4.32 Europe: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 27/27)

Some of the reforms which had been attempted by Czar Alexander I were actually accomplished by Alexander II as he emancipated the serfs and established councils for local self-government in the years after 1855. He refused a national constitution, however, and retained absolute rule, so that while the serfs were freed from the authority of the gentry, that authority was simply transferred to the local commune or "mir", which in turn distributed the land and levied taxes. The Act of Emancipation also divided the nation into two great classes: (1) gentry and urban classes, and (2) peasantry. In 1864 there was decreed a Local Government Law or "Zemstvo" under which each province and each country was authorized to elect its own assembly. This promoted better education and public health and through other provisions there was established trial by jury with an ordinary system of defense and prosecution. Still, many revolutionary ideas developed in many groups and many sectors in the 1860s and between then and the end of the century over 500,000 people emigrated to Siberia. The Nenets, living along the tree-line and north of the Arctic circle were under the czar's jurisdiction and in 1870 he moved many of them to Novaya Zemlya to end Norway's claim to that island. (Ref. 288 ) Anti-semitism was stronger in Russia than in Germany. Baltic Germans were responsible for much of this in the Nazi party of the 20th century. (Ref. 213 )

Chernyshevsky preached materialism and intellectualism, stating that man's creative thinking was superior to any spiritual power from above. He was also a socialist. Pisarev wrote about nihilism, with an intellectual attitude of extreme individualism. Karakozov promoted the philosophy of terror and prophesised that all of Europe, including Russia, would soon be in the flames of revolution. He was executed in 1866. Nechaev formed a society called "The Peoples' Justice" and sowed the seeds of anarchism. In P. Tkachev one finds the forerunner of Bolshevism with such statements as: "The Russian Revolution, like any other revolution cannot escape hanging and shooting gendarmes, public prosecutors, ministers, merchants and priests."

In 1877 Russia again tried to intervene in the Balkan revolutions, but once more backed down as the great powers of Western Europe complained and in the resulting Congress of Berlin of 1878 all non-independent areas in the Balkans were given either to Austria or back to Turkey. After an attempt on the life of Czar Alexander II in 1880, Loris Melikov was appointed virtual dictator to combat revolution and develop means of stopping revolts. A type of constitution was devised, but before it became effective Alexander was killed by a terrorist bomb.

Alexander III began his reign as czar in 1881 and died in 1894, but lived long enough to resume some diplomatic relations with Europe, while economic and social problems increased at home. Matters were not helped by a famine in 1891. Nevertheless, there was continued relentless expansion into central Asia, with the British becoming alarmed regarding their claims in India. A great industrial region developed where the Don River empties into the Sea of Azov around the Donets coalfield. A railroad connecting that area to the iron-ore fields of Drivoy Rog to the west helped industrialization. As in the United States, the railroads were fundamental in creating a modern nation. (Ref. 135 )

After 1870 the steel industry grew 500 times faster than in any other country. Swedish entrepreneurs found oil near the Caspian Sea about 1860 and by 1900 some 10 million tons of oil a year were produced, about half of that of the world. Although carried out by foreigners, such industrialization was inspired by the state. Marx, who knew little about Russia, did not realize that the chief political problem was one of nationalities. Russia, in 1900, had 120,000,000 people dominated by 56,000,000 Greater Russians, with 22,000,000 Ukrainians and then varying numbers of White Russians, Poles, Jews, Tartars, Lithuanians, Letts, Germans, Armenians, Estonians, Finns, Bashkins, Georgians and Circassians. (Ref. 213 )

Russian literature was dominated by Alexander Pushkin and Fedor Dostoevsky, who anticipated much of the 20th century. Russian scientists excelled in many fields. In mathematics Lobachevsky developed a non-Euclidean geometry and Sophia Kovalevskava did much work with calculus, although she was foreign educated and did much of her work in Sweden. In biology I.I. Mechnikov was a co-worker of Pasteur and Kovalevsky founded comparative embryology and experimental histology. In chemistry D.I. Mendeleyev became world famous for his Periodic Table of the Elements. Physiologists included the well known Ivan Pavlov, who worked with digestive glands and conditioned reflexes and Timiryazev, who found the role and significance of chlorophyll. A.S. Popov was a pioneer in electromagnetic waves and predicted the development of radio. Tsiolkovsky, who was the father of jet-propulsion and cosmic rocketry did his work at the end of this century, although it was not published until early in the 20th. After 1864 local governmental organizations, the "Zemstrovs" were responsible for medical service to the poor and mentally ill, acting through the "feldshav", a combined male nurse and pharmacist. Regular physicians were trained in the large universities. (Ref. 135 , 8 , 125 , 55 )