Assess the importance of Alexander's foreign policy 2. Foreign and domestic policy of Alexander II
Great Reforms. The Crimean War revealed Russia's serious lag behind the developed countries of the West, and the new tsar, like Peter I in his time, began a series of reforms designed to eliminate the military, economic, and socio-political weakness of the Russian state.
The first action was abolition of serfdom, which was the main brake on social development. On February 19, 1861, Alexander II issued a Manifesto and a number of "Regulations" explaining the conditions for the liberation of peasants from serfdom. Peasants received free personal freedom and the right to freely dispose of their property, conclude various kinds of transactions, and open industrial and commercial establishments. The landowners were obliged to provide the peasants with "estate settlement" and a field allotment. On average, landlord peasants received 3.4 acres of land per male capita. State and specific peasants received a little more land. The land was given to the peasants for ransom. The peasants paid 20-30% of the value of the land directly to the landowner. The remaining 70-80% of the value of the land after the conclusion of the redemption deal was paid to the landowner by the state. The peasants, on the other hand, were obliged to pay the main debt to the state - redemption payments - for 49 years in equal installments. The annual payment was 6% of the redemption amount. The peasant did not become the owner of the land. The land became the property of the peasant community, which was responsible to the state for collecting taxes and redemption payments.
The reform of February 19, 1861 meant the end of the era of feudalism and Russia's transition to the path of capitalist development. It paved the way for a number of other transformations.
As part of local government reforms were held zemstvo and urban reform. On January 1, 1864, the Regulations were issued, which introduced all-class elected bodies of local self-government - zemstvos. The administrative bodies of the zemstvos were county and provincial zemstvo assemblies, the executive bodies were county and provincial zemstvo councils. Members ( vowels) county zemstvo assemblies were elected for a three-year term by curia. Vowels of the provincial zemstvo assembly were elected by the district zemstvo assemblies. Only men were given the right to vote. Elections were not secret, direct and equal. The law ensured the predominance of landowners in county zemstvo assemblies. Zemstvos were responsible for education, public health, timely food supplies, road quality, insurance, local trade and industry, etc.
On June 16, 1870, the City Regulations were published. Elected self-government was introduced in the cities - city dumas, elected for four years by citizens who had a high property qualification. The city duma elected the city council, which consisted of the mayor and several members. The Dumas were engaged in the improvement of cities, the arrangement of bazaars, the organization of local health care, the maintenance of prisons, the organization of fire prevention measures, etc.
In 1864 began judicial reform, which provided for the complete separation of the judiciary from the administrative, publicity, publicity and adversarial procedure for legal proceedings, the independence and irremovability of judges, the institution of jurors. To deal with cases involving peasants, a class volost court was maintained, which consisted of peasants and judged according to local customs. There were also spiritual, military and commercial courts, as well as courts for non-Christians.
In 1874, as part of military reform Recruitment kits were replaced by all-class military service: all males who reached the age of 21 were subject to conscription for military service. The service life was reduced: they served in the infantry for 6 years, in the navy - 7 years. For persons with higher education, the term of service was reduced to 6 months. Those who served in the army or navy remained in reserve for a statutory period.
Education reform began in 1863 with the adoption of a new university charter, which provided for the election of the rector and deans of faculties, administrative and economic independence. Access to higher educational institutions was open to representatives of all classes. Primary and secondary education became more democratic.
censorship reform was carried out in 1865 and abolished preliminary censorship for all non-periodical literature, official and scientific publications. Mass periodicals were censored in the usual way, i.e. before publications.
It should be noted that these progressive reforms were assessed by the radical part of the intelligentsia as insufficient. Among the raznochintsy intelligentsia, a movement arose populists who set as their goal the creation of a just social system in Russia and saw the prototype of such a system in the peasant community. The author of the theory of Russian peasant socialism was A. I. Herzen, who believed that the Russian community is the germ of socialism, since it does not have private ownership of land and the communal land is periodically redistributed, taking into account the number of members in each family. Strong communal traditions and weak development of capitalist relations will create an opportunity for socialism to establish itself in Russia, bypassing the stage of capitalism.
The followers of A. I. Herzen imagined the ways of implementing this theory in different ways. M.A. Bakunin believed that the people were ready for revolution and the task was to provoke a revolt that would sweep away the old system ( rebellious direction). P. L. Lavrov advocated conducting a long-term propaganda of the ideas of socialism ( propagandists). P. N. Tkachev assigned the main role to a narrow group of revolutionaries who would seize power and begin a socialist reorganization ( conspirators).
In the early 1870s the populists undertook a massive "going to the people" to implement their ideas, but did not have much success. Against this background, the most radical part of the populists created the secret organization "Narodnaya Volya", and after a series of unsuccessful attempts, Emperor Alexander II was killed on March 1, 1881 on the Catherine's Canal in St. Petersburg.
Foreign policy. During the reign of Alexander II, Russia pursued an active not only domestic, but also foreign policy. Thus, through diplomacy, Russia managed to get rid of the humiliating conditions of the Paris Peace Treaty, which forbade it to have a navy on the Black Sea (1870). The Caucasian War (1817–1864) was successfully ended. Tangible results were also achieved in Central Asia: in the late 1870s. vassal dependence on Russia was recognized by the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara, in the early 1880s. Turkmenistan was annexed. The final annexation of Central Asia took place during the time of Alexander III.
The most significant event in foreign policy during this period was Russo-Turkish War(1877–1878), which Russia joined in order to assist the national liberation movement of the Slavic peoples who were under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire. As a result of this war, Russia returned the lands of Southern Bessarabia lost in the Crimean War, and also acquired new fortresses in the Caucasus - Ardagan, Kars, Batum, Bayazet. Russia again took its rightful place among the European powers, lost after the Crimean War, and the Russian Emperor Alexander II was proclaimed the "tsar-liberator" of Bulgaria.
Without knowledge of the peculiarities of Russia's relations with other states during the reign of Alexander II, it is impossible to imagine productive preparation for passing the exam in history. 1855-1881 are a landmark period.
Alexander II the Liberator
The foreign policy of Alexander 2 was multifaceted, and the same person, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, sat in the chair of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the entire indicated time period. It was his diplomatic skills that forged the successes of the Fatherland at the international level.
Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov
Relations with Europe
In 1855-1881. The country's foreign policy was divided into a number of main directions. One of the most important was the European direction. Alexander 2 inherited from his father the end of the Crimean War and the signing of a peace treaty as the losing side. The most shameful condition was a ban on the construction of fortresses on the Black Sea, as well as on the presence of a navy there. Russia found itself in international isolation. The main efforts of A.M. were directed to overcome it. Gorchakov.
The main European ally of the Russian Empire in the mid-1860s. became Prussia. Russia managed to regain the right to have a Black Sea navy through the Franco-Prussian campaign of 1870-1871. After France suffered a crushing defeat from Prussia, our country announced the termination of the fulfillment of the terms of the Peace of Paris in 1856. England, France and Turkey, although they were dissatisfied with this statement, did not resist, fearing our new powerful ally. Close relations with Prussia were strengthened by the conclusion of the Alliance of the Three Emperors, to which Austria also joined.
Far East direction and sale of Alaska
Until the middle of the 19th century, the empire did not have clear borders with China and Japan. The improvement of relations with China was facilitated by the refusal of the domestic authorities to support the Western powers during the "opium wars". Thanks to the actions of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N. Muravyov in 1858, the Aigun Treaty was concluded, according to which the border was drawn along the Amur River to the place where the Ussuri River flows into it. However, after 2 years, under the Beijing Treaty, the Ussuri Territory also passed to us. In the same 1860, Vladivostok was founded by Russian sailors.
In 1855, the Shimoda Treaty was signed with Japan. It was written in it that the ridge of the Kuril Islands was recognized as ours, and Sakhalin Island was declared a sphere of joint interests. The influx of Japanese settlers to the Sakhalin lands and the fear of spoiling relations with the "Land of the Rising Sun" forced our authorities to conclude a new treaty. So, since 1875, Sakhalin became completely controlled by the Russian government, and the Kuriles - by the Japanese.
In 1867 Russia sold Alaska to the USA. Quite a lot of people have an erroneous knowledge that "Russian America" was transferred to the United States by Catherine II. But this happened during the reign of her great-grandson. The reason for the sale was the excess of expenses on these territories over income. Money for the protection and development of Alaska was sorely lacking. The total amount of the deal was $7.2 million. By selling land, Alexander 2 showed England and France that he was on the side of the United States. So the king saved the American side from a possible war.
By the way, in Russia itself there were so-called bourgeois reforms, with which you can.
Politics in Central Asia and the Caucasus
At the beginning of the reign of Alexander 2, the final entry of the Kazakh territories into Russian citizenship took place. However, these lands were still being raided by neighboring Central Asian states: Khiva, Bukhara and Kokand. At first, they wanted to solve the problem by building border fortifications, but this did not help. Then the governors-general of adjacent regions decided to cope with the problem by organizing military expeditions. Central Asia was seen as a source of cotton needed for the production of textiles, as well as a place for the sale of domestic goods.
middle Asia
The authorities of the khanates called on their population for a "holy war" against the Russian troops, but the resistance organized by them was suppressed. A significant role in the military success was played by the Semirechye Cossacks, who settled along the border with China. On the conquered lands, the Turkestan General Government was formed. General K.P. became its first head. Kaufman.
Although these territories lost their independence, slavery was abolished here, civil strife ceased, and the lands of especially rebellious landowners were distributed for peasant use. Railways began to appear, the process of mining was improved, and sericulture and cotton growing gained a more accelerated stage of development. To appease the local population, the central authorities did not interfere in traditional cultural and religious relations.
The first years of the reign of Alexander 2 saw the end of the Caucasian War, which had been going on since 1817. Thanks to the efforts of A.I. Baryatinsky in 1859, the center of resistance of Imam Shamil, the village of Vedeno, fell. The leader himself was taken prisoner a few months later in the village of Gunib. Shamil and his family were settled in Kaluga as an honorary prisoner. His sons were allowed to serve in the Russian army. The last peoples who resisted were the Circassians and Abkhazians. The end of hostilities is May 1864.
War with the Ottoman Empire 1877-1878
Under Alexander 2, another Russian-Turkish war also took place. The reasons for it were Russia's desire to regain the status of an important European foreign policy player, as well as the desire to help the Balkan Slavic peoples get rid of Ottoman oppression.
The fighting was carried out on two fronts: the Balkan and the Caucasian. In the western direction, the central episodes were the siege of the Bulgarian city of Plevna, occupied by Turkish troops, and the defense of the Shipka Pass. The first military event lasted from July to December 1877.
During this period, the Russian army organized three assaults, but success was achieved only after a systematic blockade of Plevna. The Shipka Pass was captured in July 1877, and from August to December our troops heroically held it. On the eastern front, the fighting was carried out with great success. Fortresses such as Kars, Bayazet, Ardagan were captured.
The result of the conflict was the signing of the San Stefano peace treaty, according to which Serbia, Montenegro and Romania were declared independent states. Bulgaria was supposed to receive full autonomy. Turkey was obliged to pay a significant indemnity, to transfer Bessarabia and a number of lands of Armenia into the possession of our country.
However, the concluded peace caused discontent among the leading European countries. A congress was convened in Berlin. The amount of indemnity was reduced, Bulgaria was divided into two parts: independent and subject to Turkey. England won the right to occupy Cyprus, and Austria-Hungary - Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia went to review the successes achieved, fearing being drawn into a new large-scale campaign.
Thus, the era of Alexander II was not only a liberation for Russia, but also an attempt to liberate the Balkan peoples from the oppression of Turkey, Asia from barbarism. How successful it is, you be the judge. And that might be a great conclusion for .
Foreign policy trends were dictated by the Crimean War, which introduced huge contradictions into the international relations of the Russian Empire. The military confrontation, which lasted virtually a century, brought not only a military defeat to Russia, but also a loss of positions in the international political arena.
During the reign of Alexander II, the state was opposed by three powerful empires at that time: Ottoman, French and British. The Austrian Empire tried to maintain diplomatic neutrality.
European policy of Alexander II
The Russian emperor had the primary task of initiating a revision of the provisions of the Treaty of Paris. To do this, it was necessary to break through the political blockade and restore dialogue with European states. The foreign policy of Alexander II in relation to Europe was unusually subtle and flexible. Realizing that it would be very difficult to get out of isolation after the Polish uprising, Russian diplomacy, led by the emperor, played on the internal contradictions of the European empires.
Alexander II managed to establish relations with France and Prussia and even maintain neutrality during the war of these states. After the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, the Russian Empire lost its main enemy, which limited the influence of the Russian crown on the Crimean peninsula. A major success in diplomatic relations was achieved thanks to the efforts of Gorchakov: Russia received access to the Black Sea, the waters of which were declared neutral.
In 1873, the rapprochement between Europe and the Russian Empire was consolidated as a result of the creation of the "Union of Three Emperors" - German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian. The end of European isolation allowed Alexander II to come to grips with the Turkish issue, which by 1873 had become unusually acute.
Confrontation in the Balkans
In April 1877, hostilities were unleashed between the Russian Empire and Turkey, the reason for which was the infringement of the rights of the Slavic peoples by the Ottoman authorities. In a relatively short time, the Russian army was able to win a number of victories and capture the main military bases of the Turks.
The result of the war was the signing of the San Stefano peace agreement, according to which the states of the Balkan Peninsula received political independence from Turkey, and the Russian Empire returned the coast of Crimea, Bessarabia and the Caucasian military fortresses to its crown.
Sale of Alaska
Plans for the possible sale of Alaska to the United States arose from Alexander II during the Crimean War. Such a bold step was logically justified: the territory was very remote from the center, the supreme power belonged to the governor general, who, in fact, could carry out his own policy in Alaska without control.
This situation did not suit the emperor. Ultimately, in the spring of 1867, an agreement was signed in the US capital, according to which the Russian Empire transferred the land of Alaska to the state. The cost of the territory at that time was symbolic - 7 million dollars.
Power passed to Alexander II in a rather difficult period of Russian history, in the context of the Crimean War. It was the inevitable defeat that could predetermine his foreign and domestic policy. This war exposed the backwardness of the state, not only in terms of the organization of the army, but also in almost every industry. Therefore, all the reforms of the tsar were imbued with overcoming backwardness and strengthening the authority of Russia.
Many rulers before Alexander II understood that one of the main brakes on the development of the Russian state was serfdom, which was a relic of a form of slavery. Under such conditions, the active economic development of the state was simply impossible. And it is the abolition of serfdom in 1861 that is considered the central reform of the domestic policy of Alexander II.
Subsequent modernization was expressed in the reforms of the sixties and seventies. They were aimed at the successful development of the state in new historical conditions for Russia. Judicial, financial, military, urban, and also zemstvo reforms are being carried out. Significant improvements have been made in the field of education.
One of the most important decisions for the country at that time was the introduction of general military service, as well as the improvement of military production and military education.
The main task of Alexander II in foreign policy was the soonest worthy end of the shameful Crimean War. The loss of the Russian fleet as a result of these military actions dealt a big blow to the position of Russia in another important, Eastern question.
As a result, a fairly confident victorious end to hostilities in 1878 brought independence to parts of the Slavic peoples under the rule of the Turkish Empire. In addition, the Russian state began to receive a considerable contribution from Turkey. For example, the lands that were lost during the entire period of the Crimean War were returned to her. The provisions of the existing peace treaty, however, were strongly revised by the Western countries, who feared the strengthening of the empire at the Berlin Congress in 1878, but the fact of the revival of the former power of Russia was on the face.
Another important direction of Alexander's foreign policy was the strengthening of Russian positions in Central Asia and the Far East. In the first, three Muslim kingdoms acted as rivals of the empire at once:
· Khiva;
· Bukhara;
· Kokand.
However, a series of Russian military campaigns eventually led them to defeat.
LECTURE XXXVI
(Start)
Government policy on the outskirts. – Harassment in Little Russia and Poland. - Foreign policy of the government. - East question. - The rivalry of Russian and British interests in Asia. - The conquest of the Caucasus and the Central Asian khanates. - Troubles in Turkey. - Movement of the Balkan Slavs. – Serbian war and Bulgarian massacre. - Negotiations of the great powers. – Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878. Its course and outcome. - Congress of Berlin. - Economic and financial results of the war. Reitern's resignation. – The impression of the war and the congress on Russian society. - Slavophiles.
Fight against Ukrainophilism
Last time I introduced you to the emergence and development of populist ideas and the populist revolutionary movement in the 70s. Along with this revolutionary movement, along with the long-standing growth of discontent in Zemstvo liberal circles in the same post-reform period of modern Russian history, elements of discontent and irritation accumulated in different parts of the vast Russian Empire on a different basis, on the basis of insulting and persecuting the feelings of various nationalities that make up Russian state. Everywhere on the outskirts, under the influence of the Russification policy, carried out moreover in crude forms, painfully heightened national interests and feelings arose and developed.
In Little Russia, it was precisely at this time that the so-called Ukrainophilism developed, which intensified and aggravated under the influence of the persecution of the Little Russian language, the persecution that began under Nicholas and which resumed precisely in the late 60s and 70s in connection with the chauvinistic trend that prevailed in the ruling spheres and part of society and the press after the suppression of the Polish uprising. It was at this time that Katkov, who, as you remember, became an ardent patriot and chauvinist after the Polish uprising, began to write uniform denunciations of various national movements and various manifestations of the desire of non-state nationalities for cultural self-determination. These denunciations, which tended mainly to accuse such nationalities of striving for political separatism, had a rather strong effect on the ruling circles.
So, for example, in 1875, when Katkov specifically began to persecute the Ukrainophiles in the press, finding that just such a separatist movement was starting in Kyiv, the government paid such serious attention to Katkov’s news that even a special government commission was appointed, consisting of the minister education of Count Tolstoy, the Minister of Internal Affairs Timashev, the chief of the gendarmes Potapov and one of the Kyiv chauvinists Yuzefovich, who had long come to the fore in this regard. This commission examined, among other things, the activities of the southwestern branch of the Russian Geographical Society, which at that time concentrated on the study of Little Russian poetry and language. As a result, it was recognized that this activity had a connection with the separatist "Khokhloman", i.e., Ukrainophile, movement, and therefore it was decided in 1875. to shut down this branch of the Geographical Society, which had begun to develop so well. Along with this, the persecution of the Little Russian language intensified: any publication of literary works, as well as performances and concerts in the Little Russian language were banned, so that this language was subjected to consistent ostracism in Little Russia.
In this regard, professors M.P. Dragamanov (philologist-historian) and N.I. Ziber (economist) were dismissed from Kyiv University, and they were first offered to submit a letter of resignation, and when they refused to do this, they were dismissed " on the 3rd paragraph”, which deprived them of the right to ever enter the civil service again. Then the outstanding ethnographer Chubinsky was expelled from Kyiv, while Drahomanov and Ziber chose to emigrate abroad. (They say that Dragomanov himself was advised to do so by the Governor-General of Kyiv, Prince A. M. Dundukov-Korsakov, who was friendly to him.) Thus, a pogrom occurred, which, in fact, was not caused by anything.
Policy of Alexander II in Poland
The Polish question became no less aggravated at this time. In Poland in the early 60s, before the uprising, Russian policy, as you remember, was based first on the grounds proposed by the Marquis of Velepolsky, and then based on the ideas of N.A. Milyutin and Yu.F. Samarin, who separated the issues of Russian statehood in the Kingdom of Poland itself from the issues and interests of Russian statehood and culture in the North-Western and South-Western regions, where the question of the fight against "Polonism", i.e., the fight against the Polonization of these areas, was already raised , recognized as either native Russians or Lithuanian, but in any case not Polish. On the contrary, the Kingdom of Poland was recognized from the very beginning as a native Polish country, where the Polish language should be dominant and given full opportunity for the cultural development of the Polish nationality. But the policy initially divided in this way changed very quickly, and when Milyutin, stricken in 1866 with an apoplexy, left the stage, one of his closest associates, Prince V. A. Cherkassky, appeared at the head of the leadership of Russian policy in Poland, and it was precisely he, largely due to his difficult character, his harshness, greatly aggravated relations with various sections of Warsaw and Polish society in general, and from that time on, Russian policy in the Kingdom of Poland began to imperceptibly move on to the foundations that had been set for it in the Western Territory.
First, in secondary educational institutions, they began to demand the widespread introduction of teaching in Russian, then this requirement is transferred to lower schools, so that the question of developing the elementary education of the people is placed in an extremely difficult situation, since, naturally, the Poles do not want to give money to Russian schools. and send their children there, since they are forbidden to study in their native language. In the 70s and 80s (under the trustee of the educational district Apukhtin), these constraints reached the point that even the teaching of the law of God in Polish was prohibited, due to which its teaching in most schools ceased at that time.
In Warsaw itself, the question of shop signs was raised seriously. It was required that these signboards be in Russian, or at least have a translation into Russian. In a word, those principles that even from a conservative, so to speak, point of view were correctly established by Samarin and Milyutin regarding the difference in political demands in the Kingdom of Poland and the Western Territory, here completely changed, and the Russification policy in the Kingdom of Poland proceeded almost in the same way as in the Northwestern and Southwestern regions.
In the 1970s, this was joined by the question of that very Kholmsk region, which, before our very eyes, was finally resolved by the third State Duma. This question then arose from its religious side, namely, they paid attention to the fact that within the Kingdom of Poland itself there is a population that is Ruthenian, that is, Little Russian, and not Polish, and that it once belonged to the Orthodox faith; that then, under the rule of Poland, this religion was modified, namely: the Orthodox rites were preserved, but the primacy of the pope was recognized, and thus the Uniate religion arose. And in the 70s, the question arose of reuniting these Uniates with the Orthodox Church, just as it was done in the North-Western Territory under Nicholas. But at the same time, the administrative authorities in whose hands this matter fell - the governor of Sedlec, who wanted to distinguish himself, the Uniate bishop Popel, who wanted to make a career out of it - were too hasty, acted recklessly and forcibly, and this greatly aggravated the matter, while , in essence speaking, the population there (in part of the Lublin and Sedlec provinces) was really Little Russian in origin and language, and, perhaps, little by little, they themselves would have returned to Orthodoxy; but since energetic forms of administrative influence were put into play, a series of outrageous events, unrest and pacification took place; Hussars and Cossacks were sent to promote the "voluntary" conversion to Orthodoxy, and thus the question of the reunification of these Uniates acquired the character of a real scandal.
It is clear that such a policy on the outskirts and even in Little Russia, which had long been part of the Russian Empire, could not arouse in the population, and especially in its most conscious part, benevolent feelings towards the government; it undoubtedly aggravated this general oppositional mood, which existed everywhere in Russia under the influence of economic reasons and a general reaction that grew stronger every year.
This general, albeit suppressed, discontent, which, as a result of stubborn reaction and reckless repressions, developed inside Russia and on its outskirts, was further complicated in the 70s by the aggravation of foreign policy. By this time, the rather old Eastern question had just matured and become extremely acute.
Accession of the Amur and Primorye to Russia
During the twenty years that immediately followed the Crimean campaign, our military authorities, especially the chiefs of the border troops, were constantly overwhelmed by the desire to somehow restore the violated prestige of our army and Russian military power, undermined in the Crimean War, and now they are beginning to actively strive to restore the trampled the honor of our weapons even in Asia, if it failed in Europe. We see that already two years after the end of the Crimean War, significant increments of our territory along the entire East Asian border begin. It started from the most remote eastern outskirts. Already in 1858, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Muravyov, raised the issue of annexing to Russia not only the entire left bank of the Amur, but also the vast Ussuri Territory located south of the mouth of the Amur up to Vladivostok. Muraviev achieved this almost without the use of military force, with the help of several hundred soldiers, with whom he traveled around the border, and, taking advantage of the extreme anarchy and helplessness of the Chinese authorities, established new boundaries for those areas that he considered to belong to Russia, relying on the fact that in the 17th century all these areas were conquered by the Cossacks, who even built the city of Albazin on the Amur, then destroyed by the Chinese. The Chinese authorities, yielding only to rumors of Russian military power, weakly resisted this, so that Muravyov eventually managed to seize the territory described above and annex it to Russia, leaving small military posts everywhere along the border thus occupied.
These actions of Muravyov were then consolidated in 1860 by a formal agreement concluded by Count N. P. Ignatiev, then still a young man, sent specifically for this to Beijing.
End of the Caucasian War
At the same time, the final conquest of the Caucasus took place under the guise of "pacification" of the recalcitrant highlanders. A decisive blow to their independence was dealt in 1859, when the village of Gunib was taken, in which the spiritual head and leader of these mountaineers Shamil was hiding. The capture of Shamil marked the beginning of the final triumph of the Russians in the Caucasus; a very small area still remained unoccupied, and its final conquest was completed in 1864. Thus, in 1865, the Caucasus and all of Transcaucasia, right up to the then border with Turkey and Persia, could be declared parts of the Russian Empire completely subordinate to Russian rule.
Accession of Central Asia to Russia
Along with this, throughout the 60s, the constant progressive pushing of our border into the depths of Central Asia and in relation to the then independent Central Asian khanates continued. It must be said that we have had trade relations with these khanates for a long time, but the population of these khanates, which consisted of wild steppe predators, constantly committed a series of robberies on the Russian border, which sometimes ended with the removal of whole batches of not only cattle, but also Russian people: men and children into slavery, and young women into harems. It is clear that such incidents have long worried the Russian government, but for a very long time these Central Asian khanates, despite the fact that they seemed to be insignificant under the power of Russia, were in fact quite inaccessible to us. Our attempts to lay a hand on them have always ended in failure, beginning with Peter. Under Peter the Great, for the first time, Russian troops under the command of Prince Cherkassky-Bekovich went there quite far, and the end of this expedition was very sad: all of it died after a temporary success. Then the Orenburg Governor-General V.A. Perovsky, already under Nicholas I, decided to put an end to the constant robberies and taking Russians into captivity and, at his own risk, undertook a winter expedition to Khiva in 1839. A trip to Khiva during the summer heat seemed almost impossible, and therefore Perovsky chose winter time. But it turned out that this was also fraught with no less difficulties, since severe frosts and snowstorms raged in these steppes, and the entire expedition of 1839 almost perished. Finally, already in 1853, the same Perovsky managed to advance the Russian military outposts to the banks of the Syr Darya, and a rather significant fort was founded here, which was later called the Perovsky Fort.
At the same time, in the south of our Siberian possessions and the steppe regions, our border also began to gradually move further and further south. Back in 1854, this border was established along the Chu River from the city of Verny to Fort Perovsky, and it was fortified by a number of small military posts, in general, however, rather weak. The wild detachments of the Bukhara and Kokand people very often tried to break through this line, but each such robbery caused retribution, and the military commanders, overwhelmed by a thirst and personally distinguish themselves and raise the prestige of Russian weapons, actively tried to push these Bukhara and Kokand people into the depths of their country. It ended in a big clash in 1864, and Colonel Chernyaev managed to conquer the large Kokand city of Tashkent.
When the Russian government received a report about this, it approved the fait accompli, and the Tashkent region was annexed to Russian territory, and two years later a new Turkestan governor-general was formed here. This led to further clashes, and we continued to push back the Kokand and Bukharians - again without any official order from above. Of course, England met such a progressive movement of the Russians in Asia to the south with great anxiety, and remembering from the time of Napoleon about the then fantastic plans of the Russians to penetrate through the Asian steppes and mountains to India, the British government immediately asked the Russian chancellor about where the Russian government intended to stop, to which Prince Gorchakov replied that the Sovereign Emperor did not at all mean an increase in Russian territory, but only the strengthening and correction of the border.
In the end, however, a uniform war began with the Kokand and Bukharians, which ended in their complete defeat, and we managed to conquer (in 1868) the city of Samarkand, where the ashes of Tamerlane rest, a sacred place, regarding which there is a belief that someone owns Samarkand, he owns the whole of Central Asia. True, the Bukhara people, taking advantage of the fact that the Governor-General of Turkestan, the energetic General Kaufman, sent most of the troops to the south, tried to take Samarkand back the next year, and they temporarily succeeded, but Kaufman, returning, severely punished the temporary winners , and the entire population of Samarkand, and the barbaric method he used to establish Russian rule made such an impression on the semi-savage eastern peoples that after that they no longer tried to capture the sacred city occupied by the Russians.
Meanwhile, Kaufman, taking advantage of the uprising of the Kokand people, who were trying to return part of the territory taken from them, sent a significant detachment there under the command of Skobelev, who finally conquered the Kokand Khanate, after which it was annexed to Russia and turned into the Fergana region. Little by little, Kaufman began to think about how to curb and bring to a submissive position the main predatory nest in Central Asia - Khiva, where, according to rumors, there were several hundred Russian slaves and where Russian expeditions had so unsuccessfully set off until then.
This time, coming close to Khiva and having the opportunity to make a simultaneous invasion of it from four sides, Kaufman first delivered an ultimatum to the Khiva Khan, who demanded that he transfer a significant part of the territory and completely abolish slavery. Khan refused this, and then Kaufman made his famous campaign of 1873 in Khiva. All of Khiva was conquered this time very quickly, and the khan was forced to give up not only what Kaufman offered him, but more than half of his possessions, he was forced to free all slaves from slavery and become the same dependent, vassal in relation to Russia ruler , as his closest neighbor, the Emir of Bukhara, had already become.
Thus, the conquest of all of Central Asia took place, to the great indignation and very understandable fears of the British, who saw that the Russian troops approached India quite close and were separated from it only by the lands of the Turkmens and Afghanistan, so that the campaign of Russian troops in India at this time is far away. no longer had that fantastic appearance as it seemed when the question of it was raised at the beginning of the 19th century. Napoleon.
Revolt in Bosnia and Herzegovina
At the same time, when the fears of the British reached their apogee and when they acutely felt the imminent "Russian danger" in Asia, the situation in the Middle East also became extremely aggravated. In 1874, an uprising of Herzegovinians and Bosniaks broke out on the Balkan Peninsula against Turkey. They revolted mainly as a result of the incredible oppression and oppression on the part of the Turks, on economic grounds, partly in land, and especially in taxes; for in Turkey there was an extremely difficult tax system, which consisted in the fact that all, even direct, state taxes and taxes were farmed out to private individuals, who exacted them in an increased amount in order to cover the state needs and satisfy their own greed. The Slavic and other nationalities of the Balkan Peninsula, oppressed by this situation, continued to be constantly agitated, and after the creation of the semi-independent states of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania, and due to this circumstance, the Eastern question constantly threatened to escalate.
When in 1875, in the month of August, the Herzegovina uprising began, then, of course, Austria was first of all alarmed by this. The fact is that Bosnia and Herzegovina has long been presented in the eyes of the Austrian government as a tasty morsel, which it was not averse to annexing to Austria. Now Austria was afraid that as a result of the outbreak of the uprising, perhaps the Bosnians and Herzegovinians would join Serbia with the help of Russia, which had managed to recover from the Crimean defeat. Therefore, as soon as this uprising broke out, Count Andrássy, then head of Austrian foreign policy, immediately proposed to resolve this matter through collective European intervention. And in January 1876, after some objections from England, who was afraid that Russia would not win something for itself with such intervention, in the end it was possible to reach the full consent of the powers, and on behalf of the six great European powers, the sultan was a demand was made that he immediately conclude a truce with the Herzegovinians and undertake to radically change the tax system and land relations in the rebellious provinces, and the Christians would also be given the right to own land there; that, in addition, other administrative reforms be carried out here and, by the way, that the Turkish troops should be kept only in six fortresses and should not have the right to stand up in the countryside.
The Sultan very quickly agreed to these conditions, but then the Herzegovinians declared that they would not lay down their arms until they were given sufficient guarantees that the Sultan would fulfill his promises, and they saw these guarantees in the appointment of a special commission by the European governments, which implement the promised reforms. At the same time, they demanded that one third of all land in the region be given to the Christian population instead of a vague promise of settlement of land relations. The Turks did not agree to this, and in general at that time in Turkey, under the influence of the Christian uprising that had begun, a strong religious movement flared up among the Muslims, embracing all classes of Turkish society, and the sultan's compliance with foreign pressure caused fanatical indignation. The Sultan was soon forced to let into European Turkey to pacify the uprising of the Slavs hordes of wild riders - bashi-bazouks, who carried out a massacre of civilians in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian martyrs. Painting by K. Makovsky, 1877
By the way, in the peaceful city of Thessaloniki, the French and German consuls were killed, and in Bulgaria, the massacre, according to the investigation carried out by the British diplomat, reached enormous proportions and resulted in no less than 12 thousand killed Bulgarians of both sexes and different ages. These horrors made a huge impression not only among Russian society and people, and in general on the continent of Europe, but even in that very England, whose government all the time tried to patronize Turkey in view of its suspicions about Russia.
The semi-independent Balkan states of Serbia and Montenegro declared war on Turkey, and masses of volunteers went from Russia to the ranks of their troops.
Although the Serbian troops were headed by the Russian general Chernyaev, the same one who conquered Tashkent, nevertheless they turned out to be unprepared to fight the Turks, they turned out to be very poorly armed, untrained, and therefore the Turks quickly won a number of victories over them. Russia, seeing that Serbia was on the brink of an abyss and that she was threatened with a massacre similar to the Bulgarian one, demanded from the Turks an immediate suspension of hostilities and the conclusion of a truce. This demand was also supported by the rest of the European powers, although Austria hesitated for some time; she wanted Serbia, whose strengthening she was afraid of, to be completely defeated by the Turks. But very soon, Austria saw the need to join the common opinion of the European powers.
In 1876, a special memorandum was issued in Berlin, by which all the powers demanded that the Sultan immediately introduce the previously promised reforms in the parts of Turkey inhabited by Christians, increase the territory of Serbia and Montenegro and appoint Christian governors-general in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina with the approval of their council of European powers. However, England refused to participate in the support of this memorandum and thus encouraged Turkey so much that she also refused to satisfy the demands of the powers, and when the European powers sent their fleet for a military demonstration in Thessaloniki, England, on the contrary, sent hers to the Bay of Besik to support Turkey.
Encouraged by this, the Turkish patriots forced Sultan Abdul-Azis to first change the vizier, and for the first time the Young Turk, i.e., a supporter of progressive internal transformations, Mithad Pasha, became the Grand Vizier, and soon then they carried out a palace coup, and Sultan Abdul-Azis was first deprived of the throne, and then strangled in prison. In his place was Murad V, who, however, turned out to be weak-minded, so he had to be replaced and Abdul-Hamid was put in, who later remained the sultan until the revolution of 1908. Under Abdul-Hamid, who kept Mithad Pasha in power, Turkey's political position in relation to the powers became extremely aggravated, and in order to eliminate this situation, England then proposed that a special conference be held in London, at which it was supposed to peacefully resolve all issues after the Turks agreed to conclude an armistice with Serbia and Montenegro, first for a week, and then for six weeks. The conference met in London, but here the Turks, thinking that Russia would not dare to start a war, since England would firmly stand for Turkey, allowed themselves, in essence, to laugh at the European powers. As soon as the sessions of this London conference opened, the Turkish delegates announced that the Sultan had decided to give his country a constitution, and when the discussion of peace terms then began, the Turkish delegates declared that since they now had a constitution, no concessions could be made without a parliament. maybe. Such a statement, obviously hypocritical, in the opinion of the assembled diplomats, since, according to them, there could be no talk of any real constitution in Turkey at that time, angered even British diplomats against the Turks, and here a new ultimatum was presented to Turkey by Russia , which the Turkish government was invited to immediately accept the draft reforms that were developed by the European powers, and in case of its rejection, Russia threatened to declare war. England tried to persuade Russia and other governments to postpone the matter for one year, but Russia did not agree to this, and when the Turks refused our ultimatum, Emperor Alexander declared war on Turkey in April 1877. Such was the external course of events and relations in the aggravated eastern question.
Russo-Turkish War 1877–1878
Alexander II declared war not with a light heart; he was well aware of the importance of this step, was aware of the extreme difficulty of the war for Russia from the financial side, and clearly understood from the very beginning that, in essence, this war could very easily turn into a general European war and, perhaps, which seemed to him even more dangerous , in the war of Russia against Austria, England and Turkey with the neutrality of the other powers.
Thus, the circumstances were extremely serious. Prince Gorchakov, who was at the head of Russian diplomacy, was by this time extremely outdated, he was already close to eighty years old, apparently he did not even realize a number of circumstances, and his policy was extremely vacillating. Emperor Alexander himself also hesitated very strongly; in general, he did not want war at all, and it was mainly the mood that seized Russian society in general and those areas whose influence had access to court circles in particular that forced him to take decisive measures. Alexander Nikolaevich saw with displeasure that, thanks to the agitation raised by the Slavophiles on this question, which at that time had a very strong influence on the public opinion of the country and was very sensitively perceived abroad, he seemed to be bypassed and outstripped by this public opinion of the country and no longer was thus, in the eyes of Europe, the true representative and leader of his people. This circumstance extremely aroused court circles, who, especially in the autumn of 1876, during the stay of the court in the Crimea, showed great military fervor, which was reflected in the mood of Emperor Alexander himself, who saw himself largely forced, in the form of preserving the position of the true leader of the nation in the eyes of the whole world, to act more decisively in defense of the Slavs.
In vain did the Minister of Finance Reitern try to fight this mood of Emperor Alexander, who saw quite clearly that, given our financial and economic relations at that time, the conduct of this war could lead us to extreme financial ruin. In 1875, Reitern had just succeeded in reaching such a state of the budget that not only could it finally be concluded without a deficit, but it was also possible to accumulate a metal fund, which at that time had already reached 160 million rubles, so that Reitern dreamed of starting finally, in the near future, to the implementation of its main idea - to the conversion of credit fiat money into change money; and so, just at this very moment, circumstances - even before the war - began to take shape again in such a way that all Reitern's calculations were shaken. In 1875 there was a significant crop failure, at the same time, due to drought, there was shallow water on inland waterways, which then still had such great importance in Russia in relation to the grain trade - in relation to the delivery of grain to the ports, and, thus, the export of Russian bread abroad decreased. By that time, as you remember, the development of Russian railway construction had reached great proportions. We already had a whole network of 17,000 versts, but many of these railroads did not generate sufficient income to cover the costs of maintenance and to give the profit negotiated under the guarantee; therefore, the government had to pay according to the guarantee accepted for the treasury, and for this either spend its gold fund, which was accumulated with such difficulty, or enter into loans, which in the end required the payment of significant interest and, in essence, also led as a result to a waste of the accumulated metal fund.
Thus, even before the war, the exchange rate of the ruble began to fall again, under the influence of an unfavorable balance of trade (due to a decrease in the sale of grain abroad) and due to the need for the government to spend a lot of money abroad to pay for railway guarantees. At the same time, a number of foreign capitals, in view of the alarming international circumstances, began to sail abroad; there were also random internal circumstances that acted in the same unfavorable direction, such as, for example, the bankruptcy of one of the large banks in Moscow as a result of Strusberg's major fraud. All this caused a stock market panic, a banking crisis and an even greater increase in the outflow of foreign capital. Thus, even before the war, Reitern's plans began to waver, and the war, of course, threatened them with complete collapse. Already in order to carry out one partial mobilization, which in the autumn of 1876 was ordered to be carried out to threaten Turkey, a hundred million loan had to be concluded, and Reitern sharply told the sovereign that if there was a war, then state bankruptcy could be expected.
But despite all these most serious warnings of Reitern, under the influence of Slavophile agitation, under the influence of public opinion, which was strongly inclined in favor of war after the Bulgarian horrors, Emperor Alexander nevertheless decided to fight.
When the war had already begun, it turned out that, regardless of the fact that we had to make mass issues of paper money, which, of course, completely ruined all Reitern’s calculations for restoring the exchange rate of the paper ruble, regardless of this, it turned out that we were not ready for war in other relationships. It turned out that Milyutin's transformations (especially the replacement of recruitment by universal military service, made only in 1874, i.e., just two years before the mobilization of 1876), were so new and so overturned the entire previous organization of the army that to carry out the mobilization of the army under these conditions, it turned out to be far from easy, and those administrative authorities, on which the correctness and speed of actions during mobilization depended to a large extent, turned out to be beyond all criticism, and therefore it turned out that we could only deliver an insufficient number of troops to the Turkish borders within six months .
Here Count Ignatiev, the Russian ambassador in Constantinople, was partly to blame, who asserted that we would very easily defeat the Turks, that Turkey was disintegrating, and that very small forces were needed to deliver a decisive blow to her.
In fact, it turned out that not only did we have few troops, but the army headquarters was extremely badly chosen. The commander-in-chief was made the brother of Emperor Alexander, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, a man who did not have the necessary strategic talents at all. He chose General Nepokoichitsky as chief of staff, who in his youth, perhaps, was a capable person, especially as a writer on military issues, but now he was completely outdated, distinguished by complete indiscretion and had no campaign plan.
Thus, it turned out that immediately after the brilliantly executed crossing of our troops across the Danube, a new confusion immediately turned out. The heads of individual detachments, due to the lack of a general plan, began to take very risky actions at their own risk, and now, the very enterprising and brave General Gurko rushed straight beyond the Balkans and, without encountering significant obstacles on his way, was carried away almost to Adrianople. Meanwhile, Osman Pasha, who commanded several tens of thousands of Turkish troops, took up an impregnable position at Plevna in the rear of our troops, who had crossed over the Balkans. The assault on Plevna was repulsed, and it soon turned out that this was such an impregnable place from which it was impossible to knock out Osman Pasha, and we had to think about a long-term siege, and we did not have enough troops to surround Plevna from all sides. Our situation turned out to be sad, and if Suleiman Pasha, who was in command of the southern Turkish army and at that time was on the other side of the Balkans, immediately crossed, as he was ordered, through the Balkans and joined with Osman, then Gurko and our other advanced detachments would be cut off from the rest of the army and would inevitably perish. Only due to the fact that this Suleiman Pasha, apparently competing with Osman, instead of going through one of his passes, as he was ordered, went to drive the Russians out of the Shipka Pass, which was occupied by Radetzky - the only thanks to this mistake or the crime of Suleiman Pasha, our forward detachments were saved. We managed to hold Shipka, Suleiman Pasha was repulsed by Radetzky, Gurko managed to safely retreat, and at the same time our new troops managed to approach. However, Plevna had to be besieged for several months; Our first attempt to take possession of the Plevninsk Heights was in July 1877, and we managed to force Osman Pasha to surrender only in December, and then only because the entire guard was demanded from Petersburg, which could quickly mobilize and be delivered to the theater of war.
In addition, it was necessary to seek help from Prince Charles of Romania, who agreed to give his own, although a small, but well-trained and armed thirty-five thousandth army, only on the condition that he himself be appointed commander of the entire siege corps. Only with the arrival of the engineer-general Totleben, summoned from St. Petersburg, did the siege of Plevna go right, and Osman Pasha finally had to lay down his arms after an unsuccessful attempt to break through.
Capture of the Grivitsky redoubt near Plevna. Painting by N. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, 1885
Thus, the campaign lasted for the whole of 1877 and part of 1878. After the capture of Plevna, we managed to cross the Balkans again, take Adrianople, which was not a fortress at that time, and approach Constantinople in January 1878. At this time, Emperor Alexander received a telegram from Queen Victoria , with which she asked him to stop and conclude a truce. Although Emperor Alexander promised England before the outbreak of the war that he would not seek to occupy Constantinople, nevertheless, Lord Beaconsfield, in support of this telegram, had already succeeded in applying for 6 million pounds sterling from Parliament for military purposes, and war with England seemed almost inevitable. . But Turkey, which was completely exhausted, was forced to ask for peace without waiting for English support, and in mid-January (according to the new style) 1878, the Adrianople truce was concluded, which was based on the promise of the Sultan to satisfy the demands of the great powers and give the right arrangement - partly in the form of semi-independent principalities, partly in the form of territories with Christian governors-general - to all Christian provinces of European Turkey. Soon after the armistice, diplomatic negotiations opened in San Stefano, conducted on our part by Ignatiev with complete success. In March, a peace treaty was already signed, according to which all the demands of Russia were satisfied. At the same time, not only the expansion of Serbia and Montenegro was spoken out, but Bulgaria also became a semi-independent principality with a territory reaching the Aegean Sea.
At the same time, since we waged a war in the Caucasus much more successfully than on the Balkan Peninsula, and managed to take Kars, Erzerum and Batum, it was established under the peace treaty that in return for part of the negotiated military indemnity, which Turkey had to pay Russia in the amount of 1400 million rubles, it will provide Russia in the region of Asian Turkey from the territory occupied by us Kars and Batum with their districts. At the same time, Emperor Alexander made the return of that piece of Bessarabia to Russia, which was separated from Russia and given to Romania in 1856, as a necessary condition for peace, and since Romania, which fought in alliance with Russia, was very offended by this, then in the form of compensation Dobruja was granted.
Berlin Congress 1878
However, as soon as England learned about these conditions of peace, Lord Beaconsfield immediately protested against any changes in the territory of Turkey without the participation of the great powers that took part in the Congress of 1856 in Paris. Therefore, Emperor Alexander had to finally, under the threat of a difficult war with England and Austria, agree to a Congress of Representatives of the Great Powers in Berlin, under the chairmanship of Bismarck. At this congress, the terms of the peace were significantly changed: the acquisitions of Serbia, Montenegro, and especially Bulgaria were curtailed. From the latter, a whole region, Eastern Rumelia, was separated in the south of the Balkans, which remained a Turkish province with a Christian governor-general.
Beaconsfield also protested against the territorial acquisitions of Russia, and although he did not succeed in destroying them, he nevertheless managed to insist that Batum, from a military port, as it was until then, be turned into a peaceful harbor accessible to all states.
Thus, the conditions of peace were changed not in favor of Russia. This circumstance, in connection with the method of conducting the war, which caused a number of failures, as well as the theft, which this time was also discovered during the supply of supplies and for the investigation of which a special commission was appointed, all this created extreme indignation and a sharpening of mood in wide circles. Russian society. It must be said that not only the radical and revolutionary-minded layers were indignant at that time, but even the most loyal circles of society with the Slavophiles at the head. When rumors about the concessions made at the Berlin Congress reached Moscow, Ivan Aksakov spoke at a public meeting of the "Slavic Society" with a thunderous speech, where he said:
“Surely we must admit at least a fraction of the truth in all these correspondences and telegrams, which daily, hourly, in all languages, to all corners of the world, are now spreading from Berlin the shameful news of our concessions and, being transferred to the jurisdiction of the whole people, have never been refuted by Russian power, then they burn him with shame and sting his conscience, then they crush him with bewilderment ... "
Then, in bright and harsh words, describing the humiliating behavior of our diplomats and depicting the significance of these concessions for the inviolability and freedom of the southern part of Bulgaria, for the independence of the rest of the Slavic peoples on the Balkan Peninsula, for the political predominance of Austria, which he hates, and for the decline of our prestige among the Slavic world, Aksakov somewhat repeated once that he refuses to believe that these actions of our diplomacy would be approved and recognized by the "highest authority", and ended his wonderful speech with the following words:
“The people are agitated, grumbling, indignant, embarrassed by daily reports about the Berlin Congress, and waiting, as good news, for a decision from above. Waiting and hoping. His hope will not lie, because the King's word will not be broken: "The holy work will be brought to an end." The duty of loyal subjects tells us all to hope and believe, but the duty of loyal subjects tells us not to be silent in these days of lawlessness and unrighteousness, erecting a mediastinum between the king and the earth, between the royal thought and the people's thought. Can it really be heard from above in response to an impressive word: “Silence, honest lips! Only you speak, flattery and falsehood!
When Emperor Alexander found out about this speech, he became so angry that, despite Aksakov's position in society and his years, he ordered him to be expelled from Moscow by administrative procedure.