Alexander3 inherited the Russian Empire in the moment when there was urge for changes. His legacy from his father was the inception of newly introduced liberal movements. Even though Alexander was reactionary, it was mainly because he did not want to follow his fathers footsteps who was assassinated by nihilist group “Peoples Will”, he couldn’t stop spread of so called “Westerners” and radicals. It was crucial for Alexander to preserve his power as an autocrat, which meant that there were no room for opposition that could jeopardise his reign. But at that point he could still hold his control over Russia and opposition was too weak and divided to challenge the Tsar, at that time Empire faced more economical and social problems that Tsar needed to solve.

As a child Alexander had Pobedonoscev as his tutor who was Tsars chief minister and leading official of the State Church. He was remarkable by his conservative views, being part of Slavophiles movement. It was easy for him to influence Alexanders views far before he became Tsar and even after his influence kept pursuing the young Tsar. Because of Pobedonoscevs doctrines Alexander believed in order for Russia to modernise it needs to follow old traditions, so he will be safe from repeating his fathers fate. Pobedonoscev taught Alexander that basis of political stability, which was very important for the Tsar, lay upon autocracy, Russian nationalism and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Russian Orthodox Church members supported Tsar because their position was highly dependent on him. They were the bridge that tied the Tsar to the people, because faith mainly gave Tsar his powers of autocrat. Russian society had 80% of it as peasants who were uneducated “dark masses”, the lack of education made them deeply religious because it was the only knowledge they had access to and Church claimed that Tsar was God anointed, so