1. The genesis of RussiaBecause my niece, Princess Nina Obolensky, once told me that our family descends from Rurik, the Viking chieftain that grounded Russia some eleven hundred years ago, I knew that I couldn't let my story begin in 1917. I had to go into the history, culture and leitmotivs of the Russian people, and I had to show that Russian history repeats itself over and over again. With the flight of the Russian nobility and numerous artists and scientists, a large part of Russian history and culture went abroad, where some of it - thank God! - lived on. The Communists wanted us - and the people of Russia - to believe that Lenin and Stalin were the founders of Russia. Fortunately we know better than that.The state of Russia arose in western Eurasia,
where in the 2nd and 3rd century, in a part of the area between the Baltic,
the Black Sea and the Lower-Danube, East Slavonian tribes had settled down.
An Alan tribe called themselves the Rukhs,
`the Shining', and the notions `Russian' and `Russia' presumably derived
from this name.
The 6th century Byzantine historian Procopius
of Caesarea wrote that originally there was a political democracy, where
all public affairs were dealt with in tribe meetings. But at one stage
there arose an aristocratic class, which enriched itself with warbooty
and prisoners of war, who were used as slaves, to work and fight for the
aristocrats. A part of the treasures of these monarchs was excavated in
Pereshchepino, in the Poltava province, and can be found in the Hermitage
Museum of St. Peters- burg.
Under Atilla the power of the Huns reached a pinnacle. Half-way through the 5th century the center of Atilla's power was in Pannonia, from where he plundered the areas around the Mediterranean, Rome and Byzantium. After Atilla's death in 453 the power of the Huns began to wane, and towards the end of the 9th century Pannonia was occupied by the Magyars. The Huns retreated to the area of Azov, and later called themselves Bulgarians. One of my English uncles, the historian Dmitri Obolensky (1918-) - since 1984 Sir Obolensky - wrote about the come and go of tribes and peoples, `The written sources offer us the picture of a perplexed succession of tribes and peoples which wipe each other from the map every two centuries or so.' Sir Dmitri has written 8 books, about the Byzantine Commonwealth, Russian verse, Russian art, Russian architecture, Russian history, Russian language and Russian literature. Northern RussiaIn those days the forests on both sides of the Urals were populated by Finnish-Uigurian tribes. The Fins formed the northern, while the Magyars formed the southern tribe. The Fins lived close to the forests and lakes and were a people of hunters and fishermen; they used fur as a circulating medium. Their organization was not developed in such a way that they could stop the Slavonian colonization to the north. They retreated more and more; the stragglers mixed with the Slavonian colonists.In North Western Russia, in the basins
of the western Dvina and the Niemen, lived Lithuanian and Baltic tribes.
This area originally also consisted mainly of forests, but the population
soon began to cultivate areas on behalf of arable farming.
The coming of RurikThe Khazars and the Volga-Bulgarians internationally traded in expensive furs, but the Russian kaganate soon proved to be a formidable competitor, as a result of which the Russian economy developed. The Khazars and Volga-Bulgarians were beaten out of the field.The Khazars didn't want to put up with
that, and they started a war against the Russians, who in turn levied a
strong expeditionary force from the north, to reopen commercial traffic.
That was the only way to avoid an economical crisis. When the Russian-Slavonian-Swedish
soldiers were in the imminent danger to be worsted by the Khazars, the
Russian kagan decided to call in the assistance of `the Variags (wanderers)
from oversea', and in 856 Rurik came to Novgorod. He was a famous Viking
chieftain, adventurer and pirate, who in those days, as a vassal of Emperor
Lothar, ruled over Southern-Jutland and Friesland. He is regarded the founder
of Russia and the progenitor of the first Russian dynasty of tsars, which
reigned until 1598, first from Kiev, later from Moscow. Forty-two old aristocratic
Russian families (like Dolgorouky, Obolensky, Sviatopolk-Mirsky, Lvov and
Volkonsky) directly descend from Rurik, who in turn was a scion of the
Jutland lineage of Skjoldung. He restored order in Northern Russia and
made sure that he had a firm seat, but he wasn't interested in the expansion
of his territory to the South, like the Russians had hoped. Rurik's men
reached Kiev in 858, allied themselves with the Magyars and joined the
Russian kaganate of the Taman-peninsula. From there Constantinopel was
attacked, in June 860, because the Russians thought that they, after having
beaten the Khazars, could occupy the Byzantine empire without a blow. Unfortunately,
this turned into a disappointment, and they had to beat a hasty retreat.
However, the Byzantine patriarch Photios used this opportunity to send
missionaries after the retreating Russians.
Rurik died in 879. His successor Oleg
paid more attention to the South, and occupied Kiev with his troops. In
Kiev sprung up a fierce battle between the Swedish Russians and the Norwegian
Russians, and after Oleg had killed the leaders of the Swedish Russians,
he proclaimed himself ruler of Kiev, as a result of which a new state arose,
the so called Kievian Russia.
Olga's son Sviatoslav, a very dynamical
and resourceful man, who during his reign (964-972) mainly amused himself
with campaigns, expanded the territory of the state of Kiev.
The Germans and Greeks bring the gospelIn those days the Germans appeared at the mouth of the western Dvina. Their relationship with the population of that area, Latvians and Lithuanians, was highly peaceful. Most German colonists were traders or missionaries. In 1200 bishop Albert founded the city of Riga, and he tried to convert the autochtonous population to Christianity. As this didn't quite work out the way he had planned, he sent for soldiers, to enforce the words of the missionaries. A new order of knighthood was founded. Now that the crusades to the Holy Land had not resulted in convertion of the Muslims, converts had to be made elsewhere. Bishop Albert's Knights of the Sword wore white capes with red crosses, and expanded their power quickly, east of Riga in the direction of Pskov and Polotsk. In 1224 Estonia was captured.With the arrival of Christianity Russian society underwent substantial changes. Human sacrifices and blood feud had to make place for charity, leniency and care for the weak. Byzantium sent metropolitans (archbishops) to Kiev, and let Russian monarchs marry Byzantine princesses, to ensure themselves of unions with Russia. The mother of Vladimir Monomach, Grand Duke of Kiev from 1113 to 1125, was such a Byzantine princess. Ecclesiastical Russia was subsidiary to the patriarch of Constantinopel, as a result of which the Russian people got the impression that Russia was also subsidiary to the emperor of Byzantium in political respect. The Byzantine bishops, who weren't unfamiliar with politics, stimulated this, and preached that the power of the monarchs was divine and that every resistance against the monarch was considered a mortal sin. Because this way the power of the monarch increased, he didn't bother to argue with the bishops. Russia became a metropoly of the patriarchy of Constantinopel, headed by the Metropolitan of Kiev - usually a Greek. The Metropolitan was appointed by the patriarch of Constantinopel, and there was no way the monarch could influence the appointment. The power of the Greek and the loss of prestige of the Russian monarch in relation to his people resulted in an increasing deterioration of the relationship with Constantinopel. The area between the Niemen and the Weichsel was controlled by other Germans, the knights of the Livonian Order, who wore black capes with white crosses. On request of a Polish monarch they had come to the Baltic, to protect him against the Prussians, a Lithuanian tribe. The Livonian Order conquered the Prussians and founded a new German state, which later was called Prussia. The monarch and his boyarsIn the pre-Tatar era the Russian principalities knew royal, aristocratical and democratical administrations, but in old Russia the monarch wasn't an autocratical ruler. His main tasks were to defend the city against enemies from outside, and to appoint judges. The monarch himself was the supreme judge.The aristocratic element was formed by
the council, which was empaneled by high military officers out of royal
circles and other aristocrats, which usually were called boyars. The boyars
had no obligations whatsoever towards the monarch. They possessed their
land and real estate in hereditary tenure, and even when they were engaged
by another monarch, this right could not be forfacted.
In Kievian society there were no impassable
borders between the several free population groups; there were no hereditary
castes or classes, and social mobility was high. Sure, there were social
classes, and the boyars and other landed gentry formed the social upper
layer, but it wasn't impossible to move up the social ranks. Half and full
slaves There were two forms of slavery in Kievian Russia, which remind
us of ancient Greece: temporary and permanent slavery; the latter form
was hereditary and also was called `full slavery'. The temporary slaves
were usually prisoners of war. After a war was terminated they had to pay
a ransom, and when they weren't able to do so, they had to pay off the
ransom by labour. Full slaves were regarded possession of their owner and
could be bought and sold. Some full slaves served in the household of their
masters, but most of them worked in the fields. One or two were able to
develop their positions in such a way that they could buy themselves free.
Conversely a free man who could not maintain himself in such a way, could
sell himself as a slave, but the consequence of that action was that he
lost his citizen's rights. More often people leant money and payd off the
debt and interest by working for the creditor. That made him `half-free',
as if he were a contract labourer. After a certain period, which was agreed
in advance, he got back his citizen's rights, but as soon as he took off
untimely, he was regarded a fugitive, and once he was caught he became
a full slave.
Russia in the Tatar periodRussia was occupied by the Tatars (Mongols) for two centuries , but towards the end of this period Moscow became a semi-autonomous state. The biggest enemy was no longer the Golden Horde, but the Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1385 a treaty between Lithuania and Poland was signed. Grand Duke Yagailo of Lithuania married the Queen of Poland and was made King of Poland. In the treaty the principality of Lithuania was absorbed by the Polish kingdom, but both countries remained sovereign states. In 1393 Yagailo's cousin Vitovt was made Grand Duke of Lithuania, and soon he became the most powerful ruler of Eastern-Europe.In Kievian Russia the boyars under the Tatars remained the helpers of the monarch, but they didn't become any constitutional rights. Sure, the monarch was completely subsidiary to the Khan, but this way he was also protected against the boyars' political demands. The boyars were however still free to go from one monarch to another, without having to fear that they lost their inherited estates this way. All that changed as the Grand Duke of
Moscow became the ruler of Russia in name of the Khan. If the boyars left
the Grand Duke to offer their services to another monarch, he wouldn't
thank them for that, especially in times of war or conflicts between the
monarchs. It often happened that the estates of a boyar who was regarded
a traitor by the Grand Duke, were forfeitured, and sometimes the boyars
were even executed for their lack of loyalty.
Ivan the Great settles the Moscovian empireAfter the Tatar oppression Moscovia remained the dominating Russian state and the power of the Grand Duke increased even more. Under Ivan III's administration (1462-1505) Moscow became an internationally known principality. He was a visionary and prudent ruler, who introduced the system of the military fief (pomyestye) and sided with both the Russian monarchs and the boyars. He married a Byzantine princess, by which he gained prestige from both Western and Eastern monarchs, which in turn made it possible for him to establish diplomatic relations. He hired Italian artists, who embellished the Kremlin with beautiful palaces and churches, and he modernised the Russian artillery. Moscow became an imposing international city, the beautiful capital of a promising empire.Ivan's Byzantine marriage (1472) was set
up by the pope, who hoped Russia would become Roman-Catholic this way.
He also thought that Ivan would help him with his battle against the Ottoman
Turks. But both aims weren't realized, and the only one who gained by the
marriage was Ivan himself.
In Novgorod, which now was administrated
by Moscow, the relation between the boyars and the ordinary citizens deteriorated,
which in 1475 led to serious disturbances. As a result of this hereditary
landownership was abolished; land possession became conditional, as a favour
of the Grand Duke for proven or yet to prove services. This rather enforced
the power of the Grand Duke, but the power of regional monarchs and the
boyars was controlled even more. Moscow annexed one principality after
the other, and let the regional monarchs choose between emigration to Lithuania
or to work for the Grand Duke of Moscow. Only a few monarchs wished to
move to Lithuania; most monarchs chose for Moscow, where they became the
upper layer of the boyars and held the upper positions in the Moscovian
army and administration. A complicated coordination system was created,
according to which the genealogical seniority of boyar lineages and individual
boyars was settled. The autocratic Grand Duke reigned by means of an aristocratical
administration. The foundation of tsardom was layd.
Ivan the TerribleIvan IV, the Terrible, was a psychopath, due to his unhappy childhood. His father died in 1533, when little Ivan was only three years old. Elena Glinskaya, his mother, reigned in his name until 1539, together with the duma of boyars. All those years there were frictions, not just between her and the boyars, but also between the boyars themselves. In 1539 she also died; most likely she was poisoned by her aristocratic enemies. The council of boyars reigned autonomous, until Ivan in 1547 was crowned Tsar.Young Ivan didn't have any reason not to be paranoid, and justifiably feared for his life. He hated the arrogance of the high placed boyars at his court. At official occasions, like receptions for foreign ambassadors, they behaved like slaves, while in daily life they didn't hesitate to steal jewellery and art from the palace. In 1547, after Ivan IV was crowned Tsar, he married Anastasia Romanoff, who belonged to an old boyar lineage. André Ivanovich Kobyla, a Russian émigré who was a successful merchant in Prussia, was the progenitor of the Moscovian lineage of Romanoff. Contrary to the Obolensky's, the Dolgorouky's, the Bariatinsky's and others, and contrary to what many historians want us to believe, the Romanoffs of the 14th century didn't belong to the high Russian aristocracy. Only after Kobyla's great-great-granddaughter Anastasia married Tsar Ivan the Terrible, by which the Romanoffs connected their lineage with the old dynasty of the Moscovian tsars, the name of the lineage raised in prestige. Under Ivan IV's administration a new office was created, the zemsky sobor (national assembly), which in 1550 gathered for the first time. The zemsky sobor had two Houses: The House of Lords consisted of the duma of boyars, the council of bishops and the high officials of the empire; the House of Commons consisted of the representatives of the lower nobility and merchants. The House of Commons had to counterbalance the biased influence of the boyars in state affairs. Ivan felt betrayed by the boyars, and many of them were thrown in prison or executed. The practice that boyars were free to serve the monarch of their choice was still normal, but in Ivan's eyes those boyars were traitors, and he didn't have any mercy on them. After he retreated in Alexandrov in December 1564, about forty miles east of Moscow, he sent a message to the people of Moscow, in which he announced that he wished to abdicate, because he could not trust the boyars. His plan worked out perfectly, because shortly after that the disturbing Moscovites sent a delegation, which begged Ivan to remain Tsar. He agreed, providing that the people would grant him absolute power and would allow him to finish off the traitors. This way the oprichnina started, the Reign of Terror of Ivan the Terrible. His new disciples, the oprichniki, wore black garments and called themselves `brothers'. They were members of the lower nobility. He trusted them completely, unlike the boyars, who weren't admitted to the oprichnina, unless they were willing to cut all ties with their class and swear a special oath. Apart from the members of the lower nobility Ivan surrounded himself with about 6,000 Baltic-German prisoners of war and other German adventurers, who amounted as officers in his oprichnina-guards and all were rewarded with confiscated land of the boyars. 350 years later the same stunt was pulled by Lenin. The oprichnina-regime spread to more and more cities and districts, so on the pinnacle of Ivan's Reign of Terror Moscovia was divided in two equally large areas. The oprichnina-regime ruled in the middle and the north of the country while the traditional administration still existed in the provinces in the west and south. This area was called zemshchina (the country). The hereditary estates of the boyars in the oprichnina-areas were all declared forfacted, and the former owners became land in the zemshchina, that is if they weren't executed. This process was accompanied by a lot of cruelty and plundering, but that was what Ivan had in mind, because the boyars had to be ruined and defeated. He personally attended the execution of thousands of boyars. Because at first the citizens weren't affected by the oprichnina, they didn't care about the horrible fate of the boyars. In 1566 300 boyars were received in audience by the Tsar and they asked him to stop the persecutions. They were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Two years later Metropolitan Philip openly disapproved of the oprichnina in his sermons. He was imprisoned and deported to a monastery in the province, where he was strangled by the chief oprichnik. The Reign of Terror lasted 7 years, until in 1572 it became clear to Ivan that his Moscovian state had to expect international reprisals if the terror wouldn't end soon. He dissolved the oprichniki, but most members stayed in the army and the court of the Tsar. He had to step back a little; the boyars - the one or two that still were alive - were allowed to return to their estates. Many farmers and peasants, who until than
had been free, had escaped the plundering of the oprichnina, to cultivate
new arable farmland in the basin of the Mid-Volga. The land they used to
cultivate was completely neglected. The hereditary estates of the boyars
were serviced much better, because most boyars possessed slaves, who could
do the work of the fled farmers and peasants. The possessors of the military
fiefs complained that they were ruined by the turnover of peasants, which
made Tsar Ivan IV decide to limit the freedom of the farmers and peasants.
The Times of the TroublesAfter Ivan the Terrible died, Nikita Romanovich, Anastasia's brother, was appointed patron and councillor of Ivan's son Feodor, the new Tsar, who however was retarded. This Feodor had a halfbrother, Tsarevich Dmitri (the one and only), who was murdered in 1591.Nikita Romanovich' own son also was called Feodor. This Feodor Nikich Romanoff (1560-1633) was very much in favour with the people, and he claimed the tsar's throne, but in 1598, on his deathbed, Feodor Ivanovich stated that his wife Irene had to reign in his place. But Irene wouldn't hear of it and entered a monastery. Now the zemsky sobor had to decide who would become the new Tsar. Feodor Romanoff, who was nominated by the population and boyars of Moscow, lost out to Boris Godunov, the brother in law of the new Tsar Feodor I, who was suspected to be the murderer of Tsarevich Dmitri, and who since 1586 had ruled in Tsar Feodor's name. Boris was chosen Tsar in 1598. Boris saw his rival as a threat and sent Feodor Romanoff to the monastery of Ipatiev, which meant that Romanoff now was divorced of his wife Martha. Martha became a nun, while Feodor Romanoff adopted the name of Philaret. In 1601 Boris ousted the remaining Romanoffs. He produced order out of chaos. He was a very competent statesman and at first it seemed that he could adjust the consequences of Ivan IV's Reign of Terror, but he didn't take the boyars into account, who were determined to restore their old privileges. The boyars begrudged Boris' high position and frustrated his plans in every possible way, because Boris, just like Ivan the Terrible, found the interests of the lower nobility and the merchants more important than those of the boyars. Boris also put the back up of the farmers and peasants, when he decided to continue Ivan's policy of restriction of their freedom. Most likely no Tsar ever suffered more
setbacks than Boris Godunov. His intentions were good, as head of state
he was incorruptible and progressive, but everything went the other way
he wanted. He wished to bring the technique and education of the West to
Russia, established diplomatic relations with other countries, and sent
Russian youths abroad to study there. His daughter was engaged to a Danish
prince - the tradition was born - but the old chap died before they got
married. Famine stroke and all his plans and projects failed. He became
the scapegoat of his people and the disturbances cumulated alarmingly.
Since 1601 there were three failures of the harvest in a row, while the
cities and villages were plundered by Cossacks and bandits.
Boyars and serfs during the early days
of the Romanoff-dynasty A new code of law was created, which meant more
equal taxes and which gave the landowners the right to fetch back their
runaway serfs. Serfdom was now permanently. Particularly the lower nobility
and the merchants profited from the new code of law; the boyars-aristocracy
and the farmers came off badly. The upper layer of the society was however
still formed by the boyars, who held all the high positions in the administration.
After them came the Moscovian lower nobility, followed by the nobility
of the provinces.
The boyars never completely recovered
from the oprichnina and the Times of Troubles, not even during the Romanoff
dynasty. Many old royal lineages became extinct, and the ranks of the boyars
were swollen by newcomers from the Moscovian lower nobility. The differences
between the high and lower nobility diminished, but the `middle group'
which increased became the cornerstone of the tsar's power.
The farmers who lived on the state farmlands
were free, but they had the obligation to perform certain duties, to pay
taxes and to improve the infrastructure. The farmers who lived on the farmlands
of the private landed gentry were serfs, and belonged to the real estate.
At first they were still citizens with rights, who were allowed possession,
and protection of their personal interests, but in time they became slaves.
Tsar Michael Romanoff, who particularly
was popular among the urban population and the Moscovian Cossacks, was
an amiable yet somewhat passive young man. After his father Philaret was
released from his Polish prison, he was enthroned Patriarch. Philaret became
Grand Sovereign, a title which until then was reserved for the Tsar. Philaret,
in the mean time he was in his sixties, was the man who in fact ruled over
Russia. Tsar Michael stood in awe of his father, just like his courtiers
and subjects. Philaret worked close together with the zemsky sobor, but
he rejected Western culture and the Roman-Catholic Church.
Michael died in 1645. He was succeeded by his son Alexis Mikhaïlovich Romanoff (1629-1676), who ascended the throne, just like his father, on his 16th birthday. Alexis was a cheerful, nice young man, who was very proficient at falconry and sympathetic towards the Western culture. However, he preferred to leave the ruling of Russia to his governor, the boyar Boris Morozov. Morozov wasn't very popular, particularly because of the salt taxes he introduced in 1646, and because of his harsh policies, which in 1648 led to an uprising of the population of Moscow. Tsar Alexis, who in the mean time had become 19, was jolted awake by this, and he dismissed his governor, very much against the will of his wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, whose sister was married to Morozov. He gathered the zemsky sobor to deliberate about the grievances of the people, as a result of which he ordered to create a new code of law. In 1649 the code of law was approved by the zemsky sobor, and 2,000 copies were printed. Maria Miloslavskaya died in 1669 and Alexis' second wife was the pretty, darkhaired Natalia Narishkina (1651-1694), whom he married on February 1, 1671. The Tsar was ruler of entire Russia, but
still his power wasn't absolute. The power of the Church should not be
neglected, because the patriarchs often interfered with state matters.
Patriarch Nikon (Nikita Minin, 1605-1681) brought about a tempestuous development
of the Russian-Orthodox Church.
The tsars had to reign in co-operation
with the duma of boyars. Until halfway the 17th century many decisions
were in fact made by the zemsky sobor. The day to day administration was
in the hands of the prikazi (departments). Every prikaz had one or more
boyars as members. The decision-process found place on basis of consent.
Peter the GreatAlexis died in 1676 and was succeeded by the fourteen year old Feodor Alexeevich Romanoff (1661- 1682), the eldest son out of his first marriage. Feodor was a nice, well-mannered boy, but he was always ill. During his brief administration Russia conquered the Ukrain, but when he died in April 1682, at the age of twenty-one and childless, an important decision had to be made: who would become the next tsar? The one who should become tsar was Feodor's brother Ivan Alexeevich Romanoff (1666-1696) (Ivan V), an ailing and uninterested fifteen year old kid, who by no means could rule over Russia. But there was a better candidate: his halfbrother Peter Alexeevich Romanoff (1672-1725) was the son of Alexis' second wife, Natalia Narishkina, and although he only was ten years old, many high officials were sure that the strong, intelligent and purposeful Peter would be preferable to Ivan, both for the sake of the dynasty and Russia. Even the Patriarch of Russia shared this opinion, and on the Red Square in Moscow he gathered the people to support his choice.Peter was elected tsar. The ten year old boy could not yet image that there would be a time in which he would be called `Peter the Great'. Ivan Alexeevich couldn't care less that his halfbrother Peter surpassed him, but his elder sister Sophia Alexeevna Romanoff (1657-1704), who was twenty-five, was very ambitious and hoped to rule in Ivan's name. By Peter's appointment her plans were thwarted, and so she tried to depose him with the help of the Miloslavsky Party and the army. In vain though. She was however allowed to be regentess during the time Peter himself wasn't able to rule yet. Peter I was a remarkably energetic and inquisitive young man. During the regency of his halfsister Sophia he lived in Preobrazhenskoe, a village near Moscow, where he was introduced to Dutch technicians from Nemetskaya Sloboda, the `German suburb' of Moscow. They arose his interest for shipbuilding and navigation, as a result of which he went to study arithmathics and geometry. In 1689, when he was seventeen, he married Yevdokia Lopuchina. In that year he also heard that Sophia's accomplices planned to commit an assault on his life. That was the limit, and with the help of the Narishkin Party he got rid of Sophia's regency. She was sent to a monastery. Only after his mother, Natalia Narishkina, had died in 1694, Peter I started to rule independently. In 1697 he left for Western Europe, to get acquainted with modern European technology. He studied naval architecture in England and Holland - in Zaandam he worked as a shipwright at a shipbuilding yard - and established diplomatic relations. He returned to Russia with hundreds of technicians, diplomats, military men, courtiers and artists. In May 1703 he founded the city of St. Petersburg, Russia's new capital. The separation between the Moscovian and the Petersburg nobility was born. Peter the Great not just regarded the
serfs, but also the farmers on the farmlands of the state as predial to
the state. The serfs of private landowners didn't have to pay as much taxes,
because they also had to earn the bread and butter of their masters. The
burden of taxation increased all the time, as a result of which people
became more and more dissatisfied. The high circles of the Moscovian aristocracy
- the boyars - didn't like it all that Peter the Great didn't judge them
on basis of their extraction, but on their personal qualities. They were
not use to that. To make matters worse Peter published his `notorious'
rank classification, in 1722. The lowest officer's rank, the one of lieutenant,
entitled someone to hereditary nobility. The aristocracy-by-birth was replaced
by service aristocracy.
During the second half of his administration
Peter introduced a clerical college, which had to rule the Russian Church.
Later this college was called the Holy Synod. The Holy Synod would become
the highest ecclesiastical governing body, an official organization which
was subsidiary to the Tsar.
Catharina I died in 1727. Her son, Tsarevich
Alexis, was executed way back in 1718, and his son, the new Tsar Peter
II, was only twelve years old. Tsarevich Alexis Petrovich Romanoff (1690-1718)
was Peter's eldest son out of his first marriage. He married Princess Charlotte
von Brunswick-Wolfenb&uum- l;ttel.
Catharina I was succeeded by Peter's grandson
Peter Alexeevich Romanoff (1715-1730) (Peter II), but because he was only
twelve years old the High Secret Council kept ruling in his name, for the
time being.
Tsaritsa Anna had taken her Kurland court
with her, as a result of which the Russian nobility at the court had to
take quite a few steps back. Leading German courtiers, like Ernst Johann
Biron, Duke of Kurland, Ostermann and Field Marshall Burkhard Christoph
von Muennich, ruled the roost in future. In 1740, after Anna's death, the
just born Ivan VI (1740-1764), the grandson of her sister Catharina, the
Duchess of Mecklenburg, was chosen tsar. When the German court was discorded
at the end of 1741, one of the guard regiments used the opportunity to
launch a palace revolution. The officers of this guard regiment asked Peter
the Great's daughter Elizabeth to ascend the throne. The eighteen months
old Tsar Ivan VI was arrested on January 5, 1742 (some say he resisted
his arrest), and in 1764 he was murdered, during the attempt of a reckless
officer to liberate him from prison.
Elizabeth died on December 25, 1761, with a glass of brandy in her hand. Her successor, Peter Feodorovich Romanoff (1728-1762) (Peter III), would only rule until June 1762. He was a son of Carl Fredrick von Holstein, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and his mother was Anna Petrovna Romanoff, the eldest daughter of Peter the Great and Catharina I. This Carl Peter Ulrich von Holstein, initially tipped to be the future King of Sweden, was baptized in 1742 in the Russian-Orthodox church, at the request of his aunt Elizabeth Petrovna Romanoff, and adopted the name of Peter Feodorovich Romanoff. Once he was Tsar of Russia he robbed the Russian-Orthodox Church of its treasures and he tried to introduce Protestantism to Russia. This caused an officers rise, which was used by Peter's wife, Catharina Alexeevna Romanoff (1729-1796), to ascend the Russian throne as Catharina II (the Great). Catharina the GreatCatharina II was born Princess Sophie Auguste Frederike von Anhalt-Zerbst, daughter of Prince Christian August von Anhalt-Zerbst and Princess Joan of Holstein-Gottorp. Some historians however say that she was conceived by King Frederick II of Prussia. On June 29, 1744 she solemnly professed her faith in perfect Russian, after which she became her Russian name. On August 21, 1745 the Archbishop of Kazan celebrated the marriage of Catharina and Peter Feodorovich Romanoff.The British historian B.H. Sumner stated
in his Survey of Russian History (Oxford, 1944) that, starting with Catharina
the Great, the Romanoff dynasty wasn't Russian anymore but had become German,
since Catharina's both parents were German, and her husband Peter III,
the former Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, had a German father and a Russian
mother. Sure, all Russian tsars after 1762 married German princesses, but
Sumner was wrong of course, because on September 20, 1754 the marriage
of Peter III and Catharina II produced Paul Petrovich Romanoff (1754-1801).
Officially, that is. When we assume that Peter III was the father of this
Paul I, then Sumner would partially have been right. Paul considered himself
the son of Catharina and Peter III, but both in her Confession (to Potemkin),
written before she married Grigori Potemkin, and in her Memoirs, Catharina
stated that not Peter III, but her first lover Serge Saltikov was Paul's
natural father. And that unsettles Sumner's contention, because contrary
to Peter III, Saltikov was not impotent. Moreover he was one hundred percent
Russian, and descended from a very old aristocratic lineage.
After Catharina II, the Great, ascended
the throne in 1762, she had to deal with a powerful political opposition
of the nobility. Her predecessor, Peter III, didn't even rule one year,
but that was enough to let him sign a manifesto in which the nobility became
the right to decide for themselves how long, if at all, they wanted to
serve in the army. Catharina had brought down Peter III, but she had to
be careful with the privileges he had granted the nobility, otherwise she
also might be confronted by a Council of Aristocrats, like the one of 1730.
Catharina rewarded the five brothers Orlov with high positions, and in the mean time she had found another lover, the excellent Russian statesman and compulsive gambler Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin (1739-1791), whom she married secretly in 1774. Alexis Orlov, who would become Catharina's next lover, cut out one of Potemkin's eyes during a duel, and it is said that Potemkin's reaction to that was, `If you do that one more time, I'll never look at you again!' Catharina partially undid the reforms
of Peter the Great, as a result of which the nobility gave up its political
resistance and became compensation in the form of high positions in the
administration. In 1785 she had the personal and class privileges of the
nobility ratified by a special charter.
The history of Russia not only knows three
false Dmitri's, but also a false Peter III. Emelian Ivanovich Pugachov
(1730-1775), an illiterate Don-Cossack, stated that he was Peter III, who
wasn't killed, but had escaped. His role in Russian history wouldn't have
been of any importance, hadn't it been for the fact that his name is still
used as a symbol of the false hopes many new Russian leaders arouse. For
example: in 1917 the majority of the Russian people called the eloquent
bolshevik leader Lenin a `Pugachov', and even today there are Russians
who call Boris Yeltsin a `Pugachov'. Me, myself and I are tempted to call
Zhirinovsky a `Pugachov'.
Pugachov's rise also made clear that particularly the question of the farmers and serfdom had to be resolved. The leaders of the opposition, which partly consisted of liberal boyars, found it necessary to limit serfdom and the privileges of the nobility. The new Tsar, Paul I, was an extremely
harsh and unbalanced man, maybe because of his unhappy childhood. Five
years after he had ascended the throne Paul was murdered in his bedroom,
in the night of March 25, 1801, because he antagonized both the nobility
and the army. Tsar Paul I had not only four sons, but also five daughters.
One of them, Anna Pavlovna Romanoff (1795-1865), married William Frederick
George Ludwig (1792-1849), Grand Duke of Luxemburg, Duke of Limburg, Prince
of Orange Nassau, who was King of the Netherlands from 1840 to 1849. This
William II and Anna Pavlovna had four children: William (III) (1817-1890),
Alexander (1818-1848), Henry (1820-1879) and Sophia (1824- 1897). The present
Royal House of the Netherlands descends from William and Anna Pavlovna.
New timesThe new tsar was Paul's son Alexander Pavlovich Romanoff (1777-1825) (Alexander I), who was twenty- four years old. Sure, he had permitted that his father would be overthrown, but he never thought that daddy might be killed in the process. When he heard that his father was dead, he became a nervous breakdown, but he came to his senses when his governor, Count Von Pahlen, said to him, `C'est assez faire l'enfant, allez régner!'Alexander I's policies were a relief. Without hesitation he took several liberal actions, like abolishing the department of political police, which under Paul I had become a giant organization, extending amnesty to political prisoners and exiles, abolishing the torturing of criminals and restoring the privileges of the landed gentry and the cities. When he was forty-eight, Alexander I became ill, due to a fever he caught in the Crimea, and on December 1, 1825 he died in Taganrog. Alexander I was succeeded by Nicholas I (1796-1855), and during his administration some military settlements were brought into great prosperity. Schools and hospitals were founded, facilities the average farmer could only dream of. But he also was a cruel tsar, and when he in stead of his older brother Constantin succeeded Alexander I to the throne, there was a rebellion, which later was called the Rise of the Decembrists. Most Decembrists were liberal aristocrats, who fought for the emancipation of farmers and serfs. In 1825 Nicholas sent them to prison and Siberian hard labour camps. Forty years later Nicholas' son, Alexander Nikolaevich Romanoff, Alexander II (1818-1881), announced a general pardon for the Decembrists. He became rather famous by the fact that he abolished serfdom in 1861, but he did so much more: he for instance reinstalled the municipal and regional home rule of the zemstvo's, improved jurisdiction, shortened military service, limited censorship, advocated the improvement of the position of the farmers, and ended the Crimean War. Many historians wrote that Alexander II was the best tsar in Russian history, but his increasing popularity finished him off. The revolutionaries saw with disappointment that the people's demand for a revolution decreased day by day, and due to the fact that in the opinion of some the goal sanctifies all means, the consequences soon made themselves felt: Alexander II became the victim of a bomb attack, as a result of which he died on March 13, 1881. The murder found place on the day that
the Tsar had signed the constitution of his Minister of Home Affairs Michael
Loris-Melikov. Loris-Melikov had advised Alexander II to give the people
a constitution.
Serfdom, economy and infrastructureIn the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century the Russian waterways were improved considerable. In 1813 the first Russian steam ship was built in St. Petersburg, but it would still take thirty years before the first steam ships sailed the Volga. In 1817 the first roads were paved, and the first railroad went from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo and was opened in 1838. In 1842 the Russians started to build a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The first telegraphic connection between Moscow and St. Petersburg was established in 1851.The private landowners had to pay taxes for every serf they possessed. In spite of that the government was not capable of establishing an economy based on a normal wages and price mechanism. To be able to collect taxes a business had to make profit, and making profit depended on cheap labour force - serfs that is. During the 18th century about 1,300,000 serfs worked in factories and estates, and between 1700 and 1850 almost half of the Russian economy was based on the labour of serfs, just like today a large part of the Chinese economy is based on the labour of political prisoners. However: only 16% of the nobility possessed more than a hundred serfs and over 30% possessed less than ten serfs. The richest nobleman was Nicholas Sheremetyev, who had 185,610 serfs and about 15,000 square miles of land. Most aristocrats were no financial geniusses. Capital was earned quickly, by fishing, extraction of oil, gold-digging etcetera, and even quicklier spend. When such an enterprising aristocrat suddenly possessed a fortune, then most of the time he proved to be extremely generous: orphanages, hospitals and schools shoot up like mushrooms, while his more businesslike colleagues thought he was insane. In the 17th century the owners of the
pomyestye-estates were mainly military men, but in the 18th century they
considered themselves (justifiable) the economical and financial cornerstones
of the government, and they also became administrative responsibilities.
They stayed however responsible for the delivery of serfs as recrutes for
the army.
The abolishment of serfdomIn the 19th century there was a revival of ecclesiastical life in Russia. Bishop Tikhon Zadonsky was one of the first Russians who raised his voice against serfdom, and with that he fostered a lot of goodwill from the people and the liberal aristocrats.Alexander I gave all the subjects of the Tsar, with the exception the serfs, the right to possess land. Alexander saw two problems: the demands of the aristocrats and the question of serfdom. The nobility wanted the Senate to become a Council of Aristocrats and the Imperial power limited in favour of the nobility. Trying to kill two birds with one stone, on March 4, 1803 Alexander published an ukase, in which the rules for the liberation of the serfs were set down. Every landowner became the right to free his serfs and the duty to give land to his remaining serfs. After the publication only 50,000 serfs
were freed. But the aristocrats now knew that Alexander had the possibility
to free all serfs, and after that he didn't approve of any political proposal,
unless the aristocrats were prepared to meet the wishes of the serfs and
farmers. The other way around this principle also worked: when Alexander
needed the support of the liberal aristocrats, they only were cooperative
if he promised to change the law even more in favour of the serfs and farmers.
The manifesto clasped the following: the
house-serfs had to be freed within a period of two years.
When Russian serfdom ended, it would still
take four years before the United States abolished slavery.
Alexander III wasn't a real starry-eyed
idealist, but in 1882, a year after he was crowned Tsar, he enacted an
ukase in which the landowners were obligated to sell land to the farmers,
insofar this still hadn't happened.
In 1900 forty-two very big factories and
commercial enterprises could be found in Moscow. Twenty- nine of the owners
used to be farmers, eight of them had been retail traders and only five
derived from an aristocratic lineage.
Despite of World War I Russia was a developing
country, in economical, political, cultural and social respects, until
the communists seized to power in 1917.
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