Alexander II Managing the Challenge of Modernizing Russia free essay sample

How successful did Alexander II manage the challenge of modernising Russia Since the nineteenth century it has been evident that Russia and much of Eastern Europe has struggled to keep up with the modernising western powers; a problem which has become apparent to Alexander II. They were socially, economically and politically behind in many aspects; industrialising was a huge problem due to problems with serfdom as well as poor infrastructure and transport links which made industrialising uneven across the whole of Russia. Economically, Russia was truggling with problems in agricultural production, expertise in Jobs and basic infrastructure such as transport links. In hindsight, his economical reforms proved to be the most successful. Most successful of his reforms includes the introduction of Reutern. He was extremely successful as he was able to borrow less money from other countries giving more independency; He also allowed infrastructure to improve through the construction of railways across the landscape of Russia. We will write a custom essay sample on Alexander II: Managing the Challenge of Modernizing Russia or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This is extremely significant as it meant more raw materials could be travelled making Russia more conomically stable and less reliable on other countries resources. Moreover, it encouraged more highly skilled and better qualified workers to move to Russia to design and created Jobs for those to build the railway in turn leading to faster industrialising and economic prosperity. Other reforms included a treasury being reformed as well as the abolition of tax farming. Reformation of the government and treasury is important as it meant the government was more efficient with its budgeting and therefore saved money reducing their debt and consequently boosting the Russian economy. However not all of Alexander reforms were successful. Most controversial was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 which has both benefits and drawbacks. It created a more mobile workforce allowing serfs to travel and become better qualified as well as pay taxes so the government had more to spent in other sectors however its drawbacks must be considered; many peasants were unhappy at the newly introduced high levels of tax and poor incomes preventing them from leaving their ex-serf owners household. There were also other issues with Alexander II reforms to modernise Russia. While railways proved to be ighly useful they took long periods of times to build as well as large sums of money to construct them. There were also large amounts of anti-Semitism towards the Jews who were now able to trade creating a largely hostile environment and many sought this to be wrong. Despite this, Alexander II was significantly successful in modernising Russia as he was able to develop a stronger infrastructure with better transport links allowing Russia to make better use of its resources it had as opposed to lending from other countries. He also created many new Jobs in building the railway improving the economy. While the emancipation of the serfs was not his biggest success it was clear it was a huge step towards equality and freedom for the people within Russia. Socially it is evident that Alexander II was largely unsuccessful seen was the military changes he brought about. With the emancipation of the serfs, ex-serfs were no longer to be conscripted into war as had previously done which had created a large but weak army with little or no skills with weapons quickly leading to defeats for Russia. Military changes meant a more concise and better trained army was made which proved to be more effective In its war against turkey. The government also proved education to the military improving literacy rates among the poorer people who could not afford so. However, while a more efficient army with rankings for soldiers to aspire to it had many faults. Despite Russia defeating turkey this took a much longer period of time than had anticipated and the army was evidently still not particularly powerful after its defeats from both Japan and Germany. Little was done to improve the other social areas which so badly needed reform. In regards to Judicial and legal reforms all people were to be treated equally efore the court of law and criminal were to be heard by barrister and a Jury. This created a fairer system with less temptation to Judges being bribed as salaries went up. However there were still a number of problems; open courts to press and news gave revolutionaries chances to spread the words of their causes changing public opinion and encouraging the movement of radicals leading to more splinter groups of the nihilists. Censorship on the press was relaxed allowing many articles to be published without subject to contents checks giving more freedom to the writers owever this was soon revoked in the 1870s with the rapid expansion of critical writers towards the government with many showing discontent towards the tsar. Again, this encouraged radical voices to be heard and the spread of revolutionaries to increase giving way to more political opposition. Educational reform faced the same issues when they relaxed educational laws allowing all to attend some form of education. More radical thinkers expressed their attitude through public speaking and critical writing. Educational reform also showed an explosion in the radical ideas of women as they were allowed to attend education. It is therefore evident to see that Alexander II was largely unable to positively affect people socially due to his half attempts to change without changing the attitudes of the public. Moreover society was still largely unrepresentative as peasants population was disproportionate to the population of Russia. There were still a higher number of nobles representing the local government and the power of the Dumas and zemstrva was limited meaning that the peasants lives were largely unchanged. His inability to stick by his reforms and consequently reverse them the public angrier and more resentful than they had een before. Politically there were a number of challenges that Alexander II faced due to large amounts of opposition. Many were unhappy with reforms and the tsar and so small rebellion groups appeared with the first being known as the nihilists. This was largely made of younger generations many of whom were students who believed the whole governmental body failed and needed to be completely removed. Groups such as the nihilists slowly branched out with people differing in beliefs with some taking a more aggressive approach. Most notable of these groups was the peoples will who ere responsible with the attempted and successful murder of Alexander II which is Alexander II failed to repress the political opposition through the secret police as this led to more aggressive and violent protesters. Moreover trials that came about did little to repress the revolutionaries attempts as some such as the trial of the fifty or one hundred and ninety three allowed most to leave without consequence and very few were convicted and many revolutionaries were able to voice their opinion and spread the word such as Alexander Zheliabov who would also be involved in the ttempted murder of Alexander. It can therefore be said that politically Alexander II failed to modernise Russia as he failed to repress the revolutionaries threat and almost encouraged it with his inability to please the peasants and younger generation. Whilst Alexander II succeeded in his economical reforms to modernise Russia with an improved infrastructure and the introduction of Reutern he essentially failed politically to repress the revolutionaries action and was not hard enough on them allowing them to continue to spread the word but also socially as his nability to stick to his action and eventually reverse them made him look weak and unsettled the Russian population.