Physicist and astronomer Stefan Feeney of University College London, one of the...
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. The 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 in the last decades of the 18th century. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain was already the undisputed world industrial leader, accounting for about a quarter of the total world 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. there are new leaders of 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 which distinguished them from countries that had 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 rural areas and was employed 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 plants. 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 the European territory of Russia was almost 5 times larger than the territory of France and more than 10 times larger than 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 of 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 in the West saw Russia as a "threat to civilization" and were ready by all means to contribute to the weakening of its power and influence.
"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 on the abolition of serfdom was the result of a compromise between various forces, for this reason it 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 landowners 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, sought to cut off the surplus land from the 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, which 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 categories (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. The creation of a system of local self-government had a positive impact on the solution of many economic and other issues. The most important step along the path of renewal was the reform of the judiciary. 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 Minister of War D. A. Milyutin was to create a mass army of the European type, which meant reducing the excessively high number of troops in peacetime and the ability to quickly mobilize in case of war. 1st of January 1874 signed a decree on the introduction of universal military service. 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 educational institutions were opened, a network of elementary public schools was deployed. In 1863, the University Charter was approved, which again granted 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 the liberal reforms carried out by his father weakened the autocratic power of the tsar. Fearing the escalation of the revolutionary movement, the son rejected the reformist course of his father. The economic situation of the 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 features of its cultural appearance and social structure, 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 the 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 remote 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 also 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 green light was also given to the expansion of mining and the construction of new smelters. 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 European technology. Coal and iron production skyrocketed (whereas 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 good gross economic indicators: 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 indicators, however, cannot serve as an unambiguous assessment of Russia's economic power. 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 business ethics), as well as the presence of state institutions that are not compatible with a market economy. Favorable state 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. Foreign capital played an important role 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 a high degree of concentration of production and labor: the eight largest sugar producers were 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. characteristic feature private landownership was its latifundial character: in the hands of about 28 thousand owners, three-quarters of the entire owner's land was concentrated, an average of about 2.3 thousand 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 backward systems of field cultivation in the Russian countryside, 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 double the volume grain export- 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, the financial situation of the peasants improved, but the agricultural crisis in Europe also affected Russia, and bread prices 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 in the size of the landowning population (up to 86 million by 1900), while maintaining the same size of 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 of power. 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 government.
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 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 eliminating 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 why 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 transformations that could relieve social tension and bring 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 the country's industrial development.
Throughout the 19th century Russia experienced the greatest difficulties in circulation of money: the wars that led to the issuance of paper money deprived the Russian ruble of the necessary stability and caused serious damage to 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 “cursed” issue of the instability of 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 strictly limited quantities. real needs appeals. 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 the vast expanses of Manchuria for colonization and economic development.
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." The reformer did not find a common language with the liberals either. 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. accelerated growth 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. Russian state failed, unlike other imperial powers, to reliably integrate ethnic minorities into the economic and political space of the empire. Formally, there were practically no legal restrictions on ethnicity in Russian legislation. 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 transferring 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, the ban on the publication of newspapers, magazines and books in the native language, and 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 of ethnic minorities strengthens their desire for national equality, the free performance of their religious and folk customs, and 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. dominated small towns with a population of less than 50 thousand people. 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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Domestic policy in the first half of the 19th century
Assuming the throne, Alexander solemnly proclaimed that henceforth politics would be based not on the personal will or whim of the monarch, but on strict observance of laws. The population was promised legal guarantees against arbitrariness. Around the king there was a circle of friends, called the Unspoken Committee. It included young aristocrats: Count P. A. Stroganov, Count V. P. Kochubey, N. N. Novosiltsev, Prince A. D. Czartorysky. The aggressively minded aristocracy dubbed the committee "the Jacobin gang." This committee met from 1801 to 1803 and discussed projects of state reforms, the abolition of serfdom, etc.
During the first period of the reign of Alexander I from 1801 to 1815. much has been done, but much more has been promised. The restrictions imposed by Paul I were lifted. Kazan, Kharkov, St. Petersburg universities were created. Universities were opened in Dorpat and Vilna. In 1804, the Moscow Commercial School was opened. From now on, representatives of all classes could be admitted to educational institutions, at the lower levels education was free, paid from the state budget. The reign of Alexander I was characterized by unconditional religious tolerance, which was extremely important for multinational Russia.
In 1802, the obsolete collegiums, which had been the main organs of executive power since the time of Peter the Great, were replaced by ministries. The first 8 ministries were established: the army, the navy, justice, internal affairs, and finance. Commerce and public education.
In 1810-1811. during the reorganization of the ministries, their number increased, and the functions were even more clearly delineated. In 1802, the Senate was reformed, becoming the highest judicial and controlling body in the system of state administration. He received the right to make "representations" to the emperor about obsolete laws. Spiritual affairs were in charge of the Holy Synod, whose members were appointed by the emperor. It was headed by the chief prosecutor, a person, as a rule, close to the king. From military or civilian officials. Under Alexander I, the position of chief prosecutor in 1803-1824. Prince A. N. Golitsyn, who since 1816 was also the Minister of Public Education. The most active supporter of the idea of reforming the public administration system was the state secretary of the Permanent Council, M. M. Speransky. However, he did not enjoy the favor of the emperor for a very long time. The implementation of Speransky's project could contribute to the start of the constitutional process in Russia. In total, the project “Introduction to the Code of State Laws” outlined the principle of separation of the legislative, executive and judicial powers by convening representatives of the State Duma and introducing elected judicial instances.
At the same time, he considered it necessary to create a State Council, which would become a link between the emperor and the bodies of central and local self-government. The cautious Speransky endowed all the newly proposed bodies only with deliberative rights and by no means encroached on the fullness of autocratic power. The liberal project of Speransky was opposed by the conservative-minded part of the nobility, which saw in it a danger to the autocratic-feudal system and to their privileged position.
The ideologue of the conservatives became famous writer and historian I. M. Karamzin. In practical terms, the reactionary policy was pursued by Count A. A. Arakcheev, close to Alexander I, who, unlike M. M. Speransky, sought to strengthen the personal power of the emperor through the further development of the bureaucratic system.
The struggle between liberals and conservatives ended in victory for the latter. Speransky was removed from business and sent into exile. The only result was the establishment of the State Council, in 1810, which consisted of ministers and other high dignitaries appointed by the emperor. He was given advisory functions in the development of the most important laws. Reforms 1802–1811 did not change the autocratic essence of the Russian political system. They only increased the centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. As before, the emperor was the supreme legislative and executive power.
In subsequent years, the reformist moods of Alexander I were reflected in the introduction of a constitution in the Kingdom of Poland (1815), the preservation of the Sejm and the constitutional structure of Finland, annexed to Russia in 1809, as well as in the creation by N.N. Russian Empire" (1819-1820). The project provided for the separation of branches of power, the introduction of government bodies. Equality of all citizens before the law and the federal principle of government. However, all these proposals remained on paper.
In the last decade of the reign of Alexander I, a conservative trend was increasingly felt in domestic politics. By the name of her guide, she received the name "Arakcheevshchina". This policy was expressed in the further centralization of state administration, in police-repressive measures aimed at the destruction of free thought, in the "cleansing" of universities, in the planting of cane discipline in the army. The most striking manifestation of the policy of Count A. A. Arakcheev was military settlements - a special form of recruiting and maintaining the army.
The purpose of creating military settlements is to achieve self-support and self-reproduction of the army. To ease for the country's budget the burden of maintaining a huge army in peaceful conditions. The first attempts to organize them date back to 1808-1809, but they began to be created en masse in 1815-1816. State-owned peasants of St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Mogilev and Kharkov provinces were transferred to the category of military settlements. Soldiers were also settled here, to whom their families were registered. Wives became villagers, sons from the age of 7 were enlisted as cantonists, and from the age of 18 into active military service. The whole life of the peasant family was strictly regulated. For the slightest violation of the order, corporal punishment followed. A. A. Arakcheev was appointed chief commander of the military settlements. By 1825, about a third of the soldiers had been transferred to the settlement.
However, the idea of the self-sufficiency of the army failed. The government spent a lot of money on the organization of settlements. The military settlers did not become a special class that expanded the social support of the autocracy, on the contrary, they were worried and rebelled. The government abandoned this practice in subsequent years. Alexander I died in Taganrog in 1825. He had no children. Due to the ambiguity in the issue of succession to the throne in Russia, an emergency situation was created - an interregnum.
The years of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I (1825-1855) are rightly regarded as "the apogee of autocracy". The Nikolaev reign began with the massacre of the Decembrists and ended in the days of the defense of Sevastopol. The replacement of the heir to the throne by Alexander I came as a surprise to Nicholas I, who was not prepared to rule Russia.
On December 6, 1826, the emperor created the first Secret Committee, headed by the Chairman of the State Council V.P. Kochubey. Initially, the committee developed projects for the transformation of higher and local government and the law "on states", that is, on the rights of estates. It was supposed to consider the peasant question. However, in fact, the work of the committee did not give any practical results, and in 1832 the committee ceased its activities.
Nicholas I set the task of concentrating in his hands the solution of both general and private affairs, bypassing the relevant ministries and departments. The principle of the regime of personal power was embodied in His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery. It was divided into several branches that interfered in the political, social and spiritual life of the country.
The codification of Russian legislation was entrusted to M. M. Speransky, returned from exile, who intended to collect and classify all existing laws, to create a fundamentally new system of legislation. However, conservative tendencies in domestic politics limited him to a more modest task. Under his leadership, the laws adopted after the Council Code of 1649 were summarized. They were published in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire in 45 volumes. In a separate "Code of Laws" (15 volumes), the current laws were placed, which corresponded to the legal situation in the country. All this was also aimed at strengthening the bureaucratization of management.
In 1837-1841. under the leadership of Count P. D. Kiselev, a wide system of measures was carried out - the reform of the management of state peasants. In 1826, a committee was set up to set up educational institutions. Its tasks included: checking the statutes of educational institutions, developing uniform principles of education, determining academic disciplines and manuals. The committee developed the basic principles of government policy in the field of education. They were legally enshrined in the Charter of lower and secondary educational institutions in 1828. Estate, isolation, isolation of each step, restriction in the education of representatives of the lower classes, created the essence of the created education system.
The reaction hit the universities as well. Their network, however, was expanded due to the need for qualified officials. The charter of 1835 liquidated university autonomy, tightened control over the trustees of educational districts, the police and local government. At that time, S.S. Uvarov was the Minister of Public Education, who, in his policy, sought to combine the “protection” of Nicholas I with the development of education and culture.
In 1826, a new censorship charter was issued, which was called "cast iron" by contemporaries. The Main Directorate of Censorship was subordinate to the Ministry of Public Education. The fight against advanced journalism was considered by Nicholas I as one of the top political tasks. One after another, bans on the publication of magazines rained down. 1831 was the date of the termination of the publication of A. A. Delvich's Literary Gazette, in 1832 P. V. Kirievsky's The European was closed, in 1834 the Moscow Telegraph by N. A. Polevoy, and in 1836 " Telescope” by N. I. Nadezhdin.
In the domestic policy of the last years of the reign of Nicholas I (1848-1855), the reactionary-repressive line intensified even more.
By the mid 50s. Russia turned out to be "an ear of clay with feet of clay." This predetermined failures in foreign policy, the defeat in the Crimean War (1853-1856) and caused the reforms of the 60s.
Foreign policy of Russia in the first half of the XIX century.At the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries. two directions in Russia's foreign policy were clearly defined: the Middle East - the struggle to strengthen its positions in the Transcaucasus, the Black Sea and the Balkans, and the European - Russia's participation in coalition wars against Napoleonic France. One of the first acts of Alexander I after accession to the throne was the restoration of relations with England. But Alexander I did not want to come into conflict with France either. The normalization of relations with England and France allowed Russia to intensify its activities in the Middle East, mainly in the region of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.
According to the manifesto of Alexander I of September 12, 1801, the Georgian ruling dynasty of the Bagratids lost the throne, the control of Kartli and Kakheti passed to the Russian governor. Tsarist administration was introduced in Eastern Georgia. In 1803-1804. under the same conditions, the rest of Georgia - Mengrelia, Guria, Imeretia - became part of Russia. Russia received strategically important territory for strengthening its positions in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Great importance not only in the strategic, but also in the economic sense, the construction of the Georgian Military Highway, which connected Transcaucasia with European Russia, was completed in 1814.
The annexation of Georgia pushed Russia against Iran and the Ottoman Empire. The hostile attitude of these countries towards Russia was fueled by the intrigues of England. The war with Iran that began in 1804 was successfully waged by Russia: already during 1804-1806. the main part of Azerbaijan was annexed to Russia. The war ended with the annexation in 1813 of the Talysh Khanate and the Mugan steppe. According to the Peace of Gulistan, signed on October 24, 1813, Iran recognized the assignment of these territories to Russia. Russia was granted the right to keep its military vessels on the Caspian Sea.
In 1806, the war between Russia and Turkey began, which relied on the help of France, which supplied it with weapons. The reason for the war was the removal in August 1806 from the posts of the rulers of Moldavia and Wallachia at the insistence of the Napoleonic General Sebastiani, who arrived in Turkey. In October 1806, Russian troops under the command of General I. I. Mikhelson occupied Moldavia and Wallachia. In 1807, the squadron of D.N. Senyavin defeated the Ottoman fleet, but then the diversion of the main forces of Russia to participate in the anti-Napoleonic coalition did not allow the Russian troops to develop success. Only when M. I. Kutuzov was appointed commander of the Russian army in 1811 did the hostilities take a completely different turn. Kutuzov concentrated the main forces at the Ruschuk fortress, where on June 22, 1811 he inflicted Ottoman Empire crushing defeat. Then, with successive blows, Kutuzov defeated in parts the main forces of the Ottomans along the left bank of the Danube, their remnants laid down their arms and surrendered. On May 28, 1812, Kutuzov signed a peace treaty in Bucharest, according to which Moldavia was ceded to Russia, which later received the status of the Bessarabia region. Serbia, which rose to fight for independence in 1804 and was supported by Russia, was presented with autonomy.
In 1812, the eastern part of Moldova became part of Russia. Its western part (beyond the Prut River), under the name of the Principality of Moldavia, remained in vassal dependence on the Ottoman Empire.
In 1803-1805. the international situation in Europe sharply worsened. The period of the Napoleonic wars begins, in which all European countries were involved, incl. and Russia.
At the beginning of the XIX century. Almost all of central and southern Europe was under Napoleon's rule. In foreign policy, Napoleon expressed the interests of the French bourgeoisie, which competed with the British bourgeoisie in the struggle for world markets and for the colonial division of the world. Anglo-French rivalry acquired a pan-European character and took a leading place in international relations at the beginning of the 19th century.
The proclamation in 1804 of May 18 of Napoleon as emperor further inflamed the situation. April 11, 1805 was concluded. The Anglo-Russian military convention, according to which Russia was obliged to put up 180 thousand soldiers, and England to pay a subsidy to Russia in the amount of 2.25 million pounds sterling and participate in land and sea military operations against Napoleon. Austria, Sweden and the Kingdom of Naples joined this convention. However, only Russian and Austrian troops numbering 430 thousand soldiers were sent against Napoleon. Having learned about the movement of these troops, Napoleon withdrew his army in the Boulogne camp and quickly moved it to Bavaria, where the Austrian army was located under the command of General Mack and utterly defeated it at Ulm.
The commander of the Russian army, M. I. Kutuzov, given the fourfold superiority of Napoleon in strength, through a series of skillful maneuvers, avoided major battle and, having made a difficult 400-kilometer march, joined up with another Russian army and Austrian reserves. Kutuzov proposed to withdraw the Russian-Austrian troops further east in order to gather enough strength for the successful conduct of hostilities, however, the emperors Franz and Alexander I, who were with the army, insisted on a general battle. On November 20, 1805, it took place at Austerlitz (Czech Republic) and ended in victory Napoleon. Austria capitulated and made a humiliating peace. The coalition actually broke up. Russian troops were withdrawn to the borders of Russia and Russian-French peace negotiations began in Paris. On July 8, 1806, a peace treaty was concluded in Paris, but Alexander I refused to ratify it.
In mid-September 1806, a fourth coalition was formed against France (Russia, Great Britain, Prussia and Sweden). In the battle of Jena and Auerstedt, the Prussian troops were completely defeated. Almost all of Prussia was occupied by French troops. The Russian army had to fight alone for 7 months against the superior forces of the French. The most significant were the battles of Russian troops with the French in East Prussia on January 26-27 at Preussisch-Eylau and on June 2, 1807 near Friedland. During these battles, Napoleon managed to push the Russian troops back to the Neman, but he did not dare to enter Russia and offered to make peace. The meeting between Napoleon and Alexander I took place in Tilsit (on the Neman) at the end of June 1807. The peace treaty was concluded on June 25, 1807.
Joining the continental blockade caused severe damage to the Russian economy, since England was its main trading partner. The conditions of the Peace of Tilsit caused strong discontent both in conservative circles and in the advanced circles of Russian society. A serious blow was dealt to Russia's international prestige. The painful impression of the Tilsit peace was to some extent "compensated" by the successes in the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, which was the result of the Tilsit agreements.
The war began on February 8, 1808 and demanded a great effort from Russia. At first, military operations were successful: in February-March 1808, the main urban centers and fortresses of Southern Finland were occupied. Then hostilities stopped. By the end of 1808, Finland was liberated from the Swedish troops, and in March, the 48,000-strong corps of M. B. Barclay de Tolly, having crossed the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia, approached Stockholm. On September 5, 1809, in the city of Friedrichsgam, a peace was concluded between Russia and Sweden, under the terms of which Finland and the Aland Islands passed to Russia. At the same time, the contradictions between France and Russia gradually deepened.
A new war between Russia and France was becoming inevitable. The main motive for unleashing the war was Napoleon's desire for world domination, on the way to which Russia stood.
On the night of June 12, 1812, the Napoleonic army crossed the Neman and invaded Russia. The left flank of the French army consisted of 3 corps under the command of MacDonald, advancing on Riga and Petersburg. The main, central group of troops, consisting of 220 thousand people, led by Napoleon, attacked Kovno and Vilna. Alexander I at that time was in Vilna. At the news of France crossing the Russian border, he sent General A. D. Balashov to Napoleon with peace proposals, but was refused.
Usually, Napoleon's wars were reduced to one or two general battles, which decided the fate of the company. And for this, Napoleon's calculation was reduced to using his numerical superiority to smash the dispersed Russian armies one by one. On June 13, French troops occupied Kovno, and on June 16 Vilna. At the end of June, Napoleon's attempt to encircle and destroy the army of Barclay de Tolly in the Drissa camp (on the Western Dvina) failed. Barclay de Tolly, by a successful maneuver, led his army out of the trap that the Dris camp could have turned out to be and headed through Polotsk to Vitebsk to join the army of Bagration, who was retreating south in the direction of Bobruisk, Novy Bykhov and Smolensk. The difficulties of the Russian army were aggravated by the lack of a unified command. On June 22, after heavy rearguard battles, the armies of Barclay da Tolly and Bagration united in Smolensk.
The stubborn battle of the Russian rearguard with the advancing advanced units of the French army on August 2 near Krasnoy (west of Smolensk) allowed the Russian troops to strengthen Smolensk. On August 4-6, a bloody battle for Smolensk took place. On the night of August 6, the burned and destroyed city was abandoned by Russian troops. In Smolensk, Napoleon decided to advance on Moscow. On August 8, Alexander I signed a decree appointing M. I. Kutuzov as commander-in-chief of the Russian army. Nine days later, Kutuzov arrived in the army.
For the general battle, Kutuzov chose a position near the village of Borodino. On August 24, the French army approached the advanced fortification in front of the Borodino field - the Shevardinsky redoubt. A heavy battle ensued: 12,000 Russian soldiers held back the onslaught of a 40,000-strong French detachment all day. This battle helped to strengthen the left flank of the Borodino position. The battle of Borodino began at 5 o'clock in the morning on August 26 with the attack of the French division of General Delzon on Borodino. Only by 16 o'clock was the Raevsky redoubt captured by the French cavalry. By evening, Kutuzov gave the order to withdraw to a new line of defense. Napoleon stopped the attacks, limiting himself to artillery cannonade. As a result of the Battle of Borodino, both armies suffered heavy losses. The Russians lost 44 thousand, and the French 58 thousand people.
On September 1 (13), a military council was convened in the village of Fili, at which Kutuzov made the only right decision - to leave Moscow in order to save the army. The next day the French army approached Moscow. Moscow was empty: no more than 10 thousand inhabitants remained in it. On the same night, fires broke out in various parts of the city, which raged for a whole week. The Russian army, leaving Moscow, first moved to Ryazan. Near Kolomna, Kutuzov, leaving a barrier of several Cossack regiments, turned onto the Starokaluga road and withdrew his army from the attack of the pressing French cavalry. The Russian army entered Tarutino. On October 6, Kutuzov suddenly struck at Murat's corps, which was stationed on the river. Chernishne is not far from Tarutina. The defeat of Murat forced Napoleon to accelerate the movement of the main forces of his army to Kaluga. Kutuzov sent his troops to cross him to Maloyaroslavets. On October 12, a battle took place near Maloyaroslavets, which forced Napoleon to abandon the movement to the south and turn to Vyazma on the old Smolensk road devastated by the war. The retreat of the French army began, which later turned into a flight, and its parallel pursuit by the Russian army.
Since the invasion of Napoleon in Russia, the country has flared up people's war against foreign invaders. After leaving Moscow, and especially during the period of the Tarutino camp, the partisan movement assumed a wide scope. Partisan detachments, having launched a "small war", disrupted enemy communications, performed the role of reconnaissance, sometimes gave real battles and actually blocked the retreating French army.
Retreating from Smolensk to the river. Berezina, the French army still retained combat effectiveness, although it suffered heavy losses from hunger and disease. After crossing the river Berezina already began a disorderly flight of the remnants of the French troops. On December 5, in Sorgani, Napoleon handed over command to Marshal Murat, and he hurried to Paris. On December 25, 1812, the tsar's manifesto was published announcing the end of the Patriotic War. Russia was the only country in Europe capable of not only resisting Napoleonic aggression, but also inflicting a crushing defeat on it. But this victory came at a high cost to the people. 12 provinces that became the scene of hostilities were devastated. Such ancient cities as Moscow, Smolensk, Vitebsk, Polotsk, etc., were burnt and devastated.
To ensure its security, Russia continued hostilities and led the movement for the liberation of the European peoples from French domination.
In September 1814 opened Congress of Vienna, where the victorious powers decided on the post-war structure of Europe. It was difficult for the allies to agree among themselves, because. sharp contradictions arose, mainly on territorial issues. The work of the congress was interrupted due to the flight of Napoleon from Fr. Elba and the restoration of his power in France for 100 days. By combined efforts, the European states inflicted a final defeat on him at the Battle of Waterloo in the summer of 1815. Napoleon was captured and exiled to about. St. Helena off the west coast of Africa.
The decisions of the Congress of Vienna led to the return of the old dynasties in France, Italy, Spain and other countries. From most of the Polish lands, the Kingdom of Poland was created as part of the Russian Empire. In September 1815, the Russian Emperor Alexander I, the Austrian Emperor Franz and the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III signed an act establishing the Holy Alliance. Alexander I himself was its author. The text of the Union contained the obligations of Christian monarchs to provide each other with all possible assistance. Political goals -support of the old monarchical dynasties based on the principle of legitimism (recognition of the legitimacy of maintaining their power), the fight against revolutionary movements in Europe.
At the Congresses of the Union during the years from 1818 to 1822. the suppression of revolutions was authorized in Naples (1820-1821), Piedmont (1821), Spain (1820-1823). However, these actions were aimed at maintaining peace and stability in Europe.
The news of the uprising in St. Petersburg in December 1825 was perceived by the Shah's government as a good moment to unleash hostilities against Russia. On July 16, 1826, the 60,000-strong Iranian army invaded Transcaucasia without declaring war and began a rapid movement towards Tbilisi. But soon she was stopped and began to suffer defeat after defeat. At the end of August 1826, Russian troops under the command of A.P. Yermolov completely cleared Transcaucasia from Iranian troops and military operations were transferred to the territory of Iran.
Nicholas I, not trusting Yermolov (he suspected him of having connections with the Decembrists), transferred the command of the troops of the Caucasus District to I.F. Paskevich. In April 1827, the offensive of Russian troops began in Eastern Armenia. The local Armenian population rose to help the Russian troops. In early July, Nakhchivan fell, and in October 1827, Erivan - the largest fortresses in the center of the Nakhichevan and Erivan khanates. Soon all of Eastern Armenia was liberated by Russian troops. At the end of October 1827, Russian troops occupied Tabriz, the second capital of Iran, and quickly advanced towards Tehran. Panic broke out among the Iranian troops. Under these conditions, the Shah's government was forced to agree to the terms of peace proposed by Russia. On February 10, 1828, the Turkmanchay peace treaty between Russia and Iran was signed. According to the Turkmanchay Treaty, the Nakhichevan and Erivan khanates joined Russia.
In 1828, the Russian-Turkish war began, which was extremely difficult for Russia. The troops, accustomed to parade ground art, technically poorly equipped and led by mediocre generals, initially failed to achieve any significant success. The soldiers were starving, diseases raged among them, from which more people died than from enemy bullets. In the company of 1828, at the cost of considerable efforts and losses, they managed to occupy Wallachia and Moldavia, cross the Danube and take the fortress of Varna.
The campaign of 1829 was more successful. The Russian army crossed the Balkans and at the end of June, after a long siege, captured the strong fortress of Silistria, then Shumla, and in July Burgas and Sozopol. In Transcaucasia, Russian troops besieged the fortresses of Kars, Ardagan, Bayazet and Erzerum. On August 8, Adrianople fell. Nicholas I hurried the commander-in-chief of the Russian army Dibich with the conclusion of peace. On September 2, 1829, a peace treaty was concluded in Adrianople. Russia received the mouth of the Danube, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus from Anapa to the approaches to Batum. After the annexation of Transcaucasia, the Russian government faced the task of ensuring a stable situation in the North Caucasus. Under Alexander I, the general began to advance deep into Chechnya and Dagestan, building military strongholds. The local population was driven to the construction of fortresses, fortified points, the construction of roads and bridges. The result of the policy pursued was the uprisings in Kabarda and Adygea (1821-1826) and Chechnya (1825-1826), which, however, were subsequently suppressed by Yermolov's corps.
An important role in the movement of the mountaineers of the Caucasus was played by Muridism, which became widespread among the Muslim population of the North Caucasus in the late 1920s. 19th century It implied religious fanaticism and an uncompromising struggle against the "infidels", which gave it a nationalistic character. In the North Caucasus, it was directed exclusively against Russians and was most widespread in Dagestan. A peculiar state - Immat - has developed here. In 1834, Shamil became the imam (head of state). Under his leadership, the struggle against the Russians intensified in the North Caucasus. It continued for 30 years. Shamil managed to unite the broad masses of the highlanders, to carry out a number of successful operations against the Russian troops. In 1848 his power was declared hereditary. It was the time of Shamil's greatest successes. But in the late 40s - early 50s, the urban population, dissatisfied with the feudal-theocratic order in Shamil's imamate, began to gradually move away from the movement, and Shamil began to fail. The highlanders left Shamil with whole auls and stopped the armed struggle against the Russian troops.
Even Russia's failures in the Crimean War did not ease the situation of Shamil, who tried to actively assist the Turkish army. His raids on Tbilisi failed. The peoples of Kabarda and Ossetia also did not want to join Shamil and oppose Russia. In 1856-1857. Chechnya fell away from Shamil. Uprisings began against Shamil in Avaria and Northern Dagestan. Under the onslaught of the troops, Shamil retreated to Southern Dagestan. On April 1, 1859, the troops of General Evdokimov took Shamil's "capital" - the village of Vedeno and destroyed it. Shamil with 400 murids took refuge in the village of Gunib, where on August 26, 1859, after a long and stubborn resistance, he surrendered. The Imamat ceased to exist. In 1863-1864 Russian troops occupied the entire territory along the northern slope Caucasian ridge and crushed the resistance of the Circassians. The Caucasian war is over.
For the European absolutist states, the problem of combating the revolutionary danger was dominant in their foreign policy, it was connected with the main task of their domestic policy - the preservation of the feudal-serf order.
In 1830-1831. a revolutionary crisis arose in Europe. On July 28, 1830, a revolution broke out in France, overthrowing the Bourbon dynasty. Having learned about it, Nicholas I began to prepare the intervention of European monarchs. However, the delegations sent by Nicholas I to Austria and Germany returned with nothing. The monarchs did not dare to accept the proposals, believing that this intervention could result in serious social upheavals in their countries. European monarchs recognized the new French king, Louis Philippe of Orleans, as well as later Nicholas I. In August 1830, a revolution broke out in Belgium, which declared itself an independent kingdom (previously Belgium was part of the Netherlands).
Under the influence of these revolutions, in November 1830, an uprising broke out in Poland, caused by the desire to return the independence of the borders of 1792. Prince Konstantin managed to escape. A provisional government of 7 people was formed. The Polish Sejm, which met on January 13, 1831, proclaimed the “detronization” (deprivation of the Polish throne) of Nicholas I and the independence of Poland. Against the 50,000 rebel army, a 120,000 army was sent under the command of I. I. Dibich, who on February 13 inflicted a major defeat on the Poles near Grokhov. On August 27, after a powerful artillery cannonade, the assault on the suburbs of Warsaw - Prague began. The next day, Warsaw fell, the uprising was crushed. The constitution of 1815 was annulled. According to the Limited Statute published on February 14, 1832, the Kingdom of Poland was declared an integral part of the Russian Empire. The administration of Poland was entrusted to the Administrative Council, headed by the emperor's viceroy in Poland, I.F. Paskevich.
In the spring of 1848 a wave of bourgeois-democratic revolutions engulfed Germany, Austria, Italy, Wallachia and Moldavia. At the beginning of 1849 a revolution broke out in Hungary. Nicholas I took advantage of the request of the Austrian Habsburgs for help in suppressing the Hungarian revolution. At the beginning of May 1849, 150 thousand army of I.F. Paskevich was sent to Hungary. A significant preponderance of forces allowed the Russian and Austrian troops to suppress the Hungarian revolution.
Especially acute for Russia was the question of the regime of the Black Sea straits. In the 30-40s. 19th century Russian diplomacy waged a tense struggle for the most favorable conditions in resolving this issue. In 1833, the Unkar-Iskelesi Treaty was concluded between Turkey and Russia for a period of 8 years. Under this treaty, Russia received the right to free passage of its warships through the straits. In the 1940s, the situation changed. On the basis of a number of agreements with European states, the straits were closed to all military fleets. This had a severe effect on the Russian fleet. He was locked in the Black Sea. Russia, relying on its military might, sought to re-solve the problem of the straits and strengthen its position in the Middle East and the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire wanted to return the territories lost as a result of the Russian-Turkish wars at the end of the 18th - the first half of the 19th century.
Britain and France hoped to crush Russia as a great power and deprive her of influence in the Middle East and the Balkan Peninsula. In turn, Nicholas I sought to use the conflict that had arisen for a decisive offensive against the Ottoman Empire, believing that he would have to wage war with one weakened empire, he hoped to agree with England on the division, in his words: "the legacy of a sick person." He counted on the isolation of France, as well as on the support of Austria for the "service" rendered to her in suppressing the revolution in Hungary. His calculations were wrong. England did not go along with his proposal to divide the Ottoman Empire. Nicholas I's calculation that France did not have sufficient military forces to pursue an aggressive policy in Europe was also erroneous.
In 1850, a pan-European conflict began in the Middle East, when disputes broke out between the Orthodox and Catholic churches about which of the churches had the right to own the keys to the Bethlehem temple, to possess other religious monuments in Jerusalem. The Orthodox Church was supported by Russia, and the Catholic Church by France. The Ottoman Empire, which included Palestine, sided with France. This caused sharp discontent in Russia and Nicholas I. A special representative of the tsar, Prince A. S. Menshikov, was sent to Constantinople. He was instructed to obtain privileges for the Russian Orthodox Church in Palestine and the right to patronize the Orthodox, subjects of Turkey. However, his ultimatum was rejected.
Thus, the dispute over the Holy Places served as a pretext for the Russian-Turkish, and later the all-European war. To put pressure on Turkey in 1853, Russian troops occupied the Danubian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. In response, the Turkish Sultan in October 1853, supported by England and France, declared war on Russia. Nicholas I published the Manifesto on the war with the Ottoman Empire. Military operations were deployed on the Danube and in Transcaucasia. On November 18, 1853, Admiral P.S. Nakhimov, at the head of a squadron of six battleships and two frigates, defeated the Turkish fleet in the Sinop Bay and destroyed the coastal fortifications. The brilliant victory of the Russian fleet at Sinop was the reason for the direct intervention of England and France in the military conflict between Russia and Turkey, which was on the verge of defeat. In January 1854, a 70,000 Anglo-French army was concentrated in Varna. At the beginning of March 1854, England and France presented Russia with an ultimatum to clear the Danube principalities, and, having received no answer, declared war on Russia. Austria, for its part, signed with the Ottoman Empire on the occupation of the Danubian principalities and moved an army of 300,000 to their borders, threatening Russia with war. The demand of Austria was supported by Prussia. At first, Nicholas I refused, but the commander-in-chief of the Danube Front, I.F. Paskevich, persuaded him to withdraw troops from the Danubian principalities, which were soon occupied by Austrian troops.
The main goal of the combined Anglo-French command was the capture of the Crimea and Sevastopol, the Russian naval base. On September 2, 1854, the allied troops began landing on the Crimean peninsula near Evpatoria, consisting of 360 ships and 62,000 troops. Admiral P.S. Nakhimov ordered the sinking of the entire sailing fleet in the Sevastopol Bay in order to interfere with the Allied ships. 52 thousand Russian troops, of which 33 thousand with 96 guns from Prince A. S. Menshikov, were located on the entire Crimean peninsula. Under his leadership, the battle on the river. Alma in September 1854, the Russian troops lost. By order of Menshikov, they passed through Sevastopol, and retreated to Bakhchisarai. On September 13, 1854, the siege of Sevastopol began, which lasted 11 months.
The defense was headed by the chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral V. A. Kornilov, and after his death, at the very beginning of the siege, by P. S. Nakhimov, who was mortally wounded on June 28, 1855. Inkerman (November 1854), attack on Evpatoria (February 1855), battle on the Black River (August 1855). These military actions did not help the Sevastopol residents. In August 1855, the last assault on Sevastopol began. After the fall of the Malakhov Kurgan, it was hopeless to continue the defense. In the Caucasian theater, hostilities developed more successfully for Russia. After the defeat of Turkey in Transcaucasia, Russian troops began to operate on its territory. In November 1855, the Turkish fortress of Kars fell. The conduct of hostilities was stopped. Negotiations began.
On March 18, 1856, the Paris peace treaty was signed, according to which the Black Sea was declared neutral. Only the southern part of Bessarabia was torn away from Russia, however, she lost the right to protect the Danubian principalities in Serbia. With the "neutralization" of France, Russia was forbidden to have naval forces, arsenals and fortresses on the Black Sea. This dealt a blow to the security of the southern borders. The defeat in the Crimean War had a significant impact on the alignment of international forces and on the internal situation of Russia. The defeat summed up the sad end of Nicholas' rule, stirred up the public masses and forced the government to work hard on reforming the state.
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.
Person. And in the Far East, the development of which was just beginning, deserted lands stretched.
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 large practical landowners, natural scientists, involved them in solving economic problems, announcing competitive tasks (preparation of beets, development of tobacco growing in Ukraine, improvement of 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 terms - in the overwhelming 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 Kaluga province) and etc.
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 by the 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; foreign trade is becoming more and more active. The serf economy, being drawn into market relations, is changing. As long as it was of a natural nature, the needs of the landlords 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 at the expense of crafts, otkhodnichestvo - work in factories, manufactories, in various fields 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. the traditional system of the 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.
Estate system. In the era of the reign of Alexander I, the nobles had rights and privileges that were legally fixed under Catherine II in the “Charter to the Nobility” of 1785. (Its full name is "The Charter for the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble Russian nobility.")
The noble estate was free from military service, from state taxes. Nobles could not be subjected to corporal punishment. Only a court of nobility could judge them. The nobles received the preferential right to own land and serfs. They owned the wealth of the subsoil in their estates. They had the right to engage in trade, open factories and plants. Their estates were not subject to confiscation.
The nobility united in societies, the affairs of which were in charge of the noble assembly, which elected district and provincial marshals of the nobility.
All other estates did not have such rights.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the population in the empire reached almost 44 million people. The peasantry made up more than 80% of the total population, 15 million peasants were serfs.
Serfdom was preserved in its unchanged form. Only about 0.5% of the peasantry was freed from serfdom by the decree on free cultivators (1803).
The rest of the peasants were considered state-owned, that is, they belonged to the state. In the north of Russia and in Siberia, they made up the bulk of the population. A variety of the peasantry was the Cossacks, settled mainly in the Don, Kuban, in the lower reaches of the Volga, in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Far East.
Alexander I abandoned the practice that was widespread under his father and grandmother. He stopped distributing state peasants as a reward or a gift to his associates.
At the beginning of the 19th century, less than 7% of the population of the Russian Empire lived in cities. The largest of them was St. Petersburg, whose population in 1811 was 335 thousand people. The population of Moscow was 270 thousand people.
Cities remained the main points of trade and industry. Trade was concentrated in the hands of the merchant class, divided into three guilds. The most significant business was conducted by merchants of the first guild. They were both subjects of the Russian Empire and foreigners.
Economic development. Fairs were major centers of trade operations, the most important of which, Makarievskaya, was located near the Makariev Monastery near Nizhny Novgorod.
Favorable geographical position, convenient communication routes attracted here every year a large number of merchants from all parts of Russia and from abroad. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were more than three thousand state and private shops and warehouses at the Makariev Fair.
In 1816, the auction was moved to Nizhny Novgorod. Until 1917, the Nizhny Novgorod fair remained the largest in Russia. It determined trading prices for the whole year ahead.
At the beginning of the 19th century, more than 60% of the serfs paid the master a quitrent in cash. The quitrent system contributed to the spread of crafts. After the completion of agricultural work, the peasants either went to work in the cities, or artisans at home.
Territorial specialization in the production of industrial goods gradually took shape. In one place, yarn was produced, in another - wooden or earthenware, in a third - fur products, in a fourth - wheels. Particularly enterprising and capable managed to pay off the master, get out of serfdom, get free. Families of handicraftsmen and artisans gave rise to many large entrepreneurs - the founders and owners of well-known Russian factory and factory firms.
The needs of economic development led to the expansion of the industrial sector of the economy. Although the preservation of serfdom and strict administrative control over public pursuits held back private initiative, the number of manufactories, factories and plants multiplied. Large landowners created workshops and enterprises for processing agricultural products and mining on their estates. For the most part, these were small establishments where serfs worked.
Sculpture "Water-carrier"
The largest industrial enterprises belonged to the state (treasury). Either state peasants (assigned) or civilian workers worked for them.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the textile industry developed most intensively, primarily cotton production, which produced inexpensive products designed for wide demand. Various mechanisms have been widely used in this industry.
So, in the state-owned Alexander Manufactory located near St. Petersburg, there were three steam engines. Production increased annually by 10-15%. In the 1810s, the manufactory produced more than half of all yarn in Russia. Freelance workers worked there.
In 1801, a foundry and a mechanical plant appeared in St. Petersburg. It was the largest machine-building production in Russia before the 1917 revolution, producing steam boilers and equipment for domestic factories and factories.
Provisions have appeared in Russian legislation that regulate new forms of entrepreneurial activity. On January 1, 1807, the tsar's manifesto "On new benefits granted to the merchants, differences, advantages and new ways to spread and strengthen commercial enterprises" was published.
It made it possible to establish companies and firms on the basis of the merger of the capitals of individuals. These companies could arise only with the permission of the supreme power (all charters of joint-stock companies were necessarily approved by the king). Their participants could now not acquire merchant certificates, not "be assigned to the guild."
In 1807, there were 5 joint-stock companies in Russia. The first, the Diving Company, specialized in the transportation of passengers and cargo across the Gulf of Finland.
In the first quarter of the 19th century, 17 more companies engaged in trade, insurance, and transportation began to operate. The joint-stock form of capital organization and entrepreneurial activity was very promising, allowing to collect a significant total capital. Later, with the development of industry and trade, the joint-stock company became the most important element of the Russian economy. A few decades later, the number of operating companies was already measured in the hundreds.
Questions and tasks
- The nobility was called the noble class. Explain why. By whom and when were the class rights and privileges of the nobles confirmed? What were they?
- What new things did the decree on free cultivators introduce into the life of Russia?
- Analyze the following facts:
- in the southern steppes and in the Volga region, regions were formed for the production of marketable bread;
- the use of machines in landowners' farms began;
- in 1818, Alexander I adopted a decree allowing all peasants, including serfs, to establish factories and factories;
- in 1815 steamboats appeared in Russia.
Draw all possible conclusions.
- What new forms of entrepreneurship appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century?
- What is a territorial specialization? How did its appearance testify to the development of the economy?
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 basically 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 interethnic conflicts and a high level of distrust of Russia on the part of the 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 Bucharest in 1812, Russia received Bessarabia, and the Turkish Janissaries stopped systematically destroying 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 numbers and weapons, which relied on the combined military-industrial complex almost all European powers, the Russian army went to the liberation of 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 were 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, incited by England, sends troops across the Russian border to Karabakh and the Talysh Khanate without declaring war. 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 a good deed performed and thank you very much from the Greeks. However, with a victorious triumph, diplomats allowed a very serious mistake which will come around again and again 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 of the Caucasian War, part of the Circassians and Abazins 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 the disproportionate use of military force by Russia still, admittedly, took place.
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 the territory of Hungary 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 addressed to the emperor to the Governor-General Komarov to accept 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 dominion 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 easterly 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 an 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: Minister of Foreign Affairs 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 whom 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. Largely due to this, the North Caucasus today 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 the halo of influence of Western civilization, strives to become “its own” for it, but receives even more cruel lessons of European hypocrisy than before.
