Module overview
At the outset of the nineteenth century the Russian Empire appeared to be at the zenith of its power. Hundred years later, the autocracy had collapsed, overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the 1917 revolutions. The emergence of new ideas and movements in Russia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from both the left and the right, posed new challenges to the tsarist state. This module will trace the changes that led to the collapse of the tsarist autocracy, and why the tsarist state proved unable to respond effectively to the transformation in the Russian empire.
The module will consider the rise of radicalism from both left and right and the problems this posed for the longevity of tsarism. Both had important implications for the long-term sustainability of the Russian autocracy. It will explore wider social change amongst key estates like workers, peasants, and men and women. It will consider how non-Russians lived in the empire. The module will use a broad source base, considering a variety of different sources, including novels and memoirs as well as police reports and other official documents. By the end of this module, you should have a firm understanding of the processes that shaped the development of the Russian state in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and, particularly, the events that would lead to the fall of the autocracy in 1917.