ALEXANDER IlL'S REACTIONARY REIGN The thirteen years of the reign of Alexander III. (1881-94) are symbolized by a monument, the work of Paul Trubetskoi, in the square of the old Nicholas railway station in Leningrad. It shows a huge, heavy figure of a man mounting a horse which looks like a hippopotamus and yet is almost crushed by the weight of the rider. Russia overwhelmed by Alexander at the moment of its strength : such is the meaning of the symbol. At first it looked as if Alexander would continue the tradition of his father. The quasi-constitutional scheme of Loris-Melikov was discussed on March 8 in the winter palace but it met with the opposition of Constantine Pobiedonostsev, the former tutor of Alexander and his most trusted adviser. On April 29, 1881, appeared a mani festo written by Pobiedonostsev without the ministers' knowledge, in which the tsar described himself as "chosen to defend" auto cratic power. At the same time a promise was made to continue Alexander II.'s reforms. Loris-Melikov with D. Milyutin at once resigned. His place was taken by Nicholas Ignatiev, a friend of the Slavophils, who promised to leave untouched the powers of the zemstvos and municipalities and to alleviate the burdens of the peasants. And indeed, in June and Sept. 1881, Ignatiev sum moned the "experts" selected by the Government among liberal zemstvo men. With their help he drafted a scheme for lowering the redemption prices, abolishing the poll-tax, regulating internal colonization and land rents. The new minister of finance Bunge assisted by opening a peasants' bank. He also enacted the first factory acts (1882) and appointed special factory inspectors to enforce their application. A special commission under Kakhanov (1881-84) prepared a reform of peasant self-government based on the principle of the equality of peasants with other social classes. In May 1882 Ignatiev proposed to Alexander to summon a zemski sobor in Moscow of about 3,00o representatives from all classes, on the day of the coronation.
Triumph of the Gentry: Religious Persecution.—But here Katkov and Pobiedonostsev won their victory. Ignatiev resigned; Count Dmitri Tolstoy, the reactionary, took his place as home minister. His tool Delyanov enacted in his former min istry a new reactionary statute for the universities (1884). He now became the mouthpiece of the nobility and gentry, a decaying class that tried to preserve as much as possible of their vanishing power and property. In 1885 a special Bank for the Nobility was opened with the aim of preserving the landed property of the gentry from final liquidation (for debt). Then Tolstoy proposed to Pazukhin,—a sworn defender of noble privileges—to revise the zemstvo institution with the avowed aim of making the nobles' influence paramount in the country side. As a result two impor tant laws were published, on July 12, 1889, on "land captains" and on July 12, 1890, on zemstvos. The composition of district assem blies was changed from the figures given above to 5,433 represent atives of landed owners (57%), 1,273 municipal representatives (13%) and 2,817 representatives of village communities. How ever, the chief aim of the government was, rather than favour the gentry, to incorporate both the land captains and the exec utive boards of the zemstvos in its civil service by making them subordinate to the provincial governors, and destroying their rep resentative character.
A particular feature of Alexander III.'s reign, was an increased persecution of everything dissimilar to the officially accepted national type. Dissenting sects, the Uniate Church and the Lutherans in the western provinces, Lamaist Kalmucks, Buriatts and especially Jews—suffered a systematic persecution. The press
was definitely muzzled, revolutionary organizations destroyed and revolutionary movement stifled. Public opinion was silent until the great famine of 1891: from that year symptoms of a revival appeared. The new movement was entirely different from the Populism of the '6o's and '70'5. The Russian socialists became Marxists. Russia, they argued, was becoming an industrial coun try and the numbers of the industrial proletariat were speedily increasing. In fact Vyshnegradsky, minister of finance since 1887, not only continued Reutern's policy in developing the railway (221 thousand versts at the beginning, 361 at the end of Alexander's reign) and in protecting industry (prohibitive tariff, 1891), but tried to influence the foreign market and to stabilize the rate of exchange of the Russian ruble. He also resorted to foreign cap ital. In 1889-94 its influx was 5,300,000 rubles, as compared with 1,500,00o of 37 years before (1851-88). However, the position of the Russian consumer who had to pay about 34% ad valorem for imported goods, instead of 13% as before the tariff of 1891, was much worsened. The peasants especially suffered, as the price of grain, their only article for sale, fell from 1.19 ruble per pood 0880 to 0.59 in 1894, while their allotments which had been insufficient at the moment of liberation, further diminished (1861 1900) to 54-2%. As a result their arrears of taxes increased more than five times compared with 1871-80. Vyshnegradsky tried to relieve the Treasury by increasing enormously the customs and excise. In the decade 1883-92 taxation increased 29% while the population increased only 16%. Thus elements of an agrarian crisis were increasing as the 19th century was nearing its end. Relations with Germany and France.—Alexander foreign policy was peaceful. He wished to be himself his foreign minister: the old and haughty Gorchakov gave place to a sub missive Germanophil Giers. Bismarck profited by this, and in spite of his alliance with Austria (1879) which was avowedly concluded against Russia, contrived to renew, as early as 1881, the "Three Emperors' League" of 1872. In 1884 it was renewed for three following years, and in 1887, as Austria seceded, Bis marck concluded his famous "re-insurance" treaty with Russia.
All these treaties fettered Russia in her Balkan policy, but secured her against the opening of the Straits to England and even permitted to her, by a secret protocol, the military occupa tion of the Straits in case of necessity. As at the same time the Triple Alliance with Italy was concluded (5882), Bismarck's policy proved too complicated for his successor, and in 1890 a Russian proposal to prolong the treaty for the next six years was rejected by Caprivi. Thus the way was opened to a Franco-Rus sian rapprochement, while Germany was courting England, Russia's competitor in Asia, where Alexander in 1885 took thus definitely reaching the frontiers of Afghanistan and India. In 1889 France opened to Russia her market for loans and her factories for armaments; in 1891 a French squadron was en thusiastically received in Kronstadt and the "entente cordiale" was concluded which was followed by a military convention worked out in Aug. 1892 and definitely ratified by the tsar in March Alexander III. died on Nov. 1, 1894, in Livadia, 5o years old. His robust constitution had been sapped by constant fear of the revolutionaries, which made him live at Gatchina like a prisoner, surrounded by a cordon of police agents. A new revolutionary movement was indeed in sight which, 23 years later, was to ex tinguish the dynasty.