The purpose of this research is to examine the cycle of political despotism and freedom that is characteristic of the history of Russia, from the period of Tsar Nicholas I to the current period. The plan of the research will be to set forth the scope and limit of the study in the context of political development in Russia, and then to discuss what could be called the pendulum of social experience that has affected dramatic political and cultural change in the country.
The modern post-monarchical history of Russia is embedded in its monarchic past. To understand how and why sociocultural and sociopolitical change has so dramatically affected Russia from time to time, it is necessary to understand the forces militating both for and against such change throughout the country's history. And a decisive fact about that history is the massive scale of national experience where political and social structure are concerned. In this connection, framing the discussion from the period of Nicholas I to the current period makes sense because the manner in which Nicholas I and all rulers of Russia from the time of his reign assumed power illustrates a pattern of dramatic shifts in popular political experience. While the overarching pattern is one of competing despotic reigns, wherein one category of despotism succeeds another, there is also evidence of a social and philosophical culture of freedom that was specifically aimed at enlarging access to such familiar Western freedoms as those of speech, assembly, or press on one hand, and freedom from want or fear.
In the background of any investigation of the details of shifts in political power in Russia is the circumstances surrounding the manner in which political power was assumed, exercised, and relinquished. Elements of the swing to and from despotic rule overlap and converge, but the accession of Nicholas I to the imperial Russian throne in 1825 can be said to have set a tone for pol...