Opposition to Russian Governments Was Ineffective Between 1855-1964. How Far Do You Agree?

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“Opposition to Russian governments was ineffective in the period from 1855 to 1964”. How far do you agree with this view? Opposition throughout the period from 1855 to 1964 can be seen as any group of people opposing, criticising or protesting against the Government. There was significant opposition to Russian governments across the period and there were several different forms of opposition. The effectiveness of these groups can be judged in terms of the outcomes of their actions. The first type of opposition to consider is opposition from groups within Russia. In the earlier years of Alexander II’s reign opposition to the Russian government existed within the peasantry. In between 1800-1861 there had been 1467 uprisings and in 1861 alone there were 400 instances of revolt amongst the peasantry. This basic form of opposition was never truly effective as their actions were simply put down by the government partly due to their failure to unite and lack of ideology and political demands. This was, however, not the only internal opposition to Tsar Alexander II with the “Going to the People” movement emerging in 1874. Here young members of the Russia intelligentsia went to the peasants breaching to them about their ideas about how life should be lived. This proved unsuccessful, they failed to appeal to the peasantry and the regime managed to arrest members showing them to be ineffective at this point. However, the populist movement developed from here, eventually splitting into two groups; the Black Partition and the People’s Will. The latter was arguably an effective form of opposition as it was responsible for the assassination of Alexander II on the 1st March 1881. Following on from this there was no alternative to the regime on offer as the group lacked any real ideology or popular support and thus the opposition was not truly effective. What followed was the rule
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