RUSSIA SINCE THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA.
ALEXANDER I. AND THE HOLY ALLIANCE.--Upon the downfall of Napoleon,
Alexander I. (1801-1825) of Russia organized the celebrated union known as
the _Holy Alliance_. This was a league embracing as its chief members
Russia, Austria, and Prussia, the ostensible object of which was the
maintenance of religion, peace, and order in Europe, and the reduction to
practice in politics of the maxims of Christ. The several sovereigns
entering into the union promised to be fathers to their people, to rule in
love and with reference solely to the promotion of the welfare of their
subjects, and to help one another as brothers to maintain just government
and prevent wrong.
All this had a very millennial look. But the "Holy Alliance" very soon
became practically a league for the maintenance of absolute principles of
government, in opposition to the liberal tendencies of the age. Under the
pretext of maintaining religion, justice, and order, the sovereigns of the
union acted in concert to suppress every aspiration among their subjects
for political liberty. Yet, when Alexander founded the alliance, he meant
all that he said. But conspiracies among his own subjects, and popular
uprisings throughout Europe, all tended to create in him a revulsion of
feeling. From an ardent apostle of liberal ideas, such as he was during
all the earlier part of his reign, he was transformed into a violent
absolutist, and spent all his later years in aiding the despotic rulers of
Spain, Italy, and Germany to crush every uprising among their subjects for
political freedom.
This reactionary policy of Alexander caused bitter disappointment among
the Liberals in Russia, the number of whom was large, for the Russian
armies that helped to crush Napoleon came back from the West with many new
and liberal ideas awakened by what they had seen and heard and
experienced.
THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR OF 1828-1829.--In 1825 Alexander I. was succeeded by
his brother Nicholas I. (1825-1855), "a terrible incarnation of
autocracy." He carried out the later policy of his predecessor, and strove
to shut out from his empire all the liberalizing influences of Western
Europe.
In 1828, taking advantage of the embarrassment of the Sultan through a
stubborn insurrection in Greece, [Footnote: This was the struggle known as
the "War of Grecian Independence." It was characterized by the most
frightful barbarities on the part of the Turks. Lord Byron enlisted on the
side of the Greeks. The result of the war was the freeing of Greece from
Turkish rule. England, France, and Russia became the guardians of the
little state, the crown of which was given to Prince Otto of Bavaria (Otto
I., 1832-1862).] Nicholas declared war against the Ottoman Porte. The
Balkans were quickly passed, and the victorious armies of the Czar were in
full march upon Constantinople, when their advance was checked by the
jealous interference of England and Austria, through whose mediation the
war was brought to a close by the Peace of Adrianople (1829). Nicholas
restored all his conquests in Europe, but held some provinces in Asia
which gave him control of the eastern shore of the Euxine. Greece was
liberated, and Servia became virtually independent of the Sultan. Thus the
result of the contest was greatly to diminish the strength and influence
of Turkey, and correspondingly to increase the power and prestige of
Russia.
REVOLUTION IN POLAND (1830-1832).--The Congress of Vienna (1815) re-
established Poland as a constitutional kingdom dependent upon Russia. But
the rule of the Czar over the Poles was tyrannical, and they were
impatient of an opportunity to throw off the Russian yoke. The
revolutionary movements of the year 1830 sent a wave of hope through
Poland; the people arose and drove out the Russian garrisons. But the
armies of the Czar quickly poured over the frontiers of the revolted
state, and before the close of the year 1831 the Polish patriots were once
more under the foot of their Russian master.
It was a hard fate that awaited the unhappy nation. Their constitution was
taken away, and Poland was made a province of the Russian empire (1832).
Multitudes were banished to Siberia, while thousands more expatriated
themselves, seeking an asylum in England, America, and other countries. Of
all the peoples that rose for freedom in 1830 none suffered so cruel and
complete an extinguishment of their hopes as did the patriot
Poles.[Footnote: For Russia's part in the affairs of the revolutionary
years 1848-49, see p. 702.]
THE CRIMEAN WAR (1853-1856).--A celebrated phrase applied to the Ottoman
Porte by the Czar Nicholas casts a good deal of light upon the
circumstances that led to the Crimean War. "We have on our hands," said
the Czar, "a sick man--a very sick man; I tell you frankly it would be a
great misfortune if he should give us the slip some of these days,
especially if it happened before all the necessary arrangements were
made."
Nicholas had cultivated friendly relations with the English government,
and he now proposed that England and Russia, as the parties most directly
interested, should divide the estate of the "sick man." England was to be
allowed to take Egypt and Crete, while the Turkish provinces in Europe
were to be taken under the protection of the Czar, which meant of course
the complete absorption, in due time, of all Southeastern Europe into the
Russian empire.
A pretence for hastening the dissolution of the sick man was not long
wanting. A quarrel between the Greek and Latin Christians at Jerusalem
about the holy places was made the ground by Nicholas for demanding of the
Sultan the admission and recognition of a Russian protectorate over all
Greek Christians in the Ottoman dominions. The demand was rejected, and
Nicholas prepared for war.
The Sultan appealed to the Western powers for help. England and France
responded to the appeal, and later Sardinia joined her forces to theirs.
England, rejecting the Czar's proposal of a division of the dying man's
estate, fought to prevent Russia from getting through the Bosporus to the
Mediterranean, and thus endangering her route to her Eastern possessions.
The French emperor fought to avenge Moscow, and to render his new imperial
throne attractive to his people by surrounding it with the glamour of
successful war. Sardinia was led to join England and France through the
policy of the far-sighted Cavour, who would thus have the Sardinians win
the gratitude of these powers, so that in the next conflict with Austria
the Italian patriots might have some strong friends to help them.
The main interest of the struggle centred about Sebastopol, in the Crimea,
Russia's great naval and military depot, and the key to the Euxine. Around
this strongly fortified place were finally gathered 175,000 soldiers of
the allies. The siege, which lasted eleven months, was one of the most
memorable and destructive in history. The Russian engineer Todleben earned
a great fame through his masterly defence of the works. The English "Light
Brigade" earned immortality in their memorable charge at Balaklava. The
French troops, through their dashing bravery, brought great fame to the
emperor who had sent them to gather glory for his throne.
The Russians were at length forced to evacuate the place. They left it,
however, a "second Moscow." The war was now soon brought to an end by the
Treaty of Paris (1856). Every provision of the treaty had in view the
maintenance of the integrity of the empire of the Sultan, and the
restraining of the ambition of the Czar. Russia was given back Sebastopol,
but was required to give up some territory at the mouth of the Danube,
whereby her frontier was pushed back from that river; to abandon all
claims to a protectorate over any of the subjects of the Porte; to agree
not to raise any more fortresses on the Euxine nor keep upon that sea any
armed ships, save what might be needed for police service. The Christian
population of the Turkish dominions were placed under the guardianship of
the great powers, who were to see that the Sublime Porte fulfilled its
promise of granting perfect civil and religious equality and protection to
all its subjects.
EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS (1858-1863).--Alexander II. (1855-1881), who
came to the Russian throne in the midst of the Crimean War, abandoned the
narrow and intolerant system of his predecessor Nicholas, and reverting as
it were to the policy of Peter the Great, labored for popular reform, and
for the introduction into his dominions of the ideas and civilization of
Western Europe. The reform which will ever give his name a place in the
list of those rulers who have conferred singular benefits upon their
subjects, was the emancipation, by a series of imperial edicts, of the
Russian serfs, who made up more than 45,000,000 of the population of the
empire. More than half of these serfs belonged to the Crown, and were
known as Crown peasants.
The Crown serfs were only _nominal_ bondsmen, their servitude consisting
in scarcely more than the payment of a light rent. The serfs of individual
proprietors, however, might be designated as semi-slaves. Thus, their
owners could flog them in case of disobedience, but could not sell them
individually as slaves are sold; yet when a proprietor sold his estate,
the whole community of serfs living upon it passed with it to the
purchaser.
Besides the emancipation measure, Alexander's name is associated with
other reforms, the earlier part of his reign especially being
characterized by a very liberal spirit. This liberal policy was followed
until the revolt of the Poles in 1863, when Alexander was led to adopt a
more reactionary policy, a policy which persistently pursued has yielded
bitter fruit in Nihilism.
THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR OF 1877-1878.--Anxiously as the Treaty of Paris had
provided for the permanent settlement of the Eastern Question, barely
twenty-two years had passed before it was again up before Europe, and
Russia and Turkey were again in arms. The Sultan could not or would not
give to his Christian subjects that equal protection of the laws which he
had solemnly promised should be given. The Moslem hatred of the Christians
was constantly leading to disturbance and outrage. In 1860 there was a
great massacre of Syrian Christians by the Druses and Turks, and in 1876
occurred in Bulgaria the so-called "Bulgarian atrocities," massacres of
Christian men, women, and children, more revolting perhaps than any others
of which history tells. The greatest indignation was kindled throughout
Europe. The Russian armies were set in motion (1877). Kars in Asia Minor
and Plevna in European Turkey fell into the hands of the Russians, and the
armies of the Czar were once more in full march upon Constantinople, with
the prospect of soon ending forever Turkish rule on European soil, when
England, as in 1829, interfered, and by the movements of her iron-clads in
the Bosporus again arrested the triumphant march of the Russians.
[Illustration: SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE According to the Treaty of Berlin,
1878.]
[Illustration: THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN. (By Anton von Werner, Prussian
Court Painter)]
The Treaty of Berlin (1878) adjusted once more the disorganized affairs of
the Sublime Porte, and bolstered as well as was possible the "sick man."
But he lost a good part of his estate. Out of those provinces of his
dominions in Europe in which the Christian population was most numerous,
there was created a group of wholly independent or half-independent
states. The absolute independence of Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro was
formally acknowledged; Bulgaria, north of the Balkans, was to enjoy self-
government, but was to pay a tribute to the Porte; East Roumelia was to
have a Christian governor, but was to remain under the dominion of the
Sultan. The Balkans were thus made the northern boundary of the Turkish
empire in Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina were given to the Austro-
Hungarian monarchy. Russia acquired some places in Armenia, and also
received Bessarabia on the Lower Danube.
In a word, Russia regained everything she had lost in the Crimean
struggle, while Turkey was shorn of half her European possessions. There
were left in Europe under the direct authority of the Sultan barely
5,000,000 subjects, of which number about one-half are Christians. England
alone is responsible for the work of emancipation not having been made
complete.
NIHILISM AND THE EXILE SYSTEM.--Russian Nihilism is a smothered French
Revolution. It is the form which Liberalism has taken under the
repressions of a despotic autocracy; for the government of Russia is a
perfect absolutism, the Czar alone being legislator, judge, and executive
for the Russian nation of 85,000,000 souls. He makes laws, levies taxes,
expends the revenue, and condemns his subjects to exile or death,
according to his own will, without let or hindrance. The terrible
character of the repressive measures of the government is revealed by the
fact that during the years 1879 and 1880 sixty thousand persons were,
_without trial_, sent into exile in Siberia. [Footnote: On the Exile
System of Russia read the excellent series of articles by George Kennan in
_The Century Magazine_ for 1888-9.]
It is a principle of the extreme Nihilists, that assassination is a
righteous means of reform. Within the last few years many attempts have
been made upon the life of the reigning Czar. On March 13, 1881, Alexander
II. was killed by means of a bomb filled with dynamite.
The son of the murdered Czar who now came to the throne as Alexander III.,
immediately instituted a still more sternly repressive system than that
pursued by his father, whom he seemed to regard as the victim of the over-
liberal policy of the earlier years of his reign. It appears to be his
determination to close his empire against the entrance of all liberal or
progressive ideas, political, religious, and scientific, of Western
Europe. A rigid censorship of the press is being maintained (1889), and
the writings of such authors as Huxley, Spencer, Agassiz, Lyell, and Adam
Smith, are forbidden circulation.
There can be but one outcome to this contest between the "Autocrat of all
the Russias" and his subjects. Either through wise concessions on the part
of its rulers, or through the throes of a terrible revolution, like that
of 1789 in France, the Russian empire will sooner or later come to possess
a constitutional representative government. The Czar of Russia is simply
fighting the hopeless battle that has been fought and lost by the despotic
sovereigns of every other European country--a battle which has the same
invariable issue, the triumph of liberal principles and the admission of
the people to a participation in the government.