chapter 1 Flashcards
reasons for discontent under the tsar
- subject nationalities - 20 different ethnic groups, 60% couldn’t speak russian well, russification
- discontent with government - autocracy, 70% of population were members of orthodox church and taught that the tsar was god’s representative on earth, civil servants were poorly paid which led to bribery and corruption, little freedom for the russian people
- the tsar’s weaknesses - was reluctant to become tsar in 1894, insisted on governing as an autocrat, son had been diagnosed with haemophilia
- economic problems - 85% of population lived in countryside, poor agriculture, 5% of land used for farming, low food production due to old fashioned methods of farming (scattered strip farming)
- industrial development - slow to industrialise compared to the west, underdeveloped roads and railways, ww1 caused increased coal in ukraine and caucasus
social groups
aristocracy - 1% of population, owned 25% of russian land
middle class - growing due to development of industry (banks/merchants/factory owners), pleasant lifestyle, made money from government contracts
peasants - nearly 80% of population before 1917, lived in poor conditions, starvation and disease during poor harvests, life expectancy less than 40, died from typhus and diphtheria
town workers - most rapidly increasing, peasants had moved to downs for work, poor conditions, workers lived in overcrowded slums, low wages, long hours, forbidden to form trade unions, protests crushed by army
bloody sunday + 1905 revolution
- 22 january 1905
- father gapon led 200k people to the winter palace to petition for better working conditions
- soldiers panicked and killed hundreds, wounded thousands
- led to revolution in february 1905
- october manifesto issued by the tsar - freedom of speech, no censorship, national parliament called duma
stolypins necktie + failure of the dumas
- stolypin appointed as prime minister after 1905 rev
- introduced reforms to agriculture and education
- executed 3k people who opposed the tsar - gallows known as stolypins necktie
- tsar dissolved 4 dumas between 1906 and 1914, refusing to share power
rasputin
- tsar and tsarina relied on rasputin to control alexeis haemophilia in 1907
- grew close with them and helped pick government ministers
- hedonistic lifestyle, rumours of orgies + surrounded by women
- critics of tsarism saw this as corruption and incompetence
other political groups
social democrats
- believed that the proletariat would revolt and remove the tsar
- mensheviks - martov and trotsky, slow change + mass membership
- bolsheviks - lenin, small party elite should organise revolution
socialist revolutionaries
- believed in peasant revolution
- mixture in beliefs, terror vs constitutional methods
- terrorist activity led to deaths of thousands government officials before 1917
- led by kerensky
octobrists
- believed the tsar would carry out the october manifesto
- supported by the middle class
- led by guchkov
constitutional democrats (cadets)
- wanted a constitutional monarch + elected parliament
- supported by middle class
- led by milyukov
first world war
- over 1 million casualties by the end of 1914
august 1914 - russian army advances into austria and german province of prussia
26-29 august 1914 - 70k killed and wounded, 50k taken prisoner at tannenberg, general samsonov committed suicide
5-9 september 1914 - 100k killed and wounded at masurian lakes
4 may 1915 - austro-german offensive forces russia to retreat 480km, harsh winter prevented further retreating
5 june 1916 - attack led by brusilov, one million russian deaths
reasons for russians defeat
lack of infrastructure
- not enough factories/shipyards
- poor roads + railways, supplies couldn’t reach frontline
- outdated telegraphy system, orders got lost, wireless messages sent but intercepted by germans
poor leadership
- rode with sabres/lances, no match for german machine guns
- move too quickly into east prussia, too confident
- generals did not work as a team
leadership from the tsar
- no experience
- not capable
- blamed for defeats
equipment
-no boots/winter coats for soldiers
military effect of defeats
- lowered morale
- desertion was common
- soldiers would die without weapons or even winter boots
- violent resistance to conscription
- azerbaijan - women laid on train tracks to stop trains
economic + social effects of the war
- inflation between 1913 - 1917 price rises
- less food produced
- 14 million men called up between 1914-7
- consumer goods became expensive
- factories could not cope with increased demand and closed
- unemployment, poverty
- wages were not going up
- fuel and food shortages
political effects of the war
- alexandra in charge and she refused to take advice from the duma
- people believed she was a german spy trying to sabotage the russians
- rasputin was the only person she listened to
- support for the tsar diminished
