Rise in opposition to Nicholas II

Question 1

Two forms of opposition to Nicholas II?

Answer 1

-Liberal
-Radical

Question 2

Examples of Liberal opposition?

Answer 2

Zemstvo
State Duma

Question 3

Examples of radical opposition?

Answer 3

Bolsheviks
Mensheviks
Strikes from workers and soldiers

Question 4

What paved the way for the growth of liberal opposition?

Answer 4

Industrial and educational expansion produced an emerging middle class of professionals who wanted more reforms.

Economic growth.

Question 5

Liberal main support base = ?

Answer 5

Professionals - lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers

Question 6

What are the main priorities of the liberals?

Answer 6

Civil rights and a constitutional monarchy

Question 7

Where were civil rights outlined?

Answer 7

October manifesto

Question 8

Where were liberals represented most in the government?

Answer 8

Zemstvo

Question 9

What helped the liberals gain support at a local level?

Answer 9

Tsarist incompetence in dealing with the great famine of 1891-92 helped promote the Zemstvos who had provided relief for the peasants during this period.

Question 10

What help did the Zemstvo give to the peasants during the great famine?

Answer 10

-Distribute grain out to them, giving them food effectively.
-Build hospitals
-Health work, giving them aid.

Question 11

Result of the great famine?

Answer 11

-400,000 peasants dead
-Tsar incompetence on show for all peasants
-Zemstvo gain support and influential on the peasants.

Question 12

Why did 400,000 people die in the Great famine?

Answer 12

400,000 people died mainly due to government incompetence and Vashnegradsky policy of selling the peasants grain abroad to fund the industrial investment.

Question 13

What did the liberals call for in 1896?

Answer 13

An “all - Zemstvo organisation”

Question 14

Result of the call for an “all Zemstvo organisation” = ?

Answer 14

Calls were ignored by the Tsar and this didn’t ease the calls for reform from the liberals.

Question 15

What was the main goal of the liberals?

Answer 15

Constitutional monarchy

Question 16

What was the first liberal opposition group called?

Answer 16

Beside

Question 17

When was the frustrated liberal group Beside formed

Answer 17

1899

Question 18

In 1903 what did the Beside liberal group merge with?

Answer 18

The Union of Liberation

Question 19

Who was the leader of the new group of liberals?

Answer 19

Peter Struve

Question 20

Peter Struve ideology = ?

Answer 20

An interesting Marxist, since he was opposed to a revolution and supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy. This was contrasting the view of Marxism which is very pro-revolution and anti-monarchy.

Question 21

What happened after 1905 to liberal opposition?

Answer 21

Less influence from the liberals after 1905 as their calls for civil rights and reform were met by the October Manifesto, thus in theory the manifesto did its job.

Creation of the State Duma also gave liberals a voice but this was drowned out by Stolypin turning the chamber into a yes man to the Tsar.

Question 22

What major thing was not achieved by the liberals?

Answer 22

A constitutional monarchy.

Question 23

Why was a constitutional monarchy not achieved?

Answer 23

Nicholas II had written in powers to overrule the Duma no matter their decision he still had large autocratic power.

Question 24

When was the radical social revolutionary party founded?

Answer 24

1901

Question 25

What ideology and belief did the SRs combine?

Answer 25

Combining Marxism with the populist belief in land redistribution

Question 26

Was there land redistribution under Nicholas II?

Answer 26

Small scale land redistribution as a result of Stolypins land reforms however the SRs didn’t think this went far enough

Question 27

Who edited the SRs party journal and what was it called

Answer 27

Their party journal was edited by socialist Viktor Chernov and the journal was called ‘Revolutionary Russia’.

Question 28

What did the Social revolutionaries call for?

Answer 28

The party called for peasants and urban workers to challenge autocracy - ideas of Marx creeping in.

He party called for a revolutionary, they wanted nothing to do with the Tsar at all.

Question 29

How many political assassinations were carried out between 1901 and 1905?

Answer 29

2,000

Question 30

What side of the political spectrum are assassinations normally attributed too?

Answer 30

Far-Right groups

Question 31

Why are the social Democratic Party the main party to remember?

Answer 31

They split in 1903 into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

Question 32

How did Marxist ideals spread through Russia?

Answer 32

As industrialisation increased and the censorship laws decreased in Universities around the time of Alexander II marxist literature such as “Das Capital” began to creep in to the young educated students at universities. Universities now had the freedom to decide their own curriculum and as a result Marxist ideals creeped in.

Question 33

Who established the first Russian marxist association in 1883?

Answer 33

Georgi Plekhanov and the association was called the “emancipation of labour”

Question 34

What did the “emancipation of labour” do?

Answer 34

Smuggled Marxist literature into Russia.

Question 35

Who did Plekhanov try and get support from?

Answer 35

Plekhanov was against gaining support from peasants, instead he tried to gain support from the educated areas of society one key member who was persuaded into Marxism was Vladimir Lenin.

Question 36

When was the social Democratic Party founded?

Answer 36

1898

Question 37

In 1902 whilst In exile in Switzerland what did Lenin write for the social Democratic Party?

Answer 37

A pamphlet = “What is to be done?”

Surrounds the issue of the state of Russia and what needs to be done to turn it into a communist utopia.

Question 38

What happened at the 1903 social democrat congress in Brussels?

Answer 38

51 delegates attended the second congress however there were disagreements between Lenin and the other co-editor of Isra, Martov and this split the radical left.

Question 39

How did the social Democratic Party split?

Answer 39

The followers of Lenin who were the minority became the Bolshevik party and the followers of Martov who were the majority became the Menshevik party.

Question 40

What did Lenin believe in?

Answer 40

-Small, centrally controlled and highly disciplined party of professional revolutionaries who would lead the revolution on behalf of the workers.
-Believed that the bourgeois and proletarian revolution could occur simultaneously.
-Can’t work with other groups

Question 41

What did Martov believe in?

Answer 41

-A democratic party open to all.
-Co-operation with other parties and trade unions, he was pro alliance building.
-Believed that the workers should lead the revolution and that a proletarian revolution can only happen after the bourgeois revolution.

Question 42

What was the key difference between Martov and Lenin?

Answer 42

Lenin refused to work with other parties or groups whereas Martov openly saw to work with others.

Question 43

Radical opposition response to October Manifesto = ?

Answer 43

Both the Social Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats rejected the October manifesto in 1905, in November 1905 they called for a general strike by the ST Petersburg soviet.

They were annoyed because it relaxed tensions between many possible supporters of their group such as the intellectuals and the workers who were both content with the reforms made and the economic prosperity in Russia.

Question 44

What happened to radical opposition after 1905?

Answer 44

After 1905 the radical opposition had no clear leader or direction they didn’t have a clear objective. Trotsky was exiled to Siberia and Lenin fled to Finland in December as he was very scared.

Question 45

Why had radical opposition fallen between 1905-1914?

Answer 45

They had no aims or no reasons to mount a revolution after 1905, Stolypin had steadied the ship the economy was doing well 6% GDP growth per year up to 1914 and there was liberal reform. Russia looked like they were becoming stable and thus there was no support for radical left wing support as people didn’t need to support them nor did they want to as Russia and Tsar Nicholas II was doing quite well.