Summing-up tasks

Unit 10

ALEXANDER II

Text 1

The Tsar Liberator

I. Scan the text and

A) give English equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

Покушение на жизнь; убийство (политического или видного общественного деятеля); беспримерный; унижать, оскорблять; вынести, вытерпеть; критический, решающий; в разгар; разрушительный военный конфликт; злополучный; быстрое завершение; основной источник доходов; выкупать землю; ненадёжный; вредный, вредоносный, опасный; осуществлять реформы; укрепить собственные границы; аннулирование, отмена; невредимый; постоянная угроза жизни; ухудшающееся здоровье; политический заключенный; разрабатывать конституцию;

B) explain the words in bold:

The reign of Alexander II is marked by contrasts; while Alexander II was known as the “Tsar-Liberator” for his emancipation of the Russian serfs, he also reigned over one of the most repressive periods in Russian history and faced numerous attempts on his life, ultimately resulting in his assassination. His personal life exhibited a similar dichotomy, as he was an unprecedented benefactor to children and orphans, yet humiliated his own wife and family by installing his mistress (and later morganatic wife) and their children in rooms in the Winter Palace above his family’s own quarters.

The eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I, Alexander was born in Moscow on the 17^th of April, 1818. Educated by legions of private tutors, Alexander also was forced to endure rigorous military training which his father felt was crucial to the development of strength and character. In 1841, he married a Hessian princess, who, after her conversion to Orthodoxy became known as Maria Alexandrovna.

After the death of his father, he ascended the throne on the 19^th of February 1855, and was crowned in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on the 26^th of August, 1856. Alexander II came to the throne in the midst of the Crimean War, a devastating military conflict for Russia, in which troops were decimated, and the shortcomings of the Russian military clearly evidenced. Late in 1856, Alexander signed the Treaty of Paris, which brought the ill-fated War to a swift conclusion.

After the end of the war, Alexander acknowledged that the serf-based economy would no longer support Russia’s needs to compete with nations such as Britain and France. The landowning nobility objected to this idea, and were certain that the abolition of serfdom would undermine their primary sources of income. Though Alexander understood the devastating effects the abolition of serfdom would have on the fortunes of the rich, he is reported to have addressed a group of Moscow nobles by saying: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below.”

In 1861 Alexander issued the “Emancipation Manifesto” which proposed 17 legislative acts that would abolish serfdom within the Russian Empire. Alexander announced that individual serfdom would be eliminated and all peasants would be allowed to purchase land from their landlords. The State would advance the money to the landlords and would then recover it from the peasants in 49 annual sums known as “redemption payments”. This was deleterious to the finances of the state, and the land reforms proved damaging to the entire structure of the Russian Empire by creating deficits, and placing the peasant farmers at the mercy of cruel landlords and unreliable crop returns. In some regions it took peasants nearly 20 years to obtain their land. Many were forced to pay more than the land was worth and others were given inadequate amounts for their needs.

Alexander also introduced other reforms and in 1864 he allowed each district to set up a Zemstvo. These were local councils with powers to provide roads, schools and medical services. However, the right to elect members was restricted to the wealthy noble landowners.

Alexander II also implemented many important and original national reforms, including universal military service and municipal and legal reorganization.

He also reevaluated foreign policy: Russia reassessed its policy of continuous overseas expansion and concentrated on strengthening its own borders. In 1867, he sold Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the United States, and used the proceeds to gild the domes of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg in thanks for the peace that the Russian Empire had begun to enjoy due to his reforms.

The most important foreign policy achievement of his reign was the successful war of 1877–8 against the Ottoman Empire, resulting in the liberation of Bulgaria and annulment of the conditions of the Treaty of Paris of 1856, imposed after Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War.

Alexander’s reforms generally did not satisfy liberals and radicals who wanted a parliamentary democracy and the freedom of expression that was enjoyed in the United States and some other European nations.

Alexander displayed a marked passion for helping orphans and children, and made personal wards of many of the children orphaned by the Crimean and Ottoman Wars. One of these, Catherine Dolgorukaya, captured his particular attention. Princess Dolgoruky, a beautiful descendant of one of Russia’s oldest families ultimately became the Emperor’s mistress, and the children of this morganatic union carried the title Prince and Princess Yurievsky (after Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, Catherine’s earliest ancestor).

Some dissidents preferred a policy of terrorism to obtain reform and on 14^th of April, 1879, Alexander Soloviev, a former schoolteacher, tried to kill Alexander. His attempt failed and he was executed the following month. The government responded to the assassination attempt by appointing six military governor-generals that imposed a rigorous system of censorship and repression in Russia.

The following month terrorists used nitroglycerine to attempt to destroy the Tsar’s train. However, the terrorist miscalculated and it destroyed another train instead. An attempt the blow up the Kamenny Bridge in St. Petersburg as the Tsar was passing over it was also unsuccessful.

In 1880, Khalturin constructed a mine in the basement of the winter palace under a dining-room. The mine went off at half-past six at the time that the assassins had calculated Alexander would be having his dinner. However, his main guest, Prince Alexander of Battenburg, had arrived late and dinner was delayed and the dining-room was empty. Alexander was unharmed but sixty-seven people were killed or badly wounded by the explosion.

The fading health of the Empress and the constant threats on his own life forced Alexander II to think carefully about further reform and his personal future, and so, on 25^th of February, 1880, Alexander announced that he was considering granting the Russian people a constitution. To show his good will a number of political prisoners were released from prison. Loris Melikof, the Minister of the Interior, was given the task of devising a constitution that would satisfy the reformers but at the same time preserve the powers of the autocracy.

In January 1881, Loris-Melikof presented his plans to Alexander. They included an expansion of the powers of the Zemstvo. Under his plan, each zemstvo would also have the power to send delegates to a national assembly called the Gosudarstvenny Soviet that would have the power to initiate legislation. Alexander was concerned that the plan would give too much power to the national assembly and appointed a committee to look at the scheme in more detail.

On thу 1^st of March, 1881, Alexander was traveling in a closed carriage, from Mikhailovsky Palace to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. An armed Cossack sat with the coach-driver and another six Cossacks followed on horseback. Behind them came a group of police officers in sledges.

On a street corner near the Catherine Canal Sophia Perovskaya gave the signal to Nikolai Rysakov and Timofei Mikhailov to throw their bombs at the Tsar’s carriage. The bombs missed the carriage and instead landed amongst the Cossacks. The Tsar was unhurt but insisted on getting out of the carriage to check the condition of the injured men. While he was standing with the wounded Cossacks another terrorist, Ignatei Grinevitski, threw his bomb. Alexander was killed instantly and the explosion was so great that Grinevitski also died from the bomb blast. The constitution was never to be granted.

On the site where he was killed, the Cathedral of the Resurrection on Blood was erected.

II. Comment upon the following words of Alexander II: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below.”

III. Read the text once again and discuss the following questions:

1. Why can Alexander’s reign be characterized as marked by contrasts?

2. Why did the landowning nobility object to Alexander’s ideas concerning the abolition of serfdom?

3. What actions were proposed according to the “Emancipation Manifesto” and why were they deleterious to the finances of the state?

4. How did Alexander reevaluate foreign policy? What was the most important foreign policy achievement of Alexander’s reign?

5. What were the attempts on Alexander’s life? What did they result in?

Text 2

The Liberation of Peasants

I. Scan the text and explain the words in bold:

The preparation of the cancellation of the serfdom began in January 1857 with the creation of the next Secret committee. In November 1857, a rescript was signed and hasty dispatched all over the country, at the name of general-governor Nazimov. This rescript announced the beginning of gradual liberation of peasants and ordered to create in each province noble committees for entering offers and amendments to the project of reform. The opened preparation about the cancellation of the serfdom began.

The revival of the country’s movement in 1858 under influence of rumours concerning the liberation compelled the government to radicalize the preparing reform. In December 1858 the new liberal program of the Main committee was authorized. It provided the liberation of peasants with the lot on conditions of the repayment.

The majority of serfdom propositions was rejected, but during the discussion of the project in the Main committee and the State council, under the pressure of reactionary and conservative forces, the editorial commissions reduced the sizes of allotments, and the norms of country duties increased. Not having given to landowners the opportunity to discuss this project, Alexander II, on the 19^th of February 1861, signed the “Regulations about the peasants who left serfdom”.

The serfdom was cancelled. Peasants received personal freedom. The land was completely kept under the control of landowners till the conclusion of the redemption bargain; peasants used farmsteads and grounds for duties (permanent-obliging condition).

House-serfs declared themselves free without any repayment, but within two years, they should serve the owners or pay a quitrent. Serf workers of state and landowners’ factories were transferred to quitrent and received the right of the repayment of former manors and lots.

The sum of redemption payments was determined by the sizes of the peasant’s quitrent, which means that the personal dependence of peasants, not the ground was repaid. This sum fixed in bank at 6% annually, should bring to a landowner annual income at the rate of labour payments. The government was the intermediary between the peasant and the landowner, paying to the landowner 60% - 70% of the amount of the transaction. Peasants were supposed to bring annually 6% of this redemption loan within 49 years.

The state peasants (except Siberia and the Far East) considered as personally free and paying to the treasury a labour tax, conserved their rights to use those lots. They might continue to pay the labour tax to the state, or to conclude with the treasury a redemption transaction. The repayment was brought lumpsum in the sum, and the annual interest to which was equaled to the amount of the labour tax. Landowners' peasants of Siberia were transferred to the state lands.

In the reorganization of government ruling’s system, one of the first steps was the reform of the local authorities’ system.

Being the representative of the institutions, local authorities were attentively concerned by the local needs. The main problem of the local authorities (zemstvo), besides the limitation of their competence, was the poor financing of their activity, which were carried out due to local taxes. Work in zemstvos promoted the formation of civil consciousness, development of Russian intelligentsia. The government, aspiring to avoid the creation of opposition, did not allow contacts between zemstvos of different provinces.

The preparation of the city reform began in 1861.

The “city’s position” was confirmed on the 16^th of June 1870. In cities a classless municipal Duma (administrative organ) and a board city (executive organ) were created under the presidency of the city’s head.

The most consecutive of the reforms of the 60s was the judicial reform. On the 20^th of November 1864 was promulgated a decree about judicial reform and new judicial charters. They entered general judicial establishments for persons of all estates, with the general order of legal proceedings. In Russia the jury, the transparency, the competitiveness of the legal proceedings, the equal responsibility of all estates before court, and the independence of court of administration, were affirmed.

The country was divided into 108 judicial districts. Two kinds of courts were created: the reconciliatory and the general. Judicial charters were distributed to 44 provinces and were introduced into them during more than thirty years.

The law approved in 1863, which cancelled corporal punishments by rods, lashes, knouts, markings on verdicts of civil and military courts, was accepted. Women were completely exempted from corporal punishments. But birches were kept for peasants (by verdicts of volost courts), for exiled and punished soldiers and convicts.

The preparation of reforms on fleet began even from the Crimean war. The head of sea department grand duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and his colleagues developed a number of projects on which the administration of the fleet and naval educational institutions were reorganized (in the 60s). In 1857 the system of military settlements was liquidated. The service life of the low grades was reduced from 25 to 10 years.

Within 12 years were carried out transformations in the army (1862-1874). Military theorists M.I. Dragomirov, D.A. Milyutin, G.A. Leer made qualitative changes in the military theory. In the army appeared new charters, giving the main attention to fighting and physical preparation of the soldiers. During the reform of military schools, there were created military grammar schools and cadet schools with biennial term of training. Persons of all classes were accepted in those schools.

After long debates, on the 1^st of January, 1874, the Charter about the compulsory military service radically changed the system of recruitment in the army. The general compulsory military service of all men after 21 years was entered at the place of recruitment. Soldiers were serving 6 years at active service and were registered as soldiers of reserve, sailors respectively 7 years and 3 years; those who finished elementary schools were serving 3 years, grammar schools 1,5 years, graduates of high schools, 6 months. The creation of a small army of peacetime with a significant trained reserve in case of war was the result of the reform.

II. Study the text and summarize the information presented there mentioning the following points:

· the cancellation of the serfdom;

· the reorganization of government ruling’s system;

· the city reform;

· the judicial reform;

· the reforms on fleet;

· the army reforms; the reform of the recruitment system.

III. Work with your partner and make up a dialogue discussing the importance (pros and cons) of Alexander’s reforms.

Text 3

The Foreign Policy during Alexander II

I. Scan the three parts of the text to get the general understanding of it. Choose the words from the boxes below to fill the blanks in each part. Mind that there are given more words than you need to complete the text.

Part I

Competed; strong; revolt; conflict; undermined; foreign; unification; weak; division; isolation; domestic; trade; strengthen; signed; navy; army.

The Foreign policy of Russia during Alexander II was directed first of all to the solution of the eastern question. The defeat in the Crimean war _______ the international authority of Russia, resulted into the loss of its prevailing influence in the Balkans. The neutralization of the Black sea made defenseless the southern sea borders of the country, thus hampering the development of the South and broke the expansion of foreign _______.

The main task of the Russian diplomacy was the cancellation of articles of the Parisian treaty. Trustworthy allies were necessary for this purpose. England remained the most dangerous enemy of Russia because of the rivalry in Transcaucasia and in Central Asia. Austria itself tried to fix in the Balkan. The Turkish policy was orientated to England. Prussia was still _______. Mainly the rapprochement with France was equitable to the interest of Russia, as France _______ with England in the Mediterranean. To strengthen its positions in the East Russia still staked on the struggle of the Christian people against Turkey.

Since April 1856 the talented diplomat and politician Gorchakov Alexander Mikhailovich (1798–1883) became the head of the Russian department of _______ policy.

Gorchakov took care of the consent of the powers, insisting on the exclusive right of Russia to assert its national interests. Striving for the rapprochement with France, he tried to help Russia out from the international _______.

In March 1859 the Russian-French treaty about the neutrality of Russia in the war of France and Sardinia against Austria was _______. But being sure of the French unwillingness to guarantee the support of the Russian interests in the East, Russia tried a rapprochement with Prussia. In 1863 the military convention with Prussia, which helped the tsarist government in its struggle against the Polish _______, was signed.

Russia supported the aspiration of the Prussian chancellor O. Von Bismarck to the _______ of the German lands. This diplomatic support helped Prussia to win the wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870–1871). At the London conference of the powers, that signed the Parisian treaty (January – March 1871), Russia achieved the cancellation of the interdiction to have a _______ at the Black sea and to build military arsenals at the Black Sea coast.

Part II

Advance; capital; defeat; campaign; cities; compelled; important; suppression; minor; measures; actions; influence; declared; asked; tribes; support.

The trading relations with Central Asia, being so much _______ for the Russian economy, were complicated because of constant civil dissensions in this region. The anxiety of the Russian government was caused by attempts of the English diplomacy to _______ the Kokand and Khiva Khanates through the Afghan emir.

In 1864 began the resolute advance to the central Asian khanates.

Successful operations against the emir of Bukhara began in the spring of 1866. In March 1868 the emir _______ the “sacred war” against Russia, but was defeated and in June he was _______ to sign a humiliating treaty.

The last big khanate was Khiva. But before its conquest the Russian government decided to take _______ to weaken the tension with England. After long negotiations in 1873 the Russian-English agreement on the recognition of Afghanistan as a neutral zone and about the transfer of Khiva under the “charge” of Russia was signed. In February 1873 the Russian troops started a _______ against the khanate of Khiva. In May 1873 the _______ of the khanate of Khiva was surrounded and capitulated, and in August the khan signed a peace treaty and recognized vassalage to Russia.

After _______ of the revolt in Kokand (1875–1876) on the 19^th of February 1876 Russia declared the inclusion of Kokand into the Turkistan governorship. The Bukhara and Khiva khanates, which strongly decreased in the territory, preserved their nominal independence. In 1878–1879 England occupied Afghanistan and established its protectorate.

By the end of the 70s the advance of Russia to Turkmen _______ started. The Russian administration carried out its policy in the joined Central Asian states taking into account local traditions. The Russian legislation expanded in Central Asia. Intestine wars stopped. Free lands caused immigrants from Russia and from other nearest countries to move here.

On the Caucasus with the _______ of the Russian army more and more new areas were conquered. In April 1873 the Russian-German military and defensive convention was signed. In the same year Russia and Austria-Hungary signed a political convention, to which joined Germany. So “The Union of three emperors” appeared.

Part III

Demands; threatened; diplomacy; agreed; independence; equal; unfair; in exchange; transferred; vassalage; diplomatic; changed; cancelled; colonization; rights.

In the summer of 1875 a new Middle East crisis burst out. Despite _______ of the European powers Turkey refused to give _______ rights to the Muslim and the Christian population of Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Bosnia and Herzegovina revolts broke out.

Having not achieved concessions through _______, on the 12^th of April 1877 Alexander II published the manifest of war against Turkey. Because of success of Russia, England sent a military squadron to the Sea of Marmara and together with Austria _______ with rupture of diplomatic relations in case Russians captured Constantinople.

On the 19^th of February (3^rd of March) in San-Stephano was signed the peace treaty between Russia and Turkey. Turkey recognized the independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania and _______ to Russia Southern Bessarabia and the fortresses of Kare, Ardagan and Batum. In the Balkans appeared the Bulgarian princedom, which meant the _______ of Bulgaria.

Under pressure of England and Austria-Hungary Russia had to place the articles of the agreement to the international discussion. _______ defeat of Russia was promoted by the position of Bismarck, who strived for the rapprochement with Austria-Hungary. On the Berlin congress (June – July 1878), the San-Stephano peace treaty was _______: Turkey took back a part of its territories, including the fortress of Bayazet; the contribution was reduced in 4,5 times, Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina, and England received Cyprus.

The Far East policy of Russia was connected with the process of _______ of this territory and development of the Russian-Chinese trade. The Aigun treaty of 1858 and the Pekin treaty of 1860 about differentiation of the lands were added by agreements of the sea and overland trade. There was a problem in the relations with Japan concerning the “unshared” joint possession of Sakhalin. According to the Simod treaty of 1855 Japan actively occupied Sakhalin. On the 25^th of April 1875 in St. Petersburg Russia and Japan signed the treaty of transfer to Japan of the Kurile Islands _______ for the Japanese part of Sakhalin.

II. Read the text again and explain the words and word combinations in bold. Make up your own sentences with them.

III. Make up 10 questions to the text for your group mates. Summarize the information on the foreign policy of Alexander II.

Text 4

Education, Science and Culture

I. Scan the text and explain the words in bold:

Reforms of national education became an integral part of the social reorganization of the 60s. “The regulations about primary national schools” of the 14^th of June 1864 in addition to state and church schools introduced Sunday and local schools. Their curricula and teaching staff favorably differed from those of state and church schools.

The new charter of grammar schools (the 19^th of November 1864) divided secondary educational institutions and grammar schools into classical and real ones with seven-year term of study. There were created schools with curricula of four classes of the grammar school. In the grammar school children of all layers of the society and creeds were admitted, but the fee was high. In the classical grammar school the humanities prevailed, and children were prepared to enter universities. Real grammar schools trained experts for the industry and trade, there were taught exact and natural sciences. Their graduates could enter only higher technical educational institutions. In 1865 there were 96 grammar schools in the country.

In 1871 a new and stricter charter of grammar schools was taken. In the classical grammar school the term of training increased up to 8 years, natural sciences were abolished. Real grammar schools were transformed into real schools with the six-year term of study. The governmental supervision over the local school and teachers became stronger.

By the beginning of the 60s in 14 universities of the country studied about 3 thousand students. The new university charter was authorized on the 18th of June 1863. The university self-management was restored.

In 1858 woman’s grammar schools were founded. It was forbidden for women to enter universities. They were admitted there just as listeners at the beginning of the 70–80s.

In 1857 the government decided to revise the censorial charter. After permission in 1858 to discuss in press the public problems and activity of the government the number of periodicals and books seriously increased.

Press, especially the periodical one, played a great public, political and educational role. From the end of the 50s the first place were occupied by social and political, scientific and literary editions, and first of all “thick” magazines “Sovremennik”, “Otechestvennye Zapiski”, “Russian word”, etc).

The number of readers increased too (in the St. Petersburg Public library the circulation of books rose from the years of 1854 to 1874 11 times as much). The rise of the Russian culture in the 60–80s was reflected first of all in literature. The leading direction in fiction became critical realism. Collision of ideas, moral problems, new phenomena in the public life, ways of development of Russia excited heroes of I.S.Turgenev, F.M.Dostoyevsky, L.N Tostoy, I.A.Goncharov, A.N.Ostrovsky. The theme of the people permeates N.A.Nekrasov’s creativity. A.A.Fet and F.I.Tyutchev created subtle lyrics.

The art experienced the process of establishment of realism too. In the theatre formation of the realistic direction is inextricably related with the plays of A.N.Ostrovsky. The leading role in the development of the dramatic art belonged to the Moscow Small theatre. The other center of the theatrical culture was the Petersburg Alexandriysky theatre.

In the 60–80s the Russian musical culture achieved great success. Established by M.I.Glinka, the Russian national musical style was continued by his pupil A.S. Dargomyzhsky and compositors of “Mighty heap” (M.A.Balakirev, M.P.Musorgsky, A.P.Borodin, N.А. Rimansky-Korsakov, T.A.Kui).

A special place in the Russian music is occupied by Peter Ilich Chaikovsky (1840–1893).

In 1862 in St. Petersburg under the initiative of the outstanding composer and musician A.G.Rubinstein was opened the first Russian conservatory.

Painting during the reforms was also marked by new talents who brought world glory to the Russian art. The most outstanding ideologist and organizer of the young generation of artists was I.N.Kramskoy, its theorist was V.V.Stasov. In this period worked I.N.Kramskoy, V.M And A.M. Vasnitsovs, I.I.Levitan, V.D.Polenov, V.G.Perov, I.E.Repin, V.I.Surikov, I.I.Shishkin, N.A.Yaroshenko, etc.

The big role in development of the Russian art was played by the creation of the first national gallery. Since 1856 the Moscow merchant P.M.Tretyakov (1832–1898) took a great interest in collecting of the most outstanding works of the Russian fine art. His private collection became the nucleus of one of the world’s richest national museums.

During the reforms in the cities there was active construction of public buildings, factories, plants and apartment houses. In architecture the “national” style in the spirit of the traditional Russian architecture was formed.

The second half of the 19^th century is rich of new outstanding discoveries of the Russian science. I.M.Sechenov’s works (1829–1905) “Reflexes of brain” (1863), “Physiology of nervous system” (1866) were the basis for the Russian physiology.

In the 60-80s the biologist I.I.Mechnikov (1845–1916) made a number of brilliant discoveries concerning the phenomenon of phagocytosis (protective factors of the organism).

The scientist-darwinian К.А. Timiryazev (1843–1920) through his research of the process of photosynthesis founded the Russian school of physiology of plants. D.I. Mendeleyev’s discovery (1834–1907) of the periodic system of elements (1869), was one of the fundamental laws of natural sciences.

The founder of the new school of organic chemistry was A.M.Butlerov (1828–1886).

In the field of mathematics and mechanics a great value had the creation by the Petersburg scientist P.L.Chebyshev (1821–1894) of his scientific school, which received world recognition by the development of the theory of numbers, the theory of probability and the mathematical analysis.

Among scientists – physicist A.G.Stoletov (1839–1896), the author of classical research of the theory of magnetism and electricity is especially known. The largest contribution to the world science was made by the Russian geographer and traveler (P.P.Semenov-Tyan-Shansky (1827–1914)).

II. Discuss the following questions:

1. What reforms of national education were introduced during the reign of Alexander II? Explain the difference between the existing types of schools.

2. How did the government revise the censorial charter? Tell about the press of that time.

3. How was the rise in the Russian culture of the 60–80s reflected in literature?

4. What changes could be observed in the theatre and musical culture in the 60–80s? What do you know about “Mighty heap”?

5. What event played a great role in the development of the Russian art of that time?

6. What outstanding discoveries of the Russian science marked the second half of the 19^th century?

7. What developments could be singled out in the field of mathematics and mechanics?

Summing-up tasks

I. Render the following text into English:

В конце 50-х годов позитивистов в отличие от идеалистов занимали более прагматические проблемы, впервые сформулированные Новиковым и в основном сводившиеся к вопросу “что мы должны делать?”. Непосредственной причиной, повлекшей за собой перемены в настроении интеллигенции, были Великие Реформы, в результате которых произошло освобождение крестьянства от крепостной зависимости; невиданные ранее широкие возможности открылись и для разночинной молодежи, которые сейчас могли приобретать профессии в области юриспруденции, медицины, журналистики, могли сделать карьеру и на военной службе. И, хотя период конца 50-х – начала 60-х годов все еще считался периодом редкого единодушия, после опубликования положений указа об освобождении крестьянства в рядах левых наступает разочарование. Происходят студенческие волнения, усиливается раскол среди самих радикалов.

Вместе с тем 60-е – 70-е годы были Золотым Веком русской мысли, когда велись споры по наиболее важным темам, занимавшим умы интеллигенции. Блестящие достижения в области химии, биологии, открытие закона сохранения энергии, космической материи привели к тому, что для многих сторонников грубого материализма вся человеческая деятельность была сведена к основным химическим и физическим процессам. А ряд ученых заявлял о возможности заранее с математической точностью прогнозировать все проявления поведения человека в обществе.

Леворадикальная молодежь с презрением отвергала философию идеализма. Однако подобного рода нигилизм мотивировался не полным отсутствием ценностей, но желанием свести весь опыт человечества к единому прагматическому принципу. Очень характерно для левых было избирательное признание достижений науки. Так например, претендуя на подлинно научное мышление, Чернышевский и многие его сторонники отвергали Дарвина и не имели представления о самых последних научных достижениях своего времени. Радикалы желали создать нового человека, свободного от религиозных и философских предрассудков, рационального эгоиста. Герои Чернышевского отвергают соблазн денег и удовольствий. А социализм, в свою очередь, учит силой отбирать деньги и у других. Радикалы были анархистами, которые были не в состоянии бросить вызов политической системе. Их борьба была направлена в первую очередь против мнений и отражала идею о том, что интеллигенция всегда была основной человеческого прогресса.

II. Find information and present a report on one of the following topics:

1. Idealists and positivists. Compare the two generations.

2. Changes brought about by the Great reforms.

3. The spectacular scientific achievements of the 19^th century and their impact on the Russian society.

4. Nihilists and the attitude towards them.

5. Socialism and Christianity.

6. Bolshevism and intelligentsia.

III. POSTER: Make a poster showing the life of people in the 19^th century. Show your poster to your group mates.

IV. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about Alexander II. Include an imaginary interview with him. Write about what he does every day and what he thinks about.

Read what you wrote to your group mates. Give each other feedback on your articles.

V. LETTER: Write a letter to Alexander II. Ask him three questions about his life. Give him three suggestions on what he should do in his future. Read your letter to your partner(s). Your partner(s) will try and answer your questions. Make up a dialogue on the basis of your letters.

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