Russian Rulers Seminar

Alrighty then!

Aims

• Recap key personality points of leaders.

• Aim to demonstrate similarities and differences and examine impact on their rule.

• Consider changes in circumstance and analyse reactions to challenges.

Alexander II – 1855-81• Tsar after Nic I and

Crimean War.• Emancipation of the Serfs.• Reformed schools and

created Zemstva.• Greater press freedom.• 1866 1st assassination

attempt so ended reform.• Assassinated by People’s

Will in 1881.

Alexander III – 1881-94• “Grim duty” to rule.• Military background, wanted

stability and autocracy.• Increased Russification and

repression.• 1883 Peasant Bank

established and 1886 abolished poll tax.

• 1889 Land Captains kept peasants in line.

• 1891 saw huge famine, slow to act.

• Died at 49 in 1894.

Nicholas II (frankly useless) – 1894-1918

• Very weak and inexperienced. Made many errors

• Announced October Manifesto in 1905 after Russo-Japanese War and the creation of the Duma in 1906. Did not respect these.

• Went into WWI and took charge at the front, disastrous campaign.

• Oversaw huge opposition and was forced to abdicate in 1917.

Write, reduce, create task

Write down as much as you can about the Tsars.

Now reduce that to six key words.

Now re-create using a mime/poem/pose/dance/items on your desk. BE CREATIVE, MAKE IT MEMORABLE.

Provisional Government – March – October 1917

• Temporary government to fill vacuum after Nic II abdicated.

• Led by Alexander Kerensky, PM from July.

• Associated with old regime.

• Survived coup by General Kornilov in August.

• Dominated by Petrograd Soviet and caved in to the Bolsheviks in October.

Lenin – 1917-1924• Brother executed after

assassination attempt.• Spent years in exile.• Led Bolsheviks.• Returned to Russia in 1905

and 1917, but peripheral figure.

• Introduced War Communism and the N.E.P.

• Immobilised by strokes and died in 1924 with no heir apparent.

Stalin – 1928-53• Georgian, spent time in exile, allied

to Lenin.• Appointed General Secretary in

1922.• 1922-27 jostled for power with

other Communist figures.• Expelled rivals in 1927 Party

Congress.• 1928 = 5 Year Plan, 1929 =

collectivisation.• 1936-38 = Great Terror after earlier

thaw.• Began restructuring after WWII,

devised initial strategies of Cold War.

Khrushchev – 1956-64• Ukrainian son of peasants.• First Secretary of Moscow

Party 1935, FS of Ukraine 1938.• Responsible for Stalingrad in

WWII.• 1953-56 jostled for power and

began to dominate.• 1956 began de-stalinisation.• 1957 began decentralisation.• 1961-64 dealt with Cold War

crises.• Removed from power in 1964.

Comparable Comparables

Tsars• Used force to repress, i.e.

Nic II in 1905.

Commissars• Used force to repress, but

to a greater degree, i.e. Stalin’s purges.

To what extent did Stalin have the biggest impact on Russia

between 1850-1964?

Aim to compare leaders and their achievements.

To what extent did Stalin have the biggest impact on Russia between 1850-1964?

• How could you answer this question?

• Create an argument based what we have discussed in terms of leaders.