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| 1881–87 |
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| Nicholas Bunge's tenure at the Ministry of Finance began the economic changes necessary for industrialization. These included the creation of the Peasant Land Bank, the abolition of the head tax, and the introduction of an inheritance tax. He also spearheaded the first labor legislation in Russia (1882–86). | 1 |
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| 1883 |
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| The government required peasants to buy out their land allotments. | 2 |
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| 1884 |
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| New university statutes abolished autonomy. A statute on church-parish schools sought to entrust elementary education as much as possible to the church. | 3 |
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| 1884–87 |
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| Continued advance in central Asia (conquest of Merv, 1884) brought the Russians to the frontier of Afghanistan, where a clash of Russian and Afghan troops in 1885 brought Russia to the verge of war with Great Britain. The matter was finally disposed of by agreement on a Russian-Afghan frontier. | 4 |
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| 1885 |
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| The government created the State Gentry Land Bank to aid the gentry who had suffered from the growth of a market economy in the first half of the century. This began a series of Alexander's counterreforms designed to shore up the position of the gentry. These counterreforms included the establishment of land captains, gentry named by the minister of the interior to provide direct supervision of peasants (1889), and the creation of a distinct group for the gentry in the zemstvo system with increased representation (1890). | 5 |
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| 1887 |
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| The government established a limit for the number of Jewish students in institutions of higher education. | 6 |
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| 1890s |
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| Emergence of a popular reading public, which consumed distinctive Russian adventure stories and other materials. Growing urban contacts also began to change peasant sexuality, reducing parental controls. | 7 |
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| 1890 |
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| Growing alliance with France (See European Diplomacy, 1848–1914). | 8 |
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| 1891 |
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| Construction began on the Trans-Siberian Railway. | 9 |
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| 1891–92 |
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| Rural discontent, sparked by a great famine, obliged the government to abolish the poll tax and reduce redemption payments. | 10 |
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| 1892 |
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| The property requirements for voting in town government were increased. | 11 |
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| 1892–1903 |
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| RUSSIAN INDUSTRIALIZATION was guided by Sergei Witte, minister of finance. The government inaugurated a high protective tariff and began to give extensive support to native industry, while the rapid expansion of railroads and the opening of the coal and iron fields of southern Russia served as an important stimulus. From 1881 to 1894, the state increased the railroad network in length by 40 percent and then doubled it between 1895 and 1905. Witte also established a policy of heavy borrowing abroad, especially in France, in the hope that the increased productive power of Russia would make repayment easy. Many foreign companies established operations in Russia. Estimates place economic growth in this period at an annual average of 8 percent. | 12 |
| But the growth of industry involved also the emergence of an industrial proletariat, living in misery and inadequately protected by the first factory laws. | 13 |
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