Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was an empire that stretched across northern Eurasia from 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in 1917. It was the final era of Tsarist Russia and the wider Russian monarchy. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about 22,800,000 km² (8,800,000 sq mi), roughly one-sixth of the world's land, making it the third-largest empire in history, behind only the British and Mongol empires.

Before the empire began, Russia was ruled by the wealthy boyar nobles under the authority of the grand prince and later an all-powerful tsar. Ivan III (r. 1462–1505) laid the groundwork for the empire. He greatly expanded his lands, built a centralized Russian national state, and won independence from the Great Horde. His grandson, Ivan IV (r. 1533–1584), became the first Russian ruler to be crowned as tsar in 1547. Between 1550 and 1700, the Russian state grew by an average of 35,000 km² (14,000 sq mi) each year. Peter the Great turned the tsardom into an empire and fought wars that made Russia a major European power. He moved the capital from Moscow to the new model city of Saint Petersburg and led a cultural revolution that introduced a modern, scientific, and Western-oriented way of life. Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796) continued this modernization and presided over further expansion through conquest, colonization, and diplomacy.

Alexander I (r. 1801–1825) helped defeat the military ambitions of Napoleon and set up the Holy Alliance, which aimed to hold back the spread of secularism and liberalism across Europe. Russia expanded to the west, south, and east, becoming stronger as a European power. Its victories in the Russo-Turkish wars were stopped by defeat in the Crimean War (1853–1856), which led to a period of reform and conquests in Central Asia instead. Alexander II (r. 1855–1881) started major reforms, most notably the 1861 emancipation of all 23 million serfs. This period also saw major developments in literature, music, and the sciences.

By the start of the 19th century, Russian land stretched from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea in the south, and from the Baltic Sea in the west to Alaska in the east. Russia colonized Alaska between 1799 and 1867 and briefly kept outposts in California in the early to mid 19th century. The empire also expanded its control over the Caucasus, most of Central Asia, and parts of Northeast Asia. By the 1897 Russian census, the population had reached 126 million, with great ethnic, linguistic, and economic diversity. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the empire saw industrial growth and railway building, though the country remained mostly farmland. Severe famines, along with resistance to political reform, led to growing unrest and the rise of revolutionary movements. After the 1905 Revolution, Nicholas II (r. 1894–1917) allowed the creation of a national parliament, the State Duma, though he kept ultimate power.

Russia entered the First World War in 1914 on the side of the Allies, also known as the Entente. High losses, military defeats, and serious food and fuel shortages in the cities caused widespread anger toward the monarchy. In 1917, mass unrest in Petrograd and army mutinies led to the February Revolution. This resulted in Nicholas II's abdication, the creation of the Russian Provisional Government, and the proclamation of the Russian Republic. Political instability, the continuing unpopular war, and economic disruption led to mass demonstrations against the government in July. The republic was overthrown in the October Revolution by the Bolsheviks, who proclaimed the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and signed a treaty that ended Russia's part in the war. They were nevertheless opposed by various groups known collectively as the Whites. After winning the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks established the Soviet Union across most of the Russian lands. Russia was one of four continental European empires to collapse as a result of World War I, along with Germany, Austria–Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.

History

Main article: History of Russia

See also: Territorial evolution of Russia

From the 1000s to the 1600s, Russian lands were ruled by a noble class called the boyars, who were under a grand prince and later a tsar, an absolute monarch. Under Peter I, Russia changed its government and society and won the Great Northern War, which gave it a stronger place in the world and access to the Baltic Sea. In 1721, Peter took the title of imperator, which is seen as the start of "imperial" Russia. Peter also built a new capital, Saint Petersburg, and brought many European ideas into Russia. Later rulers expanded the empire, but serfs, who were tied to the land, remained poor and had few rights. Russia fought many wars, including a war against Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812. It also lost the Crimean War in the 1850s, which showed that Russia had fallen behind Western countries.

In 1861, Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs in the Emancipation Reform of 1861, which was one of the most important events in Russian history. However, the freed peasants often received poor land and had to pay the government. Discontent grew, and Alexander II was killed in 1881. His successor, Nicholas II, ruled during a time of unrest. Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and a protest in 1905 in which soldiers fired on a crowd, killing hundreds, led to the creation of an elected parliament called the State Duma. During World War I, Russia suffered many losses and food shortages grew. In 1917, protests in Petrograd led Nicholas to give up the throne, and the empire came to an end.

Territory

By the end of the 1800s, the empire covered about 22,800,000 square kilometers (8,800,000 sq mi), or almost one-sixth of the Earth's land. Only the British Empire was bigger at that time. Most people lived in European Russia, and more than 100 ethnic groups lived in the empire. Ethnic Russians made up about 45% of the population. European Russia was bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Ural Mountains to the east, the Black Sea and Caucasus Mountains to the south, and the Danube to the west. The capital was built at the mouth of the Neva river. The empire had few free outlets to the open sea.

Main article: Geography of Russia

From 1860 to 1905, the empire covered most of today's Russia, except Kaliningrad Oblast, the Kuril Islands, and Tuva. In 1905 Russia lost southern Sakhalin to Japan, but gained Tuva as a protectorate in 1914. The empire also included parts of Dnieper Ukraine, Belarus, Bessarabia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russian Turkestan, and a significant part of Poland. Between 1799 and 1867, the Russian-American Company administered Alaska as a colony. Because Alaska was separated from the rest of the empire, the Russian Empire was otherwise a connected mass of land across Europe and Asia. The empire remained largely together until the Soviet Union and, after 1991, the Russian Federation.

See also: Russian colonization of North America and First Russian circumnavigation

Government and administration

The Russian Empire was led by an emperor, also called the tsar, who ruled as an absolute monarch from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Russian Constitution of 1906 was an important step toward constitutionalism. The emperor kept the title of autocrat, but laws now needed the approval of an elected parliament. The system is best described as a semi-constitutional monarchy. The emperor still had the final say, including an absolute veto over laws and control of foreign affairs. Most Russian leaders supported conservative ideas, and Alexander Herzen warned of a Russia governed by "Genghis Khan with a telegraph."

Peter the Great changed his title from tsar to emperor, but people still commonly called the ruler the tsar. On 17 October 1905, the emperor agreed that no law could pass without the consent of the Imperial Duma, though he kept the right to close it. Parliament included an upper house, the State Council, and a lower house, the State Duma, which had 442 members. The government had a Council of Ministers, created in 1905, and the Most Holy Synod led the Russian Orthodox Church. The Governing Senate handled the highest courts and new laws. As of 1914, Russia was divided into 81 governorates, 20 oblasts, and 1 okrug, and it was a unitary state.

Main article: Emperor of Russia

See also: Tsarist autocracy

Main article: Judicial system of the Russian Empire

The judicial system of the Russian Empire was set up by the statute of 20 November 1864 under Alexander II. It was based partly on English and French law. It aimed to keep courts separate from the government, to make judges and courts independent, to hold public trials, and to treat all social classes equally before the law. It also added a democratic element through the jury system and the election of judges. The bureaucracy disliked this system because it took the running of justice out of the government's hands. Later, under the end of Alexander II's reign and under Alexander III, judges' independence was gradually reduced. The Third Duma reversed several of these limits after the 1905 Revolution.

The 1864 law created two completely separate tribunals. Each had its own courts of appeal, and they met only in the Senate, which acted as the supreme court for checking decisions. The first tribunal, based on the English model, was made up of elected justices of the peace, who handled smaller cases, both civil and criminal. The second, based on the French model, was made up of regular judges who were appointed rather than elected. They heard important cases, with or without a jury.

Local administration

Alongside the local offices of the central government in Russia, three kinds of elected local bodies handled administration:

• the peasant assemblies in the mirs and the volosts;
• the zemstvos in the 34 governorates of Russia;
• the municipal dumas.

Municipal dumas

Since 1870, towns in European Russia had institutions similar to the zemstvos. People were listed by how much property and wealth they had, and the total was divided into three equal parts. Each part chose the same number of representatives to the municipal duma, even though the groups were very unequal in size. An elected mayor and a board called an uprava, chosen by the duma, ran the town. Under Alexander III, new bylaws in 1892 and 1894 placed the dumas under the governors, just as the zemstvos were. In 1894, some towns in Siberia received local institutions with fewer powers, and in 1895 some towns in the Caucasus did too.

Baltic provinces

Main article: Baltic Governorates

The Baltic provinces of Livonia and Estonia, along with the Duchy of Courland, had once been controlled by Sweden. They became part of the empire after the Great Northern War and the Third Partition of Poland. Under the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, the Baltic German nobility kept wide self-government, freedom to practise Lutheranism, and German as the language of administration. In the late 1880s, the government moved judicial and police work from local Baltic German manor courts to central officials. It also required the Russian language in provincial offices, secondary schools, and the Imperial University of Dorpat, which was renamed Iuryev in 1893, as part of Russification.

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Russian Empire

Before serfdom ended in 1861, Russia's economy mainly relied on farming. By the census of 1897, 95% of Russians lived in the countryside. Nicholas I tried to modernize the country and make it less dependent on one economic sector. Under Alexander III, the Peasants' Land Bank was set up in 1883 to lend money to peasants, the Nobles' Land Bank began lending to landowning nobles in 1885, and the poll tax was ended in 1886. Later, Sergei Witte raised money through a monopoly on alcohol, and an income tax was introduced in 1916.

Agriculture

Main article: Agriculture in the Russian Empire

Most farming land was made up of large estates worked by serfs, who owed two main duties: barshchina (compulsory labor) and obrok (payments in cash or goods, which let peasants take outside work). The legal basis of serfdom was set in the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 under Tsar Alexis. From 1891 to 1892, the new policies of Ivan Vyshnegradsky brought a Russian famine of 1891–1892 and disease, which killed about four hundred thousand people, especially in the Volga region. This caused the greatest drop in grain production.

Mining and heavy industry

Main article: Industrialization in the Russian Empire

Infrastructure

After 1860, the growth of Russia's railways had far-reaching effects on the economy, culture, and everyday life. The central government and the imperial elite made most of the key decisions, but local leaders also demanded rail links. Local nobles, merchants, and business owners hoped to promote their regional interests, often competing with other cities. By picturing their own role in a rail network, they came to understand how important they were to the empire's economy.

During the 1880s, the Russian army built two major rail lines in Central Asia. The Transcaucasus Railway connected the city of Batum on the Black Sea and the oil center of Baku on the Caspian Sea. The Trans-Caspian Railway began at Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea and reached Bukhara, Samarkand, and Tashkent. Both lines served the empire's trade and strategic needs and made migration easier.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Tsarist Russia

See also: Christianity in Russia, Islam in Russia, Catholic Church in Russia, Buddhism in Russia, and History of the Jews in Russia

The Russian Empire's state religion was Orthodox Christianity. The emperor was not allowed to follow any other faith, according to the 1906 Fundamental Laws, and he was seen as the protector of the Orthodox faith. He chose the church's senior leaders but did not decide questions of church teaching. The main church body was the Most Holy Synod, which was led by a civilian Over Procurator. The Russian Church covered the whole empire, including the former Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. Its top leaders were three metropolitans, fourteen archbishops, and fifty bishops, all from the monastic clergy. Other faiths were officially banned from proselytizing, or trying to win new followers. Over time, the tsarist government tried to organize the empire's faiths from above, a policy called confessionalization and the "confessional state." It set up leadership groups for Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Lutheranism. For Roman Catholicism, it banned and declared bishoprics.

After Catherine II annexed eastern Poland in the Polish Partitions, Jews were limited to the Pale of Settlement, an area where they were allowed to live. Emperor Nicholas I wanted Jews to give up their faith, and from 1827 Jewish children were taken as Cantonists into military schools to be pushed toward Christianity. Emperor Alexander II eased this harsh treatment, but Emperor Alexander III brought back oppression, including the May Laws. Jews were expelled from Kiev in 1886 and Moscow in 1891. This anti-Jewish policy of the Russian Empire led to large-scale emigration. Islam had a "sheltered but precarious" place in the empire. Early on, forced conversions and mosque demolitions took place, and Catherine II gave Islam legal status and set up the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly. In the 19th century, restrictions grew harsher. During the conquest of Circassia, around 1 to 1.5 million Circassians, almost half the population, were killed or forced out, in what is known as the Circassian genocide. Today, most Circassians live in diaspora communities. Many Crimean Tatars had to move to the Ottoman Empire after the Russian defeat in the Crimean War. Islam was tied to the Official Nationality ideas of the regime, which required Russian Orthodoxy, and the Orenburg Assembly was given a lower status.

Other Christians were also present. Lutherans were tolerated, with Volga Germans invited to settle and Baltic German nobility living in the empire. The Jesuit suppression was not carried out under Catherine II, so Jesuits survived in the empire. Roman Catholics were strictly controlled and distrusted as part of Polish nationalism, especially after the January Uprising. After this, Russification increased, and Orthodox churches such as the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Warsaw were built in Congress Poland, though no forced conversion was attempted. The government focused on punishing Orthodox dissenters, such as uniates and sectarians. Old Believers were persecuted heavily, while Spiritual Christians and Molokan were exiled to Transcaucasia and Central Asia, and Doukhobors settled mainly in Canada. In 1905, Nicholas II issued a toleration edict that gave legal status to non-Orthodox religions. Some historians believe Nicholas II quietly approved of the antisemitic pogroms that followed reactionary riots. Edward Radzinsky suggested that many pogroms were encouraged by authorities and supported by the Tsarist secret police, the Okhrana, though some happened on their own. Radzinsky also noted that Sergei Witte, appointed Prime Minister in 1905, wrote that some proclamations inciting pogroms were printed and handed out by imperial Police.

Main article: Antisemitism in the Russian Empire

Further information: Persecution of Muslims § Russian Empire

Demography

According to figures published in 1905, based on the Russian Empire census of 1897, people from the different religious communities in the empire numbered about as follows.

Turkestan was another name for Russian Central Asia. In the 1897 census, its five regions had 5,260,300 people, and 13.9 percent of them lived in towns. The largest towns were Tashkent (156,400), Kokand (82,100), Namangan (61,900), and Samarkand (54,900). By 1911, 17 percent of the people in Semireche were Russians, and half of its town residents were Russians. Four-fifths of these Russians were farming settlers. In the other four regions that year, Russians made up only 4 percent of the population. Most of them lived in European-style settlements next to the local neighbourhoods in the major towns.

Military

Main article: Military history of the Russian Empire

See also: Russo-Swedish Wars, Russo-Turkish Wars, Russo-Persian Wars, Russo-Polish Wars, Russo-Japanese War, and Russo-Circassian War

The armed forces consisted of the Imperial Russian Army and the Imperial Russian Navy. The emperor was commander-in-chief and carried out military policy through the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy. This structure developed in the 1860s after the Crimean War. After the Russo-Japanese War, a Naval General Staff was added to plan operations. Earlier, Peter the Great built a standing army and navy for the Great Northern War against Sweden. He set up the College of War and the Admiralty in 1718. Foreign experts helped at first, but Russian officers increasingly replaced them.

Most soldiers and sailors were peasants, although the navy later preferred urban workers for technical jobs. Both forces lacked non-commissioned officers. Most officers were nobles, but by the 1890s non-nobles made up almost half of the officer corps. Army officers came from the Page Corps, the cadet corps, and junker schools, while naval officers came from the Naval Cadet Corps. Russia had over one million troops in peacetime and was the largest army in Europe when World War I began. Its army was less skilled than the German Army, but it performed credibly against the Austro-Hungarian Army and the Ottoman Army. The Baltic Fleet stayed on the defensive against the German High Seas Fleet, while the Black Sea Fleet raided Ottoman merchant ships.

Society

See also: Culture of Russia, Russian literature, Russian opera, Technology in the Russian Empire, and Cinema of the Russian Empire

Main article: Social estates in the Russian Empire

Main articles: Serfdom in Russia and Emancipation reform of 1861

Further information: Obshchina and Repartition

Main article: History of journalism § Russia

The Russian Empire was mostly a rural society spread over vast spaces. In 1913, 80% of the people were peasants. Its people were divided into sosloviyes, or social estates, mainly the nobility (dvoryanstvo), clergy, merchants, burghers, cossacks, and peasants. Serfdom had developed in Russia in the 16th century and became part of the law in 1649. It was abolished in 1861. Serfs lived in very hard conditions, often working in the fields for up to six days a week. They were heavily taxed, making them the poorest of all Russians. In 1861, Emperor Alexander II freed 23 million serfs, but many remained poor. Later, the zemstvo system, introduced in 1864, set up elected rural assemblies that ran primary schools, local healthcare, and road repairs. Most peasants lived in small villages, and many moved to cities to work in factories while keeping their village ties. Education was very limited. By 1800, male peasants had literacy rates of only 1 to 12 percent, and few women could read. Literacy slowly improved during the last century of the empire.

Recent research by Russian scholars disputes the older Soviet view that the 19th century was a time of systemic crisis. Boris Mironov argues that the reforms of the late 19th century brought measurable improvements in social welfare, and he finds that the well-being of the Russian people increased slowly from the end of the 18th century to 1914. Many former serf-owners struggled to adapt, and land sales by nobles increased over time. Most peasants had little land and often had to rent it. Newspapers were strictly limited by censorship, and writers such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky criticized the St. Petersburg papers, such as Golos, for focusing on trivial matters. The Ministry of Education was set up in 1802, and by 1825 the empire had six universities, forty-eight secondary state schools, and 337 improved primary schools. Universities such as those in Kazan, Kharkov, St. Petersburg, Vilna, Dorpat, and Imperial Moscow University were the main centers of higher learning, and by 1900 there were 17,000 university students.