STATE POLICIES OF TSAR NICHOLAS II AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE JEWISH DIASPORA OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE (1894-1917)

Abstract

The coronation of Nicholas II in 1894, marked a shift in the dynamic of Imperial Russia. What was beginning to become a modernized society under Alexander II seemed to be undone shortly within the reigns of both Alexander III and Nicholas II. However, it was Nicholas II who significantly transitioned the empire away from a path toward modernity and instead steered the empire for a path of oppression and economic hardship for all classes but the nobility. The Jewish community in Imperial Russia had been targeted by a series of organized, often violent attacks beginning in the 1800s. This, in addition to discrimination by the general population, caused a wave of anti-Semitism to spread throughout the Russian territories. Those who fled did so due to unfair treatment by the government, rampant ethno-nationalist agendas, and poor economic conditions at the hands of Tsar Nicholas II. An analysis of the factors that can lead to economic downturn and inequality among citizens within societies that emphasize authoritarianism and propaganda is essential in understanding the governmental policies that led to the Jewish diaspora of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The February Revolution was the culmination of ineffectual leadership of a top-down autocracy that failed to modernize economically in an attempt to maintain control over the population and not spark uprising, leading to the eventual diaspora of many religious minorities, most notably Jews.