What the History of the Russian Tsars can Teach Us Today

Yesterday I watched Russia - Land of the Tsars, a History Channel production that told the history of the Tsars of Russia from Peter the Great to Nicholas II. Russia has an interesting history, and no matter how many times I've studied it or investigated it, I always come out a little more confused- as Winston Churchill once said "Russia is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." That being said, the people of Russia are people too, and one theme that is common to all people is the desire for human liberty and freedom and the desire of other people to control and use other people. The struggle for life, liberty, and the protection of property that one earns from ones labor is a struggle that transcends nations and peoples, and while I watched this production I was reminded again of this struggle.

Tsars in particular were fascinating to me- Alexander I and Alexander II. Both had a chance to move Russia towards a liberal moderate constitutional monarchy, but both were defeated in these efforts by well-meaning democrats and socialists, who instead moved Russia closer to communism and fascism through their actions. This is frequently the case- some people work actively to defeat moves in the right direction because they are not the 'perfect' direction to move, without understanding that an oblique move is still a move forward.

After the assassination of spoiled and rotten Paul I, his son Alexander I became Tsar and he represents in his one person both the inclination for entitlement and elitism and a desire for control over others that he learned from his father and also a sense of enlightenment and a recognition of the worth of others and the inclination for liberty that he learned from his tutors and his grandmother Catherine II the Great. During his time as tsar, he struggled to reconcile these two competing belief systems. He moved Russia closer to a constitutional monarchy, put in place a Council of Ministers, allowed the serfs more rights, and attention to a more balanced budget all marked him in his early in his life as a liberal reformer who did things to improve the life, liberty, and protection of property of the people of Russia. But Alexander I was badly shaken by a revolutionary conspiracy among the officers of the guard around 1816, and by a foolish plot to kidnap him on his way to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapell in 1818- both undertaken by well-meaning democrats who were unhappy with the pace of change and so decided to speed things. After these incidents, Alexander I was forced to back away from liberalism and stopped reforms, and the moment passed, and his brother and successor Nicholas I reversed much of these actions and was greatly repressive, all because some made perfect the enemy of good.

Nicholas I was one of the most reactionary of all the Russian monarchs, and it is during his reign that we can see what happens when human liberty is not encouraged, when private property is not protected, and when life is respected. Although he ruled for 30 years and was successful in maintaining power and in enlarging the size of Russia, it is during his reign that Russia falls farther and farther behind the rest of the world in military power and economic production, and it is during his reign that the seeds for the future terror that was Lenin and Stalin were put in place. The hallmarks of his administration were abolishing local government, increasing censorship, increased government control over major industries, increased power of the national government, increased taxes, and ran up the national debt. The result- industries lagged, the industrial revolution avoided backwards Russia, revolution and unrest simmered, and the Russian military was embarrassed in the Crimean War. Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were everywhere.

With the death of Nicholas I in 1855, the Russian crown passed to his eldest son, Alexander II. There was little in Alexander II's upbringing or character to indicate that he would be one of the greatest reformers in the history of Russia, but sometimes when people who are good are given a chance, even if they are not perfect, they surprise you. And surprise Alexander II did- he ended the Crimean War, began to clean up the crony capitalism that ran rampant in government, lowered taxes, filled the treasury, exploited natural resources, encouraged business development, emancipated the serfs in 1861, rebuilt the military, put in place a new judicial system, greatly simplified civil and criminal procedures, encouraged rule of law, empowered local police, moved more power to local governments, and generally acted with more humanity towards everyone he dealt with. He was not perfect, but did much to advance human liberty, protect property from capricious actions by government, and protect the lives of people from the state. But there were some who felt that he didn't go far enough often enough, and these radicals, raised in the oppression of Nicholas I's reign, were not just conservative democrats, but instead the more dangerous kinds of revolutionaries, socialists, who sipped the Kool-Aid and truly believed that a better world could be made by using the state to redistribute wealth, control industries, and pick winners and losers in society. They dogged Alexander II, repeatedly trying to assassinate him, until eventually they were successful and killed Alexander II in March of 1881. Alexander II was followed by a conservative and repressive Alexander III and Nicholas II, who did little to return to the agenda that Alexander II had put in place prior to his death.

One of those who were part of the plot to kill Alexander II was Alexander Ulyanov, who was very much looked up to by his younger brother, a young community activist known as Vladimir Lenin. One wonders what might have happened if Alexander I or Alexander II might have succeeded in their attempts to move Russia forward- perhaps it would not have slid backwards and fallen victim to the awful atrocities that were the reigns of Lenin and Stalin, and the millions in dead might still be alive and prosperous today.

Sometimes good is good enough, and even if some Tsars were not perfect, they did advance human liberty, protect property, and protect human lives from the excesses of the state. It is important that we take time to learn about them so that we may learn some lessons from them and apply those lessons to our own nation and to our own choices of who should be governing our nation.

The video can be found at Russia - Land of the Tsars.