Russification and Legal Policy of Alexander II in the Baltic Region

The authors of the current article offer analysis of the russification policy and legal reforms in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire during the reign of Alexander II (1855–1881). The legal reforms were based on the fact that the rights and privileges of the Baltic provinces were in inevitable conflict with the implementation of the Russian Empire’s principle of “one country, one language” in the Baltic provinces. The implementation of this principle would have meant the russification of the Baltic provinces. The research concludes that, unlike radical Slavophiles who demanded that the Russian language should be imposed as the only language of communication in public institutions, Alexsander II did not rush to impose the Russian language on the Baltics. He preferred a gradual “crumbling” of the rights and privileges of the Balts, with an ever-expanding framework for the use of Russian. Although the reforms initiated by Alexander II remained unfinished, especially the reform of the judiciary and procedural law, these reforms initiated in the 1860s–1870s became a precondition for the russification of the Baltic provinces during the reign of Alexander III (1881–1894). Therefore, the implementation of the policy of russification and justice reform in the Baltic governorates cannot be viewed in isolation from the reign of Alexander III and the reign of Alexander II.