What Was The Difference Between Russian Revolution And Conservatism

The emergence of many different ideologies in 1800s Europe permanently changed the political landscape. Ideas about freedom and revolution, mostly contained in the ideology called liberalism, were spread throughout France during the French revolution. A contrasting ideology, conservatism, rejected the ideas in liberalism and instead embraced the ideas of tradition and monarchy to control the people. Since many conservatives valued the tradition of their nation, there was an emergence of another ideology called nationalism. Nationalism is strong pride in one’s nation; its culture, its language, its music, its army, and many other things. Nationalism is different from patriotism in that nationalists believe in the superiority of their nation and the inferiority of others. Another seemingly contrasting ideology to Nationalism was Romanticism, which believed in the value of the individual identity, along with other

Tsar Nicholas ruled over Russia with an iron fist, first crushing a rebellion by Decemberists, or liberal revolutionaries, in 1825, then going on to regain greater control of Poland in 1830 after another liberal rebellion. Due to these uprisings, Tsar Nicholas’ hatred for liberalism worsened, and he enforced traditional, conservative values on the Russian people even more harshly. One of the ways he did this was by censoring liberal ideas; in one case, he had his secret police force, the Third Section of the Chancellery, investigate a cookbook for using the term “free air.” His conservativism had reached radical, paranoid levels. As a result, Russian intelligentsia, or highly educated people, paved the way for even more destructive rebellions. Tsar Nicholas’ ruling as a monarch with an iron fist and censorship of liberal ideas show how conservatism impacted the Russian political landscape in the