The
Romanov Dynasty had ruled Russia since
1613. Michael Romanov took the title 'Emperor and Autocrat of all
Russia'. The Emperor of Russia became known as the Tsar (Czar) and
imposed autocratic rule - government by one man. Unlike in other European
countries, the Tsars of Russia did not take advice from an elected
parliament. The country was run by a ten man ministerial council.
Each minister was both appointed and dismissed by the Tsar.
The Tsar
also appointed the Chief Procurator of the Russian
Orthodox Church. In fact, since 1721, the Orthodox Church had
been run as a government department.
The Tsar
also had the power to grant hereditary titles. These usually went
to men who had achieved high rank in the armed forces and the civil
service. It 1900 it was estimated that there were about 1.8 million
members of the nobility in Russia.
Alexander
II became the sixteenth Romanov tsar in 1855. He attempted to
bring in some political reforms. This included permitting each district
to set up a Zemstvo. These were local
councils with powers to provide roads, schools and medical services.
However, the right to elect members was restricted to the wealthy.
Reformers
in Russia wanted the same democratic rights as those enjoyed in other
European countries. In
1876
a group of reformers established Land and Liberty.
As it was illegal to criticize the Russian government, the group had
to hold its meetings in secret.
In October,
1879, a new group, the People's Will was formed.
Soon afterwards the group decided to assassinate Alexander
II. They made several failed attempts on his life but were successful
at killing several of his senior officials.
In January,
1880, the People's Will contacted the Russian
government and claimed they would call off the terror campaign if
the Russian people were granted a constitution that provided free
elections and an end to censorship. On 25th February, 1880, Alexander
II announced that he was considering granting the Russian people
a constitution.
A year
later Alexander II had still not published
details of his reforms. The People's Will
therefore decided to carry out their threat and the Tsar was assassinated
by Ignatei Grinevitski on 1st March,
1881.
Alexander
III now became the seventeenth Romanov tsar. He immediately cancelled
his father's plans to introduce a representative assembly and announced
he had no intention of limiting his autocratic power.
During
his reign Alexander followed a repressive policy against those seeking
political reform and persecuted other Jews and others who were not
members of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Alexander also pursued a policy of Russification of national minorities.
This included imposing the Russian language and Russian schools on
the German, Polish and Finnish peoples living in the Russian Empire.
Despite
several assassination attempts Alexander died a natural death on 20th
October, 1894. He was succeeded by his son Nicholas
II who attempted
to continue his father's policy of suppressing those advocating political
reform.
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