emperor very quickly made it clear that he would not permit limitations on autocratic rule, and the project was abandoned. The new emperor and his family moved out of St.
ALEXANDER III
Petersburg to live in the palace at Gatchina, a grim fortress-like building associated with Paul I. It was clear that the whole tone of Alexander III’s reign was to be different. Instead of the European-orientated reforms of Alexander II, the new emperor was determined to follow the “Russian path,” which he understood to be a forceful autocracy, proudly national in its actions and with the Orthodox Church providing a link between emperor and the people. Many of Alexander II’s ministers and advisers were rapidly removed from office and were replaced by men with impeccable conservative credentials. Prime amongst them were Konstantin Pobedonos-tsev, officially only procurator-general of the Holy Synod (the lay official who governed the Orthodox Church), but who played a key role in guiding policy across a wide range of areas, and Dmitry Tolstoy, minister of internal affairs for most of the 1880s. The non-Russian nationalities of the empire were subjected to cultural and administrative Rus-sification. This was especially fierce in the Baltic provinces of the empire, where the use of the Russian language was made compulsory in the courts and in local government and where the local German-speaking university was compelled to provide teaching in Russian. This approach also included encouraging non-Orthodox peoples to convert to the Orthodox religion, sometimes by offering them incentives in the form of land grants. In Poland, most education had to be provided in Russian and the Roman Catholic Church could only exist under considerable restrictions.
Alexander III and his ministers also tried to claw back some elements of the Great Reforms of the 1860s that had seemed to set Russia on the path toward a more open political system. The post of justice of the peace, established by the legal reform of 1864, was abolished in most of Russia in 1889 and its legal functions transferred to the new post of land captain. This official had very wide powers over the peasantry and was intended to strengthen the hold that the government had over its rural population. The land captain became a much-disliked figure in much of peasant Russia. The government also limited the powers of the zemstvos that had been established in the 1860s. These elected local councils had been given responsibility for the provision of many local services and “zemstvo liberalism” had become a thorn in the side of the autocracy, as some local councils had pressed for the principle of representative government to be extended to national government. Alexander III acted to narrow the franchise for zemstvo elections and to restrict the amount of taxation that the zem-stvo could levy. These moves were intended to neuter the zemstvo and reduce the influence they could have on the population, but Alexander never dared go so far as to actually abolish the local councils. This typified the problems facing Alexander III. While he wanted to return to the traditional ethos of Russian autocracy, he was forced to recognize that, in practical terms, he could not turn the clock back. The reforms of the 1860s had become so firmly embedded in Russian society that they could not simply be undone. All that the emperor could do was to ensure that the iron fist of autocracy was wielded as effectively as possible.
Some of Alexander’s policies made matters more difficult for the autocracy. At the end of the 1880s, the government’s economic policies became oriented toward stimulating industrial growth. A major part in this was played by Sergei Witte, who had made his career in the railway industry before coming to work in government, and who became minister of finance in 1892. Witte deeply admired Alexander III and believed that Russia could be both an autocracy and a successful industrial power. The government, however, failed to recognize the social and political consequences of the industrial boom that Russia enjoyed during the 1890s and the new industrial working class began to flex its muscles and to demand better working conditions and political change. The emperor also had a personal interest in Russia’s foreign policy. His Danish wife helped him develop an instinctive distrust of Germany and the 1880s witnessed Russia’s gradual disengagement from its traditional alliance with Germany and Austria. There were important economic reasons for Russia’s new diplomatic direction: Industrial growth required investment from abroad and the most promising source of capital was France. In 1894 Russia and France signed an alliance that was to be significant both for its part in stimulating Russian industry and for the way in which it began the reshaping of Europe’s diplomatic map as the continent began to divide into the two groups that would sit on opposite sides during World War I. Alexander III did not live long enough to see the results of his work. Despite his large frame and apparent strength, he developed kidney disease and died at the age of forty-nine in October 1894. See also: AUTOCRACY; ALEXANDER II; INDUSTRIALIZATION; NICHOLAS I; RUSSO-TURKISH WARS; WITTE, SERGEI YULIEVICH
ALEXANDER YAROSLAVICH
Chernukha, Valentina Chernukha. (1996). “Emperor Alexander III.” In The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Rediscovering the Romanovs, ed. Donald Raleigh. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Zaionchkovskii, Petr. (1976). The Russian Autocracy under Alexander III. Gulf Breeze, FL: Oriental Research Partners
See also: GOLDEN HORDE; GRAND PRINCE; IVAN I; METROPOLITAN; NOVGOROD THE GREAT
Fennell, John L. I. (1968). The Emergence of Moscow 1304-1359. London: Secker amp; Warburg. Martin, Janet. (1995). Medieval Russia 980-1584. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
(1301-1339), prince of Tver and grand prince of Vladimir.
Alexander Mikhailovich was the second son of Michael Yaroslavich. In 1326, after Khan Uzbek had executed Alexander’s elder brother Dmitry, Alexander became prince of Tver and received the patent for the grand princely throne of Vladimir. The Novgorodians also welcomed him as their prince. The following year Uzbek sent his cousin Chol-Khan to Tver, but the latter’s oppressive measures incited the citizens to revolt. Other towns joined them in massacring Tatar agents, troops, and merchants. In 1328 the khan therefore punished Alexander for the revolt of his subjects by making his rival for Vladimir, Ivan I Danilovich “Kalita” of Moscow, grand prince. The khan also gave him a large Tatar force with which he devastated Tver. Alexander sought refuge in Novgorod but on this occasion the townspeople turned him away. He fled to Pskov where the citizens, who were seeking independence from Novgorod, invited him to be their prince and refused to hand him over to the khan. Kalita, who was determined to destroy Tver as a political rival, had Metropolitan Feognost excommunicate Alexander and the people of Pskov. In 1329 Alexander fled to Lithuania in order to free Pskov from the Church’s ban. But after some two years he returned to Pskov, where he ruled until 1337. In that year the khan summoned him to the Golden Horde and reinstated him in Tver. Subsequently many boyars deserted him and fled to Moscow to help Kalita fight for the grand princely throne. In 1339 the khan summoned Alexander to Saray and executed him on October 22nd or 28th of that year. After Alexander’s death, Tver declined in importance, and the prince of Moscow became the most powerful ruler in northeast Russia.
ALEXANDER YAROSLAVICH
(1220-1263), known as Alexander Nevsky, prince of Novgorod, grand prince of Vladimir, grand prince of Kiev, and progenitor of the princes of Moscow.
Born around 1220, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod Yurevich “Big Nest.” Between the years 1228 and 1233 he and his elder brother, Fy-odor, ruled Novgorod in the name of their father Yaroslav of Pereyaslavl Zalessky. After Fyodor’s death in 1233, Alexander’s younger brother Andrei helped him to expand Novgorod’s lands and to increase the prince’s control over the town. In 1238 the Tatars invaded Suzdalia but bypassed Novgorod. Nevertheless, the town’s expansion into the neighboring Finnish lands was challenged by the Swedes and by German Knights (the Order of Livonian Swordbearers, joined later by the Teutonic Order). In 1240, when the Swedes marched against Novgorod, Alexander and a small force confronted the enemy at the river Neva and routed them. He thereby secured Novgorod’s outlet to the Baltic Sea and earned the sobriquet “Nevsky” (of the Neva). After his brilliant victory, he quarreled with the Novgorodians and withdrew to Pereyaslavl Za-lessky. But less than a year later the Germans seized Pskov and threatened Novgorod’s commerce, therewith forcing the citizens to bring back Nevsky on his terms. He arrived in 1241 and began reclaiming Novgorod’s lost territories, including neighboring Pskov. He confronted the main force of Teutonic Knights on the frozen Lake Chud (Lake Peypus) where, on April 5, 1242, he defeated them in the famous “battle on the ice.” The next year the Knights and the Novgorodians concluded peace. This allowed Nevsky to continue asserting Novgorod’s jurisdiction over the Finns and to wage war
