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Autocracy, Despotism and Democracy AUTOCRACY, DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY An Historical Approach to the Relationship between Orthodoxy and Politics Vladimir Moss © Copyright Vladimir Moss, 2011: All Rights Reserved PART III. THE FALL OF THE ORTHODOX AUTOCRACY (to 1918) CONTENTS CONTENTS ......................................................................................................... 3 THE PEACE OF PARIS ...................................................................................... 5 “THE NEW MAN” ............................................................................................. 8 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS......................................................... 11 SUPPORTERS AND CRITICS OF EMANCIPATION ................................... 16 THE JEWS UNDER ALEXANDER II .............................................................. 21 MARX AND BAKUNIN .................................................................................. 31 DOSTOYEVSKY ON PAPISM AND SOCIALISM ........................................ 36 THE DEVILS ..................................................................................................... 40 PORTENTS OF THE ANTICHRIST ................................................................ 45 THE EASTERN QUESTION ............................................................................ 50 PAN-HELLENISM VERSUS PAN-SLAVISM ................................................ 55 LEONTIEV ON BYZANTINISM..................................................................... 60 THE GRECO-BULGARIAN SCHISM............................................................. 64 AT THE GATES OF CONSTANTINOPLE..................................................... 69 L’ALLIANCE ISRAELITE UNIVERSELLE .................................................... 75 DOSTOYEVSKY ON RUSSIA ......................................................................... 80 THE TSAR AND THE CONSTITUTION ....................................................... 97 THE MURDER OF TSAR ALEXANDER II ...................................................100 THE JEWISH QUESTION ...............................................................................102 VLADIMIR SOLOVIEV ..................................................................................110 POBEDONOSTSEV ON CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS ...........................115 THE REIGN OF TSAR ALEXANDER III ......................................................123 THE VOLGA FAMINE ...................................................................................129 THE ROOTS OF THE REVOLUTION ...........................................................132 TSAR NICHOLAS II ........................................................................................138 THE LURE OF THE EAST ..............................................................................145 STUDENTS AND WORKERS ........................................................................150 REBELLIOUS PRIESTS ...................................................................................153 FERMENT IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH......................................................155 ST. JOHN OF KRONSTADT AND LEV TOLSTOY .....................................158 THE NATIONALITIES POLICY ....................................................................161 THE LIBERATION MOVEMENT ..................................................................174 KISHINEV, 1903 ..............................................................................................180 REGICIDE IN THE BALKANS ......................................................................183 THE SAROV DAYS .........................................................................................185 PEASANT RUSSIA ..........................................................................................189 UNREST IN THE ARMY ................................................................................199 THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR ......................................................................203 THE ROLE OF THE PRESS ............................................................................210 TOWARDS THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF SYMPHONY .........................213 THE OCTOBER MANIFESTO ........................................................................218 THE 1905 REVOLUTION ...............................................................................223 THE STOLYPIN REFORMS ............................................................................235 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION....................................................................239 THE ROOTS OF THE REVOLUTION ...........................................................244 THE BEILIS TRIAL ..........................................................................................249 RUSSIA AND THE BALKANS ......................................................................252 SARAJEVO, 1914 .............................................................................................256 THE FIRST WORLD WAR..............................................................................267 THE ACTORS IN THE REVOLUTION: (1) THE JEWS ...............................279 THE ACTORS IN THE REVOLUTION: (2) THE FREEMASONS...............289 THE ACTORS IN THE REVOLUTION: (3) THE CHRISTIANS .................296 THE ACTORS IN THE REVOLUTION: (4) RASPUTIN ..............................300 THE CASE FOR THE MONARCHY (1) ........................................................310 THE CASE FOR THE MONARCHY (2) ........................................................315 THE PLOT ........................................................................................................318 THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION...................................................................329 TSAR NICHOLAS’ ABDICATION ................................................................336 TSAR MICHAEL’S ABDICATION ................................................................350 THE CHURCH, THE PEOPLE AND THE REVOLUTION .........................356 APOCALYPTIC VISIONS ...............................................................................370 DUAL POWER ................................................................................................374 THE RELIGION OF LENINISM.....................................................................380 THE REVOLUTION IN THE CHURCH .......................................................387 THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION .....................................................................391 THE MOSCOW COUNCIL OF 1917-18.........................................................397 THE MURDER OF THE TSAR .......................................................................414 THE PEACE OF PARIS The ending of the Crimean War and the accession to the throne of Tsar Alexander II heralded major changes in both the internal and external policies of Russia. These changes, while aiming to restore Russia’s position vis-a-vis the West and her own westernizing intelligentsia, in face revealed the increased influence of the West in the government’s own thinking. They would therefore lay the foundations for the reaction against western influence that we see in the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II... In purely military terms, the Crimean War was not such a disaster for Russia as is often made out: if the Russians had lost Sebastopol in the Crimea they had gained Kars in Turkey, and the enemy had not put a foot in Russia proper. The situation had been more perilous for the Russians in 1812, and yet they had gone on to enter Paris in triumph. As Tsar Alexander II wrote to the Russian commander Gorchakov after the fall of Sebastopol: “Sebastopol is not Moscow, the Crimea is not Russia. Two years after the burning of Moscow, our victorious troops were in Paris. We are still the same Russians and God is with us.”1 And within a generation, Russian armies were at the gates of Constantinople… However, the fact remained that while the war of 1812-14 had ended in the rout of Russia’s enemies, this had not happened in 1854-56. Russia had “not yet been beaten half enough”, in Palmerston’s words; but her losses had been far greater than those of the Allies, and the war had revealed that Russia was well behind the Allies in transport and weaponry, especially rifles. (The gap in both spheres was still critical in 1914). Moreover, Russia’s primary war-aim had not been achieved: while the status quo in the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was restored, Russia could no longer claim to be the exclusive guardian of the rights of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, but shared this right with four other great powers.2 Another important long-term consequence was the destruction of the Holy Alliance of Christian monarchist powers established by Tsar Alexander I in 1815. The revolution, whose most recent explosion in 1848 had been defeated largely through the intervention of Tsar Nicholas I in Hungary, was on the march again, and both Christianity and Monarchism were now on the retreat. The very fact that the peace was signed in Paris showed how the balance of power had shifted: Tsar Nicholas I had not recognized the legitimacy of the French government, considering it inherently revolutionary, but Tsar Alexander II was both forced to recognize it and make concessions to it… 1 Oliver Figes, Crimea, London: Allen Lane, 2010, p. 397. 2 Figes, op. cit., p. 415. But perhaps the most profound consequence was a lowering of the morale of the Orthodox nation. The simple people, following the
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