Russian Empire in the 19th-early 20th centuries.

Management of the Russian Empire. By the end of the XIX century. autocracy, as it seemed, stood firm and indestructible. All the highest functions of power (legislative, executive and judicial) were concentrated in the hands of the emperor, but the implementation of each of them was carried out through a system of state institutions.

The supreme legislative body, as before, remained the State Council, endowed with legislative powers. It consisted of persons appointed by the king and ministers. For the most part, these were well-known courtiers and dignitaries, many of whom were in very advanced years, which allowed the salon public to refer to them only as the State Soviet elders. The State Council had no legislative initiative. At its meetings, only the bills introduced by the monarch, but developed by the ministries, were discussed.

The main body of executive power was the Committee of Ministers. It was headed by a Chairman, whose functions were very limited. The Committee of Ministers included not only ministers, but also heads of departments and public administrations. Cases that required the approval of various ministers were submitted to the Committee for consideration. It was not a consolidated governing body coordinating the activities of individual departments. The committee was a collection of administratively independent dignitaries. Each minister had the right to report directly to the emperor and was guided by his orders. The minister was appointed exclusively by the monarch.

The emperor was considered the head of the court and judicial administration, and the entire court was carried out on his behalf. The competence of the monarch did not extend to specific legal proceedings, he had the role of the highest, and last, arbiter.

The monarch exercised supervision over the court and administration through the Governing Senate, which supervised to ensure that the orders of the supreme authority were carried out in local areas, and resolved complaints against the actions and orders of all authorities and persons, including ministers.

Administratively, Russia was divided into 78 provinces, 18 regions and Sakhalin Island. There were administrative units that included several provinces - governor generals, usually established on the outskirts. The governor was appointed by the king on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior.

Part Russian Empire since 1809, Finland (the Grand Duchy of Finland) was also included, the head of which was the emperor and which had broad internal autonomy - its own government (senate), customs, police, and a monetary unit.

On the rights of vassal formations, Russia also included two Central Asian states - the Bukhara Khanate (emirate) and the Khiva Khanate. They were in complete political dependence on Russia, but in internal affairs their rulers had autonomous rights.

The power of the governor was extensive and extended to almost all areas of the life of the province.

Public education and health care were part of the system of central state administration.

Cities had self-government in the form of city dumas and councils. They were entrusted with administrative and economic tasks - transport, lighting, heating, sewerage, water supply, improvement of pavements, sidewalks, embankments and bridges, as well as the management of educational and charitable affairs, local trade, industry and credit.

The right to take part in city elections was determined by a property qualification. Only those who owned real estate in a given city (in large centers - worth at least 3 thousand rubles, in small towns this threshold was much lower).

Four cities (Petersburg, Odessa, Sevastopol, Kerch-Bnikale) were withdrawn from the provinces and controlled by city governors directly subordinate to the central government.

Provinces were divided into districts and regions - into districts. The county was the lowest administrative unit, and the further division had a special purpose: the volost - for peasant self-government, sections of zemstvo chiefs, sections of judicial investigators, etc.

By the end of the XIX century. zemstvo self-government was introduced in 34 provinces of European Russia, and in the rest of the regions government bodies were in charge of affairs. Zemstvo bodies were mainly engaged in economic affairs - the construction and maintenance in due order of local roads, schools, hospitals, charitable institutions, statistics, handicraft industry, and the organization of land loans. To fulfill their tasks, the zemstvos had the right to establish special zemstvo dues.

The zemstvo administration consisted of provincial and district zemstvo assemblies and executive bodies - provincial and district zemstvo administrations, which had their own permanent offices and departments.

Zemstvo elections were held every three years by three electoral congresses - landowners, townspeople and peasants. The county zemstvo assemblies elected their representatives to the provincial zemstvo assembly, which formed the provincial zemstvo council. At the head of the county and provincial zemstvo councils were elected chairmen. They not only supervised the activities of these institutions, but also represented the zemstvos in state administrative bodies (provincial presences).

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 Austrian Empire suffered defeats, but in the end, thanks to the actions of Russia, she 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 identity. 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 clear evidence of the instability of the empire as a type of public education. 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.

8.1 The choice of the path of historical development of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century under Alexander I.

8.2 Decembrist movement.

8.3 Conservative modernization under Nicholas I

8.4 Public thought of the middle of the 19th century: Westerners and Slavophiles.

8.5 Culture of Russia in the first half of the XIX century.

8.1 The choice of the path of historical development of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century under Alexander I

Alexander I - the eldest son of Paul I, came to power as a result of a palace coup in March 1801. Alexander was initiated into the conspiracy, and agreed to it, but on the condition that his father's life be saved. The murder of Paul I shocked Alexander, and until the end of his life he blamed himself for the death of his father.

characteristic feature of government Alexandra I (1801-1825) there is a struggle between two currents - liberal and conservative, and the maneuvering of the emperor between them. In the reign of Alexander I, two periods are distinguished. Before the Patriotic War of 1812, the liberal period lasted, after the foreign campaigns of 1813-1814. - conservative .

Liberal period of government. Alexander was well educated and brought up in a liberal spirit. In the manifesto on accession to the throne, Alexander I announced that he would rule "according to the laws and according to the heart" of his grandmother Catherine the Great. He immediately canceled the restrictions imposed by Paul I on trade with England and the regulations that annoyed people in everyday life, clothing, social behavior, etc. Letters of grant to the nobility and cities were restored, free entry and exit abroad, the import of foreign books were allowed, an amnesty was given to people who were persecuted under Paul. Religious tolerance and the right of non-nobles to buy land were proclaimed.

In order to prepare a reform program, Alexander I created The secret committee (1801-1803) - an unofficial body, which included his friends V.P. Kochubey, N.N. Novosiltsev, P.A. Stroganov, A.A. Czartoryski. This committee was discussing the reforms.

In 1802 the colleges were replaced ministries . This measure meant replacing the principle of collegiality with one-man management. Eight ministries were established: military, maritime, foreign affairs, internal affairs, commerce, finance, public education and justice. The Committee of Ministers was formed to discuss important issues.

In 1802, the Senate was reformed, becoming the highest judicial and controlling body in the system of state administration.

In 1803, the "Decree on free ploughmen" was adopted. The landowners received the right to release their peasants into the wild, providing them with land for ransom. However, this decree did not have great practical consequences: during the entire reign of Alexander I, a little more than 47 thousand serfs, that is, less than 0.5% of their total number, went free.

In 1804 the Kharkov and Kazan universities, the Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg (since 1819 - the university) were opened. In 1811 the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was founded. The university statute of 1804 granted the universities broad autonomy. Educational districts and continuity of 4 levels of education (parochial school, county school, gymnasium, university) were created. Primary education was proclaimed free and classless. A liberal censorship charter was approved.

In 1808, on behalf of Alexander I, the most talented official M.M. Speransky, chief prosecutor of the Senate (1808-1811), developed a draft reform. It was based on the principle of separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial. It was supposed to establish the State Duma as the highest legislative body; election of executive authorities. And although the project did not abolish the monarchy and serfdom, in the aristocratic environment, Speransky's proposals were considered too radical. Officials and courtiers were dissatisfied with him and achieved that M.M. Speransky was accused of spying for Napoleon. In 1812, he was dismissed and exiled, first to Nizhny Novgorod, then to Perm.

Of all the proposals of M.M. Speransky, one thing was adopted: in 1810, the State Council of the members appointed by the emperor became the supreme legislative body of the empire.

The Patriotic War of 1812 interrupted the liberal reforms. After the war and foreign campaigns of 1813-1814. Alexander's policy becomes more and more conservative.

Conservative period of government. In 1815-1825. in domestic politics Alexander I intensified conservative tendencies. However, liberal reforms were first resumed.

In 1815, Poland was granted a constitution that was liberal in nature and provided for the internal self-government of Poland within Russia. In 1816-1819. serfdom was abolished in the Baltics. In 1818, work began in Russia on the preparation of a draft Constitution for the entire empire on the basis of the Polish one, which was headed by N.N. Novosiltsev and the development of secret projects for the abolition of serfdom (A.A. Arakcheev). It was supposed to introduce a constitutional monarchy in Russia and the establishment of a parliament. However, this work was not completed.

Faced with the discontent of the nobles, Alexander abandons the liberal reforms. Fearing to repeat the fate of his father, the emperor is increasingly moving to a conservative position. Period 1816-1825 called Arakcheevshchina , those. a policy of brutal military discipline. The period got its name because at that time General A.A. Arakcheev actually concentrated in his hands the leadership of the State Council, the Cabinet of Ministers, was the only speaker to Alexander I on most departments. Military settlements, which were widely introduced from 1816, became the symbol of Arakcheevshchina.

military settlements – special organization troops in Russia in 1810-1857, under which the state peasants, enrolled in military settlers, combined service with agriculture. In fact, the settlers became enslaved twice - as peasants and as soldiers. Military settlements were introduced in order to reduce the cost of the army and to stop recruiting, as the children of military settlers themselves became military settlers. A good idea eventually resulted in mass discontent.

In 1821, the Kazan and St. Petersburg universities were purged. Increased censorship. Cane discipline was restored in the army. The rejection of the promised liberal reforms led to the radicalization of part of the noble intelligentsia, the emergence of secret anti-government organizations.

Foreign policy under Alexander I. Patriotic War of 1812 The main task in foreign policy during the reign of Alexander I remained the containment of French expansion in Europe. Two main directions prevailed in politics: European and southern (Middle Eastern).

In 1801, Eastern Georgia was admitted to Russia, and in 1804 Western Georgia was annexed to Russia. The assertion of Russia in Transcaucasia led to a war with Iran (1804-1813). Thanks to the successful actions of the Russian army, the main part of Azerbaijan was under the control of Russia. In 1806, the war between Russia and Turkey began, ending with the signing of a peace treaty in Bucharest in 1812, according to which the eastern part of Moldavia (the lands of Bessarabia) departed to Russia, and the border with Turkey was established along the Prut River.

In Europe, Russia's task was to prevent French hegemony. At first, things didn't go well. In 1805, Napoleon defeated the Russian-Austrian troops at Austerlitz. In 1807, Alexander I signed the Treaty of Tilsit with France, according to which Russia joined the continental blockade of England and recognized all the conquests of Napoleon. However, the blockade, which was unfavorable for the Russian economy, was not respected, so in 1812 Napoleon decided to start a war with Russia, which intensified even more after the victorious Russian-Swedish war (1808-1809) and the accession of Finland to it.

Napoleon counted on a quick victory in border battles, and then forced him to sign a treaty that was beneficial to him. And the Russian troops intended to lure the Napoleonic army deep into the country, disrupt its supply and defeat it. The French army numbered more than 600 thousand people, more than 400 thousand participated directly in the invasion, it included representatives of the conquered peoples of Europe. The Russian army was divided into three parts, located along the borders, with the intention of counterattacking. 1st Army M.B. Barclay de Tolly numbered about 120 thousand people, the 2nd army of P.I. Bagration - about 50 thousand and the 3rd army of A.P. Tormasov - about 40 thousand people.

On June 12, 1812, Napoleon's troops crossed the Neman River and entered Russian territory. The Patriotic War of 1812 began. Retreating with battles, the armies of Barclay de Tolly and Bagration managed to unite near Smolensk, but after stubborn battles the city was abandoned. Avoiding a general battle, the Russian troops continued to retreat. They fought stubborn rearguard battles with individual units of the French, exhausting and exhausting the enemy, inflicting significant losses on him. A guerrilla war broke out.

Public dissatisfaction with the long retreat, with which Barclay de Tolly was associated, forced Alexander I to appoint M.I. Kutuzov, an experienced commander, a student of A.V. Suvorov. In the context of a war that was acquiring a national character, this was of great importance.

On August 26, 1812, the Battle of Borodino took place. Both armies suffered heavy losses (the French - about 30 thousand, the Russians - more than 40 thousand people). The main goal of Napoleon - the defeat of the Russian army - was not achieved. The Russians, not having the strength to continue the battle, withdrew. After the military council in Fili, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army M.I. Kutuzov decided to leave Moscow. Having made the "Taruta maneuver", the Russian army left the pursuit of the enemy and settled down for rest and replenishment in a camp near Tarutino, south of Moscow, covering the Tula arms factories and the southern provinces of Russia.

On September 2, 1812, the French army entered Moscow. However, no one was in a hurry to sign a peace treaty with Napoleon. Soon the French began to have difficulties: there was not enough food and ammunition, discipline was decomposing. Fires broke out in Moscow. October 6, 1812 Napoleon withdrew troops from Moscow. On October 12, at Maloyaroslavets, Kutuzov's troops met him and, after a fierce battle, forced the French to retreat along the devastated Smolensk road.

Moving to the West, losing people from clashes with Russian flying cavalry units, due to disease and hunger, Napoleon brought about 60 thousand people to Smolensk. The Russian army marched in parallel and threatened to cut off the retreat. In the battle on the Berezina River, the French army was defeated. About 30,000 Napoleonic troops crossed the borders of Russia. December 25, 1812 Alexander I issued a manifesto on the victorious end of the Patriotic War. main reason victory was the patriotism and heroism of the people who fought for their homeland.

In 1813-1814. foreign campaigns of the Russian army took place with the aim of finally putting an end to French rule in Europe. In January 1813, she entered the territory of Europe, Prussia, England, Sweden and Austria went over to her side. In the battle of Leipzig (October 1813), nicknamed the "Battle of the Nations", Napoleon was defeated. At the beginning of 1814 he abdicated the throne. Under the Treaty of Paris, France returned to the borders of 1792, the Bourbon dynasty was restored, Napoleon was exiled to Fr. Elba in the Mediterranean.

In September 1814, delegations from the victorious countries gathered in Vienna to resolve disputed territorial issues. Serious disagreements arose between them, but the news of Napoleon's flight from Fr. Elba ("Hundred Days") and his seizure of power in France catalyzed the process of negotiations. As a result, Saxony passed to Prussia, Finland, Bessarabia and the main part of the Duchy of Warsaw with its capital - to Russia. On June 6, 1815, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo by the allies and exiled to about. St. Helena.

In September 1815 was created Holy Union , which included Russia, Prussia and Austria. The goals of the Union were to preserve the state borders established by the Congress of Vienna, to suppress revolutionary and national liberation movements in European countries. Russia's conservatism in foreign policy was reflected in domestic policy, in which conservative tendencies were also growing.

Summing up the reign of Alexander I, we can say that Russia in early XIX century could become a relatively free country. The unpreparedness of society, especially the highest, for liberal reforms, the personal motives of the emperor led to the fact that the country continued to develop on the basis of the established order, i.e. conservatively.

Territory and population.

At the beginning of the XIX century. the territory of Russia was more than 18 million km2, and the population was 40 million people. The Russian Empire was a single territory.

The bulk of the population lives in the central and western provinces; in Siberia - a little more than 3 million.

Man. And on Far East, the development of which was just beginning, stretched uninhabited lands.

The population differed in national, class and religious affiliation. The peoples of the Russian Empire: Slavic (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians); Turkic (Tatars, Bashkirs, Yakuts); Finno-Ugric (Mordovians, Komi, Udmurts); Tungus (Evens and Evenks) ...

More than 85% of the country's population professed Orthodoxy, a significant part of the peoples - Tatars, Bashkirs, etc. - were followers of Islam; Kalmyks (lower reaches of the Volga) and Buryats (Transbaikalia) adhered to Buddhism. Many peoples of the Volga region, the North and Siberia retained pagan beliefs.

At the beginning of the XIX century. the Russian Empire included the countries of Transcaucasia (Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia), Moldova, Finland.

The territory of the empire was divided into provinces, counties and volosts.

(In the 1920s, provinces in Russia were transformed into territories and regions, counties - into districts; volosts - rural areas, the smallest administrative-territorial units, were abolished in the same years). In addition to the provinces, there were several governor-generals, which included one or more provinces or regions.

Political system.

The Russian Empire throughout the 19th century remained an autocratic monarchy. The following conditions had to be observed: the Russian emperor was obliged to profess Orthodoxy and receive the throne as a legitimate heir.

All power in the country was concentrated in the hands of the emperor. At his disposal was a huge number of officials, who together represented a huge force - the bureaucracy.

The population of the Russian Empire was divided into estates: tax-exempt (nobility, clergy, merchants) and taxable (philistinism, peasantry, Cossacks). Belonging to the class was inherited.

The most privileged position in the state was occupied by the nobility. His most important privilege was the right to own serfs.

Small-scale (less than 100 souls of peasants), the vast majority;

Large estates (over 1 thousand souls of peasants) numbered approximately 3,700 families, but they owned half of all serfs. Among them stood out the Sheremetevs, Yusupovs, Vorontsovs, Gagarins, Golitsyns.

In the early 1830s, there were 127,000 noble families in Russia (about 500,000 people); of these, 00 thousand families were the owners of serfs.

The composition of the nobility was replenished at the expense of representatives of other estate groups who managed to advance in the service. Many nobles led a traditional way of life, described by Pushkin in the novel "Eugene Onegin". However, many young nobles fell under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment, the mood of the Great French Revolution.

At the beginning of the XIX century. The Free Economic Society founded in 1765 continued to operate. It united major landowners-practitioners, natural scientists, drew them into the decision economic problems, announcing competitive tasks (cooking beets, developing tobacco growing in Ukraine, improving peat processing, etc.)

However, the aristocratic psychology and the ability to use cheap serf labor limited the manifestations of entrepreneurship among the nobility.

Clergy.

The clergy were also privileged.

At the beginning of the XVIII century. nobility was forbidden to join the clergy. Therefore, the Russian Orthodox clergy in social relations- in the vast majority - stood closer to the lower strata of the population. And in the XIX century. the clergy remained a closed layer: the children of priests studied in Orthodox diocesan schools, seminaries, married the daughters of clergy, continued the work of their fathers - service in the church. Only in 1867 were young men from all classes allowed to enter the seminary.

Some of the clergy received state salaries, but most of the priests subsisted on donations from the faithful. The lifestyle of a rural priest was not much different from the life of a peasant.

The community of believers in small territories was called a parish. Several parishes made up a diocese. The territory of the diocese, as a rule, coincided with the province. The Synod was the highest body of church administration. Its members were appointed by the emperor himself from among the bishops (heads of the diocese), and at the head was a secular official - the chief prosecutor.

Monasteries were the centers of religious life. Trinity-Sergius, Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Optina Pustyn (in the Kaluga province), etc. were especially revered.

Merchants.

Merchants, depending on the amount of capital, were divided into closed groups - guilds:

Merchants of the 1st guild had the preferential right to conduct foreign trade;

Merchants of the 2nd guild conducted large-scale internal trade;

Merchants of the 3rd guild were engaged in small-scale urban and district trade.

The merchant class was freed from taxes and corporal punishment; the merchants of the first two guilds were not subject to recruitment duty.

Merchants either invested their capital in trade and production, or used it for "charitable deeds."

Merchants prevailed among the Russian bourgeoisie: merchants were wealthy peasants who received special "tickets" for the right to trade. In the future, a merchant or a wealthy peasant could become a manufacturer or manufacturer, investing his capital in industrial production.

Craftsmen, small merchants, owners of shops and taverns, hired workers belonged to the unprivileged class - the bourgeoisie. In the 17th century they were called townspeople. The townspeople paid taxes, recruited into the army and could be subjected to corporal punishment. Many philistines (artists, singers, tailors, shoemakers) united in artels.

Peasants.

The most numerous estate was the peasantry, which included more than 85% of the country's population.

Peasants:

State (10 - 15 million) - state-owned, that is, belonging to the treasury, considered "free rural inhabitants", but performing natural duties in favor of the state;

Landlords (20 million) - possessory, serfs;

Specific (0.5 million) - owned royal family(paying dues and state duties).

Half of all peasants were landowners (serfs). The landowner could sell them, donate them, pass them on by inheritance, impose duties on them at his own discretion, dispose of the property of peasants, regulate marriages, punish, exile to Siberia or hand over out of turn to recruits.

Most of the serfs were in the central provinces of the country.

There were no serfs at all in the Arkhangelsk province; in Siberia, the number barely exceeded 4 thousand people.

Most of the landlord peasants in the central industrial provinces paid dues. And in the agricultural regions - the black earth and Volga provinces, in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine - almost all landlord peasants worked out the corvée.

In search of work, many peasants left the village: some were engaged in crafts, others went to manufactories.

There was a process of stratification of the peasantry. Gradually, independent peasants emerged: usurers, buyers, merchants, entrepreneurs. The number of this village elite was still insignificant, but its role was great; the rich village usurer often kept an entire district in bondage. In the state-owned village, stratification manifested itself more strongly than in the landowner's, and in the landowner's it was stronger among the quitrent peasantry and weaker among the corvée.

At the end of the XVIII - at the beginning of the XIX century. among the serfs-handicraftsmen, entrepreneurs stood out, who later became the founders of the dynasties of famous manufacturers: the Morozovs, the Guchkovs, the Garelins, the Ryabushinskys.

Peasant community.

In the 19th century, primarily in the European part of Russia, a peasant community remained.

The community (world), as it were, rented land from the owner (landowner, treasury, appanage department), and the communal peasants used it. Peasants received equal field plots (according to the number of eaters in each household), while women were not given a land share. In order to maintain equality, periodic redistributions of land were carried out (for example, in the Moscow province, redistributions were made 1-2 times in 20 years).

The main document emanating from the community was the "verdict" - the decision of the peasant assembly. The meeting, at which the male community members gathered, resolved issues of land use, the choice of a headman, the appointment of a guardian for orphans, etc. Neighbors helped each other with both labor and money. The serfs depended on both the master and the corvée. They were "tied hand and foot".

Cossacks.

A special estate group was the Cossacks, who not only carried out military service, but also engaged in agriculture.

Already in the XVIII century. the government completely subjugated the Cossack freemen. The Cossacks were enrolled in a separate military class, to which persons from other classes were assigned, most often state peasants. The authorities formed new Cossack troops to guard the borders. By the end of the XIX century. in Russia there were 11 Cossack troops: Donskoy, Terskoye, Ural, Orenburg, Kuban, Siberian, Astrakhan, Transbaikal, Amur, Semirechenskoye and Ussuriisk.

At the expense of income from his farm, the Cossack had to fully "gather" for military service. He came to the service with his horse, uniforms and edged weapons. At the head of the army was the appointed (appointed) ataman. Each stanitsa (village) elected a stanitsa ataman at a gathering. The heir to the throne was considered the ataman of all Cossack troops.

Socio-economic development of the country.

By the end of the XVIII century. an internal market is taking shape in Russia; becoming more and more active international trade. The serf economy, being drawn into market relations, is changing. As long as it was of a natural nature, the needs of the landowners were limited to what was produced in their fields, vegetable gardens, barnyards, etc. The exploitation of the peasants had clearly defined limits. When a real opportunity arose to turn the manufactured products into a commodity and receive money, the needs of the local nobility began to grow uncontrollably. The landowners are reorganizing their economy in such a way as to maximize its productivity by traditional, feudal methods.

In the chernozem regions, which gave excellent harvests, the intensification of exploitation was expressed in the expansion of the lordly plowing at the expense of peasant allotments and an increase in corvee. But this fundamentally undermined the peasant economy. After all, the peasant cultivated the landlord's land, using his inventory and his cattle, and he himself was valuable as a worker insofar as he was well-fed, strong, and healthy. The decline of his economy hit the landowner's economy as well. As a result, after a noticeable rise at the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries. landlord economy gradually falls into a period of hopeless stagnation. In the non-chernozem region, the production of estates brought less and less profit. Therefore, the landowners were inclined to curtail their farms. The intensification of the exploitation of the peasants was expressed here in a constant increase in the monetary dues. Moreover, this quitrent was often set higher than the real profitability of the land allotted to the peasant for use: the landowner counted on the earnings of his serfs through crafts, seasonal work - work in factories, manufactories, and in various areas of the urban economy. These calculations were fully justified: in this region in the first half of the XIX century. cities are growing, a new type of factory production is taking shape, which makes extensive use of civilian labor force. But the attempts of the feudal lords to use these conditions in order to increase the profitability of the economy led to its self-destruction: by increasing the monetary dues, the landowners inevitably separated the peasants from the land, turning them partly into artisans, partly free-lance workers.

Russia's industrial production found itself in an even more difficult situation. At this time, the inherited from the 18th century played a decisive role. industry of the old, serf type. However, she did not have incentives for technical progress: the quantity and quality of products were regulated from above; the number of assigned peasants strictly corresponded to the established volume of production. The serf industry was doomed to stagnation.

At the same time, enterprises of a different type are appearing in Russia: they are not connected with the state, they work for the market, they use freelance labor. Such enterprises arise, first of all, in the light industry, the products of which already have a mass buyer. Their owners are wealthy peasants-traders; and otkhodnik peasants work here. This production was the future, but the dominance of the serf system constrained it. The owners of industrial enterprises were usually themselves serfs and were forced to give a significant part of their income in the form of dues to the landlords; the workers, legally and in essence, remained peasants, striving to return to the countryside after earning a quitrent. The growth of production was also hampered by a relatively narrow sales market, the expansion of which, in turn, was limited by the serf system. Thus, in the first half of the XIX century. traditional system economy clearly hindered the development of production and prevented the formation of new relations in it. Serfdom turned into an obstacle to the normal development of the country.

If in the primary period of its development (XVI-XVII centuries) the political elite of the Russian state demonstrated an almost ideal foreign policy course, and in the XVIII century it made only one serious mistake in Poland (the fruits of which we are reaping today, by the way), then in the XIX century the Russian Empire, although he continues to mainly adhere to the paradigm of justice in relations with the outside world, he nevertheless commits three completely unjustified actions. These blunders, unfortunately, still come back to haunt the Russians - we can observe them in ethnic conflicts and a high level of distrust towards Russia on the part of neighboring peoples “offended” by us.

The XIX century begins with the fact that the Russian sovereign assumes the responsibility to protect the Georgian people from complete extermination: on December 22, 1800, Paul I, fulfilling the request of the Georgian king George XII, signs the Manifesto on the annexation of Georgia (Kartli-Kakheti) to Russia. Further, in the hope of protection, the Cuban, Dagestan and other small kingdoms beyond the southern borders of the country voluntarily joined Russia. In 1803, Mengrelia and the Imeretian Kingdom joined, and in 1806, the Baku Khanate. In Russia itself, the methods of work of British diplomacy were tested with might and main. On March 12, 1801, Emperor Paul was assassinated as a result of an aristocratic conspiracy. The conspirators associated with the English mission in St. Petersburg were unhappy with Paul's rapprochement with France, which threatened the interests of England. Therefore, the British "ordered" the Russian emperor. And after all, they did not deceive - after the murder was carried out, they paid the performers in good faith the amount in foreign currency equivalent to 2 million rubles.

1806-1812: Third Russo-Turkish War

Russian troops entered the Danubian principalities in order to induce Turkey to stop the atrocities of the Turkish troops in Serbia. The war was also fought in the Caucasus, where the attack of Turkish troops on long-suffering Georgia was repulsed. In 1811, Kutuzov forced the army of the vizier Akhmetbey to retreat. According to the peace concluded in 1812 in Bucharest, Russia received Bessarabia, and the Turkish Janissaries ceased to systematically destroy the population of Serbia (which, by the way, they have been doing for the last 20 years). The previously planned trip to India as a continuation of the mission was prudently canceled, because it would have been too much.

Liberation from Napoleon

Another European maniac who dreams of taking over the world has appeared in France. He also turned out to be a very good commander and managed to conquer almost all of Europe. Guess who again saved the European nations from a cruel dictator? After the most difficult battles on its territory with Napoleon's army superior in number and armament, which relied on the combined military-industrial complex of almost all European powers, the Russian army went to liberate other peoples of Europe. In January 1813, Russian troops, pursuing Napoleon, crossed the Neman and entered Prussia. The liberation of Germany from the French occupation troops begins. On March 4, Russian troops liberate Berlin, on March 27 they occupy Dresden, on March 18, with the assistance of Prussian partisans, they liberate Hamburg. On October 16-19, a general battle takes place near Leipzig, called the “battle of the peoples”, the French troops are defeated by our army (with the participation of the miserable remnants of the Austrian and Prussian armies). March 31, 1814 Russian troops enter Paris.

Persia

July 1826 - January 1828: Russo-Persian War. On July 16, the Shah of Persia, instigated by England, without declaring war, sends troops through Russian border to Karabakh and to the Talysh Khanate. On September 13, near Ganja, Russian troops (8 thousand people) defeated the 35,000-strong army of Abbas Mirza and threw back its remnants across the Araks River. In May, they launched an offensive in the Yerevan direction, occupied Echmiadzin, blockaded Yerevan, and then captured Nakhchivan and the Abbasabad fortress. Attempts by the Persian troops to push our troops away from Yerevan ended in failure, and on October 1 Yerevan was taken by storm. According to the results of the Turkmanchay peace treaty, Northern Azerbaijan and Eastern Armenia were annexed to Russia, the population of which, hoping for salvation from complete annihilation, actively supported the Russian troops during the hostilities. By the way, the treaty established the right of free resettlement of Muslims to Persia, and Christians to Russia within a year. For the Armenians, this meant the end of centuries of religious and national oppression.

Mistake No. 1 - Adygs

In 1828-1829, during the fourth Russian-Turkish war, Greece was liberated from the Turkish yoke. At the same time, the Russian Empire received only moral satisfaction from the good deed performed and many thanks from the Greeks. However, during the victorious triumph, the diplomats made a very serious mistake, which will come back to haunt more than once in the future. At the conclusion of the peace treaty, the Ottoman Empire transferred the lands of the Adyghes (Circassia) to the ownership of Russia, while the parties to this agreement did not take into account the fact that the lands of the Adygs were not owned or ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Adygs (or Circassians) - common name united people, divided into Kabardians, Circassians, Ubykhs, Adyghes and Shapsugs, who, together with the resettled Azerbaijanis, lived on the territory of present-day Dagestan. They refused to obey secret agreements made without their consent, refused to recognize both the authority of the Ottoman Empire and Russia over themselves, put up a desperate military resistance to Russian aggression and were subdued by Russian troops only after 15 years. At the end Caucasian war part of the Circassians and Abaza were forcibly relocated from the mountains to the foothill valleys, where they were told that those who wished could stay there only by accepting Russian citizenship. The rest were offered to move to Turkey within two and a half months. However, it was the Circassians, along with the Chechens, Azerbaijanis and other small Islamic peoples of the Caucasus, who caused the most problems for the Russian army, fighting as mercenaries, first on the side of the Crimean Khanate, and then the Ottoman Empire. In addition, the mountain tribes - Chechens, Lezgins, Azerbaijanis and Adygs - constantly committed attacks and atrocities in Georgia and Armenia, protected by the Russian Empire. Therefore, it can be said that in global scale, not taking into account the principles of human rights (and then it was not accepted at all), this foreign policy mistake can be disregarded. And the conquest of Derbent (Dagestan) and Baku (Baku Khanate, and later Azerbaijan) was due to the requirements of ensuring the security of Russia itself. But disproportionate use military force on the part of Russia, nevertheless, it must be admitted, there was a place to be.

Mistake #2 - Invading Hungary

In 1848, Hungary tried to get rid of Austrian power. After the refusal of the Hungarian State Assembly to recognize Franz Joseph as the king of Hungary, the Austrian army invaded the country, quickly seizing Bratislava and Buda. In 1849, the famous "spring campaign" took place. Hungarian army, as a result of which the Austrians were defeated in several battles, and most of Hungarian territory was liberated. On April 14, the Declaration of Independence of Hungary was adopted, the Habsburgs were deposed, and the Hungarian Lajos Kossuth was elected ruler of the country. But on May 21, the Austrian Empire signed the Warsaw Pact with Russia, and soon the Russian troops of Field Marshal Paskevich invaded Hungary. On August 9, she was defeated by the Russians near Temesvar, and Kossuth resigned. On August 13, the Hungarian troops of General Görgey capitulated. Hungary was occupied, repressions began, on October 6, Lajos Battyani was shot in Pest, 13 generals of the revolutionary army were executed in Arad. The revolution in Hungary was suppressed by Russia, which turned, in fact, into a mercenary of cruel colonists.

middle Asia

Back in 1717, individual leaders of the Kazakhs, given the real threat from external opponents, turned to Peter I with a request for citizenship. The emperor at that time did not dare to interfere in the "Kazakh affairs". According to Chokan Valikhanov: “... the first decade of the 18th century was a terrible time in the life of the Kazakh people. Dzungars, Volga Kalmyks, Yaik Cossacks and Bashkirs from different sides smashed their uluses, drove away cattle and took whole families into captivity. From the east, the Dzungar Khanate posed a serious danger. Khiva and Bukhara threatened the Kazakh Khanate from the south. In 1723, the Dzungar tribes once again attacked the weakened and scattered Kazakh zhuzes. This year went down in the history of the Kazakhs as a "great calamity".

On February 19, 1731, Empress Anna Ioannovna signed a letter on the voluntary entry of the Younger Zhuz into the Russian Empire. On October 10, 1731, Abulkhair and most of the elders of the Younger Zhuz concluded an agreement and took an oath on the inviolability of the contract. In 1740, the Middle Zhuz came under Russian protection (protectorate). In 1741-1742, the Dzungar troops again invaded the Middle and Younger zhuzes, but the intervention of the Russian border authorities forced them to retreat. Khan Ablai himself was captured by the Dzungars, but a year later he was released through the mediation of the Orenburg governor Neplyuev. In 1787, in order to save the population of the Little Zhuz, who were being pressed by the Khivans, they were allowed to cross the Urals and roam in the Trans-Volga region. This decision was officially confirmed by Emperor Paul I in 1801, when the vassal Bukeevskaya (Internal) Horde headed by Sultan Bukei was formed from 7500 Kazakh families.

In 1818, the elders of the Senior Zhuz announced that they had entered under the protection of Russia. In 1839, in connection with the constant attacks of the Kokand on the Kazakhs - Russian subjects, Russia began military operations in Central Asia. In 1850, an expedition was undertaken across the Ili River in order to destroy the Toychubek fortification, which served as a stronghold for the Kokand Khan, but it was only possible to capture it in 1851, and in 1854, the Vernoye fortification was built on the Almaty River (today Almatinka) and the entire Trans-Ili region entered into Russia. Note that Dzungaria was then a colony of China, forcibly annexed back in the 18th century. But China itself, during the period of Russian expansion into the region, was weakened by the Opium War with Great Britain, France and the United States, as a result of which almost the entire population of the Celestial Empire was subjected to forced drug addiction and ruin, and the government, in order to prevent total genocide, was then in dire need of support from Russia. Therefore, the Qing rulers made small territorial concessions in Central Asia. In 1851, Russia concluded the Kuldzha Treaty with China, which established equal trade relations between the countries. Under the terms of the agreement, duty-free barter was opened in Ghulja and Chuguchak, Russian merchants were provided with unhindered passage to the Chinese side, and trading posts were created for Russian merchants.

On May 8, 1866, the first major clash between the Russians and the Bukharians took place near Irdzhar, which was called the Irdzhar battle. This battle was won by Russian troops. Cut off from Bukhara, Khudoyar Khan accepted in 1868 a trade agreement proposed to him by Adjutant General von Kaufmann, according to which the Khivans were obliged to stop raids and looting of Russian villages, and also to release the captured Russian subjects. Also, under this agreement, Russians in the Kokand Khanate and Kokandians in Russian possessions acquired the right to stay and travel freely, arrange caravanserais, and maintain trade agencies (caravan-bashi). The terms of this agreement impressed me to the core - no seizure of resources, only the establishment of justice.

Finally, on January 25, 1884, a deputation of the Mervians arrived in Askhabad and submitted a petition to the Governor-General Komarov for the acceptance of Merv into Russian citizenship and took an oath. The Turkestan campaigns completed the great mission of Russia, which first stopped the expansion of nomads to Europe, and with the completion of colonization, finally pacified the eastern lands. The arrival of the Russian troops marked the arrival a better life. The Russian general and topographer Ivan Blaramberg wrote: “The Kirghiz of Kuan Darya thanked me for freeing them from their enemies and destroying the robber nests,” military historian Dmitry Fedorov put it more precisely: “Russian rule acquired great charm in Central Asia, because it marked itself humane peace-loving attitude towards the natives and, having aroused the sympathy of the masses, was for them a desirable dominion.

1853-1856: First Eastern War (or Crimean campaign)

Here it will be possible to observe simply the quintessence of cruelty and hypocrisy of our so-called "European partners". Not only that, we are again witnessing a friendly association of almost all European countries, painfully familiar to us from the history of the country, in the hope of destroying more Russians and plundering Russian lands. We are already used to this. But this time everything was done so openly, not even hiding behind false political pretexts, that one is amazed. The war had to be waged by Russia against Turkey, England, France, Sardinia and Austria (which took a position of hostile neutrality). The Western powers, pursuing their economic and political interests in the Caucasus and the Balkans, persuaded Turkey to exterminate the southern peoples of Russia, assuring that, "if anything," they would help. That “if anything” came very quickly.

After the Turkish army invaded the Russian Crimea and “slaughtered” 24,000 innocent people, including more than 2,000 small children (by the way, the cut off heads of the children were then kindly presented to their parents), the Russian army simply destroyed the Turkish and the fleet was burned. In the Black Sea, near Sinop, Vice-Admiral Nakhimov on December 18, 1853 destroyed the Turkish squadron of Osman Pasha. Following this, the combined Anglo-French-Turkish squadron entered the Black Sea. In the Caucasus, the Russian army defeated the Turkish at Bayazet (July 17, 1854) and Kuryuk-Dara (July 24). In November 1855, Russian troops liberated Kars, inhabited by Armenians and Georgians (which once in a row we save poor Armenians and Georgians at the cost of thousands of lives of our soldiers). On April 8, 1854, the allied Anglo-French fleet bombarded the Odessa fortifications. On September 1, 1854, British, French and Turkish troops landed in the Crimea. After a heroic 11-month defense, the Russians were forced to leave Sevastopol in August 1855. At the congress in Paris on March 18, 1856, peace was concluded. The conditions of this world surprise with their idiocy: Russia has lost the right to patronize Christians in the Turkish Empire (let them cut, rape and dismember!) And has pledged to have neither fortresses nor a navy on the Black Sea. It doesn't matter that the Turks slaughtered not only Russian Christians, but also French, English (for example, in Central Asia and the Middle East) and even German ones. The main thing is to weaken and kill the Russians.

1877-1878: Another Russo-Turkish War (also known as the Second Eastern War)

The oppression of the Christian Slavs in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Turks caused an uprising there in 1875. In 1876, the uprising in Bulgaria was pacified by the Turks with extreme cruelty, massacres of the civilian population were committed, and tens of thousands of Bulgarians were slaughtered. The Russian public was outraged by the massacre. On April 12, 1877, Russia declared war on Turkey. As a result, Sofia was liberated on December 23, and Adrianople was occupied on January 8. The way to Constantinople was open. However, in January, the English squadron entered the Dardanelles, threatening the Russian troops, and in England a general mobilization was appointed for the invasion of Russia. In Moscow, in order not to expose its soldiers and population to obvious masochism in a useless confrontation against almost the whole of Europe, they decided not to continue the offensive. But she still achieved the protection of the innocent. On February 19, a peace treaty was signed in San Stefano, according to which Serbia, Montenegro and Romania were recognized as independent; Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina received autonomy. Russia received Ardagan, Lars, Batum (regions inhabited by Georgians and Armenians, who have long been asking for Russian citizenship). The terms of the Peace of San Stefano provoked a protest from England and Austria-Hungary (an empire that we had recently saved from collapse at the cost of the lives of our soldiers), who began preparations for a war against Russia. Through the mediation of Emperor Wilhelm, a congress was convened in Berlin to revise the San Stefano peace treaty, which reduced Russia's successes to a minimum. It was decided to divide Bulgaria into two parts: the vassal principality and the Turkish province of Eastern Rumelia. Bosnia and Herzegovina was given to the control of Austria-Hungary.

Far Eastern expansion and mistake #3

In 1849, Grigory Nevelskoy began to explore the mouth of the Amur. Later he establishes a winter hut on the shore Sea of ​​Okhotsk to trade with the local population. In 1855, the period of economic development of the uninhabited region began. In 1858, the Aigun Treaty was concluded between the Russian Empire and Qing China, and in 1860, the Beijing Treaty, which recognized Russia's power over the Ussuri Territory, and the Russian government in return provides military assistance to China in the fight against Western interventionists - diplomatic support and supplies weapons. If at that time China had not been so severely weakened by the Opium War with the West, it would, of course, have competed with St. Petersburg and would not have allowed the development of border territories so easily. But the foreign policy conjuncture favored the peaceful and bloodless expansion of the Russian Empire in an eastern direction.

The rivalry between the Qing Empire and Japan for control of Korea in the 19th century cost the entire Korean people dearly. But the saddest episode occurred in 1794-1795, when Japan invaded Korea and began real atrocities in order to intimidate the population and the elite of the country and force them to accept Japanese citizenship. The Chinese army stood up to defend its colony and a bloody meat grinder began, in which, except for 70 thousand military men from both sides, were killed great amount Korean civilians. As a result, Japan won, transferred hostilities to the territory of China, reached Beijing and forced the Qing rulers to sign the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki, according to which the Qing Empire ceded Taiwan, Korea and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and also established trade preferences for Japanese merchants.

On April 23, 1895, Russia, Germany, and France simultaneously appealed to the Japanese government demanding that they abandon the annexation of the Liaodong Peninsula, which could lead to the establishment of Japanese control over Port Arthur and further aggressive expansion of the Japanese colonizers deep into the continent. Japan was forced to agree. On May 5, 1895, Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi announced the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the Liaodong Peninsula. The last Japanese soldiers left for their homeland in December. Here Russia has shown nobility - it forced the cruel aggressor to leave the occupied territory and contributed to preventing the spread of mass violence to new territories. A few months later, in 1896, Russia signed an alliance agreement with China, according to which it received the right to build a railway line through the territory of Manchuria, the agreement also established Russia's protection of the Chinese population from possible Japanese aggression in the future. However, under the influence of the trade lobby, the government could not resist the temptation to use the weakness of its neighbor, exhausted by the unequal war, and "profit".

In November 1897, German troops occupied the Chinese Qingdao, and Germany forced China to give this region a long-term (99 years) lease. Opinions in Russian government they were divided about the reaction to the capture of Qingdao: Foreign Minister Muravyov and Minister of War Vannovsky advocated taking advantage of the favorable moment to occupy the Chinese ports on the Yellow Sea, Port Arthur or Dalian Van. He argued this by the desirability for Russia to receive an ice-free port in pacific ocean in the Far East. Finance Minister Witte spoke out against this, pointing out that “... from this fact (the capture of Tsingtao by Germany) ... it is by no means possible to conclude that we should do exactly the same as Germany and also seize from China. Moreover, such a conclusion cannot be drawn because China is not in an allied relationship with Germany, but we are in an alliance with China; we promised to defend China, and suddenly, instead of defending, we ourselves will begin to seize its territory.

Nicholas II supported Muravyov's proposal, and on December 3 (15), 1897, Russian warships stood in the roadstead of Port Arthur. On March 15 (27), 1898, Russia and China signed the Russian-Chinese Convention in Beijing, according to which Russia was provided with leasehold use for 25 years of the ports of Port Arthur (Lushun) and Dalny (Dalian) with adjacent territories and water space and was allowed to lay to these ports of the railway (South Manchurian Railway) from one of the points of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

Yes, our country has not undertaken any violence to solve its economic and geopolitical problems. But this episode of Russian foreign policy was unfair to China, an ally that we actually betrayed and, by our behavior, became like Western colonial elites who will stop at nothing for profit. In addition, by these actions, the tsarist government acquired an evil and vindictive enemy for its country. After all, the realization that Russia actually took away the Liaodong Peninsula captured during the war from Japan led to a new wave of militarization of Japan, this time directed against Russia, under the slogan "Gashin Shotan" (Jap. "dream on a board with nails"), who urged the nation to endure the increase in taxation for the sake of military revenge in the future. As we remember, this revenge will be undertaken by Japan quite soon - in 1904.

Conclusion

Continuing its global mission to protect the oppressed small peoples from enslavement and destruction, as well as defending its own sovereignty, in the 19th century Russia nevertheless makes gross foreign policy mistakes that will certainly affect the way it is perceived by a number of neighboring ethnic groups for many years to come. The wild and completely inexplicable invasion of Hungary in 1849 will in the future cause mistrust and hostile wariness of this nation towards Russian identity. As a result, it became the second European nation “offended” by the Russian Empire (after Poland). And the brutal conquest of the Circassians in the 20-40s, despite the fact that it was provoked, is also difficult to justify. Thanks in large part to this North Caucasus today it is the largest and most complex region in the federal structure interethnic relations. Although bloodless, but still an unpleasant fact of history was the hypocritical and treacherous behavior of the St. Petersburg imperial court in relation to allied China during the Second Opium War. At that time, the Qing Empire was fighting the whole Western civilization, which had actually turned into a huge drug cartel. It is also worth noting that the Russian establishment, naturally “attracted” to enlightened Europe, in the 19th century continues to try to build the country into a halo of influence. Western civilization, strives to become "one's own" for her, but receives even more cruel lessons of European hypocrisy than before.