State and Society in the Tsarist Empire after the Great Reforms (1870-1890)

This essay focuses on the relationship between state (gosudarstvo) and society (obshchestvo) in the Tsarist Empire between the Great Reforms of Alexander II and the counter-reformist turn triggered by Alexander III when he succeeded his father, killed by the terrorists of Narodnaia volia in 1881. The author highlights in particular: the fact that, in Russia’s case, historical phases overlapped whereas they followed one another in other European countries over a longer period; the inviolability of the autocratic principle; the dynamics of top-down reforms; the persistence of the soslovia- based social stratification in a context of economic transformation.