Autocracy in Russia - Wittes and Pobedonostsevs Visions - Essay Example

Autocracy in Russia: Witte’s and Pobedonostsev’s visions Introduction A governing system whereby a single ruler is designated as the overall head and controls all wealth of a nation and has power on religion, economic, social and political wings is termed autocratic system of rule. The Russian autocratic rule endorsed one leader to be the owner of all wealth and power. Its characteristics included the Tsar who was the supreme leader, and had power over all his subjects. In this regard, he appointed those ministers who should work under him. He also presided over religious matters to mention a few. The autocratic rule in Russia was first depicted during the time of Mongol leader; Khan of the Golden Horde. Ivan III wiped out the idea of democracy by annexing territory of both principalities of their kingdom, ensuring that no united political power would be able to oppose their total authoritarian rule. The leader drew a firm support of the Russian Orthodox Church to legitimize an autocratic rule (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). The people of Russia would therefore feel the effects of this rule in later years during the time of reign of both Alexander III and Nicholas II of between 1880 and 1905. Many Russians suffered due to autocratic rule at these times and later it resulted to the Russian Revolution. During the time of these two rulers, the people of Russia ran to extreme poverty due to existence of famine, lack of education, the people lived under poor working condition in cities, there were limited industries even though society that is more agrarian could be noticed no development could be hastened. Due to autocracy, the Russian empire was deteriorated politically, economically, and socially. There were no industries and most of the people were peasants with high level of illiteracy. Most of the citizens were still under the slavery of wealthy property owners. The government still had no defined legal or constitution as well as parliament thus as a result no elections could be conducted. For efficient and smooth run of the entire vast empire, the Tsar appointed various ministers to help him rule. People were denied freedom of speech thus grievances could not be aired to the Tsar. Modernization of Russia by the use of Witte and Pobedonostsev visions The first round in the struggle to define a direction of Russia’s development was between the conservative stability proclaimed by Pobedonostsev, which elaborated on maintenance of Russia’s natural institution and massive industrial change driven by Witte that emphasized on the introduction of European institutions (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). Two competing visions about the Russia’s future erupted; the Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827-1907) versus Sergei Witte (1849-1915) visions were similar in a number of ways, for instance; The assassination of Alexander II influenced their visions The two men experienced a reversal of their early ideological ways: Witte changed from a believer in slavophile ideas to a modernizer with respect to European terms. While Pobedonostsev quitted from a scholar and legal person to a conservative politician. They seemed to move outside of court circles. They were both important public officials of the imperial Russia. Pobedonostsev was a prosecutor of Holy Synod thus was entasked with the responsibility of being in charge of Russian Orthodox Church. He is also the chair of Committee of ministers. Witte was the minister of railroads and a director of state railways in the ministry of finance. 1. Pobedonostsev vision Pobedonostsev “The grey eminence” was a devout believer in conservative autocrat and influenced the people to support autocracy, orthodoxy, and nationality, which were unusual for 19th century. He was known to be the author of “Senseless dreams,” and believed that man was so sinful. In this regard, he needed the strong reign of the leaders and church to control and keep him in order. He further denounced that everything was about constitutional or parliamentary systems, natural rights and freedoms as well as democracy. He supported his argument that people must accord respect to traditional systems of Russia and any attempts to reform society was evil; one must at all, preserve the autocracy intact and support fully the national orthodox church. Pobedonostsev influenced some of Alexander III’s policies for instance; he encouraged an official policy of Russification directed against the minority populations of the kingdom. He farther brought primary education under the control of church. In his vision, he influenced the support of persecution directed mainly to the Jews. Though the vision he had and ideologies which greatly diminished during the Russo-Japanese war and the revolution of 1905, they are still supported by the Russians. 2. The Witte System vision Poor management of the minister of finance, the then Vyshnegradskii introduced a contradictive policy of taxation which made peasant face hard life. His strategies included the raising of tariffs, emphasis on the collection of arrears, and agitating for the increase of indirect taxation. The replacement of the minister Witte intensified the development of Russia (Boris, 2012). Witte’s vision was one of the Russia’s paths that led to its modernization and made it equal to any of its contemporary nations in Europe. The pillars of Witte’s vision were stable ruble and export surpluses that would enable government borrowing abroad. The vision was mainly focused on bringing Russia to the level where European living standards were. The system was a program of heavy industrial development, which majorly focused on railway construction, and development to allow Russia to reach a level where more advanced western countries had reached. His idea was also to enable Russia to export its commodities to the world markets and farther to Far East (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). Witte carried out a huge state intervention in the economy to develop a national economy. Through this, Russia for the first time experienced a massive and sustained economic growth rates that resulted to the improvement of living standards of Russian people. Witte though tried; he could not merge an agrarian reform to this industrial and financial reform that would have escalated growth like the gold standard of 1897. Due to Witte tiresome work and a focus on industry, success in the negotiation that brought an end to Russo-Japanese war, bringing an end of revolution of 1905 and creation of semi-parliamentary system in Russia made his enemies to advance thus he was dismissed from power. Impacts of both visions The Russian population had numerous problems that were unsolved. These problems included great political participation. The Russian people needed this in that it enhanced the sharing of political powers. The vices such as corruption, empty promises by the government, and denial of freedom to exercise rights by the Russian government were addressed. The outcome of these two struggling visions did not help as at large as well could not solve much of the problems. Witte had to abandon the idea of agrarian reform. Some of the European political and economical forms could be realized in Russia could not be embraced by many Russians. Implementation of conservative forces had was difficult in maintain order because a lot of changes had already occurred; there were large industries and cities with many working class employees and middle class kept on rising which could not fit into the conservative vision of the Russian government. Thus, this vision was doomed to disappear After 1905, the struggle shifted to member-in-good-standing of the Russian socialist revolution party by Azef the terrorist who advocated a radical and complete overthrow of the much existing orders and realization of socialization in the future. This was also countered by Stolypin’s vision of restoration and maintenance of order in the face of public disorder and assassinations as well as getting parliamentary institutions (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). Conclusion The autocracy despite a number of successes such as industries, trade and semi-parliamentary systems it embraced in Russia, was not a sufficient way for economic, social, political and religious improvements. For instance, the visions by Witte and Pobedonostsev could not come clear in ideologies that could recognize effects of change in economic and social change. Therefore, the failure rendered the state unstable, and could not handle the problems of international trade properly. It also blocked the completion of integrating slaves, peasants other citizens in to civil movements. Many problems emanated after including; political oppositions to Tsar Nicholas II, the Russo-Japanese war, the Revolution of 1905 and the October Manifesto and the Four Dumas and policies of Stolypin before the World War 1. Reference MacKenzie, D. & Curran, M. W. (2001). A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond (with InfoTrac). 6 edition, Cengage Learning. Read More