Tsarist autocracy

Tsarist autocracy[a] (Russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. tsarskoye samoderzhaviye) is a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which later became Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire.[b] In it, all power and wealth is controlled (and distributed) by the Tsar. They had more power than constitutional monarchs, who are usually vested by law and counterbalanced by a legislative authority; and more authority on religious issues compared to Western monarchs. In Russia, it originated during the time of Ivan III (1462−1505), and was abolished after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Part of the Politics series
Basic forms of government
Power structure
Separation
Federalism
Integration
Administrative division
Power source
Democracy
(rule by many)
Oligarchy
(rule by few)
Autocracy
(rule by one)
Anarchism
(rule by none)
Power ideology
Monarchy vs. republic
(socio-political ideologies)
Authoritarian vs. libertarian
(socio-economic ideologies)
Global vs. local
(geo-cultural ideologies)
Politics portal
Part of a series of articles on
Monarchy
Politics portal

Alternative names

This system has also been described by the following terms: Imperial autocracy,[c] Russian autocracy,[d] Muscovite autocracy,[e] tsarist absolutism,[f] imperial absolutism,[g] Russian absolutism,[h] Muscovite absolutism,[i] Muscovite despotism,[j][k] Russian despotism,[l] tsarist despotism[m] or imperial despotism.[n]

History

The Tatar Yoke and the Sino-Mongol ideas and administrative system are credited with bringing the culture exhibiting some characteristics of an oriental despotism to Russia.[1][b] Absolutism in Russia gradually developed during the 17th century and 18th centuries, replacing the despotism of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Ivan III built upon Byzantine traditions and laid foundations for the tsarist autocracy, a system that with some variations would govern Russia for centuries.[2][3]

After a period of disorder known as a Time of Troubles, the first monarch of the Romanov dynasty, Michael of Russia, was elected to the throne by a Zemsky Sobor (or "assembly of the land"). During Michael's reign, when the Romanov dynasty was still weak, such assemblies were summoned annually. However, the Romanov dynasty consolidated absolute power in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great, who reduced the power of the nobility and strengthened the central power of the tsar, establishing a bureaucratic civil service based on the Table of Ranks but theoretically open to all classes of the society, in place of the nobility-only mestnichestvo which Feodor III had abolished in 1682 at the request of the highest boyars.[4][5][6] Peter I also strengthened the state's control over the church (the Orthodox Church).[4] Peter's reform caused a series of palace coups seeking to restore the power of the nobility.[7] To end them, Catherine the Great, whose reign is often regarded as the high point of absolutism in Russia, in 1785 issued the Charter to the Gentry, legally affirming the rights and privileges they had acquired in preceding years, and the Charter of the Towns, establishing municipal self-government. This placated the powerful members of society; however, in fact, the real power rested with the state's bureaucracy.[7] This was built on by later Tsars. Alexander I established the State council as advisory legislative body. Although Alexander II established a system of elected local self-government (Zemstvo) and an independent judicial system, Russia did not have a national-level representative assembly (Duma) or a constitution until the 1905 Revolution.[8] The system was abolished after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Features

The person of the tsar himself, a sovereign with absolute authority, stood at the center of the tsarist autocracy.[9] The rights of state power in their entire extent belonged to the tsar. The autocrat further entrusted power to persons and institutions, acting in his name, by his orders, and within the limits laid down for them by law. The purpose of the system was to supposedly benefit the entire country of Russia.[9] A metaphor existed likening the tsar to a father, and all of the subjects of the Empire, to his children; this metaphor even appeared in Orthodox primers.[10] This metaphor is present in the common Russian expression "царь-батюшка", literally "tsar-dear father".

Furthermore, unlike the future theoretical separation of church and state in West European monarchies, the Russian Empire combined monarchy with the supreme authority on religious issues (see Church reform of Peter I and caesaropapism for details).

Another key feature related to patrimonialism. In Russia the tsar owned a much higher proportion of the state (lands, enterprises, etc.) than did Western monarchs.[11][12][13][14][15][16]

The tsarist autocracy had many supporters within Russia. Major Russian advocates and theorists of the autocracy included writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky,[3][17] Mikhail Katkov,[18] Konstantin Aksakov,[19] Nikolay Karamzin,[17] Konstantin Pobedonostsev[3][9] and Pyotr Semyonov. They all argued that a strong and prosperous Russia needed a strong tsar, and that philosophies of republicanism and liberal democracy did not fit Russia.[3]

Influences

Some historians see the traditions of tsarist autocracy as partially responsible for laying groundworks for the totalitarianism in the Soviet Union.[2][3][20][21] They see the traditions of autocracy and patrimonialism as dominating Russia's political culture for centuries; for example, Stephen White is described as "the most consistent" defender of the position that the uniqueness of Russian political heritage is inseparable from its ethnic identity. In White's opinion, autocracy is the defining factor in the history of Russian politics.[22] He wrote that Russian political culture is "rooted in the historical experience of centuries of absolutism."[23] Those views had been challenged by other historians, for example, Nicolai N. Petro and Martin Malia (as cited by Hoffmann).[20] Richard Pipes is another influential historian among non-specialists who holds the position about the distinctness of Russian history and political system, describing the absolutism of the Muscovite political system as "patrimonial", and saw the stability of the Soviet Union in the fact that Russians accepted the legitimacy of this patrimonial organization.[22]

Some historians have pointed to a racial element in the concept. For example, American Cold War analysts, including George Kennan, linked the Soviet government's autocratic rule to Tatar influences during its history, and biographies of Russian leaders often stressed their possible Asiatic ancestries. They maintained that Asiatic influences rendered the Russians, along with the Chinese, untrustworthy.[24][25]

Criticism of the concept

Historians of different backgrounds have criticised the concept of tsarist autocracy in its various forms. Their complaints range from the different names of the model being too vague,[26] to its chronological implications (it is impossible to consider Russia in different centuries the same) as well as to its content (the question how Russian or "tsarist" autocracy differs from "regular" autocracy or from European absolutism for that matter).

Regarding the substance of the autocracy model, its equation with despotism, its supposed origins in Mongol rule, as well as its supposed rise in medieval Muscovy have been heavily debated.[27] For one, Marxist Soviet scholars were concerned with prerevolutionary absolutism and identified the boyar elites and the bureaucracy as its pillars. For example, Sergey M. Troitskii claimed that the Russian monarchs held sway of the nobility which was reduced to state service. According to Troitskii, absolutism in Russia was the same as everywhere else. This led to a difficult position within Marxism, because absolutism revolves around institutions and laws, which were fundamentally less important than the socioeconomic base of society.[28] This raises the question how absolutism could be the same when socioeconomic circumstances in Russia were not the same as elsewhere.

In order to reconcile the non-socioeconomic nature of absolutism with Marxist theory, Soviet scholar Alexander N. Chistozvonov proposed to group the Russian monarchy with the Prussian and Austrian ones, forming a distinct mix of Western European absolutism and "oriental despotism".[29] In the eyes of Chistozvonov, whatever absolutist or autocratic elements were indeed present in Russia, they were not unique and do not warrant Russia’s exclusive categorization.

Similarly struggling with Marxist conceptions, Soviet historians Petr A. Zaionchkovskii and his student Larisa G. Zakharova focused on the importance of political convictions of Russian officials and bureaucrats to explain nineteenth-century political decision-making. By showing that the state was not a unified and powerful whole (commanded by the economically dominant class), they likewise tackled common (Marxist) conceptions of Russian autocracy.[30] While like Troitskii, they studied the nobility and bureaucracy (in a later period), Zaionchkovskii and Zakharova painted a different picture of the tsar's position. Coinciding with Western scholars like Robert Crummey, they lay bare the interdependence of monarch and nobility in the practice of rule.[31]

Outside Russia and the Soviet Union, Hans-Joachim Torke among others tried to counter the notion of an all-powerful autocratic state by pointing at the mutual dependency of service elites and the state (coining the term "state-conditioned society").[32] Torke acknowledges that the tsars were not reined in by any form of constitution, but he emphasizes for example the limitations of Christian morality and court customs. The so-called "American school" of the 1980s and 1990s argued for the important role of elite networks and their power at court. Edward Keenan went even further in his well-known piece on Muscovite political culture, claiming that the tsar was merely a puppet in the hands of boyars who wielded the actual power behind the scenes.[33]

For others, like David Ransel and Paul Bushkovitch, it goes too far to portray relations between tsar and nobility like Keenan does, because it does not appreciate their complexity. Bushkovitch argues that the theoretic lack of limitations on the power of the tsar is irrelevant and instead claims that the "crucial question" is where real power lay. In his view, this can only be shown by the political narrative of events.[34] Bushkovitch placed the balance of power between the tsar, the individual boyars and the tsar’s favourites at the centre of political decision-making. In so doing, Bushkovitch found that on the one hand, the tsar's relative power fluctuated per monarch, and on the other hand, that the nobility was all but unified; the balance of power changed with each tsar as well as the rise of boyars and in the case of Peter I even shifted multiple times.

Charles J. Halperin cautioned against views that too easily claim tsar and state dominance in politics or society.[35] While acknowledging the institutional differences between Muscovy and Western European monarchies, Halperin nevertheless stresses that these differences should not be considered absolute. In his view, the practice of rule, a matter of human interactions, is more important than theory and abstractions.

gollark: ++remind 6d-10m bring water, earphones
gollark: ++remind 1h do so
gollark: ++remind 8h attain earphones
gollark: ++remind "18:00 tomorrow" obtain water bottle
gollark: ++remind 8h alignment apio bees

See also

Notes

a ^ As used in those publications.

b ^ The existing literature pairs the words Russian, tsarist, Muscovite and imperial with despotism, absolutism and autocracy in all possible combinations, rarely giving clear definitions. Tsarist can be indeed applicable to the entire period (see also historical usage of the term "tsar"), but Muscovite is applicable only to the period of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which was replaced by tsardom of Russia, a period for which the words imperial and Russian are applicable. Further, we can look at Muscovite despotism as a precursor for the tsarist absolutism, however, the very use of the word despotism has problems (see following note). Finally, care should be taken with the term autocracy: today, autocrat is usually seen as synonymous with despot, tyrant and/or dictator, though each of these terms originally had a separate and distinct meaning. Overall, out of the available terms, "tsarist autocracy" is the one which seems most correct for the entire period discussed, but it is worth keeping in mind that there are no ideal types, and that the Russian political system evolved through time.

c ^ As used in those publications.

d ^ As used in those publications.

e ^ As used in those publications.

f ^ As used in those publications.

g ^ As used in those publications.

h ^ As used in those publications.

i ^ As used in those publications.

j ^ As used in those publications.

k ^ The terms oriental despotism and its development, the Muscovite or Russian despotism, have been criticized as misleading, since Muscovy, and Russia, never had characteristics of pure despotism, such as the ruler being identified with a god).[3][36][37]

l ^ As used in those publications.

m ^ As used in those publications.

n ^ As used in those publications.

References
  1. Donald Ostrowski, The Mongols and Rus': Eight Paradigms, in Abbott Gleason, A Companion to Russian History, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, ISBN 1-4051-3560-3, Google Print, p.78
  2. Peter Truscott, Russia First: Breaking with the West, I. B. Tauris, 1997, ISBN 1-86064-199-7, Google Print, p.17
  3. Peter Viereck, Conservative Thinkers: From John Adams to Winston Churchill, Transaction Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1-4128-0526-0, Google Print, pp. 84–86
  4. Nicolai N. Petro, The Rebirth of Russian Democracy: An Interpretation of Political Culture, Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-674-75001-2, Google Print, p.34-36
  5. David R. Stone, A Military History of Russia: From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 0-275-98502-4, Google Print, p.59
  6. Paul Bushkovitch, Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671–1725, Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-521-80585-6, Google Print, p. 80 & 118-119
  7. Nicolai N. Petro, The Rebirth of Russian Democracy: An Interpretation of Political Culture, Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-674-75001-2, Google Print, p.36-39
  8. Nicolai N. Petro, The Rebirth of Russian Democracy: An Interpretation of Political Culture, Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-674-75001-2, Google Print, p.48
  9. Stephen J. Lee Russia and the USSR, 1855–1991: Autocracy and Dictatorship, Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0-415-33577-9, Google Print, p.1-3
  10. Robert D. Crews, For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia, Harvard University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-674-02164-9, Google Print, p.77
  11. Deborah Goodwin, Matthew Midlane, Negotiation in International Conflict: Understanding Persuasion, Taylor & Francis, 2002, ISBN 0-7146-8193-8, Google Print, p.158
  12. Nicolas Spulber, Russia's Economic Transitions: From Late Tsarism to the New Millennium, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-81699-8, Google Print, p.27-28
  13. Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait, University of California Press, 1977, ISBN 0-520-03194-6, Google Print, p.356-358
  14. Richard Pipes, Russian Conservatism and Its Critics: A Study in Political Culture, Yale University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-300-12269-1, Google Print, p.181
  15. Catherine J. Danks, Russian Politics and Society: An Introduction, Pearson Education, 2001, ISBN 0-582-47300-4, Google Print, p.21
  16. Stefan Hedlund, Russian Path Dependence: A People with a Troubled History, Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-35400-5, Google Print, p.161
  17. James Patrick Scanlan, Dostoevsky the Thinker: A Philosophical Study, Cornell University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8014-3994-9, Google Print, p.171-172
  18. Richard Pipes, Russian Conservatism and Its Critics: A Study in Political Culture, Yale University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-300-12269-1, Google Print, p.124
  19. Nicolai N. Petro, The Rebirth of Russian Democracy: An Interpretation of Political Culture, Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-674-75001-2, Google Print, p.90
  20. David Lloyd Hoffmann, Stalinism: The Essential Readings, Blackwell Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-631-22891-8, .Google Print, p.67-68
  21. Dennis J. Dunn, The Catholic Church and Russia: Popes, Patriarchs, Tsars, and Commissars, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004, ISBN 0-7546-3610-0, Google Print, p.72
  22. Nicolai N. Petro, p. 29
  23. Nicolai N. Petro, The Rebirth of Russian Democracy: An Interpretation of Political Culture, Harvard University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-674-75001-2, Google Print, p.15
  24. Michael Adas (2006). Dominance by design: technological imperatives and America's civilizing mission. Harvard University Press. pp. 230–231. ISBN 0-674-01867-2.
  25. David C. Engerman (2003). Modernization from the other shore. Harvard University Press. p. 260. ISBN 0-674-01151-1.
  26. C.J. Halperin, 'Muscovy as a Hypertrophic State: A Critique', Kritika 3 3 (2002) 501.
  27. D. Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influence on the Steppe Frontier, 1304-1589 (Cambridge 1998) 91-95; M. Poe, 'The Consequences of the Military Revolution in Muscovy: A Comparative Perspective', Comparative Studies in Society and History 38 4 (1996) 603-604; R.O. Crummey, 'Russian Absolutism and the Nobility', Journal of Modern History 49 3 (1977) 456-459.
  28. A. Gerschenkron, 'Soviet Marxism and Absolutism', Slavic Review 30 4 (1971) 855.
  29. Crummey, 'Russian Absolutism', 458-459.
  30. P.A. Zaionchkovskii, Otmena krepostnogo prava v Rossii (Moscow 1968); P.A. Zaionchkovski, Pravitel'stvennyi apparat samoderzhavnoi Rossii v XIX v. (Moscow 1978); L.G. Zakharova, Aleksandr II i otmena krepostnogo prava v Rossii (Moscow 2011).
  31. Crummey, 'Russian Absolutism', 466-467.
  32. Crummey, ‘Russian Absolutism’, 466; R.O. Crummey, 'Hans-Joachim Torke, 1938-2000', Kritika 2 3 (2001) 702
  33. P. Bushkovitch, Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671-1725 (Cambridge 2004) 4; E.L. Keenan, 'Muscovite Political Folkways', Russian Review 45 2 (1986) 115-181.
  34. D.L. Ransel, The Politics of Catherinian Russia: The Panin Party (New Haven 1975); Bushkovitch, Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 29.
  35. Halperin, 'Muscovy as a Hypertrophic State', 501-507.
  36. Donald Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304–1589, Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-521-89410-7, Google Print, p.85
  37. Tartar Yoke Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine Professor Gerhard Rempel, Western New England College.

Further reading
  • Paul Dukes, The Making of Russian Absolutism, 1613–1801, Longman, 1986
  • Marshall T. Poe, "Russian despotism" : the origins and dissemination of an early modern commonplace. Thesis (Ph.D. in history). University of California, Berkeley, 1993.
  • Hugh Ragsdale, The Russian Tragedy: The Burden of History, M.E. Sharpe, 1996, ISBN 1-56324-755-0
  • Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, (Penguin 1995), ISBN 978-0-14-024768-8
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.