to what extent was Alexander successful in tackling the problems of the tsarist regime?

To what extent was Alexander successful in tackling the problems of the tsarist regime?
When Alexander III became the tsar, Russia was in a crisis following the assassination of Alexander II. The problems that Tsar was facing were that many different groups wanted to change the political system, as not everyone agreed with the autocracy system of government in Russia. To solve this he had to get rid of all political parties and political opposition. Also he had to get rid of anyone who had or wanted political control. Alexander II’s liberals ministers, M,T. Loris-Melikov and N.P. Lgnatiev left the office, and were replaced with Alexandra III own mistiers, Pobedonostsev, chief procurator of the Holy Synod of the Russia Orthodox Church. Also he had to make sure that all power was given only to the Tsar, so he had to restrict the Zemstvas power, because the Zemstva meant that all power of the tsar was spread out to cities and towns. Furthermore, the organisation, the ‘Peoples Will’ needed to be destroyed as it was a threat to Tsar’s power, so immediately he destroyed the ‘Peoples Will’. He then introduced the Statute of State Security. This allowed the government to arrest and trial any political opponent without a jury. This gave the Tsar complete power. In addition, Russia was a huge multi-racial empire with 55% Russian and the rest Ukrainians, Polish, Jews and more. Because of these races Alexander III wanted to make sure that Russia remained Russian. He did this by a policy of ‘Russification’. This policy made Russian the official language. This meant all documents were in Russia. However this policy affected many people including the Jews. Finally, Russia’s main problem was financially. Russia was physically the largest in size and population, but was almost the most economically underdeveloped. Alexandra III had to increase its economic wealth in order to maintain its armed forces and to maintain its position as a Great Power. He did this by his finance ministers, Nikolia Bunge, Vyshnegradsky and Sergei Witte. Alexander III finance ministers introduced laws which helped peasants with their tax and gave better land to the peasants.
In Russia there were many groups that wanted political reforms. The moderates included liberals that supported peaceful change to get freedom of the press. The extremists, like the ‘Peoples Will’, wanted to only destroy tsar’s rule and give power to the people. However the extremist had no plan on how this could be achieved which made their ideas hard to come to pass. This shows how powerful and strong the Tsar is and how weak the other are. Other groups wanted economic and political power to be handed to the peasants. Also areas like Poland, they wanted to create their own national state. These ideas and beliefs from these different groups would anger Alexandra III, because he wanted only the tsar to gain all the power. This is why he restricted the Zemstvas power as the Zemstvas power meant that all power was to be spread out to towns. Alexander III wanted Russia back to a doctoral style of government, so he knew it was important for these supported political reforms to be repressed.
Firstly Alexandra III had to get rid of anyone who had or wanted political control. Alexander II’s liberals ministers, M,T. Loris-Melikov and N.P. Lgnatiev left the office, and were replaced with Alexandra III own mistiers, Pobedonostsev, chief procurator of the Holy Synod of the Russia Orthodox Church. He was the person who mastermind Alexander’s manifesto. The manifesto decaled that all political power lay in the Tsar which was what the tsar wanted. Pobedonostsev was the kind of person that Alexander wanted, because Pobedonostsev believed that politically and social stability lay in support for autocracy, the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian nationalism.
Furthermore, the organisation, the ‘Peoples Will’ needed to be destroyed as it was a threat to Tsar’s power, so immediately he destroyed the ‘Peoples Will’. He then introduced the Statute of State Security. This set up government-controlled courts. This allowed the government to arrest and trial any political opponent without a jury. This solved the Tsars problem of opponents being a threat to the tsars, because all political opponents were arrested without jury which leaves Russia with no opponents, so all power is laid within the Tsar. He believed that god gave him this role so it’s important to maintain this role. The government also prevented the spread of radical and liberal ideas. Russia slowly seemed to become like a dictatorship as all newspapers and foreign books were censored to stop the dangerous foreign ideas, such as democracy and parliamentary government. This may convey how Russia is becoming a dictatorship and what the Tsar wanted. Alexander III got what he wanted and controlled everything by increasing the university fees, to exclude all but the wealthy. Finally all self governed universities were under government control.
Alexander main focus was to solve the problems of the Tsars regime, however these polices did not destroy the ‘Peoples Will’ and other extremists groups, because they continued to work underground. This shows that these policies were not successful, because the ‘Peoples Will’ and extremists made an attempt to assassinate Alexander III and were brave to continue their beliefs, which could show that Alexander III is not that strong as he makes it out to be and that there is some power within the people. Alexandra III solutions may have worked but not for a long term as ‘Peoples Will’ and extremists still existed to try destroying the Tsars rule.
Russia was a huge multi-racial empire with 55% Russian and the rest Ukrainians, Polish, Jews and more. Because of these races Alexander III wanted to make sure that Russia remained Russian and also to bring unity and cohesion. Alexander III did this by a policy of ‘Russification’. This policy made Russian the official language. This meant all documents were in Russia; furthermore other languages were forbidden in school. These shows how loyal the Tsar is to its own empire and to Russia; however it also could show how mean and cruel the Tsar is to its own people, because this policy affected them badly. This policy did not benefit most parts of Russia as it was mainly European countries. Poland and the Baltic lands of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuanian were affected as there language was not Russia so it made their lives so much harder. In addition this policy affected the Jews the most as they suffered the most under Alexander III. There were organised attacks on the Jews during the regimen of Alexander III. These attacks were known as ‘pogroms’. These attacks were approved or organised by the government, which shows how much power the tsar has and what he can do. These attacks involved rape, rob, kill and mob Jews. This caused Jews to flee to America and to the western countries.
The policy of Russification was successful in tackling the problem of the Tsar as the main language was Russian, which shows and gives total control to the Tsar. Also all languages are forbidden in a school, which insures that Russian is the main language. All documents are in Russia, which could suggest the total control. Also the Tsar is not bothered who the policies affects as long as it gives him total power in Russia. This suggests that the tsarist regime is succeeding. In addition this policy was not successful in bringing Russia to unity and cohesion because thousands of Jews fled Russia for new lives in North America and Western Europe.
Pobedonostev began to undo many reforms that were introduced by Alexandra II. In 1889 the government created the post of ‘Land Captains’ to enforce local laws, replacing the locally elected justices of peace. ‘Land Captains’ are elected people from the landed classes and were appointed by the minister of the interior. They were made member of the local government bodies and had the most political power. This is why the zemstva was restricted. This increased the central control as all press was censored, and there was no political activity. The tsar had all the power and he controlled it.
The increased central control was successful as it took all the control and censored all press and gave no right to express political activities. Russia was firmly back under the control of the tsar, which shows how successful tsarist regime was.
Finally Russia’s main problem was financially. Russia was physically the largest in size and population, but was almost the most economically underdeveloped. Alexandra III had to increase its economic wealth in order to maintain its armed forces and to maintain its position as a Great Power. He did this by his finance ministers, Nikolia Bunge, Vyshnegradsky and Sergei Witte. Firstly Nikolia Bunge introduced laws in 1882, which reduced the tax burden on peasants. Also he established a Peasant Land Bank, which offered loan facilities to peasants to help them increase the size of their landholdings and make them more productive.
Then Nikolia Bunge resigned and was replaced by Ivan Vyshnegradsky who offered financial incentives for peasants to migrate to the eastern lands of Siberia. This helped to take pressure off the demand for land, but did not help the catastrophic famine of 1891. He then started to finance Russian economic development from foreign loans. Alexander III finance minsters rapidly helped the economic development of Russia in the 1890s, which shows that the problems of the Tsar regime improved. These polices to help the financial reform had been successful, because the increase in economics by 8% helped to maintain its armed forces which puts Russia in a position of a great power.
In conclusion Alexander had re-established the autocratic power of the Tsar however; you would also say he was not fully successful. This was done with Alexander III regime solutions. Alexander III minsters helped by introducing laws that reduced the tax burden on peasants. They also established a Peasant Land Bank, which offered loan facilities to peasants to help them increase the size of their landholdings and make them more productive. However, this may seem successful but towards the end of his regime in the countryside peasant outbursts increased due to increasing land shortage. The peasant population continued to grow and their problems seemed to be worse than before. This clearly shows that Alexander III solution were not long term as his son Nicholas II had to be in power during when Russia was in a massive state.
Moreover little was done to solve the agriculture problem that suffered serious neglect and the Famine was still a huge problem. Alexander main focus was to solve the problems of the Tsars regime however these polices did not destroy the ‘Peoples Will’ and other extremists groups, because they continued to work underground. This shows that these policies were not successful, because the ‘Peoples Will’ and extremists made an attempt to assassinate Alexander III, which could show that Alexander III is not that strong as he makes it out to be and that there is some power within the people. Alexandra III solutions may have worked but not for a long term as ‘Peoples Will’ and extremists still existed to try destroying the Tsars rule. Financially Russia improved as there was a greater significance to the longer term economic development of Russia; vyshnegradsky began to finance Russian economic development from foreign loans. Most of these loans were from Britain and France, which are one the strongest allies, which could show how strong Russia is getting, because Russia is getting involved with the great allies. The foundation was laid for the rapid economic development of Russia which began in the 1890s under his success as finance minister, Sergei Witte.
Alexander IIIs repressive polices clearly had a dramatic long-term effect on his own dynasty. This could suggest that his solutions and repression were successful in his regime because he got what he wanted but not what the people wanted which caused problems after when he died. This suggests that the tsarist regime is succeeding. The policy ‘Russification’ insured that the largest multi-ethnic country, Russia was not divided but unity and Russian. In addition this policy was not successful in bringing Russia to unity and cohesion, because thousands of Jews fled Russia for new lives in North America and Western Europe. This was caused by the organised attacks made on them by the government. Overall Alexander III was not successful in tackling the problems of the tsarist regime in some areas but in other areas he was successful, like in the financial reform.