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Russian history: What was the Statute of State Security?

why did alex.III create it and what did it involve? I tried searching it up on google but answers are very vague

tanx

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Reply 2

edgymurphy

Alexander III created the SSS to turn Russia back to conservative interests. He saw a reforming stance as very dangerous as he believed that this is what killed his father; you should remember that he watched his father bleed to death with no legs following the bombings.
Alex 3 created the Statute of State Security to counter many of the more open-end and liberal policies that his father had created. Censorship was increased to eradicate magazines favored by the intelligentsia who he believed had developed ideas above their station which had been made worse by the open and free environment at universities (It should be noted that much opposition to the tsarist regime came from universities with an example being Lenin's older brother who was executed for an assassination attempt in 1887)
The education system was modified to become more traditional and to create students who would be unlikely to develop liberal ideas. Special government-controlled courts were set up that operated outside the existing legal system so that prisoners who could be considered an opponent to the tsarist regime could be suppressed and not set free following an acquittal such as the Zasulich Trial in 1878. This point is proved further when you consider that judges, magistrates and officials who were sympathetic to liberal policies were removed.
Finally, the powers of the Okhrana (secret police) were increased to eradicate enemies of the state.

These were put across to the Russian people as being a temporary measure due to the threat posed by terrorists but they remained for twenty years and were essentially the laws for the entirety of Alexander III's reign.