How did Witte's and Pobedonostsev's visions of Russia and its path Essay

How did Witte's and Pobedonostsev's visions of Russia and its path differ Could either of them have saved autocracy - Essay Example Ivan III wiped out the idea of democracy by annexing territory of both principalities of their kingdom, ensuring that no united political power would be able to oppose their total authoritarian rule. The leader drew a firm support of the Russian Orthodox Church to legitimize an autocratic rule (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). The people of Russia would therefore feel the effects of this rule in later years during the time of reign of both Alexander III and Nicholas II of between 1880 and 1905. Many Russians suffered due to autocratic rule at these times and later it resulted to the Russian Revolution. During the time of these two rulers, the people of Russia ran to extreme poverty due to existence of famine, lack of education, the people lived under poor working condition in cities, there were limited industries even though society that is more agrarian could be noticed no development could be hastened. Due to autocracy, the Russian empire was deteriorated politically, economically, and socially. There were no industries and most of the people were peasants with high level of illiteracy. Most of the citizens were still under the slavery of wealthy property owners. The government still had no defined legal or constitution as well as parliament thus as a result no elections could be conducted. For efficient and smooth run of the entire vast empire, the Tsar appointed various ministers to help him rule. People were denied freedom of speech thus grievances could not be aired to the Tsar. The first round in the struggle to define a direction of Russia’s development was between the conservative stability proclaimed by Pobedonostsev, which elaborated on maintenance of Russia’s natural institution and massive industrial change driven by Witte that emphasized on the introduction of European institutions (MacKenzie & Curran, 2001). The two men experienced a reversal of their early