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RATINGS: Sites are rated from 1 owl (good) to a high of 5 owls. Read more- Declaration of Alexander II Emancipating the Serfs
In many ways, Russian serfdom resembled slavery in the Americas. On March 3, 1861, Tsar Alexander II freed all Russian serfs from their hereditary obligations to feudal landlords. Alexander's momentous speech of emancipation is presented by Sam Houston State University's Russian History page.
Peter Kropotkin on the Assassination of Alexander II Learn about the assassination of the beloved tsar who freed the serfs and modernized Russia.
- Turgenev's Definition of Nihilism
Nihilism was a powerful movement among the young Russian intellectuals of the 19th century. The Nihilists were responsible for plotting many acts of terrorism and were regarded as a major threat to Russia. In the novel Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev's narrator, Arkady, meets and becomes friends with the young man Bazaroff, a Nihilist. In this excerpt from the novel, Arkady tries to explain Nihilism to his family.
- The Fate of Porfiry Voinaralsky
Porfiry Voinaralsky was a young Populist and intellectual who believed that the key to revolution in Russia was to rouse the peasantry against the government. In 1874, he and other Populists went out into the countryside and attempted to do just that. They were dismayed by the reception they received. The episode recounted here on Hong Kong University's Department of History site illustrates the "enormous gulf" between revolutionaries and peasants.
- Mary Antin: A Jewish Girl in the Russian Pale
Mary Antin grew up in the Pale, a strip of land running from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea that was the only region in Russia that Jews were allowed to call home. Her autobiographical narrative, online at the Internet Modern History Sourcebook, presents a picture of the day-to-day life of Jews and Jewish children in Russia at the end of the 19th century.
- The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Housed in the former Winter Palace of the tsars, the State Hermitage Museum is a must-see repository of Russian art and history. This lavishly illustrated megasite offers online exhibits, samples of the many art objects in the Hermitage galleries, a virtual tour of the museum, as well as pages that focus on specific eras of Russian history and the artwork of those eras. This site is a wonderful place to discover the beautiful and unique Russian culture.The Reign of Alexander II and Alexander III Here, find information about and artifacts from late 19th-century Russia.
- Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky was one of the major figures in Russian literature and is regarded as a forerunner of existentialist thought. This site from Middlebury College offers a brief biography of Dostoevsky as well as bibliographies, reading guides, links, and an interesting page about translating Dostoevsky's name from Russian to English.
- Beyond the Pale: Jews in the Russian Empire
Hundreds of thousands of Jews lived in the Russian Pale of Settlement. Beyond the Pale, an illustrated online exhibit about Jews in the 19th century, goes inside the Pale to describe the daily struggle for survival and cultural achievements of Russian Jews during this time.
The Russian Empire under Alexander II
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