7. Nic II and challenge to autocracy Flashcards
(42 cards)
Nicholas II ideologies
‘to maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as it was preserved by my unforgettable dead father’
● Commitment to Orthodoxy ensured that the Church maintained influenced
● Continued russification & support for the ‘Black Hundreds’ organisations (right wing & anti-Semitic policies’.
Gov under Nic II
May 1896 conrination events
- gathered on Khodynka field.
- Promise of free food to celebrate.
- Crush to see tsar and wife.
- 1400 trampled to death - conrination continued.
- Nic later visited injured in hospital + money to those who lost loved ones.
Demands for change
Post 1894 - great famine effects
- Failure to cope w/crisis - zemstva & voluntary organisations had to provide relief work bred scorn and despair
- Greater public mistrust of govt competence & firmer belief in power of ordinary people in society to play a role in national affairs
- Reformist groups developed stronger support by base by 1900
Demands for change
Role of Okrana
- new outbursts of trouble in uni’s
- they expelled, exiled or drafted rebels/submitted to military force
Demands for change
Result and year that mounted Cossacks stormed students
- St. P
- Killed 13, arrested 1500
Demands for change
Disturbance in towns & countryside
1902-1907
instances of arson in the rural committees - ‘the years of the red cockerel’
* Unrest worst in central Russian provinces where landlord/peasant relationship remained.
* Peasants set fire to their landlord’ barns destroying grain/ physically attacked.
Demands for change
Role of Stolypin
- dealt w/disturbances by flogging, arresting, exiling, or shooting (in the thousands’.
- Gallows became in frequent use STOLYPIN’S NECKTIE = nickname for the hangman’s noose.
When was introduction of police-sponsered trade unions, and what did it do?
- 1900
- provided official channels for complaints to be heard, in attempt to prevent workers joining radical socialists.
demands for change
Industrial strikes
- escalated
- 17k in 1894 - 90k in 1904
- violent attacks between police and strikersbecame commonplace.
demands for change
Role of Father Gapon
- created Assembly of St Petersburg Factory Workers.
- Was approved by minister of IA (Plehve) & had the support of the Orthodox Church.
- Soon had 12 branches & 8000 members.
Russo-Japanese War
Original cause of war
- Russian drive to the East + building of Trans-Siberian railway.
- 1896: Chinese allowed an additional line to be constructed south .
- 1898: a spur line added to Port Arthur granted to Russia on 25-year lease.
- Japanese had briefly held peninsula in 1895, objected + began shelling the naval base in 1904.
Russo Japanse war
Battle of Port Arthur
1904
* After a long siege Port Arthur eventually fell to Japanese.
* Russian flagship struck Japanese mine with heavy loss of life and one of its best admirals.
* The battle fleet was spilt between Port Arthur and icebound Vladivostok.
Russo Japanse war
Battle of Makdun – Feb 1905
- Major engagement near this Manchurian city led to 85,000 Russian and 41,000 Japanese losses.
- Russian reserves of manpower depended heavily on success of Baltic fleet
Russo Japanse war
The Baltic fleet
- 2nd oct 1904
- gov ordered Baltic fleet to sail via Africa to Manchuria.
- Reached Tsushima Strait 7 months later in poor condition.
- old ships = less manoeuverable + Japanese had more modern rangefinders and gunners.
- Battle lasted a day.
- Entire fleet lost at the expense of 3 Jap torpedo boats.
Russo Japanse war
Battle of Tsu – shima May 1905
- Russian Baltic fleet arrives in the War Zone.
- Despite Russian fleet appearing more powerful reverse was true.
- Japanese navy was quicker and Russian ships were overweight and so less effective.
- An ambush by the Japanese wiped out Russian fleet with loss of 12,600 men.
- Effectively the war was over and Russia had to sue for peace
Russo-Japanese war
Role of Phleve
encouraged the Tsar to respond to Japanese assault on the base
● JANUARY 1904: proceeded with a ‘short swift victorious war’ - would detract from unrest at home
Russo-Japanese war
Russian weakness
- Russians had no idea of enemy/inadequacies of their own forces
- War 6000 miles from capital was not easy & series of defeats turned initial surge of anti-Japanese patriotism into opposition for Govt
Aftermath of Phleves assasination
JULY 1904 crowds turned out on the streets to celebrate in Warsaw
* Renewed cries for representative National Assembly & NOVEMBER 1904 Mirsky invited zemstvo reps to come to St Petersburg for discussions.
* N II - ‘ I will never agree to the representative form of government because I consider it harmful to the people whom God entrusted to me’ - concede to expansion of the zemstva.
1905 REVOLUTION - bloody sunday
Date of bloody sunday
9th January 1905
1905 revolution - bloody sunday
Lead up to Bloody sunday - 20th dec
= Russia surrendered to Japan - humiliation (1904 2 October - whole Baltic fleet lost to 3 Japanese torpedo boats).
1905 rev
lead up to bloody sunda - 3rd Jan
- strike at Putilov Iron Works in st. p
- 150k workers
1905 rev
Bloody Sunday events
- decided to conduct a peace march to Winter Palace.
- Gapon wished to present a petition to N II demonstrating workers’ loyalty but also requesting reform.
- N II was at summer palace & 12,000 troops were issued to break up the demonstration.
- sparked an outbreak of rebellion which spread throughout Empire
1905 rev
4th february
- Tsar decide to meet workers’ representatives after Grand Duke Sergei (uncle) was shot.
- Inflamed sentiment by upsetting marchers that they were badly advised & should return to work
- Dismissed Mirsky & brought in Buygin as Minister of IA & major-General Trepov Military Governor of St Petersburg to follow a hard-line policy
1905 rev
Mutiny on the ship - Battleship Potëmkin
- Began due to mould meat ration & lead to a full-scale mutiny in which 7 officers were killed.
- Soldiers hoisted revolutionary flag & sailed to Odessa where they placed a dead soldier’s’ body at the steps between the city & the harbour.
- When townsfolk arrived to pay respects troops fired on them
- More than 2000 killed & 3000 wounded
