander hoped to restore order and strengthen the state by introducing a ministerial system of central government based on the principle of one-man command. A triple need compelled tsarism to reform this area: it required trained officials for a renewed state apparatus, as well as qualified specialists for industry and trade. Also, for the spread of liberal ideological ideas throughout Russia, it was necessary to streamline public education. As a result, for 1802-1804. the government of Alexander I rebuilt the entire system of educational institutions, dividing them into four rows (from bottom to top: parish, district and provincial schools, universities), and opened four new universities at once: in Dorpat, Vilna, Kharkov and Kazan.

In 1802, instead of the previous 12 colleges, 8 ministries were created: military, naval, foreign affairs, internal affairs, commerce, finance, public education and justice. But even in the new ministries old vices settled. Alexander was aware of senators who took bribes. To expose them fought in him with the fear of dropping the prestige of the Governing Senate.

A fundamentally new approach to solving the problem was needed. In 1804, a new censorship charter was adopted. He said that censorship serves "not to restrict the freedom to think and write, but only to take decent measures against its abuse." The Pavlovian ban on the import of literature from abroad was lifted, and for the first time in Russia, the publication of works translated into Russian by F. Voltaire, J.J. Rousseau, D. Diderot, C. Montesquieu, G. Reynal, who were read by the future Decembrists. This ended the first series of reforms of Alexander I, praised by Pushkin as "the days of Alexander, a wonderful beginning."

Alexander I managed to find a person who could rightfully claim the role of a reformer. Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky came from the family of a village priest. In 1807, Alexander I brought him closer to himself. Speransky was distinguished by the breadth of his outlook and strict systemic thinking. He did not tolerate chaos and confusion. In 1809, on the instructions of Alexander, he drafted indigenous government reforms. Speransky put the principle of separation of powers - legislative, executive and judicial - as the basis of the state structure. Each of them, starting from the lower levels, had to act within the strictly defined framework of the law.

Representative assemblies of several levels were created, headed by the State Duma - the All-Russian representative body. The Duma was supposed to give opinions on the bills submitted for its consideration, and hear the reports of the ministers.

All powers - legislative, executive and judicial - were united in the State Council, whose members were appointed by the king. Opinion State Council approved by the king became law. Not a single law could come into force without discussion in the State Duma and the State Council.

Real legislature, according to the project of Speransky, remained in the hands of the tsar and the highest bureaucracy. The actions of the authorities, in the center and in the field, he wanted to put under the control of public opinion. For the silence of the people opens the way to the irresponsibility of the authorities.

According to Speransky's project, all Russian citizens who own land or capital enjoyed voting rights. Artisans, domestic servants and serfs did not participate in the elections. But they enjoyed the most important state rights. The main one was: "No one can be punished without a court verdict."

The implementation of the project began in 1810, when the Council of State was created. But then things stopped: Alexander more and more entered into the taste of autocratic rule. The higher nobility, having heard about Speransky's plans to endow serfs with civil rights, openly expressed dissatisfaction. All conservatives united against the reformer, starting with N.M. Karamzin and ending with A.A. Arakcheev, having fallen in favor with the new emperor. In March 1812, Speransky was arrested and exiled to Nizhny Novgorod.

Foreign policy.

By the beginning of the 19th century, two main directions in Russia's foreign policy were defined: the Middle East - the desire to strengthen its positions in the Transcaucasus, the Black Sea and the Balkans, and the European - participation in the coalition wars of 1805-1807. against Napoleonic France.

Having become emperor, Alexander I restored relations with England. He canceled the preparations of Paul I for the war with England and returned from a campaign in India. The normalization of relations with England and France allowed Russia to intensify its policy in the region of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. The situation here escalated in the 90s, when Iran began active expansion into Georgia.

The Georgian king repeatedly turned to Russia with a request for patronage. On September 12, 1801, a manifesto was adopted on the annexation of Eastern Georgia to Russia. The reigning Georgian dynasty lost its throne, and control passed to the viceroy of the Russian tsar. For Russia, the annexation of Georgia meant the acquisition of a strategically important territory for strengthening its positions in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

Alexander came to power in an extremely difficult situation for Russia. Napoleonic France sought to dominate Europe and potentially threatened Russia. Meanwhile, Russia was conducting friendly negotiations with France and was at war with England - the main enemy of France. This position, inherited by Alexander from Paul, did not suit the Russian nobles at all.

First, Russia maintained longstanding and mutually beneficial economic ties with England. By 1801, England absorbed 37% of all Russian exports. France, on the other hand, being incomparably less wealthy than England, has never provided Russia with such benefits. Secondly, England was a respectable legitimate monarchy, while France was a rebel country, thoroughly saturated with a revolutionary spirit, a country headed by an upstart, a rootless warrior. Thirdly, England was in good relations with other feudal monarchies of Europe: Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain. France, as a rebel country, opposed the united front of all other powers.

Thus, the primary foreign policy task of the government of Alexander I was to be the restoration of friendship with England. But tsarism was not going to fight with France either - the new government needed time to organize urgent internal affairs.

The coalition wars of 1805-1807 were fought because of territorial claims and chiefly because of the dominance in Europe claimed by each of the five great powers: France, England, Russia, Austria, Prussia. In addition, the coalitionists aimed to restore in Europe, right down to France itself, the feudal regimes overthrown by the French Revolution and Napoleon. The coalitionists did not skimp on phrases about their intentions to free France "from the chains" of Napoleon.

Revolutionaries - Decembrists.

The war sharply accelerated the growth of the political consciousness of the noble intelligentsia. The main source of the revolutionary ideology of the Decembrists was the contradictions of Russian reality, that is, between the needs national development and feudal-serf orders, which hampered national progress. The most intolerable thing for the advanced Russian people was serfdom. It personified all the evils of feudalism - despotism and arbitrariness reigning everywhere, the civil lack of rights of the majority of the people, the economic backwardness of the country. From life itself, the future Decembrists drew impressions that pushed them to the conclusion: it was necessary to abolish serfdom, to transform Russia from an autocratic into a constitutional state. They began to think about this even before the war of 1812. The advanced nobles, including officers, even some generals and high-ranking officials, expected that Alexander, having defeated Napoleon, would give the peasants of Russia freedom, and the country - a constitution. As it turned out that the tsar would not yield to the country either, they became more and more disappointed in him: the halo of the reformer merk in their eyes, exposing him true face serf and autocrat.

Since 1814, the Decembrist movement has taken its first steps. One after another, four associations are formed, which went down in history as pre-Decembrist ones. They had neither a charter, nor a program, nor a clear organization, nor even a definite composition, but were busy with political discussions about how to change the "evil of the existing order of things." They included very different people, who for the most part later became prominent Decembrists.

The "Order of Russian Knights" was headed by two offspring of the highest nobility - Count M.A. Dmitriev - Mamonov and Guards General M.F. Orlov. The "Orden" planned to establish a constitutional monarchy in Russia, but did not have an agreed plan of action, since there was no unanimity between the members of the "Order".

The "sacred artel" of the officers of the General Staff also had two leaders. They were the Muravyov brothers: Nikolai Nikolaevich and Alexander Nikolaevich - later the founder of the Union of Salvation. The “Holy artel” arranged its life in a republican way: one of the premises of the officer barracks, where the members of the “artel” lived, was decorated with “ veche bell”, at the ringing of which all the “artel workers” gathered for conversations. They not only condemned serfdom, but also dreamed of a republic.

The Semyonov artel was the largest of the pre-Decembrist organizations. It consisted of 15-20 people, among whom stood out such leaders of mature Decembrism as S.B. Trubetskoy, S.I. Muravyov, I.D. Yakushkin. The artel lasted only a few months. In 1815, Alexander I found out about her and ordered "to stop gatherings of officers."

Historians consider the circle of the first Decembrist V.F. to be the fourth before the Decembrist organization. Raevsky in Ukraine. It arose around 1816 in the city of Kamenetsk - Podolsk.

All pre-Decembrist associations existed legally or semi-legally, and on February 9, 1816, a group of members of the Sacred and Semenov Artel, headed by A.N. Muravyov established a secret, first Decembrist organization - the Union of Salvation. Each of the members of the society had in the asset combat campaigns 1813-1814, dozens of battles, orders, medals, ranks, and their average age was 21 years.

The Union of Salvation adopted a charter, the main author of which was Pestel. The objectives of the charter were as follows: to destroy serfdom and replace the autocracy with a constitutional monarchy. The question was: how to achieve this? The majority of the Union proposed to prepare such a public opinion in the country that in time would force the tsar to promulgate the constitution. Smaller part looking for more drastic measures. Lunin proposed his plan for regicide, which consisted in having a detachment of daredevils in masks meet the tsar's carriage and finish him off with daggers. The divisions within the salvation intensified.

In September 1817, when the guards accompanied royal family in Moscow, the members of the Union held a meeting known as the Moscow Conspiracy. Here he offered himself as the king of the killer I.D. Yakushkin. But Yakushkin's idea was supported only by a few, almost everyone "was horrified to even talk about it." As a result, the Union banned the attempt on the king "due to the scarcity of means to achieve the goal."

Disagreements led the Salvation Union to a dead end. The active members of the Union decided to liquidate their organization and create a new, more cohesive, broad and effective one. So in October 1817, the "Military Society" was created in Moscow - the second secret society of the Decembrists.

The "military society" played the role of a kind of control filter. The main cadres of the Salvation Union and the main cadres and new people who needed to be checked were passed through it. In January 1818, the "Military Society" was dissolved and the Welfare Union, the third secret society of the Decembrists, began to operate instead. This union had over 200 members. According to the charter, the Welfare Union was divided into councils. The main one was the Root Council in St. Petersburg. Business and side councils in the capital and in the regions - in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Poltava, Chisinau - were subordinate to her. All councils was 15.1820 can be considered a turning point in the development of Decembrism. Until this year, the Decembrists, although they approved of the results of the French 18th revolution century, considered unacceptable its main means - the uprising of the people. Therefore, they doubted whether to accept the revolution in principle. Only the discovery of military revolution tactics finally made them revolutionaries.

The years 1824-1825 were marked by the intensification of the activities of the Decembrist societies. The task of preparing a military uprising was closely set.

It was supposed to start it in the capital - Petersburg, "like the center of all authorities and boards." On the periphery, members of the Southern Society should provide military support uprising in the capital. In the spring of 1824, as a result of negotiations between Pestel and the leaders of the Northern Society, an agreement was reached on unification and a joint action, which was scheduled for the summer of 1826.

During the summer camp in 1825, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and S.I. Muravyov-Apostol learned about the existence of the Society of United Slavs. At the same time, it was merged with the Southern Society.

The death of Emperor Alexander I in Taganrog on November 19, 1825, and the interregnum that arose created an environment that the Decembrists decided to take advantage of for an immediate action. Members of the Northern Society decided to start an uprising on December 14, 1825 - the day on which the oath to Emperor Nicholas I was appointed. The Decembrists were able to endure Senate Square up to 3 thousand soldiers and sailors. The rebels were waiting for the leader, but S. P. Trubetskoy, who had been elected "dictator" of the uprising the day before, refused to appear on the square. Nicholas I pulled against them about 12 thousand troops loyal to him with artillery. With the onset of dusk, the formation of the rebels was dispersed by several volleys of buckshot. On the night of December 15, arrests of the Decembrists began. On December 29, 1825, in Ukraine, in the area of ​​the White Church, an uprising of the Chernigov regiment began. It was headed by S. I. Muravyov-Apostol. With 970 soldiers of this regiment, he made a raid for 6 days in the hope of joining other military units in which members of the secret society served. However, the military authorities blocked the region of the uprising with reliable units. On January 3, 1826, the insurgent regiment was met by a detachment of hussars with artillery and scattered with grapeshot. Wounded in the head S.I. Muraviev-Apostol was captured and sent to Petersburg. Until mid-April 1826, there were arrests of the Decembrists. 316 people were arrested. In total, more than 500 people were involved in the case of the Decembrists. 121 people appeared before the Supreme Criminal Court, in addition, there were trials of 40 members of secret societies in Mogilev, Bialystok and Warsaw. Placed “out of ranks” P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, S.I. Muraviev-Apostol and P.G. Kakhovsky were prepared for " death penalty quartering”, replaced by hanging. The rest are divided into 11 categories; 31 people of the 1st category were sentenced "to death by cutting off the head", the rest to various terms of hard labor. More than 120 Decembrists suffered various punishments without trial: some were imprisoned in the fortress, others were placed under police supervision. In the early morning of July 13, 1826, the execution of the Decembrists sentenced to hanging took place, then their bodies were secretly buried.

Socio-political thought in the 20-50s of the XIX century.

The ideological life in Russia in the second quarter of the 19th century took place in a political situation, difficult for progressive people, of increased reaction after the suppression of the Decembrist uprising.

The defeat of the Decembrists gave rise to pessimism and despair among a certain part of society. A noticeable revival of the ideological life of Russian society takes place at the turn of the 30s and 40s of the 19th century. By this time, the currents of socio-political thought had already clearly emerged, as protective-conservative, liberal-opposition, and a revolutionary-democratic one had been laid.

The ideological expression of the protective-conservative direction was the theory of "official nationality". Its principles were formulated in 1832 by S.S. Uvarov as "Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality". The conservative-protective direction in the conditions of the awakening of the national self-consciousness of the Russian people also appealed to the "nationality". But "nationality" was interpreted by him as a commitment populace to "primordially Russian principles" - autocracy and Orthodoxy. social task"official nationality" consisted in proving the originality and legitimacy of the autocratic-feudal order in Russia. The main inspirer and conductor of the theory of "official nationality" was Nicholas I, and the Minister of Public Education, conservative professors and journalists acted as its zealous conductors. The theorists of the "official nationality" argued that in Russia the best order of things prevails, consistent with the requirements Orthodox religion and political wisdom. alexander industrial empire political

"Official nationality" as an officially recognized ideology was supported by all the might of the government, preached through the church, royal manifestos, the official press, systemic public education. However, contrary to this, there was a huge brainwork, new ideas were born, which were united by the rejection of the Nikolaev political system. Among them, a significant place in the 30-40s was occupied by Slavophiles and Westernizers.

Slavophiles are representatives of the liberal-minded noble intelligentsia. The doctrine of the originality and national exclusivity of the Russian people, their rejection of the Western-European path of development, even the opposition of Russia to the West, the defense of autocracy, Orthodoxy.

Slavophilism is an opposition trend in Russian public thought, it had many points of contact with the opposing Westernism, rather than with the theorists of the "official nationality". The initial date for the formation of Slavophilism should be considered 1839. The founders of this trend were Alexei Khomyakov and Ivan Kireevsky. The main thesis of the Slavophiles is proof of the original way of development of Russia. They put forward the thesis: "The power of power is for the king, the power of opinion is for the people." This meant that the Russian people should not interfere in politics, leaving the monarch full power. Nicholas political system with its German "bureaucracy", the Slavophiles considered as a logical consequence negative sides Peter's reforms.

Westernism arose at the turn of the 30s and 40s of the 19th century. Writers and publicists belonged to the Westerners - P.V. Annenkov, V.P. Botkin, V.G. Belinsky and others. They proved the generality historical development The West and Russia, argued that although Russia was late, it was following the same path as other countries, they advocated Europeanization. The Westerners advocated a constitutional-monarchical form of government of the Western European type. In contrast to the Slavophiles, the Westerners were rationalists, and they attached decisive importance to reason, and not to the primacy of faith. They asserted the very value of human life as a bearer of reason. The Westernizers used university departments and Moscow literary salons to propagate their views.

In the late 40s - early 50s of the XIX century, a democratic direction of Russian social thought was taking shape, representatives of this circle were: A.I. Herzen, V.G. Belinsky. This trend was based on social thought, philosophical and political teachings distributed in the early XIX century Western Europe.

In the 40s of the 19th century, various socialist theories began to spread in Russia, mainly those of C. Fourier, A. Saint-Simon and R. Owen. Petrashevists were active propagandists of these ideas. A young official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gifted and sociable, M.V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky, starting from the winter of 1845, began to gather on Fridays at his St. Petersburg apartment young people who were interested in literary, philosophical and political novelties. These were senior students, teachers, petty officials and novice writers. In March - April 1849, the most radical part of the circle began to form a secret political organization. Several revolutionary proclamations were written, and a printing press was purchased for their reproduction.

But at this point, the activities of the circle were interrupted by the police, who had been following the Petrashevites for about a year through an agent sent to them. On the night of April 23, 1849, 34 Petrashevites were arrested and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

At the turn of the 40-50s of the 19th century, the theory of "Russian socialism" was taking shape. Its founder was A. I. Herzen. The defeat of the revolutions of 1848-1849 in Western European countries made a deep impression on him, gave rise to disbelief in European socialism. Herzen proceeded from the idea of ​​an "original" path of development for Russia, which, bypassing capitalism, through peasant community will come to socialism.

Conclusion

For Russia, the beginning of the 19th century is the greatest turning point. The traces of this era are grandiose in the fate of the Russian empire. On the one hand, this is a life-long prison for most of its citizens, where the people were in poverty, and 80% of the population remained illiterate.

If you look from the other side, Russia at that time is the birthplace of the great, controversial, liberation movement from the Decembrists to the Social Democrats, which twice brought the country close to a democratic revolution. At the beginning of the 19th century, Russia saved Europe from the devastating wars of Napoleon and saved Balkan peoples from the Turkish yoke.

It was at this time that brilliant spiritual values ​​began to be created, which to this day remain unsurpassed (the works of A.S. Pushkin and L.N. Tolstoy, A.I. Herzen, N.G. Chernyshevsky, F.I. Chaliapin).

In a word, Russia looked extremely diverse in the 19th century, it knew both triumphs and humiliations. One of the Russian poets N.A. Nekrasov said prophetic words about her that are still true today:

You are poor

You are abundant

You are powerful

You are powerless

deadline

Review – 25 April 23.00
Creative work - May 7, 23.00

Lecture 2. Russian Empire in the late XIX-early XX century.

Lecture 2. Russian
empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Socio-economic
position
Political development
Empires (1894-1913)

The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897

First general census
population of the Russian
Administrative division - 97 provinces.
empire
1897
Census registered in the Russian Empire
125,640,021 inhabitants. By 1913 - 165 million people.
16,828,395 people (13.4%) lived in cities.
Largest cities: St. Petersburg - 1.26 million, Moscow -
1 million, Warsaw - 0.68 million.
The literacy rate was 21.1%, and among men
it was significantly higher than among women (29.3% and
13.1%, respectively).
By religion: Orthodox - 69.3%, Muslims
- 11.1%, Catholics - 9.1% and Jews - 4.2%.
Estates: peasantry - 77.5%, petty bourgeois - 10.7%,
foreigners - 6.6%, Cossacks - 2.3%, nobles - 1.5%,
clergy - 0.5%, honorary citizens - 0.3%,
merchants - 0.2%, others - 0.4%.

Nationalities of Russia (1907-1917) P.P. Kamensky

Class structure of society

Nobility
Clergy
Guild Merchants
Philistines
Peasants
Odnodvortsy
Cossacks

The class structure of society

Bourgeoisie - 1.5 million people
Proletariat - 2.7 million people. By 1913 -
18 million people
The intelligentsia as a special stratum in
the social structure of society -
725 thousand people

Important:

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. social division
society was an interweaving
estate and class structures. Were taking shape
groups of contradictions: nobility-bourgeoisie,
the bourgeoisie is the workers, the government is the people,
intelligentsia - people, intelligentsia -
power. national problems.
The problem of social mobility.
Marginalization. Urbanization. Social
mobility.

Main National Policy Issues

The presence of several faiths (Islam,
Buddhism, Catholicism, Lutheranism)
Russification policy regarding
Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish and
other peoples - the rise of nationalism
The Jewish question is the "Pale of Settlement",
discrimination in various fields
activities
Difficult situation in Islamic areas
empires

The turn of the XIX-XX centuries.

The transition from traditional to
industrial society
Overcoming the socio-cultural
backwardness
Democratization of political life
An attempt to form a civil
societies

10. Features of the economic development of Russia

Peculiarities
economic development
Later transition to capitalism
Russia
Russia is a country of the second echelon
modernization
Uneven development of the territory
different levels of economic and
sociocultural development
numerous peoples of the empire
Preservation of autocracy, landlord
land tenure, national problems

11. Features of the economic development of Russia

Peculiarities
economic development
Rapid pace of development, short deadlines for folding
factory production. Low labor productivity.
Russia
The factory production system evolved without
passing through the previous stages of craft and manufactory.
The growth of industrial output in the 1860-1900s. – 7
once.
The credit system is represented by large commercial
banks
Diversified economy
Russia is characterized not by the export (China, Iran), but by the import of capital
High degree of concentration of production and labor force
Monopolism
State intervention in economic life
Weak inclusion of the agricultural sector in the modernization process

12. Reforms S.Yu. Witte

STRENGTHENING THE ROLE
STATES IN
ECONOMY /
Strengthening private
entrepreneurship
1895 - wine
monopoly
1897 - monetary reform
Protectionist policy
attraction
foreign capital
Construction of iron
roads

13. The turn of the XIX-XX centuries.

For the 1890s 5.7 thousand new
enterprises
Development of new industrial areas - Yuzhny
(coal-metallurgical) and Baku (oil).
1890s - industrial boom. Construction
Trans-Siberian Railway, CER.
1900-1903 - economic crisis. Closing 3 thousand.
large and medium enterprises.
Investor countries: France, England, Germany, Belgium
monopolization of industrial production and
capital.
Industrial rise 1909-1913

14.

15.

16. Reforms P.A. Stolypin

Community destruction
Decree of November 9, 1906
Reorganization
Peasant Bank
Buying them landlords
lands and their resale
into the hands of the peasantry
resettlement
peasants on the outskirts
Courts-martial decree

17. Projects of reforms P.A. Stolypin

Transformation of the peasant
volost courts
national and religious
equality
Introduction of volost zemstvos
Primary Law
schools (compulsory primary
education) (since 1912)
Workers' Insurance Act (1912)

18. State administration of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century (until 1905).

Emperor
State Council -
legislative body
The Senate is the oversight body for the rule of law
activity activities
government officials and institutions
Synod
Ministries. Cabinet of Ministers.

19. Autocracy and public life at the beginning of the 20th century.

1901 Politics of the "policeman"
socialism” S.V. Zubatov. Creation
professional movement of workers
pursuing economic goals.
The workers need a "king who is for us"
king who "brings in the eight o'clock
working day, raise wages
pay, give all sorts of benefits.
G. Gapon. "Meeting of Russian factory workers of St. Petersburg"
1904

20. Autocracy and public life at the beginning of the 20th century.

Svyatopolk-Mirsky P.D.
Minister of the Interior
cases from August 1904
"The development of self-government
and the call of the elected
Petersburg for discussion
as the only
tool that can
enable Russia
develop properly."
Autumn 1904 - "autumn
Spring".

21. Liberal Movement

Banquet campaign of 1904
“We consider it absolutely essential that all
the state system was reorganized into
constitutional principles ... and that immediately
However, before the start of the electoral period,
declared a complete and unconditional amnesty for all
political and religious crimes."
Until the beginning of January 1905, 120
similar "banquets", which were attended by about 50
thousand people.

22. Political parties of Russia in n. 20th century

23. "Bloody Sunday"

"The king's prestige is here
killed - that's the meaning
days." M. Gorky.
"Last days
come. Brother
got up on my brother...
The king gave the order
shoot icons"
M. Voloshin

24. Repin I.E. October 17, 1905. (1907)

25. "Manifesto October 17, 1905"

civil
freedom "on the basis of real
privacy, freedom
conscience, words, meetings and unions"
for elections to the State Duma
attracts the general public
All laws must be approved in
Duma, but "elected from the people"
provides an opportunity
actual participation in the supervision of
regularity of actions" of the authorities.

26. Electoral law 11.12.1905

Four electoral curia from the landowners, city
population, peasants and workers. Were disenfranchised
choice of women, soldiers, sailors, students,
landless peasants, laborers and some
"foreigners". The system of representation in the Duma was
designed as follows: agricultural
the curia sent one elector from 2 thousand people,
urban - from 7 thousand, peasant - from 30 thousand,
working - from 90 thousand people. Government,
continued to hope that the peasantry would
the backbone of the autocracy, provided him with 45% of all seats in
Duma. Members of the State Duma were elected for a term
for 5 years.

27.

28. Opening of the State Duma and the State Council April 27, 1906

29. State Duma of the Russian Empire

30. State Duma of the Russian Empire

Duma Opening hours
Chairman
I
April 27, 1906 -
July 8, 1906
Cadet S.A. Muromtsev
II
February 20, 1907 -
June 2, 1907
Cadet F.A.Golovin
III
November 1, 1907 -
June 9, 1912
Octobrists - N.A. Khomyakov (November
1907-March 1910),
A.I. Guchkov (March 1910-March 1911),
M.V. Rodzianko (March 1911-June 1912)
IV
November 15, 1912 -
February 25, 1917
Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko

31.

32. Literature

Ananyich B.V., Ganelin R.Sh. Sergey
Yulievich Witte and his time. St. Petersburg:
Dmitry Bulanin, 1999.
Literature about S.Yu. Witte: URL:
http://www.prometeus.nsc.ru/biblio/vitte/r
efer2.ssi
Zyryanov P. N. Pyotr Stolypin:
Political portrait. M., 1992.

To the question Please tell me which territories were annexed to the Russian Empire in the 19th century. given by the author Isolate the best answer is At the beginning of the XIX century. The territory of Russia was 16 million km2.
During the first half of the XIX century. were included in Russia
Finland (1809),
Kingdom of Poland (1815),
Bessarabia (1812),
almost all of Transcaucasia (1801-1829),
The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus (from the mouth of the Kuban River to Poti - 1829).
In the 60s. The Ussuri Territory (Primorye) was assigned to Russia, the process of joining most of the Kazakh lands to Russia, which began in the 30s, was completed. 18th century
By 1864, the mountainous regions of the North Caucasus were finally conquered.
In the mid 70's - early 80's. a significant part of Central Asia became part of the territory of the Russian Empire, and a protectorate was established over the rest of its territory.
In 1875, Japan recognized Russia's rights to Sakhalin Island, and the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan.
In 1878, small lands in Transcaucasia were annexed to Russia.
Russia's only territorial loss was the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, together with the Aleutian Islands (1.5 million km2), as a result of which it "left" the American continent.
In the 19th century the process of formation of the territory of the Russian Empire was completed and the geopolitical balance of its borders was achieved.
By the end of the XIX century. its territory was 22.4 million km2

Answer from Eurovision[guru]
Finland, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Bessarabia.

Answer from novels[newbie]
yeah

Answer from drill[guru]
Please tell me which territories were annexed to the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
answer:
THEY HAVE BEEN CONQUERED

Answer from AK-61[active]
CONQUERATION and ACCESSION are far from always the same thing. So, for example, following the results of the Spanish-American War of 1898, the territories conquered (conquered) by the United States from Spain were arranged as follows:
1. Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines - ADDED to the US as colonies/holdings.
2. Cuba - passed under the provisional MANAGEMENT of the United States, since 1902 - transformed into a formally "sovereign" state.
3. Caroline and Northern Mariana Islands - sold to Germany.
Louisiana, Alaska, etc. - annexed to the USA, but not CONQUERED, but BUYED.
Hawaiian Islands - annexed to the USA, but not CONQUERED, but ANNEXED. There was no war at all.
Egypt was conquered and occupied by Great Britain in 1882-1953, but did not join the British Empire, remaining formally independent. Only in 1914-22 Egypt was given the status of a temporary protectorate of Great Britain.
As for the Russian Empire, there are also a couple of examples:
1. Manchuria and Outer Mongolia were CONQUERED by Russia, but not annexed, formally remaining part of China.
2. The Kwantung Peninsula (with Port Arthur) was annexed to Russia as a POSSESSION, but not conquered, but BUYED (leased).

Answer from Daniel Zenikov[newbie]
Antony and Octavian divided the empire among themselves: the first took the eastern provinces, married the Egyptian queen Cleopatra and began to live in Alexandria, the second remained in Rome. There was never friendship between them, each of them was looking for autocracy. Octavian, more prudent, forced the Senate to declare Antony an enemy of the fatherland, defeated Antony's fleet off the coast of Greece and followed him to Egypt. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and the Ptolemaic kingdom was annexed to the Roman Empire in 30 BC.
Octavian achieved the same goal as Caesar. He seemed less gifted, was homely, shy, secretive, he did not have a military talent, like Caesar. The state of affairs helped him a lot.
Long war in all areas around mediterranean sea tired most of the people: very many were looking for peace and crowded to a strong man, hoping for his protection. So, the poet Horace, who fought in last time for a republic under Brutus and Cassius. In one poem, Horace later recalled that "it was not good to throw his shield," that is, he fled from the battlefield; but he warmly advised his friends to leave the war and participation in the unrest, in order to get away from all dangers. At the same time, in the struggle, for the most part, independent, proud nobles, who did not want to see any master over themselves, perished. The inhabitants of the provinces were accustomed to submit to Rome; it was all the same to them whether the Roman senate or the military ruler from Rome sent them a leader. The population of Rome itself put up with the ruler who was ready to give him the most.
But Octavian achieved power also by his patience and skill. He did not accept the title of dictator, which was reminiscent of the triumph of Sulla and Caesar; he did not want anything in his title or in his surroundings that would resemble a king, so as not to irritate the old habits and concepts of the Romans. Incidentally, he accepted the title of tribune. At the same time, Octavian constantly repeated that his main concern- restore the ancient order in Rome. He tried to surround himself with the remains of old aristocratic families. In his palace, the historian Titus of Livy was well received, who, in his huge work, exalted the republic, depicting its fate from ancient times with sublime oratorical style.
Octavian called himself princeps, that is, the first person in the state. This meant that he was, as it were, considered to be authorized by the people for his power. He decided not to frighten the population of Italy with military forces: the soldiers were taken away and placed along the borders. Finally, Octavian shared with the old gentlemen, the nobles. AT important occasions the princeps consulted with the senate, as the consuls used to do.
It was decided that, as before, the senate would dispose of the ancient provinces: the senate would send governors there from among themselves. The newly annexed border areas remained with Octavian: Gaul, the former possession of Caesar, and rich Egypt, which Octavian himself captured. In these regions, all the Roman troops, about 250,000, were stationed to keep the recently conquered inhabitants in obedience and guard the frontier. The troops were subordinate to Octavian, the soldiers took the oath only to him. He appropriated the old title of military emperor to himself alone; it now meant power supreme commander. The emperor was called him in the provinces. Octavian sent his officers and clerks to his regions to manage them.
Princeps and people
The people were no longer called to meetings. However, the new ruler also had to please the population of the capital, as they had done before. people's leaders or the Senate. He only accepted all expenses at his own expense, as before they were done in favor of the people different persons. The princeps took upon himself the feeding of the capital's proletarians with bread: his officials prepared, brought by sea the required amount of grain, put it in huge stores that occupied a whole year.

Answer from Mikhail Basmanov[expert]
In 1867, according to documents, under Tsar Alexander 2, Russia sold Alaska to the United States. In fact, the documents on the sale of Alaska covered the payment for the services of Russian sailors (military assistance) to the US government. Russia sold Alaska in 1867 because it was a territory captured by Russia from Great Tartaria. Great Tartaria occupied earlier, on the mainland of Eurasia, a space in territory larger than the territory of the USSR. It was difficult for Russia to control such remote territories and Tartaria could return them back. After all, Tartaria existed, according to maps, in 1867, but already as the remnants of Great Tartaria in Central Asia. And with the help of the United States, there was no need to worry about Russian America. And that was then, the Russian government is more important than the people and natural wealth of Alaska.

Answer from DimaMister13[expert]
Territories of Georgia, Abkhazia, Armenia, Moldova.

Russian Empire on Wikipedia
Russian empire

Rowan rotundifolia on Wikipedia
Check out the wikipedia article on Rowan rotundifolia

Formation of the territory of the Russian Empire on Wikipedia
Check out the wikipedia article on Formation of the territory of the Russian Empire

Chapter 1. Russian Empire at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries

§ 1. Challenges of the industrial world

Features of the development of Russia in the late XIX - early XX century. Russia entered the path of modern industrial growth two generations later than France and Germany, a generation later than Italy, and about the same time as Japan. By the end of the XIX century. most the developed countries Europe has already completed the transition from a traditional, basically agrarian society to an industrial one, the most important components of which are a market economy, a rule of law state and a multi-party system. The process of industrialization in the XIX century. can be considered a pan-European phenomenon, which had its leaders and its outsiders. Great French revolution and the Napoleonic regime created the conditions for rapid economic development in much of Europe. In England, which became the first industrial power in the world, an unprecedented acceleration of industrial progress began as early as recent decades XVIII century. By the end Napoleonic Wars The UK was already the undisputed world industrial leader, accounting for about a quarter of the world's total industrial output. Thanks to its industrial leadership and status as a leading maritime power, it has also gained a position as a leader in world trade. The UK accounted for about a third of world trade, more than twice the share of its main rivals. Great Britain maintained its dominant position in both industry and trade throughout the 19th century. Although the model of industrialization in France differed from that in England, the result was equally impressive. French scientists and inventors held leadership in a number of industries, including hydropower (turbine construction and electricity generation), steel smelting (open blast furnace) and aluminum, automotive, and at the beginning of the 20th century. - aircraft construction. At the turn of the XX century. new leaders emerge industrial development- The United States, and then Germany. By the beginning of the XX century. the development of world civilization has accelerated sharply: the achievements of science and technology have changed the face of the advanced countries of Europe and North America and the quality of life of millions of inhabitants. Thanks to the continuous growth of output per capita, these countries have achieved an unprecedented level of prosperity. Positive demographic changes (decrease in the death rate and stabilization of the birth rate) free the industrial countries from the problems associated with overpopulation and the establishment of wages at a minimum level that ensures only existence. Feeded by completely new, democratic impulses, the contours of civil society appear, which receive public space in the subsequent 20th century. One of the most important features of capitalist development (which in science has another name - modern economic growth), which began in the first decades of the 19th century. in the most developed countries of Europe and America - the emergence of new technologies, the use of scientific achievements. This can explain the sustainable long-term nature of economic growth. So, between 1820 and 1913. the average rate of productivity growth in the leading European countries was 7 times higher than in the previous century. During the same period, their per capita gross domestic product (GDP) more than tripled, while the share of those employed in agriculture decreased by 2/3. Thanks to this leap to the beginning of the XX century. economic development acquires new distinctive features and new dynamics. The volume of world trade grew 30 times, the global economy and the global economy began to take shape. financial system.

Despite the differences, the countries of the first echelon of modernization had many common features, and most importantly - a sharp reduction in the role of agriculture in an industrial society, which distinguished them from countries that have not yet made the transition to an industrial society. The growth of agricultural efficiency in the industrialized countries provided a real opportunity to feed the non-agricultural population. By the beginning of the XX century. a significant part of the population of industrialized countries was already employed in industry. Due to the development of large-scale production, the population is concentrated in large cities, urbanization is taking place. The use of machines and new sources of energy makes it possible to create new products that continuously enter the market. This is another difference between an industrial society and a traditional one: the emergence of a large number of people employed in the service sector.

No less important is the fact that in industrial societies the socio-political structure was based on the equality of all citizens before the law. The complexity of this type of society made it necessary for the general literacy of the population, the development of the media.

Huge Russian Empire by the middle of the XIX century. remained an agricultural country. The vast majority of the population (over 85%) lived in countryside and worked in agriculture. The country had one railway St. Petersburg - Moscow. Only 500 thousand people, or less than 2% of the able-bodied population, worked in factories and factories. Russia produced 850 times less coal than England, and 15–25 times less oil than the United States.

Russia's lag was due to both objective and subjective factors. Throughout the 19th century the territory of Russia expanded by about 40%, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Finland became part of the empire (although in 1867 Russia had to sell Alaska to the USA). Only European territory Russia almost 5 times the territory of France and more than 10 times Germany. In terms of population, Russia was in one of the first places in Europe. In 1858, 74 million people lived within its new borders. By 1897, when the first All-Russian census took place, the population had grown to 125.7 million people (excluding Finland).

The vast territory of the state, the multinational, multi-confessional composition of the population gave rise to problems of effective manageability, which the states of Western Europe practically did not encounter. The development of the colonized lands required great efforts and funds. The harsh climate and the diversity of the natural environment also had a negative impact on the pace of the country's renewal. Not the last role in Russia's lagging behind European countries was played by the later transition to free ownership of land by peasants. Serfdom in Russia existed much longer than in other European countries. Due to the dominance of serfdom until 1861, most of the industry in Russia developed on the basis of the use of forced labor serfs in large manufactories.

In the middle of the XIX century. signs of industrialization in Russia are becoming noticeable: the number of industrial workers increases from 100 thousand at the beginning of the century to more than 590 thousand people on the eve of the liberation of the peasants. The general inefficiency of management, and first of all the understanding by Alexander II (emperor in 1855–1881) that the country's military power directly depends on the development of the economy, forced the authorities to finally abolish serfdom. Its abolition in Russia took place about half a century after most European countries did it. According to experts, these 50-60 years is the minimum distance Russia lags behind Europe in economic development at the turn of the 20th century.

The conservation of feudal institutions made the country uncompetitive in the new historical conditions. Some influential politicians The West saw in Russia a "threat to civilization" and were ready to help weaken its power and influence by all means.

"The beginning of the era of great reforms". The defeat in the Crimean War (1853-1856) quite clearly showed the world not only the serious lag of the Russian Empire from Europe, but also revealed the exhaustion of the potential with which feudal-serf Russia entered the ranks of great powers. The Crimean War paved the way for a series of reforms, the most significant of which was the abolition of serfdom. Since February 1861, a period of transformations began in Russia, later called the era of the Great Reforms. Signed by Alexander II on February 19, 1861, the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom forever eliminated the legal affiliation of the peasants to the landowner. They were awarded the title of free rural inhabitants. Peasants received personal freedom without ransom; the right to freely dispose of their property; freedom of movement and could henceforth marry without the consent of the landowner; enter into various property and civil transactions on its own behalf; open commercial and industrial enterprises; move to other classes. Thus, the law opened up certain opportunities for peasant entrepreneurship, and contributed to the departure of peasants to work. The law abolishing serfdom was the result of a compromise various forces, for this reason, he did not fully satisfy any of the interested parties. The autocratic government, responding to the challenges of the time, undertook to lead the country to capitalism, which was deeply alien to it. Therefore, she chose the slowest path, made maximum concessions to the landowners, who were always considered the main support of the tsar and the autocratic bureaucracy.

The landlords retained the right to all the land that belonged to them, although they were obliged to provide the peasants with land near the peasant farmstead, as well as a field allotment, for permanent use. The peasants were given the right to buy out the estate (the land on which the yard stood) and, by agreement with the landowner, the field allotment. In fact, the peasants received allotments not for ownership, but for use until the land was completely redeemed from the landowner. For the use of the land received, the peasants had to either work off its value on the lands of the landowner (corvée), or pay dues (in money or products). For this reason, the right of peasants to choose their economic activity, proclaimed in the Manifesto, was practically impossible. Most of the peasants did not have the means to pay the landowner the entire amount due, so the state contributed money for them. This money was considered debt. The peasants had to pay off their land debts with small annual payments, called redemption payments. It was assumed that the final settlement of the peasants for the land would be completed within 49 years. Peasants who were not able to immediately redeem the land became temporarily liable. In practice, the payment of redemption payments was delayed for many years. By 1907, when redemption payments were finally completely abolished, the peasants paid over 1.5 billion rubles, which, as a result, far exceeded the average market price of allotments.

According to the law, the peasants were to receive from 3 to 12 acres of land (1 acre is equal to 1,096 hectares), depending on its location. The landlords, under any pretext, tried to cut off the surplus land from peasant allotments, in the most fertile black earth provinces, the peasants lost up to 30-40% of the land in the form of "segments".

Nevertheless, the abolition of serfdom was a huge step forward, contributing to the development of new capitalist relations in the country, but the path chosen by the authorities to eliminate serfdom turned out to be the most burdensome for the peasants - they did not receive real freedom. The landlords continued to hold in their hands the levers of financial influence on the peasants. For the Russian peasantry, the land was a source of livelihood, so the peasants were unhappy that they received the land for a ransom that had to be paid for many years. After the reform, the land was not their private property. It could not be sold, bequeathed or inherited. At the same time, the peasants did not have the right to refuse to buy land. The main thing is that after the reform, the peasants remained in the power of the agricultural community that existed in the village. The peasant did not have the right to freely, without agreement with the community, leave for the city, enter the factory. The community protected the peasants for centuries and determined their whole life, it was effective in the traditional, unchanging methods of farming. Mutual responsibility was maintained in the community: it was financially responsible for collecting taxes from each of its members, sent recruits to the army, built churches and schools. In the new historical conditions, the communal form of land use turned out to be a brake on the path of progress, holding back the process of property differentiation of the peasants, destroying the incentives for increasing the productivity of their labor.

Reforms of 1860-1870s and their consequences. The liquidation of serfdom radically changed the whole character of public life in Russia. In order to adapt the political system of Russia to the new capitalist relations in the economy, the authorities had first of all to create new, all-class administrative structures. In January 1864 Alexander II approved the Regulations on zemstvo institutions. The meaning of the establishment of the Zemstvos was to connect new layers of free people to the management. According to this provision, persons of all classes who owned land or other immovable property within the uyezds, as well as rural peasant societies, were granted the right to participate in the affairs of economic management through elected vowels (i.e., those with the right to vote), who were part of the uyezd and provincial zemstvos meetings convened several times a year. However, the number of vowels from each of the three ranks (landowners, urban societies and rural societies) was not the same: the advantage was with the nobles. For everyday activities, district and provincial zemstvo councils were elected. Zemstvos took over the care of all local needs: the construction and maintenance of roads, the provision of food for the population, education, and medical care. Six years later, in 1870, the system of elective all-estate self-government was extended to cities. In accordance with the "City Regulations", a city duma elected for a period of 4 years according to the property qualification was introduced. System creation local government had a positive impact on the solution of many economic and other issues. The reform of the judiciary has become the most important step along the path of renewal. In November 1864, the tsar approved a new Judicial Charter, according to which a unified system of judicial institutions was created in Russia, corresponding to the most modern world standards. Proceeding from the principle of equality of all subjects of the empire before the law, a classless public court was introduced with the participation of jurors and the institution of sworn attorneys (lawyers). To 1870 new courts were created in almost all provinces of the country.

The growing economic and military power of the leading Western European countries forced the authorities to take a number of measures to reform the military sphere. the main objective The program outlined by the Minister of War D. A. Milyutin consisted in the creation of a mass army of the European type, which meant a reduction in the prohibitively high number of troops in Peaceful time and the ability to quickly mobilize in case of war. 1st of January 1874 signed a decree on the introduction of universal conscription. Since 1874, all young people who have reached the age of 21 began to be called up to serve military service. At the same time, the service life was halved, depending on the level of education: in the army - up to 6 years, in the navy - 7 years, and some categories of the population, for example teachers, were not drafted into the army at all. In accordance with the objectives of the reform, cadet schools and military schools were opened in the country, and peasant recruits began to be taught not only military affairs, but also literacy.

In order to liberalize the spiritual sphere, Alexander II carried out an education reform. New higher education institutions were opened educational establishments, a network of primary public schools. In 1863, the University Charter was approved, again granting higher education institutions broad autonomy: the election of rectors and deans, the obligatory wearing of uniforms by students was abolished. In 1864, a new school charter was approved, according to which, along with classical gymnasiums, which gave the right to enter universities, real schools were introduced in the country, preparing students for admission to higher technical institutions. Censorship was limited and hundreds of new newspapers and magazines appeared in the country.

The “great reforms” carried out in Russia since the early 1860s did not solve all the tasks facing the authorities. In Russia, the educated representatives of the ruling elite became the bearers of new aspirations. For this reason, the reformation of the country went from above, which determined its features. The reforms undoubtedly accelerated the economic development of the country, liberated private initiative, removed some vestiges and eliminated deformations. Socio-political modernization carried out "from above" only limited the autocratic order, but did not lead to the creation of constitutional institutions. The autocratic power was not regulated by law. The great reforms did not touch upon the issues of either the rule of law or civil society; in their course, mechanisms for the civil consolidation of society were not developed, many class differences remained.

Post-reform Russia. The assassination of Emperor Alexander II on March 1, 1881 by radical members of the anti-autocratic organization Narodnaya Volya did not lead to the abolition of autocracy. On the same day, his son Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov became Emperor of Russia. Even as Tsarevich, Alexander III (emperor 1881-1894) believed that liberal reforms conducted by the father, weaken the autocratic power of the king. Fearing escalation revolutionary movement, the son rejected the reformist course of his father. Economic situation country was difficult. The war with Turkey demanded huge expenses. In 1881, Russia's public debt exceeded 1.5 billion rubles with an annual income of 653 million rubles. Famine in the Volga region and inflation aggravated the situation.

Despite the fact that Russia retained many of the features of its cultural appearance and social structure inherent only to it, the second half of the 19th century. became a time of accelerated and noticeable cultural and civilizational transformation. From an agrarian country with low-productive agricultural production by the end of the 19th century. Russia began to turn into an agrarian-industrial country. The strongest impetus to this movement was given by the fundamental restructuring of the entire socio-economic system, which began with the abolition of serfdom in 1861.

Thanks to the reforms carried out in the country, an industrial revolution took place. The number of steam engines tripled, their total power quadrupled, and the number of merchant ships tenfold. New industries, large enterprises with thousands of workers - all this became a characteristic feature of post-reform Russia, as well as the formation of a wide layer of wage workers and a developing bourgeoisie. The social face of the country was changing. However, this process was slow. Wage workers were still firmly connected with the countryside, and the middle class was small and poorly organized.

And yet, since that time, a slow but steady process of transforming the economic and social organization of the life of the empire has been outlined. The rigid administrative class system gave way to more flexible forms of social relations. Private initiative was liberated, elected bodies of local self-government were introduced, legal proceedings were democratized, archaic restrictions and prohibitions were abolished in publishing, in the field of stage, music and fine arts. In desert places far from the center, during the lifetime of one generation, vast industrial zones arose, such as the Donbass and Baku. The successes of civilizational modernization most expressively acquired visible outlines in the guise of the capital of the empire - St. Petersburg.

At the same time, the government launched a railway construction program relying on foreign capital and technology, and reorganized the banking system to introduce Western financial technologies. The fruits of this new policy became visible in the mid-1880s. and during the "big push" of industrial production in the 1890s, when industrial output increased by an average of 8% per year, which exceeded the highest growth rates ever achieved in the Western countries.

The most dynamically developing industry was cotton production, mainly in the Moscow region, the second most important was the production of beet sugar in Ukraine. At the end of the XIX century. large modern textile factories are being built in Russia, as well as a number of metallurgical and machine-building plants. In St. Petersburg and near St. Petersburg, the giants of the metallurgical industry are growing - the Putilov and Obukhov plants, the Nevsky shipbuilding and Izhora plants. Such enterprises are also being created in the Russian part of Poland.

A great merit in this breakthrough belonged to the railway construction program, especially the construction of the state Trans-Siberian Railway, begun in 1891. By 1905, the total length of the railway lines in Russia amounted to over 62 thousand km. The expansion of mining and the construction of new metallurgical enterprises was also given green light. The latter were often created by foreign entrepreneurs and with the help of foreign capital. In the 1880s French entrepreneurs obtained permission from the tsarist government to build a railway connecting the Donbass (coal deposits) and Krivoy Rog (iron ore deposits), and also built blast furnaces in both areas, thus creating the world's first metallurgical plant operating on supplies raw materials from remote deposits. In 1899, there were already 17 factories operating in the south of Russia (until 1887 there were only two), equipped with the latest technology. European technology. Coal and iron production skyrocketed (while in the 1870s domestic iron production met only 40% of demand, in the 1890s it served three-quarters of the vastly increased consumption).

By this time, Russia had accumulated significant economic and intellectual capital, which allowed the country to achieve some success. By the beginning of the XX century. Russia had a good gross economic performance: in terms of gross industrial production, it was in fifth place in the world after the United States, Germany, Great Britain and France. The country had a significant textile industry, especially cotton and linen, as well as a developed heavy industry - the production of coal, iron, and steel. Russia in the last few years of the XIX century. even ranked first in the world in oil production.

These figures, however, cannot serve unequivocal assessment economic power of Russia. Compared with the countries of Western Europe, the standard of living of the bulk of the population, especially peasants, was catastrophically low. The production of basic industrial products per capita lagged behind the level of the leading industrial countries by an order of magnitude: 20–50 times for coal, and 7–10 times for metal. Thus, the Russian Empire entered the 20th century without solving the problems associated with lagging behind the West.

§ 2. The beginning of modern economic growth

New goals and objectives of socio-economic development. Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was at an early stage of industrialization. The structure of exports was dominated by raw materials: timber, flax, furs, oil. Almost 50% of export operations were occupied by bread. At the turn of the XX century. Russia annually supplied abroad up to 500 million grains. Moreover, if for all the post-reform years the total volume of exports increased almost 3 times, then the export of bread - 5.5 times. Compared to the pre-reform era, the Russian economy developed rapidly, but a certain brake on the development of market relations was the underdevelopment of the market infrastructure (lack of commercial banks, difficulty in obtaining loans, dominance of state capital in the credit system, low standards of business ethics), as well as the presence of state institutions that did not compatible with a market economy. Profitable government orders tied Russian entrepreneurs to the autocracy, pushed them into an alliance with the landowners. The Russian economy remained multi-structural. Subsistence farming coexisted with the semi-feudal landlord, small-scale farming of the peasants, private capitalist farming and state (state) farming. At the same time, having embarked on the path of creating a market later than the leading European countries, Russia widely used their experience in organizing production. Important role foreign capital played in the creation of the first Russian monopoly associations. The Nobel brothers and the Rothschild company created a cartel in the Russian oil industry.

A specific feature of the development of the market in Russia was high degree concentration of production and labor: the eight largest sugar producers concentrated at the beginning of the 20th century. in their hands 30% of all sugar refineries in the country, the five largest oil companies - 17% of all oil production. As a result, the bulk of the workers began to concentrate on large enterprises with more than a thousand employees. In 1902, over 50% of all workers in Russia worked at such enterprises. Before the revolution of 1905–1907 there were more than 30 monopolies in the country, including such large syndicates as Prodamet, Gvozd, Prodvagon. The autocratic government contributed to the growth of the number of monopolies, pursuing a policy of protectionism, protecting Russian capital from foreign competition. At the end of the XIX century. duties on many imported goods were significantly increased, including for pig iron they were increased by 10 times, for rails - by 4.5 times. The policy of protectionism allowed the growing Russian industry to withstand competition from the developed countries of the West, but it led to increased economic dependence on foreign capital. Western entrepreneurs, deprived of the opportunity to import manufactured goods into Russia, sought to expand the export of capital. By 1900, foreign investments accounted for 45% of the total share capital in the country. Profitable state orders pushed Russian entrepreneurs into a direct alliance with the landowning class, doomed the Russian bourgeoisie to political impotence.

Entering a new century, the country had to solve in the shortest possible time a set of problems relating to all the main spheres of public life: in the political sphere - to use the achievements of democracy, on the basis of the constitution, laws to open access to the management of public affairs to all segments of the population, in the economic sphere - to implement industrialization of all industries, to turn the village into a source of capital, food and raw materials necessary for the industrialization and urbanization of the country, in the sphere of national relations - to prevent the split of the empire along national lines, satisfying the interests of peoples in the field of self-determination, contributing to the rise of national culture and self-consciousness, in the sphere of external economic relations - from a supplier of raw materials and food to become an equal partner in industrial production, in the sphere of religion and the church - to end the relationship of dependence between the autocratic state and the church, to enrich the philosophy, work ethic of Orthodoxy, taking into account the developments in the country of bourgeois relations, in the field of defense - to modernize the army, to ensure its combat capability through the use of advanced means and theories of warfare.

Little time was allotted for solving these priority tasks, because the world stood on the threshold of a war unprecedented in scope and consequences, the collapse of empires, the redivision of colonies; economic, scientific, technical and ideological expansion. In the conditions of fierce competition in the international arena, Russia, not gaining a foothold in the ranks of the great powers, could be thrown far back.

Land issue. Positive shifts in the economy have also affected the agricultural sector, although to a lesser extent. The feudal land ownership of the nobility was already weakened, but the private sector was not yet strong. Of the 395 million acres in the European part of Russia in 1905, communal allotments amounted to 138 million acres, treasury land - 154 million, and private - only 101 million (approximately 25.8%), of which half belonged to peasants, and the other - to landowners. A characteristic feature of private landownership was its latifundial character: approximately 28,000 owners held three-quarters of the entire landownership, an average of about 2,300 dessiatins. for everyone. At the same time, 102 families owned estates of more than 50 thousand dessiatins. each. For this reason, their owners rented out lands and lands.

Formally, leaving the community was possible after 1861, but by the beginning of 1906 only 145,000 farms had left the community. Collections of basic food crops, as well as their yields, grew slowly. Per capita income was no more than half that of France and Germany. Due to the use of primitive technologies and lack of capital, labor productivity in Russian agriculture was extremely low.

One of the main factors behind the low level of productivity and income of the peasants was the egalitarian communal psychology. The average German peasant economy at that time had half as much crops, but 2.5 times more yield than in the more fertile Russian Chernozem region. Milk yields also differed greatly. Another reason for the low productivity of basic food crops is the dominance of Russian village backward farming systems, the use of primitive agricultural implements: wooden plows and harrows. Despite the fact that the import of agricultural machinery grew from 1892 to 1905 at least 4 times, more than 50% of the peasants of the agricultural regions of Russia did not have improved equipment. The landowners' farms were much better equipped.

Nevertheless, the rate of growth in the production of bread in Russia was higher than the rate of population growth. Compared with the post-reform period, the average annual yields of bread increased by the beginning of the century from 26.8 million tons to 43.9 million tons, and potatoes from 2.6 million tons to 12.6 million tons. Accordingly, over a quarter of a century, the mass of marketable bread increased more than twice, the volume of grain exports - 7.5 times. In terms of gross grain production, Russia by the beginning of the 20th century. was among the world leaders. True, Russia won the glory of the world grain exporter due to the malnutrition of its own population, as well as the relative smallness of the urban population. Russian peasants ate mainly plant foods (bread, potatoes, cereals), less often they consumed fish and dairy products, and even less often - meat. In general, the calorie content of food did not correspond to the energy expended by the peasants. In the event of frequent crop failures, the peasants had to starve. In the 1880s after the abolition of the poll tax and the reduction of redemption payments financial situation peasants improved, but the agricultural crisis in Europe also affected Russia, the price of bread fell. In 1891–1892 severe drought and crop failure swept 16 provinces of the Volga and Chernozem regions. About 375 thousand people died from starvation. Failures of various scale also occurred in 1896-1897, 1899, 1901, 1905-1906, 1908, 1911.

At the beginning of the XX century. in connection with the steady expansion of the domestic market, already more than half of the marketable grain went to domestic consumption.

Domestic agriculture covered a significant part of the needs of the manufacturing industry in raw materials. Only the textile and, to some extent, the woolen industries were in need of imported raw materials.

At the same time, the presence of many remnants of serfdom seriously hampered the development of the Russian countryside. Huge sums of redemption payments (by the end of 1905 the former landlord peasants paid more than 1.5 billion instead of the initial 900 million rubles; the peasants paid the same amount instead of the initial 650 million rubles for state lands) were pumped out of the village and did not go to development of its productive forces.

Already from the beginning of the 1880s. more and more clearly emerged signs of growing crisis phenomena, causing an increase in social tension in the countryside. The capitalist restructuring of the landowners' farms proceeded extremely slowly. Only a few landlord estates were centers of cultural influence on the village. Peasants were still a subordinate class. The basis of agricultural production was low-commodity family peasant farms, which at the beginning of the century produced 80% of grain, the vast majority of flax and potatoes. Only sugar beets were grown on relatively large landlord farms.

In the old-developed regions of Russia there was a significant agrarian overpopulation: about a third of the village was, in essence, "extra hands".

The growth of the landowning population (up to 86 million by 1900) while maintaining the same size land allotments led to a decrease in the share of peasant land per capita. Compared to the norms Western countries the Russian peasant could not be called land-poor, as was commonly believed in Russia, however, under the existing system of land use, even having land wealth, the peasant was starving. One of the reasons for this is the low productivity of peasant fields. By 1900, it was only 39 pounds (5.9 centners per 1 ha).

The government was constantly involved in agricultural issues. In 1883–1886 the per capita tax was abolished, in 1882 the "Peasant Land Bank" was established, which issued loans to peasants for the purchase of land. But the effectiveness of the measures taken was insufficient. The peasantry constantly did not collect the taxes required of it, in 1894, 1896 and 1899. the government provided the peasants with benefits, fully or partially forgiving arrears. The sum of all direct fees (state, zemstvo, secular and insurance) from peasant allotment lands in 1899 amounted to 184 million rubles. However, the peasants did not pay these taxes, although they were not excessive. In 1900, the amount of arrears was 119 million rubles. Social tension in the countryside at the beginning of XX. turns into real peasant uprisings, which became the harbingers of the impending revolution.

New economic policy authorities. Reforms S. Yu. Witte. In the early 90s. 19th century In Russia, an unprecedented industrial boom began. Along with the favorable economic situation, it was caused by the new economic policy of the authorities.

The leader of the new government policy was the outstanding Russian reformer Count Sergei Yulievich Witte (1849–1915). For 11 years he held the key post of Minister of Finance. Witte was a supporter of the comprehensive modernization of the national economy of Russia and at the same time remained in conservative political positions. Many of the reform ideas that were put into practice in those years were conceived and developed long before Witte headed the Russian reform movement. By the beginning of the XX century. the positive potential of the reforms of 1861 was partially exhausted and partially emasculated by conservative circles after the assassination in 1881 of Alexander II. As a matter of urgency, the authorities had to solve a number of priority tasks: stabilize the ruble, develop communication routes, find new markets for domestic products.

A serious problem by the end of the XIX century. becomes scarce. Last but not least, it was connected with the population explosion that began in the country after the abolition of serfdom. The decrease in mortality while maintaining a high birth rate led to a rapid population growth, and this becomes by the beginning of the 20th century. a headache for the authorities, as a vicious circle of excess labor is formed. The low incomes of the majority of the population made the Russian market low-capacity and hindered the development of industry. Following the Minister of Finance N. H. Bunge, Witte began to develop the idea of ​​continuing agrarian reform and elimination of the community. At that time, in the Russian countryside, the leveling and redistribution community prevailed, which carried out the redistribution of communal lands every 10–12 years. The threats of redistribution, as well as striping, deprived the peasants of incentives for the development of the economy. This is the most important reason, according to which Witte turned from "a Slavophile supporter of the community into its staunch opponent". In the free peasant "I", the liberated private interest, Witte saw an inexhaustible source of development of the productive forces of the countryside. He managed to pass a law limiting the role of mutual responsibility in the community. In the future, Witte planned to gradually transfer the peasants from the communal to the household and farm economy.

The economic situation called for urgent action. The obligations assumed by the government for redemption payments to the landlords, abundant financing of industry and construction from the treasury, high costs of maintaining the army and navy led the Russian economy to a serious financial crisis. At the turn of the century, few serious politicians doubted the need for deep socio-economic and political transformation capable of relieving social tension and bringing Russia into the ranks of the most developed countries in the world. In the ongoing discussion about the ways of the country's development, the main issue is the question of priorities in economic policy.

The plan of S. Yu. Witte can be called industrialization plan. It provided for the accelerated industrial development of the country within two five years. The creation of one's own industry was, according to Witte, not only a fundamental economic but also a political task. Without the development of industry, it is impossible to improve agriculture in Russia. Therefore, no matter what efforts this may require, it is necessary to work out and unswervingly adhere to the course for the priority development of industry. The purpose of Witte's new course was to catch up with the industrialized countries, take a strong position in trade with the East, and ensure a surplus in foreign trade. Until the mid 1880s. Witte looked at the future of Russia through the eyes of a convinced Slavophile and opposed the breaking of the "originally Russian system." However, over time, in order to achieve his goals, he completely rebuilt the budget of the Russian Empire on new principles, carried out a credit reform, rightly counting on accelerating the pace of industrial development countries.

Throughout the 19th century Russia experienced the greatest difficulties in monetary circulation: the wars that led to the issuance of paper money deprived the Russian ruble of the necessary stability and caused serious damage Russian credit in the international market. By the beginning of the 90s. the financial system of the Russian Empire was completely upset - the rate of paper money was constantly declining, gold and silver money was practically out of circulation.

The constant fluctuations in the value of the ruble came to an end with the introduction of the gold standard in 1897. The monetary reform as a whole was well conceived and carried out. The fact remains that with the introduction of the gold ruble, the country forgot about the existence of the recently “damned” issue of instability Russian money. In terms of gold reserves, Russia bypassed France and England. All credit notes were freely exchanged for a gold coin. The State Bank issued them in quantities strictly limited by the actual needs of circulation. Confidence in the Russian ruble, extremely low throughout the 19th century, was fully restored in the years leading up to the outbreak of the World War. Witte's actions contributed to the rapid growth of Russian industry. To solve the problem of investments needed to create a modern industry, Witte attracted foreign capital in the amount of 3 billion gold rubles. At least 2 billion rubles were invested in railway construction alone. The railway network was doubled in a short time. Railway construction contributed to the rapid growth of the domestic metallurgical and coal industries. Cast iron production increased almost 3.5 times, coal mining - 4.1 times, the sugar industry flourished. Having built the Siberian and East China railways, Witte opened for colonization and economic development huge spaces Manchuria.

In his transformations, Witte often encountered passivity and even resistance from the tsar and his entourage, who considered him a "republican." Radicals and revolutionaries, on the contrary, hated him "for supporting the autocracy." Didn't find a reformer common language and with liberals. The reactionaries who hated Witte turned out to be right; all his activities inevitably led to the elimination of the autocracy. Thanks to "Witte's industrialization", new social forces are gaining strength in the country.

Having begun his state activity as a sincere and staunch supporter of unlimited autocracy, he ended it with the author of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, which limited the monarchy in Russia.

§ 3. Russian society in the conditions of forced modernization

Factors of social instability. Due to accelerated modernization, the transition Russian society from traditional to modern at the beginning of the 20th century. accompanied by extreme inconsistency and conflict of its development. New forms of relations in society did not fit well with the way of life of the overwhelming majority of the population of the empire. The industrialization of the country was carried out at the cost of multiplying "peasant poverty". The example of Western Europe and distant America undermines the previously unshakable authority of the absolutist monarchy in the eyes of the educated urban elite. The influence of socialist ideas on politically active youth is strong, the possibility of participation in legal public politics is limited.

Russia entered the 20th century with a very young population. According to the first All-Russian census in 1897, about half of the 129.1 million inhabitants of the country were under 20 years old. The accelerated growth of the population and the predominance of young people in its composition created a powerful reserve of workers, but at the same time, this circumstance, due to the propensity of young people to rebellion, is becoming one of the most important factors in the instability of Russian society. At the beginning of the century, due to the low purchasing power of the population, industry entered the stage of a crisis of overproduction. Entrepreneurs' incomes have fallen. They shifted their economic difficulties onto the shoulders of the workers, whose number has increased since the end of the 19th century. grew. The length of the working day, limited by the law of 1897 to 11.5 hours, reached 12-14 hours, real wages decreased as a result of rising prices; for the slightest fault, the administration mercilessly fined. Living conditions were extremely difficult. Discontent grew among the workers, the situation got out of control of the entrepreneurs. Mass political actions of workers in 1901–1902. took place in St. Petersburg, Kharkov and a number of other large cities of the empire. Under these conditions, the government showed a political initiative.

Another important factor of instability is the multinational composition of the Russian Empire. At the turn of the new century, about 200 large and small peoples lived in the country, different in language, religion, level of civilizational development. The Russian state failed, unlike other imperial powers, to reliably integrate ethnic minorities into the economic and political space of the empire. Formally in Russian legislation there was practically no legal restrictions by ethnicity. The Russian people, which accounted for 44.3% of the population (55.7 million people), did not stand out much among the population of the empire in terms of their economic and cultural level. Moreover, individual non-Russian ethnic groups even enjoyed some advantages compared to Russians, especially in the field of taxation and conscription. Poland, Finland, Bessarabia, the Baltic States enjoyed a very wide autonomy. More than 40% of hereditary nobles were of non-Russian origin. The Russian big bourgeoisie was multinational in composition. However, responsible state posts could only be held by persons of the Orthodox faith. The Orthodox Church enjoyed the patronage of autocratic power. The heterogeneity of the religious environment created the ground for the ideologization and politicization of ethnic identity. In the Volga region, Jadidism acquires political overtones. Unrest among the Armenian population of the Caucasus in 1903 was provoked by a decree on the transfer of the property of the Armenian Gregorian Church to the authorities.

Nicholas II continued his father's tough policy on the national question. This policy found expression in the denationalization of the school, bans on the publication of newspapers, magazines and books in the native language, restrictions on access to higher and secondary educational institutions. Attempts to forcibly Christianize the peoples of the Volga region resumed, and discrimination against Jews continued. In 1899 a manifesto was issued limiting the rights of the Finnish Diet. Office work in Finnish was prohibited. Despite the fact that the requirements of a single legal and linguistic space were dictated by objective modernization processes, the tendency towards rough administrative centralization and Russification ethnic minorities strengthens their desire for national equality, the free performance of their religious and folk customs, participation in the political life of the country. As a result, at the turn of the 20th century there is an increase in ethnic and interethnic conflicts, and national movements become an important catalyst for the maturing of a political crisis.

Urbanization and the labor question. At the end of the XIX century. about 15 million people lived in Russian cities. Small towns with a population of less than 50,000 people predominated. There were only 17 large cities in the country: two millionaire cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and five more that overstepped the 100,000 mark, and all in the European part. For the vast territory of the Russian Empire, this was extremely small. Only the largest cities, by virtue of their inherent qualities, are capable of being genuine engines of social progress.

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