
Topics:
1. What were the pressures on the Russian ruling elite? Russia's international position. The Crimean war.
2. Domestic pressures. A backward economy, pressure to modernise.
3. The threat of popular discontent.
4. Inconsistent responses from the Tsars: Reform and reaction.
5. Assassination and terrorism. Alexander III authoritarian response.
6. 1890s Russian industrialisation takes off and massive urban growth.
7. Nicholas II - the 1905 Revolution/War with Japan.
8. Russian Tsars unsure how to deal with modernisation, the desire to maintain power and short sightedness.