Unit. 1.3 Nicholas II Flashcards

Question

How far did society change from 1894-1914 - Middle class - Changes

Answer 1

-Before 1905 industrialists, businessmen and bankers tended to stay out of politics because many needed government business and sponsorship. After 1908 a significant number took up positions in the Duma, representing a wide spread of political opinion, some in Liberal as well as the rightist parties. Industrialists and commercial groups did get together to express their views on matters relating to their field and tried to influence government, but it was only after 1905 that this took on a national dimension. In 1906 the Association of Industry and Trade was formed and had considerable political influence. -Middle-class women had made progress, mainly after 1900. Female teachers, doctors and architects were working for the Zemstva. Ideals of female liberation had spread among the educated classes and some, like Alexandra Kollantai, could be found in Marxist groups. In 1905 university co-education was won. Women's organisations started to spring up across Russia and in 1908 the First All-Russian Congress of Women was held in St Petersburg: half of the delegates earned their living. The women's movement campaigned for sexual and educational equality. Women enjoyed literary, artistic and journalistic successes. -The numbers of middle-class voluntary organisations and associations mushroomed. In Moscow by 1912 there were over 600. Some dealt with serious matters, for example, the Imperial Economic Society debated the great issues of industrialisation. But others were involved with leisure and entertainment, for example, new technology like motor cars. Importantly these groups were creating a more diverse society. The state could not control them or the views being expressed in them. The regime was finding it hard to come to terms with these new Western ideas and values which accompanied modernisation.

Answer 2

-Improvements outside central regions- In areas outside of the central agricultural regions area, especially those nearest to cities many peasants enjoyed higher living standards. This might account for the increased peasant consumption of consumer goods identified over this period, particularly in the lead up to the First World War. -Growing wealth divide- kulaks- Stolypin’s reforms contributed to the growing divide between the richest and poorest sections of the peasantry. The kulaks continued to grow as a class but remained small. After Stolypin’s reforms some of these would have been khutors farming their consolidated plots independently of the Mir. -Areas closest to urban areas benefitted -Areas nearest to cities or with access to transport benefitted from industrial developments. New technologies - railways, roads, the telegraph - were moving closer to the peasantry. Hospitals, schools, reading clubs and libraries were appearing. -Increased migration to urban areas -Russia’s urban population quadrupled 1867-1917 and most were migrant peasants. By 1914 3 out of 4 people living in St. Petersburg were peasants by birth and over half of the city’s population had arrived in the last 20 years. -Little change in the central region- Peasants continued to live a hard, traditional way of life in the central regions in spite of Stolypin’s reforms. For most, poverty, debt, disease and land hunger were still common features of peasant life. The Mir remained the heart of the village. Strong loyalties to the tsar and the Russian Orthodox Church remained. -Population growth - The number of peasants grew. The Russian Empire grew from 74 million in 1858 to 128 million in 1897 and 178 million in 1914. Around 80% were peasants. Although mortality rates were still the highest in Europe. Average life expectancy was around 28 years in Russia and 45 years in England.

Answer 3

-Stolypin’s agrarian reforms encouraged poorer peasants to sell out to the more prosperous ones. This created bands of migrant laborers looking for either farming work or industrial employment. -There was a growing divide between younger and older peasants. Younger more literate peasants were better able to deal with new agricultural technologies and money matters e.g. contracts and loans. They were more likely to be Stolypin 'separators'. Older peasants represented the more traditional village. -From 1896 peasants from the overcrowded central regions were encouraged to migrate to Siberia along the Trans-Siberian railway. Some were successful but many failed. Thousands (75,000 in 1910) returned home or joined the migrant labour force, often angry. -Literacy among peasants had increased since the 1880s yet, as with the workers, the increase under Nicholas II was much more marked. There was an 85% increase in primary school provision 1905-1914. In the total adult population literacy rose from 21 per cent in 1897 to 40 per cent in 1914

Answer 4

-Maintained rural connections-By 1900 around one-third had fathers who had been industrial workers. The rest, ex-peasants, retained their village connections and many returned for the harvest. Even in 1907 half of Moscow printers still kept farms in their home villages while 90% sent money back to relatives. -Poor living and working conditions-Working conditions were grim. Long hours, harsh discipline and accidents common. Wages were generally low apart from a small section of skilled workers. Women were the lowest paid. Housing was expensive and in short supply. Workers lived in huge overcrowded buildings in Moscow and St Petersburg. Peasant migrants often worked and lived together renting communal apartments. Some factories had dormitories attached and in smaller workshops some slept around their machine The cities had poor sanitation. Many workers had to use communal bathhouses as houses were without running water. Sewage systems were lacking in 40% of houses in St.Petersburg so carts would collect excrement from back yards. As late as 1911 Stolypin talked of the problems of typhus, smallpox and cholera in St Petersburg where one-third of deaths were caused by infectious diseases. -Some attempts to improve conditions-There were some attempts to improve conditions: 1897: Working day limited to 11.5 hours 1912: Sickness and accident insurance Yet, the reduced working hours and 1912 insurance did not benefit the majority of the workforce. In some workplaces their hours were actually increased after 1905. For old age and unemployment there was little or no support. -Small but still growing-By 1900, the workers numbered around 3 million (around 25% were women) and by 1913 there were 6 million. -Urban areas offered new activities- Urban areas provided new activities. Many frequented taverns but more 'respectable’ workers also went to music hall, dances, tea-drinking clubs and self-help lectures

Answer 5

-As the workforce increased there was more pressure on housing and public services. Living conditions deteriorated. -Rural connections reduced gradually as the workers developed their own identity. The majority of workers who began employment 1906-13 were the children of workers. -The level of literacy had increased more for workers than peasants since the 1880s as there were more primary schools in urban areas. Yet, the increase under Nicholas II was much more marked. By 1914 64% were literate compared with 40% for the adult population in general. The impact of this was a wider readership of everything from newspapers, political leaflets (particular Marxist) and fiction. -The provision of Churches and priests had not kept pace with the growth of urbanisation and, in any case, the Orthodox religion often seemed to have little relevance for the workers who were often more attracted by the teachings of the Marxist socialist groups who invited them to reading circles and talks. Some liberal clergy expressed the wish to regenerate the Church but their calls were silenced by Pobedonostsev, the Over-Procurator between 1880 and 1905

Answer 6

The growth of education also brought change. Government expenditure on primary education grew from 5 million roubles in 1896 to over 82 million by 1914. By 1911, over 6.5 million children between 8 and 11 (44 per cent of that age group) were receiving primary education, although only one third of these were girls, and the spread was uneven with urban areas better provided for than rural ones. There was still 40 per cent illiteracy in 1914, but a basic level of education certainly helped to increase a sense of self-worth among the literate. The number of books and publications proliferated, particularly after 1905 when the popular press boomed. There were 1767 newpapers being published at least weekly by 1914. Reading rooms were also establised and popular literature flourished, in which the portrayal of those who had succeeded in bettering themselves was a common theme. Secondary and higher education remained elitist, however. Between 1860 and 1914 the number of university students in Russia grew from 5000 to 69,000 (45 per cent of them women). However, although a quarter of students in secondary school in 1911 came from the peasantry, this amounted to only 30,000 individuals. More serious writers and artists used their art forms to address problems in Russian society during this period. Anton Chekhov, for example, produced a stream of stories and plays from the 1880s until his death in 1904, continuing the realist tradition of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky in the 1860s and 1870s. By the early twentieth century the nineteenth-century classics of Russian literature could be obtained in cheap mass-produced editions, and these too were readily sought by the newly literate, as well as the traditional readership of the educated elites.

Answer 7

The relaxation of censorship controls from 1905 produced the 'silver age' of Russian culture, dominated in particular by poets. There were experiments in modernism, for example Igor Stravinsky's music, Serge Diaghilev's ballets, Marc Chagall's pictures and Kazimir Malevich's paintings, which offered new and often 'shocking' challenges to convention and showed that, for all its deficiencies, Russia was culturally as much a part of the modern world' as its more advanced economic neighbours. By 1914, Russian culture had certainly broadened and diversified to encompass a much wider group than the intelligentsia elites, and to some extent it mirrored the many other changes running through Russian society. Nevertheless, some aspects of Russian culture and behaviour seemed to exhibit little change. The year 1913 was the tercentenary year of the Romanov dynasty, and Nicholas and Alexandra revelled in the traditional jubilee rituals organised to celebrate the permanency of the Romanovs, encouraging the wearing of traditional Muscovite costumes and Orthodox ceremonies to mark the occasion. Touring his Empire to jubilant and obsequious crowds, Nicholas returned convinced that my people love me. Alexandra added, We need merely to show ourselves and at once their hearts are ours

Answer 8

Another hugely important writer of this period was Maxim Gorky (born Alexei Peshkov). An orphan at eight, he had a harsh upbringing of poverty and cruelty which he described in his book My Childhood (1913). As a boy and young man he roamed the countryside and towns, working in a host of jobs such as dishwasher, icon painter and baker. He took up with a Populist revolutionary in the late 1870s and was bitterly disillusioned by the way they were rejected by the peasants. Gorky turned to writing and started to write short stories which appeared initially in newspapers and journals. His stories were immensely popular and in 1898 his first collection of short stories was published. Gorky became one of the country's most read authors and a celebrity, the first writer of quality to emerge from the lower levels of Russian society. His stories were consumed voraciously by workers who could identify with his heroes and themes because they drew on the concerns that filled their everyday lives. He emerged as the champion of the poor and the oppressed. His adopted pseudonym Maxim Gorky (gorky means 'bitter' in Russian) tuned in with the workers' spirit of defiance. He started writing about politics and the hardships, humiliations and brutal treatment of workers, peasants and Jews. He joined political groups and associated with the emerging Marxist Social Democrats, becoming a personal friend of Lenin. He was very influential in the opposition to the Tsar and later played an important role in and after the 1917 revolution.

Answer 9

By the time he wrote The Cherry Orchard in 1904, the year of his death, Chekhov's reputation was second only to Tolstoy's. The play is a satire of the old-world gentry and the cult of rural Russia. Ranyevskaya's feckless family are forced by debt to sell their prized possession, the cherry orchard, to Lopakhin, a merchant whose grandfather was a serf and whose father was a peasant. This social rise was possible after 1861. Lopakhin plans to clear the land and build dachas (country homes) on it for the middle class of Moscow and even tries to persuade the family to develop it themselves. They will not, he buys it and the play ends with the sound of the axe. Lopakhin is the first merchant hero to be represented on the Russian stage and, as Orlando Figes has written, Chekhov, in his last play, 'embraces the cultural forces that emerged in Moscow on the eve of the twentieth century.

Answer 10

The younger generation of merchant patrons collected modern art and Moscow became the centre of the avant-garde at the beginning of the twentieth century. Merchants helped fund the Jack of Diamonds' exhibitions. Larionov and Goncharova were key founders of the group and Malevich showed at the first exhibition. One of the organisers regarded the title Jack of Diamonds' as a symbol of young enthusiasm and passion, 'for the Jack implies youth and the suit of diamonds represents seething blood'. They declared war on the realist tradition and shocked the public with their art. By this time Malevich believed in the radical reduction of painting to nothing but shape and colour. His revolutionary contribution was The Black Square in 1915. It was first shown as part of a group of abstract paintings in a dramatic display in Moscow in December 1915, and was hung high and across a corner, connecting two walls, just as icons were mounted in homes all across Russia. Characteristically immodest, he said The Black Square marked "the beginning of a new culture', which he called suprematism.

Answer 11

The census of 1897 revealed that only 43 per cent of the Russian population could be called ethnically Russian; the regime's overt identification with this group, as well as its commitment to the Orthodox Church, continued to alienate ethnic minorities. Nicholas Il continued Alexander Ill's heavy-handed policy of Russification, which sought to discriminate against minority languages and religions. Nowhere was this discrimination more intense than in Poland: Nicholas even installed a large garrison there to ensure the mass uprising of 1863 was not repeated. The tsar, church and traditional nobility supported the nationalist and anti-Semitic Black hundreds’ organisations which emerged from 1900. Continued Russification drove non-Russians towards opposition groups. A young Stalin attended a school in Georgia where children were beaten for lapsing into their mother-tongue: he later joined the Georgian Social Democrats

Answer 12

The regime did not attempt to 'Russify' the Jews (the Jewish population numbered approximately 5.5 million by 1900): they were simply persecuted. As under Alexander III, efforts continued to prevent Jews from acquiring land or accessing higher education, and they were still forced by law to live in the Pale of Settlement. By the end of the 19th century there were over 1400 regulations against the Jews. Pogroms continued with the most notable in Kishinev in 1903 (see below), when the Okhrana and state police not only turned a blind eye but also seemed to endorse the violence. Nicholas saw the pogroms as acts of loyalty from Russians. Massive Jewish migration to the United States and elsewhere, drained a fifth to a quarter of the Jewish population from Russia between 1881 and 1914. Those who stayed were often drawn in disproportionately high numbers to radical socialist groups, which were playing an increasingly important role by 1905 in drumming up proletarian unrest: Trotsky, Martov, Zinoviev and Kamenev are all examples of ethnic Jews who took up the revolutionary cause.

Answer 13

Nicholas Il had been brought up to take his duties as a ruler seriously, and to believe that any concessions or signs of weakness would be indications of cowardice and failure on his part. No doubt such attitudes had been instilled in him by Pobedonostsev, his tutor. As he declared shortly before his coronation, he was resolved 'to maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as it was preserved by my unforgettable dead father.' Nicholas continued with the policies of his father. The emergency powers of 1881 (Law on Exceptional Measures aka Statute of State Security) were kept more or less intact and the policy of Russification was pursued vigorously. Nicholas' commitment to Orthodoxy also ensured that the Church maintained its powerful influence.

Answer 14

The years after 1894 were a time of serious unrest. Russian society had become more politicised in the years after the Great Famine of 1891-92. The failure of the government to cope with the crisis, which had left the zemstva and voluntary organisations to provide relief work, had bred scorn and despair. As a result, there was not only greater public mistrust of the government's competence, but also a firmer belief in the power of ordinary members of society to play a role in the nation's affairs. Witte's Great Spurt had also threatened the stability of the regime: it had resulted in increased peasant migration to urban areas, a bigger and more educated workforce and the growth of the middle classes. These conditions presented more pressure for political change.

Answer 15

As the 1890s progressed, urban workers became more militant. They resented deeply the conditions they had to endure as well as the way they were treated. The textile workers in St Petersburg mounted massive strikes - 30,000 spinners and weavers - in 1896 and 1897. The strikes were brutally suppressed, with the arrest of over 1000 workers. Yet, this action also forced the government to concede the only significant piece of factory legislation in this period - restricting the working day to eleven and a half hours. More worrying for the government was that local Marxist Social Democrat groups were active in encouraging workers to take strike action. The peak for strikes was reached in 1899 and involved nearly 100,000 workers. The government could only deal with them by police repression, arrests, imprisonment, exile and even execution. A special factory police force was established in 1899 and its units stationed permanently near large industrial works. There were new outbursts of trouble in Russian universities. These were met by the increased use of the Okhrana, whose activities ensured rebellious young people were expelled, exiled or drafted into the army and, when necessary, submitted to military force. In 1901, for example, a squadron of mounted Cossacks charged into a crowd of students in St Petersburg, killing thirteen, and in the aftermath of the incident, 1500 students were imprisoned. The middle classes were horrified by the police brutality and many students were radicalised. Thousands joined the Socialist Revolutionaries.

Answer 16

As Russia moved into the twentieth century it was in a volatile condition. There had been another famine in the Central Volga region in 1898-9. And then things got worse. An international recession after 1900 caused a deep depression in Russia. It affected all areas of the economy and workers were hit by falling wages and unemployment, resulting in widespread industrial action. Workers returned to their villages to stir up peasant revolt where there was already huge anger about taes and high rents. Peasant revolts ripped through the countryside 1902-04. There were so many instances of arson in the rural communities, 1903-04, that the nickname the years of the red cockerel, referring to the leaping flames which resembled a rooster's comb, was coined. The unrest was at its worst in the central Russian provinces, where the landlord/peasant relationship was still at its most traditional, but it also spread into Georgia, the Ukraine and Poland. Peasants set fire to their landlords' barns, destroying grain, or vented their anger by seizing pasture or even physically attacking landlords. The government had no answer other than repression: prisons were filling up with political prisoners.

Answer 17

Imperial Russia remained a strongly Orthodox State and the moral domination of the Orthodox Church over the ill-educated peasantry was hugely beneficial to the regime as a means of control. Priests had close ties with the village would read out Imperial manifestos and decrees and inform the police of any suspicious activity. In 1902 the Holy Synod instructed bishops to get their priests 'to explain to their congregations the falseness, according to the word of God, of the appeals of the evil-minded who urge them to destroy the authorities established by the tsar and to attack the property of others'. The Church made sure that the peasants got the message to support the regime clearly in church and in primary schools. So Church and State were bound up with each other and the Church acted as a prop for the autocracy.

Answer 18

Industrial strikes escalated, numbering around 17,000 in 1894 to around 90,000 in 1904. In 1901, the Obukhov factory in St Petersburg saw violent clashes between armed police and whip-carrying Cossacks and such sights became commonplace. In an attempt to control the proliferation of illegal unions, in 1900 the Moscow chief of the Okhrana, Sergei Zubatov, began organising his own police-sponsored trade unions. The idea was to provide "official' channels through which complaints could be heard, in an attempt to prevent workers joining the radical socialists. The experiment only lasted to 1903, when Zubatov was dismissed after one of his unions became involved in a General Strike in Odessa. However, another union on the Zubatov model, the Assembly of St Petersburg Factory Workers, was formed in 1904 by Father Gapon. The union was approved by Nicholas' Minister for Internal Affairs, Plehve, and had the support of the Orthodox Church.

Answer 19

it is the zemstva that have been identified as 'the seedbeds of liberalism. These councils had created a class of people who became skilled in local politics. They included liberal-leaning members of the Russian nobility as well as representatives of the middle classes. Many middle-class professionals employed by the zemstva - the 'third element' - worked at the interface with peasants and workers and had a real desire to improve social conditions. The inadequacies and inefficiencies of government bureaucracy became very apparent to this third element' during the 1891-92 famine and thereafter they wanted to see reforms, an extension of freedoms and civil rights, and more participation in government. The idea of liberalism' prevalent in western Europe took a different form in Russia. What Russian liberals agreed on was that reform rather than violence was the way to change the tsarist system and limit the tsar's powers. Liberalism took on a more organised form at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1903, the Union of Liberation was formed, demanding economic and political reform . The Liberals were the major opposition to tsarism before 1905 and in that year formed two major political parties - the Kadets (constitutional democrats) and the Octobrists

Answer 20

Civil rights and freedom of the individual, the rule of law, free elections, parliamentary democracy and limitation of the tsar's powers, and self-determination for the national minorities. Some believed that the concept of the zemstvo should be extended to regional and perhaps national level.

Answer 21

Reform rather than violent action, political channels through zemstva, articles in newspapers, meetings and reform banquets.

Answer 22

Their main support came from the middle-class intelligentsia: lawyers, doctors, professors, teachers, engineers and other professional groups. They also had support among progressive landowners, industrialists and businessmen.

Answer 23

The Socialist Revolutionary Party grew out of the Populist movement (Radical agrarian Socialist groups). It was a loose organisation accommodating groups with a wide variety of views - more moderate groups following the same lines as the Black Partition and more extreme terrorists following the tradition of The People's Will . These groups merged in 1901-02 into the Socialist Revolutionary Party although it was never well co-ordinated or centrally controlled and did not hold its first congress until 1906. SR extremists assassinated as many as 2,000 government officials between 1901 and 1905, including the Minister of the Interior, Plehve, in 1904.

Answer 24

SRs placed their central hope for revolution with the peasants who would support a popular rising in which the tsarist government would be overthrown. Land would be taken from landlords and divided up among the peasants. Unlike the Populists, the SRs accepted that the development of capitalism was a fact. The leading exponent of their views was Victor Chernov. He accepted that the growth of capitalism would promote the growth of a proletariat (working class) who would rise against their masters. But he saw no need for the peasants to pass through capitalism; he believed they could move straight to a form of rural socialism based on the peasant commune. He saw the SRs as representing all laboring people

Answer 25

Agitation and terrorism, including assassination of government officials.

Answer 26

Peasants provided a large popular base but by 1905 industrial workers formed perhaps 50 per cent of the membership, probably because many workers were recently arrived ex-peasants and many had regular contact with their villages. The SRs often bemoaned their lack of strength in villages because most SR committees were run by students and intellectuals in towns. Nevertheless they were the party the peasants recognised as representing them, especially its pledge to return the land 'to those who worked it'.

Answer 27

George Plekhanov was the father of Russian Marxism . He had translated Karl Marx's work into Russian and saw it as 'the answer' where Populism had failed. Like most radicals Plekhanov was in exile in Europe, having left Russia in 1880. In 1898, in a house on the outskirts of Minsk, he met with a small group of socialist exiles and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In December 1900 the Party published a newspaper to unite revolutionaries around the Marxist programme. It was called Ishra (spark) as in from a spark a fire will ignite and Lenin was on the editorial board. In these early years, there were serious disputes about the direction of the Party. Some wanted to encourage trade unions to improve the conditions of the workers. Others wanted the focus to be on revolutionary tactics and the preparation of the working class for revolution. At the Second Party Congress in 1903, the SDs split into two factions - the Bolsheviks (Majoritarians) and the Mensheviks (Minoritarians). This was largely caused by the abrasive personality of Vladimir Ulyanov or Lenin who was determined to see his idea of the revolutionary party triumph. During the congress the votes taken on various issues showed the two groups were roughly equal. But in a particular series of votes Lenin's faction came out on top (mainly because some delegates had walked out of the conference) and he jumped on the idea of calling his group the majority party (Bolsheviki) which gave them a stronger image. In fact, until 1917, they always had fewer members than the Mensheviks for reasons that will become apparent below.

Answer 28

Both SD factions accepted the main tenets of Marxism but they were split over the role of the Party. Bolsheviks- Lenin believed that a revolutionary party should: * be made up of a small number of highly disciplined professional revolutionaries * operate under centralised leadership * have a system of small cells (made up of three people so that it would be more difficult for the police to infiltrate. It was the job of the Party to bring socialist consciousness to the workers and lead them through the revolution. Critics warned that a centralised party like this would lead to dictatorship. Mensheviks- They believed that the Party should: * be broadly based and take in all those who wished to join * be more democratic, allowing its members to have a say in policy making * encourage trade unions to help the working class improve their conditions. Mensheviks took the Marxist line that there would be a long period of bourgeois democratic government during which the workers would develop a class and revolutionary consciousness until they were ready to take over in a socialist revolution.

Answer 29

Their support came mainly from the working class. The Bolsheviks tended to attract younger more militant workers who liked the discipline, firm leadership and simple slogans. The Mensheviks tended to attract different types of workers and members of the intelligentsia, also a broader range of people - more non-Russians, especially Jewish people and Georgians.

Answer 30

-Wanted reform from 1840s and increased in Alexander III’s reign – more determined for the zemstvo to form a national consultative body following A III’s restrictions and 1891-92 famine./ Request for such on Nicholas’ accession dismissed as ‘senseless dreams’. In 1896 Ivan Shipov, chairman of the Moscow Zemstva, tried to set up an 'All-Zemstvo Organisation', it was immediately banned. -The regime’s response encouraged some of the more radical liberals to est the Beseda Symposium in 1899 to meet in secret to discuss matters of liberal interest such as judicial reform and universal education. -When, in 1900, the government ordered the dismissal of hundreds of liberals from the elected boards of the zemstva, the Beseda Symposium assumed the leadership of the liberal movement, attracting a wide range of support from public figures, town leaders, members of the legal and teaching professions and industrialists. -In 1903, the Union of Liberation was founded under the inspiration of Pyotr Struve. Struve had defected from the Marxist movement, opposing its commitment to violent revolution and started a Liberal paper - Liberation. Struve believed that what Russia needed was a period of peaceful evolution in which to adapt to its new industrialising status. He wanted to see a constitutional system put in place through which the urban workers could campaign legally to improve their conditions. -In 1904, the union held a grand meeting to which representatives of the zemstva and other professional societies were invited. Members declared their intention to work for the establishment of a constitutional government and arranged a series of about 50 society banquets during the winter of 1904, which were attended by members of the liberal elite. -The liberals, whether moderate campaigners within the zemstva or more radical members of the liberal unions, had limited political influence before 1905. Indeed, the liberals were fortunate to escape the closer attention of the police, which was only achieved because the latter were over-worked, coping with the activities of the radical opposition as well as urban and rural unrest. Nevertheless, the liberals contributed to the momentum that was building up within the country for political change.

Answer 31

-By 1894, the slavophile and populist idea of a new Russia, based on the peasants, looked increasingly unlikely. However, ideas of 'agrarian socialism' were revived after the Great Famine of 1891-92, which highlighted the need to reform the rural economy. Students began to champion a new-style Populism, taking inspiration from the defunct The Peoples' Will and favouring violent protest. Their activities culminated in the assassination of the Minister of Education in 1901 -The same year, the Social Revolutionary Party (SR) was founded as a rallying point for those who wished to appeal to the peasantry through a commitment to land redistribution and decentralised government. Its most influential theorist was the intellectual, Viktor Chernov, a law graduate from Moscow and editor of the party journal, Revolutionary Russia, but it was a fairly loose organisation. Although the party never held a congress until 1906, its members broadly accepted Marxist teaching but combined this with populist ideas. -The SRs put forward the view that the interests of peasants and workers - the so-called ‘labouring poor' - were identical, and that they should therefore work together to destroy autocracy and bring about land redistribution. This emphasis on the peasantry set them apart from the pure Marxists. Not surprisingly, they developed a wide national base, with a large peasant membership, but despite this, 50 per cent of their supporters were from the urban working class. -The tactics of the Social Revolutionary Party were similar to the earlier populist organisation. They tried to stir up discontent in the countryside and strikes in the towns, and to disrupt government by political assassinations. In this they were quite successful, promoting a wave of political terrorism in the early years of the twentieth century. They carried out 2000 political assassinations between 1901 and 1905. These included the assassinations of two Ministers of Internal Affairs in 1902 and Vyacheslav von Plehve in 1904.

Answer 32

-Industrial 'take-off' helped make Marxist theories more attractive to Russian intellectuals from the late 1890s. Georgi Plekhanov's Emancipation of Labour group grew while a number of discussion circles, workers' organisations and illegal trade unions were attracted by Marxist ideas. -In 1898, the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party was held merging 20 smaller Russian Marxist groups. However, only nine delegates were present. They chose their name, elected a three-man Central Committee, and produced a manifesto (drawn up by Struve), which asserted that the working classes had been, and were being exploited by their masters and that the future of Russia would be the product of the class struggle. The manifesto made it clear that the impetus for change had to come from the working men themselves. The congress was broken up by Okhrana agents who promptly arrested two of the newly elected committee. -The Second Party Congress took place in 1903 in London. The 51 voting delegates considered a variety of propositions as to how the party should move forward, and were divided on a number of these. -Lenin argued in favour of: a strong small disciplined organisation of professional revolutionaries. Lenin wanted centralised leadership, no open-discussion or consideration of other ideas. Their members would do as they were instructed to bring a revolutionary consciousness to the workers and lead them in revolution. -Others, led by Julius Martov, believed: their task should be to develop a broad party with a mass working-class membership where anyone could join and have a say. Martov (supported by Plekhanov and Trotsky) saw members 'cooperating' with other liberal parties. The workers would develop a revolutionary consciousness and lead their own revolution. -Lenin certainly did not have the overwhelming support of the majority at the beginning of the conference and it was only after a number of representatives withdrew that Lenin finally won the vote in favour of a more centralised party structure. -Lenin then claimed that his supporters were the majority (in Russian the bolsheviki) whilst his opponents, led by Martov, and supported also by Trotsky, were dubbed 'the mensheviki (the minority) - even though, overall, the reverse was actually true. -The split in the party was to have major consequences for the future of Marxism in Russia. Over the next few years there was continued argument and rivalry about the nature, timing and organisation of the revolution that they were planning. The ongoing intellectual disputes meant the Marxists were not in a strong enough position to harness the growing discontent among the workers. The Bolshevik/ Menshevik division hardened so that by 1906 there were effectively two separate Social Democratic Workers' Parties.

Answer 33

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin, was born in Simbirsk in 1870 into a privileged professional family. His father was a chief inspector of schools, his mother the daughter of a doctor and a landowner. The Ulyanovs were a self-made, upwardly mobile family but the involvement of Lenin's elder brother in a plot to assassinate Tsar Alexander III saw the family ostracised and had a big impact on Vladimir. Lenin studied law at Kazan University but was expelled for political activity, although he was allowed to sit his exams. For a short time, he practised as a lawyer.

Answer 34

Lenin became more interested in revolutionary ideas and was drawn to the scientific logic of Marxism. In 1893, he moved to St Petersburg and joined Marxist discussion groups where he met his future wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. He became involved in propaganda for a strike movement in 1895 and was arrested. He spent the next four years first in prison and then in exile in Siberia, where he married Krupskaya. After his release in 1900, they moved to London where Lenin worked on the Party newspaper, Iskra. In 1902, he published his pamphlet What Is To Be Done? which contained his radical deas about the nature of a revolutionary party. He put forward his ideas at the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Party which met in 1903 (first in Brussels and then in London). His abrasive personality helped to cause the split in the party into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks played a relatively minor role in the 1905 revolution and Lenin returned to St Petersburg only in October. But when the revolution failed, he left for exile abroad once more. The years from 1906 to 1914 were frustrating. There were arguments and splits in the Bolshevik Party and membership collapsed.

Answer 35

What Is To Be Done? (1902) - here he argued for his idea of a revolutionary party: - It was to be highly centralised; a clear line of policy would be laid down by the central committee of the Party. - There would be a network of agents who would be regular permanent troops - It would be a small, conspiratorial party made up of professional, dedicated revolutionaries. - It would act as the vanguard of the working class who would not attain a revolutionary consciousness without clear guidance from the revolutionary elite. Lenin encouraged the individual revolutionary to be hard with himself and others to achieve his aims; there was no room for sentiment.

Answer 36

* Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) - here he claimed that capitalism was a bankrupt system and would collapse in a series of wars between capitalist countries over resources and territory. This would lead to civil war and class conflict within countries, which would facilitate the socialist revolution. This could start in a relatively undeveloped country - the weakest link in the capitalist chain - and then spread to other industrialised countries. Russia seemed to be this weakest link. * The State and Revolution (1917) - this book discussed what the state would be like after revolution. Existing state structures would be smashed by revolutionaries. The transformation of the economy and society would be relatively easy - the spontaneous will of the people would support revolution and they would play a large part in managing their own affairs in industry and agriculture.

Answer 37

-The Chinese Empire was in decline -Russia wanted to expand into China – this had been one reason for building the T-S railway -Russia had been annexing and populating Chinese territory since 1858 -Japan were also interested in Chinese territory which they acquired following the Sino-Japanese war, 1894-95 -Russia and Japan continued to compete and as relations deteriorated Japan attacked Port Arthur, Feb 1904 – a Chinese port under Russian control -The situation in Russia was volatile in 1904 and now war was added to the mix… -Interior Minister von Plehve advised a ‘little victorious war to stem the tide of revolution.’ Initially supported -The war was a disaster for Russia with early defeats -July 1904 - Plehve assassinated by SRs – crowds celebrated! -Oct 1904 - Baltic fleet were sent to relieve Port Arthur -Dec 1904 - Japan took Port Arthur destroying the Russian fleet there and went on to win significant land battles (e.g. Mukden, March 1905). -After nearly 7 months the Baltic fleet arrived only to be destroyed by the Japanese in one afternoon – Battle of Tsushima, May 1905 -Aug 1905 - Treaty of Portsmouth gave Japan more control and territory in the Far East including Port Arthur -The war brought new economic problems and the tsarist state appeared weak to the Russian people which increased opposition at home…

Answer 38

-Russia had been fighting to hold Port Arthur for almost a year and in Dec 1904 it was lost -In Jan a strike was called at the Putilov Ironworks, St.Petersburg – spread to involve tens of thousands -It was organised by the previously govt. approved Assembly of St. Petersburg Factory Workers -9th Jan - Father Gapon and the clergy led 150,000 to the Winter Palace to petition the tsar (food, work and a Constituent assembly) -Petition asked for better food distribution, working conditions and a Constituent Assembly -The protesters included men, women, children, elderly – in their Sunday best, singing hymns, carrying religious icons and portraits of the tsar -They were met by armed guards who open fired at Narva Arch and the Palace Square -Officially 130 killed, 300 wounded but likely much higher

Answer 39

-Nicholas II had lost the faith of the people. Father Gapon denounced NII as a traitor to the people. NII seemed oblivious -Unrest spread across the Empire and continued throughout 1905: .Strikes spread to other industrial areas - 400,000 on strike by the end of Jan .Peasant disturbances increased with most unrest in the Black Earth regions .Nationalities rebelled against Russification policies with the strongest opposition in Poland. .Jews joined disturbances demanding equal rights .Right-wing groups, in support of the tsar, attacked those considered unpatriotic -Troops were sent to restore order (300,000 were needed in Poland) -The army was overstretched and mutinies began -4th Feb – Grand Duke Sergei was assassinated by SRs - Three weeks after Bloody Sunday the tsar's uncle, Grand Duke Sergei was blown to pieces as he left his office in the Kremlin. The sight of his uncle's severed head on the cobble-stones, the blood and fingers spattered on the Kremlin walls sent Nicholas into shock. For the next eight years the tsar failed to appear in public. -Nicholas II now agreed to meet delegates from the factories but simply forgave them for their actions before sending them home. -February 1905: Bulygin’s proposal The tsar who had promised to maintain the principle of autocracy as ‘firmly and unflinchingly’ as it had been preserved by his father instructed his Minister of the Interior, Alexander Bulygin, to draw up a proposal for an elected consultative national assembly – a state Duma

Answer 40

-April – The first Soviet (an elected committee of workers – similar to a peasant commune) was set up in Moscow. More Soviets were set up across industrial areas. -May – The Union of Liberation joined with a number of other professional organisations to form the Union of Unions. They called for liberal reform and ultimately the establishment of a Constituent Assembly elected by universal suffrage -Universities and hundreds of zemstvo held meetings and drew up petitions to demonstrate their support for the Union of Union’s cause -June – Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin – supportive demonstrations in Odessa. Troops open fired on the crowds and killed 2000. The Battle of Tsushima and army mutinies made the tsar realised he needed to end the war. -June – July: Peasant unrest increased – landlords property burnt to force them from their land and then land claimed by peasants. Army sent to suppress unrest but some mutinied -July – All-Russian Peasant Union formed in Moscow (organised by SRs) and demanded all private land be held in common by the peasantry -July – Military Governor of Moscow Shuvalov assassinated by SRs -July – Bulygin’s proposal was published - A purely consultative elected assembly was proposed based on a high property qualification. It would exclude most workers, all women and jews. It was rejected as too little too late.

Answer 41

-In September printing workers in Moscow joined the strikes October -Railway workers joined the strikes -There was now a General Strike and too few police and soldiers to suppress disorder as well as run essential services. -Even some industrialists and professionals joined the strikers: -Employers supported the General strike paying their workers half pay. -Ministry officials and employees of the state bank joined the strike. -In St.Petersburg a Soviet with Leon Trotsky as deputy chairman co-ordinated the activities of other Soviets to organise the General Strike (although they had not initiated it.) -There were over 200 army munities from Oct to the end of 1905 -The Poles, Latvians and others were demanding independence -It was clear by mid-October that the government was near collapse. -In St.Petersbug there was no lighting on the streets, no transport moving, bodies went unburied, no water supplies, no telephone communication – everything had ground to a halt, there were barricades in the streets and residents of St.Petersburg were either fighting or scared to venture out.

Answer 42

In October Nicholas reluctantly accepted the advice of Sergei Witte to offer concessions as the only feasible option for the regime’s survival. His October Manifesto promised extensive civil liberties and an elected consultative national assembly (a state Duma) with legislative powers elected by a broad franchise

Answer 43

The Tsar tried to ignore the strike but the country was on the edge of disaster and the Tsar's advisers persuaded him that something had to be done. He turned to Witte, recently returned from successful peace negotiations. Witte told Nicholas that he had to choose between two courses of action - the first was to put down the uprising brutally, the second was to introduce reforms, his favoured option. Nicholas preferred a military dictatorship to constitutional government but his advisers and generals agreed with Witte, and Nicholas was therefore dragged reluctantly to agree to the October Manifesto on 17 October. This conceded: * civil liberties - freedom of speech (end of the censorship of the press) and conscience, freedom of association and the end of unwarranted arrests * an elected duma (parliament).

Answer 44

The liberals hailed the October Manifesto as the first step towards constitutional government and for them the main aim of the campaign had been achieved. They now moved to support the Tsar. Witte had achieved what he had set out to do - to isolate the radicals by accommodating the liberals. The St Petersburg Soviet called off the general strike since it was bringing severe hardship to most of those who were involved. After the granting of the Manifesto there was a brief period of celebration in which political meetings were held in the streets and parks, and new newspapers and publications flourished, testing out the end of censorship. Around this time two important new liberal political parties were formed - the Constitutional Democrats or Kadets and the Octobrists - reflecting two different strands of liberalism

Answer 45

But the peace did not last long. At the end of October there was an explosion of violence. The Tsar's supporters were incensed by the triumphalism of the liberals and socialists. There was fighting between right and left on the streets. Right-wing paramilitary gangs called the Black Hundreds marched around carrying portraits of the Tsar. Tacitly supported by the police, they mounted violent revenge attacks on anybody perceived to be on the left or anti-Tsar. A particularly nasty aspect of this was a concerted attack on Jewish communities, involving the burning of Jewish houses and businesses, rape and looting; over 3,000 Jews were murdered in the last two weeks of October 1905.

Answer 46

The new Minister of the Interior, P. N. Durnovo, an uncompromising reactionary, was now determined to re-establish government control, particularly as the St Petersburg Soviet had built up an armed militia of some 6,000 men. On 3 December the leaders of the St Petersburg Soviet and hundreds of its deputies were arrested. This caused an armed uprising in Moscow led by the social Democrats and barricades were erected. The uprising was crushed, followed by a brutal crackdown with mass arrests, beatings and summary executions. The government now felt confident to take control and moved against any civilians defying authority. The Okhrana and the police arrested hundreds of people. It took longer to restore order in the countryside. A wave of peasant unrest and violence had reached its peak in November, partly because of the deterioration in economic conditions due to the poor harvest. Some of the peasant anger was assuaged when the government promised to cut redemption payments in half in January 1906 (and end them completely by January 1907); it also announced the setting up of the Peasants' Bank to help them buy land. But peasant disturbances continued through most of 1906. Troops were sent out on punitive expeditions using brutal methods - beatings, rape, flogging and executions - to bring the peasants under control. Between mid-October 1905 and April 1906, as many as 15,000 people were executed and 45,000 deported. The troops worked their way through the Baltic provinces, the Ukraine and the Caucasus. In the summer of 1906, field court martials were introduced to deliver fast trials and fast executions (within 24 hours of sentencing). Peasants were hanged in their hundreds. The noose used in the hangings became known as 'Stolypin's necktie', after Peter Stolypin, the new Minister of the Interior (see page 102). This cold-blooded repression had its effect and the resistance to the authorities was everywhere in retreat. The old order was back.

Answer 47

Crucially, the army remained loyal, although there were a number of minor mutinies mainly involving refusal to obey orders. About one-third of infantry units were affected by some kind of disturbance. On 6 December military reforms brought the soldiers back on side. Their pay was increased and their terms of service reduced, for example, from four to three years for infantrymen. They had demanded better food and now, for the first time, they were promised increased meat rations and tea and sugar. Also, they would no longer be required to do forced labour in the civilian economy. The elite army units and the Cossacks had not been touched by mutinies and were rewarded with money and privileges. -The relatively quick end to the war with Japan and the reasonable peace treaty meant the Tsar did not lose the support of the military. Also, Nicholas was able to bring back troops from the front to suppress uprisings and disturbances.

Answer 48

The government used brutal, repressive measures to bring the populace into line and beat them into submission. These methods were effective in re establishing government control across the Empire.

Answer 49

The different groups opposing the Tsar- workers, peasants, liberal middle classes, students and national minorities - had different aims and purposes. They were not able to provide a co-ordinated and effective opposition to bring the Tsar down.

Answer 50

The October manifesto split the liberals and socialists. The liberals wanted political reform and movement towards a constitutional democracy; the socialists wanted a social revolution. Many liberals felt they had got what they wanted out of the Manifesto and withdrew from further action. This left the socialists isolated and it was much easier for the government to crush them. The violence le classes. They evident throughout 1905 had put a huge scare into the middle classes. They were frightened by the coarse proletarians on the streets and the intimidating forces that had been unleashed. Houses had been burgled, sons and daughters assaulted, crude behaviour experienced They wanted it to stop and a return to authority and control. Even Peter Struve, the ex-Marxist, remarked: Thank God for the Tsar, who has saved us from the people.

Answer 51

The revolutionary parties were not ready for the 1905 revolution and did not play a huge role in events. In fact, the revolutionaries irritated the workers when they squabbled over political ideology. The workers were more concerned with improving their pay and conditions. The Mensheviks did play an important role in the creation of the St Petersburg Soviet and the Bolsheviks were active in radicalising the soviets at the end of 1905 and organising the Moscow uprising in December.

Answer 52

By the end of 1905, the government was in deep financial trouble. The cost of the war and falling tax revenues were driving the government to the brink of financial collapse. However, Witte secured a huge loan, largely from French bankers, in April 1906. This loan stabilised the economy and gave the government money to pay for its functions for a year. It also paid for the troops who were needed to restore order.

Answer 53

Extreme left: Social Revolutionaries Views/aims: Re-distribute land to the peasants, establish a socialist democratic government. Terrorists Supporters: Workers and peasants Key members: Chernov Bolsheviks Views/aims: Small group of dedicated revolutionaries lead the workers in revolution Supporters: Workers Key members: Lenin Left: Mensheviks Views/aims: Let the workers lead their own revolution, would co-operate with liberals Supporters: Workers Key members: Martov, Trotsky, Plekhanov Trudoviks est.1905 Views/aims: Improvements for workers and peasants but non-revolutionary Supporters: Followers of SRs looking for a less violent approach

Answer 54

Kadets est.1905 Views/aims: Accepted the Oct Manifesto, wanted constitutional monarchy and full civil rights Supporters: Liberals - wealthy middle and upper classes Key members: Milyukov Progressives Views/aims: Moderate reform Supporters: Businessmen and zemstvo members Octobrists est.1905 Views/aims: Accepted the October Manifesto, wanted constitutional monarchy Supporters: Liberals - wealthy middle and upper classes. Industrialists and landowners The Kadets pushed for significant liberal reforms and a powerful parliament, while the Octoberists accepted limited change under the Tsar’s authority and aimed to preserve the monarchy.

Answer 55

Rightists Views/aims: Supported autocracy, orthodoxy and nationalism, anti-semitism Supporters: Monarchists. Black Hundreds attacked left opposition Key members: Included the Union of the Russian people

Answer 56

The tsar had to approve all legislation and the government (Council of Ministers under the Prime Minister) was to be appointed exclusively by the Tsar. The government was responsible to the Crown, not the Duma. There were 2 chambers which both had equal legislative power: -Lower Chamber (The state duma) - members elected under a system of indirect voting by estates - heavily weighted in favour of the nobility and peasants (who were assumed to be the crown's natural allies) Deputies were to he elected for a five-year term. (direct voters are men over 25 with 400+ acres, indirect voters were elected delegates) -Upper chamber (the state council) - half elected by Zemstva half appointed by the tsar - noble representatives from the major social, religious, educational and financial institutions.

Answer 57

Five days before the first Duma met, Nicholas issued a series of Fundamental Laws (on 23 April 1906) reasserting his autocratic power and stating in Article 4, 'It is ordained by God himself that the Tsar's authority should be submitted to, not only out of fear but out of a genuine sense of duty'. The Tsar also claimed the right: * to veto legislation * to rule by decree in an emergency or when the Duma was not in session → Article 87 * to appoint and dismiss government ministers * to dissolve the Duma as he wished * to command Russias land and sea forces *to declare war, conclude peace and negotiate treaties with foreign states and control all foreign relations *to control military and household expenditure * to overturn verdicts and sentences given in a court of law * to control the Orthodox Church.

Answer 58

The First Duma was boycotted by the Bolsheviks, SRs and the extreme right wing Union of the Russian People. It was therefore overwhelmingly radical-liberal in composition with a third of the new deputies coming from the peasantry. It was strongly critical of the Tsar and his ministers and this brought about Witte's resignation. He was replaced by Ivan Goremykin, an old-fashioned conservative. The Duma passed an address to the throne' in which it requested a political amnesty, the abolition of the State Council, the transfer of ministerial responsibility to the Duma, the compulsory seizure of the lands of the gentry without compensation, universal and direct male suffrage, the abandonment of the emergency laws, the abolition of the death penalty, and a reform of the civil service. Nicholas ordered Goremykin to inform the Duma that their demands were 'totally inadmissible, whereupon, the Duma passed a vote of 'no confidence' in the government and demanded the resignation of the Tsar's ministers. Ten weeks later, the Duma was dissolved and Goremykin was replaced as Prime Minister by Pyotr Stolypin, who had an even stronger hard Ine reputation. Two hundred delegates travelled to the Finnish town of Vyborg and issued an appeal to citizens to refuse to pay taxes or do military service in protest against the heavy-handed action.(This was known as the Vyborg Manifesto and drawn up by the Kadet leader Milvukov) However, the authorities stepped in, imprisoned the leaders and disenfranchised those who signed the appeal.

Answer 59

Stolypin's government tried to influence the elections to the next Duma but the number of the more extreme left wing increased enormously because the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and SRs decided to participate. The Second Duma was therefore even more oppositional than its predecessor. Stolypin struggled to find any support for the agrarian reform programme he had drawn up and resorted to passing legislation under the Tsar's emergency powers while the Duma was not in session (article 87). When the Duma refused to ratify these, he spread a story about a plot to assassinate the Tsar and dissolved the Duma, arresting and exiling the more radical delegates. He introduced an (illegal) emergency law to alter the franchise. (This change to the franchise was known as Stolypin's coup) The weight of the peasants, workers and national minorities was drastically reduced and the representation of the gentry increased.

Answer 60

This produced a more submissive Duma which agreed 2200 of approximately. 2500 government proposals (These agreed reforms led to improvements in the army, a restoration of Justices of the Peace replacing the hated Land Captains and sickness and accident insurance for workers (1912) ). However, it is a sign of how unpopular the tsaris regime had become that even this Duma proved confrontational. There were disputes over naval staff, Stolypin's proposals to extend primary education (Although they were initially suspended over their reluctance to extend primary education they did eventually agree to compulsory primary education for all 8-11 year olds in 1908 leading to significant improvements in literacy. So, this is another example of the Duma working with the government), and his local government reform (As with his agrarian reforms Stolypin used the emergency measures granted by the Fundamental Laws (article 87) to push reform through without the Duma. The third Duma were too conservative to agree to his liberal reforms such as introducing the zemstvo to more provinces.). In 1911, the Duma had to be suspended twice, while the government forced through legislation under emergency provisions Although the Duma ran its course, by 1912 it was clear that the Duma system was not working.

Answer 61

This was a relatively submissive body and the new Prime Minister, Count Vladimir Nikolaevich Kokovtsov, who replaced Stolypin after his assassination in 1911 (Arguably when Stolypin was assassinated, the main ministerial advocate for reform, all hope of making the Duma work was lost) and remained in this post until 1914, proclaimed, "Thank God we still have no parliament. He simply ignored the Duma and its influence declined. It was too divided to fight back, and in any case, the workers again seized the initiative with a revival of direct action and strike activity in the years before the outbreak of war.

Answer 62

They had formed into political parties at the end of 1905, the Octobrists and the Kadets. They were initially both prepared to work with the Tsar appeased by the newly established Duma and neither wanted a revolution or the violence of 1905 repeated. The Liberals dominated the first Duma, with the Kadets gaining the most seats. Yet, they were weak and divided as the Octobrists and the Kadets distrusted each other. Largely as a result of the Kadets liberal demands the first Duma was considered too radical and so dissolved. The Kadets travelled to Vyborg in Finland to issue the Vyborg Manifesto. There was no popular response to the manifesto and the tsar arrested and disenfranchised those involved. This effectively removed the Kadets as a political force. The Octobrists more than doubled their representation in the second Duma but they had little impact as the involvement of the radicals meant this Duma was short-lived. Their representation in the third and fourth Dumas increased considerably but the Rightists had similar numbers. The rightists felt their traditional status and power was under threat after the 1905 Revolution. They set up the ‘United Nobility’ in 1906 to protect their interests. They opposed Stolypin’s agrarian reforms and were a conservative influence on Nicholas II. Thus, the presence of the rightists restricted the Octobrists’ influence and any reforms passed were according to the government’s agenda not a result of Liberal pressure. The Octobrists were disillusioned with the Duma experiment by 1914. Yet despite their lack of national political influence liberalism was still developing and the state could not control the growing numbers interested in Western ideas and values. The numbers of middle-class voluntary organisations and associations mushroomed. In Moscow by 1912 there were over 600. Some dealt with serious matters, for example, the Imperial Economic Society debated the great issues of industrialisation. Similarly, ideals of female liberation were spreading among the educated classes. Women's organisations started to spring up across Russia and in 1908 the First All-Russian Congress of Women was held in St Petersburg: half of the delegates earned their living. The women's movement campaigned for sexual and educational equality

Answer 63

They had played little part in the events of 1905 but Lenin drew important lessons from the events which developed his political theory in the following years: -The 'bourgeoisie’ as a political force to combat the autocracy were weak (they had been placated by the October Manifesto) -The peasantry had revolutionary potential (rural disturbances 1905-06) -Nationalist movements could undermine the Empire (protests from nationalities had overstretched the army) These examples led him to the key Bolshevik (Marxist-Leninist) idea that the proletariat, in alliance with the peasantry and nationalities, could seize power without waiting for Russia to go through the ‘bourgeois-democratic' revolution and could proceed straight to the socialist revolution. With a resurgence in labour militancy from 1912 support for the Bolsheviks increased. They had the support of some of the larger factories and they had gained control of some of the biggest unions in St Petersburg and Moscow, such as the Metalworkers Union. The Bolshevik paper, Pravda (launched in 1912), had achieved a national circulation of 40,000 copies per issue by 1914, over twice that of its Menshevik rival. Orlando Figes says thousands of strikes under Bolshevik slogans meant that urban Russia arguably found itself on the brink of a potentially more violent revolution in 1914 than in 1905. However, most workers still did not work in the larger factories and were not socialists. Strikes were mainly about pay and working conditions and only a relatively small number were engaged in radical activity. What’s more the Bolshevik leadership was incapacitated by the Okhrana. Four out of five of the party's St Petersburg committee in 1909 were Okhrana agents. By 1914 the Bolshevik leadership was either in exile or, like Lenin, isolated abroad. There is evidence as we saw above that workers were becoming radicalised and turning to the Bolsheviks but even as late as January 1917 Lenin said, ‘We, the old people, perhaps won't survive until the decisive battles of the forthcoming revolution', so he clearly did not consider the Bolsheviks strong enough to lead a revolution and they still refused to work with the other socialist groups. The Mensheviks remained small and they were not proponents of revolution.

Answer 64

They boycotted the first Duma and had little influence in the second as it was quickly shut down. Following this they were not represented in the Dumas as Stolypin’s coup restricted the franchise to deprive their supporters of the vote. They had been infiltrated by the Okhrana before 1905 and they were obsessed with the issue of double agents after the head of their terrorist wing, Envo Azef, had been exposed as an Okhrana agent in 1908. From 1905-1909 over 2000 were executed and a further 38000 imprisoned. There were divisions between their leadership and the rank and file. Despite their continued campaign of violence and assassination, killing 4500 tsarist officials 1906-07 and most notably killing Prime Minster Stolypin in 1911, they were clearly in disarray by 1914. They may have been stronger had they co-operated with the other radical socialist groups but the radicals remained divided between the SRs, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.

Answer 65

The repression at the end of 1905 and the gradual recovery of the economy in this period meant worker opposition subsided. Yet, 1905 had changed the workers’ relationship with the tsar – they feared the tsar but they no longer respected him. Trade Unions had been legalised as part of the October Manifesto but they achieved little in the face of government repression. After 1906 hundreds were closed down or denied registration, only those of trusted skilled workers were permitted. Other than the 1912 introduction of sickness and accident insurance to benefit some workers little was done to address their hardship. From 1912 there was a revival of militancy. It started with the Lena Goldfields Massacre in April 1912. Striking workers, protesting about degrading working conditions, low wages and a fourteen-hour working day, again met government repression when troops open-fired killing around 500 people. This opened the floodgates to workers' protests. Workers became increasingly militant and the frequency and scale of strikes increased in the years 1912-14. A good deal of these were political as well as economic in character. July 1914 saw a general strike in St Petersburg involving barricades and street fighting. The level of literacy had increased more for workers than peasants and by 1914 64% were literate compared with 40% for the adult population in general. The impact of this was a wider readership of everything from newspapers and political leaflets (particular Marxist).

Answer 66

Rural areas were relatively quiet before 1914 and there had been no major upheavals and disturbances since the brutal repression of 1906. Several years of good harvests certainly helped too. However, Stolypin’s agrarian reforms had proved divisive, and the peasants had not been tied closer to the Tsar as he had hoped. Rural poverty was still very severe in some areas, particularly the populous central districts. The repression of 1906 was fresh in people's memories and Orlando Figes says there was a simmering resentment in the countryside. The peasants were quiet but their loyalty was not assured. 1906 repression Troops were sent out on punitive expeditions using brutal methods - beatings. rape, flogging and executions - to bring the peasants under control. Between mid-October 1905 and April 1906, as many as 15,000 people were executed and 45,000 deported. The troops worked their way through the Baltic provinces, the Ukraine and the Caucasus. In the summer of 1906, field court martials were introduced to deliver fast trials and fast executions (within 24 hours of sentencing). Peasants were hanged in their hundreds. The noose used in the hangings became known as 'Stolypin's necktie', after Peter Stolypin, the new Minister of the Interior (see page 102). This cold-blooded repression had its effect and the resistance to the authorities was everywhere in retreat. The old order was back.

Answer 67

After 1905 there was no single, strong opposition among the nationalities. Apart from the Poles and Finns, none wanted outright independence and, in the case of the Ukrainians and Belorussians, a combination of policies of assimilation and repression enjoyed success, delaying the emergence of an ethnic consciousness. A continuation of Russification can be seen in the Ukraine 1907 cholera epidemic when warnings not to drink infected water could only be published in Russian. Many Ukrainians died as a result. Stolypin’s coup after the second Duma also greatly restricted the representation of the nationalities in the Duma. The pogroms of 1905-06 and continued restrictions against Jews in all areas of life meant they could not pose any serious threat to the regime. Nicholas II became a patron of the Union of the Russian People who encouraged many pogroms.

Answer 68

There was no shape or order to the outburst of anger that followed Bloody Sunday. Disorder in the form of strikes, demonstrations, riots, vandalism and hooliganism increasingly ruled the cities. In some places armed gangs and criminals roamed the streets and citizens formed militias or vigilante groups to protect themselves. The leaders of the main socialist parties were nowhere to be seen, they were mainly in exile in Europe. The workers started to form factory committees to represent themselves, but strikes were spontaneous rather than planned. The action was not all from the left. Right-wing groups in support of the tsar attacked those they considered unpatriotic.

Answer 69

Liberals, with the support of students, played a role in the revolution. In May, a number of professional organisations (such as lawyers, engineers) and trade organisations (such as clerks and book-keepers) came together to form the Union of Unions - a sort of umbrella body - to press the cause of liberal political reform, and notably request a national representative assembly elected by universal suffrage. Political meetings were held in universities thrown open by students. Hundreds of Zemstva and city councils sent in petitions demanding political change. Added impetus was given to their demands when the Russian Baltic fleet was wiped out at Tsushima in the most humiliating manner in the middle of May. The government was condemned as incompetent and reckless.

Answer 70

The mood of the revolt spread to the countryside as the summer arrived. Peasants took advantage of the upheaval. In June and July, encouraged by the SRs, they began seizing land, grain and animals, burning landlord's houses, cutting timber illegally and refusing to pay rents and taxes. Their general demands were land, the end of redemption payments and a reduction in rents. There was no co-ordinated peasant movement but a whole range of peasant unions and societies appeared. At the end of July, the All-Russian Peasant Union met near Moscow (organised by the SRs). In a few places peasants set up what were in effect peasant republics, although this meant self-government rather than the overthrow of the monarchy. The army was used to put down peasant uprisings but it was mainly composed of peasants, and mutinies began to spread as whole units refused to carry out orders.

Answer 71

National minorities took advantage of government disarray in Russia to demand autonomy, democratic government and the end of Russification. The Poles and Finns demanded outright independence. In many areas the struggle became very violent, for example, In Caucasus, where officials were attacked. There was a strong nationalist character to demands, for example, for local language and culture to be taught in schools. The Tsar dispatched 10,000 troops to Georgia to try and keep it under control. In Poland, there was a virtual state of civil war and the tsarist regime had to keep a force of 300,000 soldiers there. Russian troops shot 93 Poles who took part in demonstrations sparked by Bloody Sunday. This provoked more demonstrations with slogans such as 'Down with Tsarism'.

Answer 72

On the 14" June the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied over harsh conditions and being given rotten meat to eat. They seized control of the ship and sailed to Odessa, which was in a state of turmoil with daily demonstrations. The arrival of the ship was warmly received by huge crowds. Troops were ordered to disperse the crowds and opened fire, killing as many as 2,000 citizens. The Potemkin escaped, hoping to stir up mutiny on other ships. But, falling to find support, the sailors surrendered. This was an embarrassment for the government and a wake-up call. The loyalty of the armed forces was paramount. The Tsar realised he had to end the war with Japan and peace was agreed in the Treaty of Portsmouth, August 1905.

Answer 73

In September, labour unrest reached a new level of intensity when a general strike was called. It started with printers (educated and skilled workers) and spread to railway workers who brought the central railway system to a halt. In St Petersburg, Moscow and other cities, industrial and utility workers, shop assistants, actors, bank employees and even staff from government offices - up to 2 million workers - supported the strike. This caused real hardship: food and medical supplies ran short, unburied bodies piled up and there was an explosion of criminality. Middle-class professionals, even some industrialists, supported the strikers and gave money. The general strike carried on into October.

Answer 74

On the 13th October the St Petersburg Soviet was formed. Prompted by Mensheviks, the soviet of workers' deputies met to coordinate the activites of workers in the general strike. It was made up mainly of representatives elected from factories. It not only directed the general strike, informing workers through its newspaper Izvestia, but it also sorted out matters like food supplies. Leon Trotsky, who became deputy chairman, was a driving force. The urban workers had emerged as an organised force confronting the autocracy.

Answer 75

A Good Start -August 1914- outbreak of war popular- the national anthem, Duma dissolved itself, strikes ceased. -Russian Unity -Russia has largest army - mobilized quickly -Early success agasint Austria and Hungary Germany Too Strong -Heavy losses and prisioners at Tannenberg (Aug 1914) and Masurian Lakes (Sept 1914) -Long retreat - by autumn 1915 had been forced back. 1m killed. Russia forced to retreat out of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. -Brief success- 1916 Brusilov offensive, supplie improved, half of Austria army killed or captured -Germany moved troops to reinfroce Austria and Russia once again pushed back

Answer 76

-Poor leadership - many officers appointed for loyalty and not expertise. Most of good officers are killed early on. Brusilov only exception as he was skilled. -Distribution ineffective- shortages of rifles, ammo boots. Often supplies were available but not sent where needed. -Little concern for welfare, 1.5 million deserted 1916 and high casualty rates affected millions of families. -15 million soldiers mobilized (mainly peasants). Not lacking in troops but are in supplies. Men have to wait for others to die for weapons. -Matched Germany in shell production by 1916. 1000% increase in production of artillery and rifles but supply lines inefficient and experienced officers killed earlier in the war. - Mikhail Rodzianko (President of the Duma when the war started) visited soldiers in 1915 - he found they lacked basic supplies and were left without shelter or medical attention

Answer 77

-Railways could not cope-Moscow bottle neck, signalling collapsed. Supplies waited in trucks in sidings - Archangel in N Russia - piles of supplies sank into the ground Factories closed as no raw materials could be delivered -Severe food shortages - queues, food rotted in sidings, front prioritised, less grain sold as nothing for peasants to buy (factories were focused on military production and a ban on vodka) -Inflation as the government printed money to pay for the war (abandoned the gold standard set by Witte) 1914-16: food and fuel prices x4, wages x2 - meant people struggled to afford basic items. 300% rise in the cost of living .Petrograd suffered more as remote from food producing areas - By 1916 receiving 1/3rd of food and fuel it required. Increased overcrowding as refuges from German occupied areas flooded into towns and cities -Strikes increased 1915-16 - unemployment as factories lacking raw materials closed, living standards worse as overcrowding increased, food shortages (thousands on the brink of starvation), struggling to buy basic items, military defeats, deserters returning to urban areas

Answer 78

War Ministry - No clear command structure, no clear war plan, breakdown of distribution system to the cities and the front - complete collapse of confidence in the government * Liberals formed the leadership of Zemgor and WICs * They appeared to offer an alternative form of more effective government so the regime viewed them with suspicion and refused to cooperate with them

Answer 79

* Tsar pressured into recalling the Duma, July 1915 - 2/3rds had formed a progressive bloc (liberals - octobrists, kadets and progressives) who wanted to be fully involved in the war effort and a ministry of national confidence. * Missed opportunity to share responsibility for the war and gain support * Milyukov (Kadet leader) called for the tsar's abdication, Guchkov (leader of the Octobrists) asked the army generals if they would support moves to remove Nicholas and indicated they would not intervene, even some nobles turned to support the Progressive bloc by the end of 1916

Answer 80

* Aug 1915-Direct control of the army = big mistake! Blame and power vacuum * Instability in govt - ministerial changes * Competent people dismissed as Tsarina saw them as traitors - as they worked with the Zemgor and WICs e.g. War Minister Polivanov was rebuilding the army and supplies with some success after the disastrous 1915 retreat. Incompetent people appointed as they flattered tsarina or Rasputin -Tsarina and Rasputin hated - German spy and degenerate monk -Rasputin murdered in Dec 1916 by a member of the royal family, Prince Yusupov, in attempt to save the monarchy but this was too late to salvage the regime's reputation

Answer 81

The winter of 1916-17 was a bitterly cold one and the new year started with strikes and lock-outs. The Tsarina ignored warnings from the secret police and condemned strikers as hooligans. When leading members of the Duma tried to make her aware of how serious matters were, she claimed they were undermining the government. Then, towards the end of February 1917 it was announced that bread was to be rationed. Some women spent almost 24 hours in queues for food. Scuffles over remaining bread stocks turned into riots.

Answer 82

On Thursday 23 February, International Women's Day, the discontent became more focused. What started off as a good-humoured march in the morning took on a different mood in the afternoon. Women, many of them textile workers on strike, took the lead in politicising the march, overturning trams and blocking the streets. The women marched to the Vyborg district of Petrograd, a working-class area with a history of radical action. They persuaded men from the highly politicised Putilov engineering works and other factories to join them. A huge crowd began to make its way towards the centre of the city. They crossed the ice of the frozen River Neva and burst on to Nevsky Prospekt, the main street in Petrograd. The protest started to gather momentum. Over the next three days, the demonstrations took on a more political nature. Demands for bread were accompanied by demands for an end to the war and an end to the Tsar. Observers reported that there was almost a holiday atmosphere in the city as all classes of people joined in the protests. There was no central organisation of events. No political party was in charge: all the main leaders of the revolutionary parties were abroad or in exile. But socialist cells, particularly Bolsheviks, were active in getting the workers out on the streets. Many factories were shut down and shops and restaurants closed.

Answer 83

The weekend of 25-26 February proved the turning point. Demonstrations in the past had been dealt with effectively by troops. The difference this time was that many soldiers refused to take action against the people. When Nicholas realised that things were getting out of hand in Petrograd, he ordered troops to put down the disorders and some regiments opened fire on the crowds, killing demonstrators. This tipped the scales. The crowds became hostile and the soldiers now had to decide which side they were on. One by one, regiments moved over to the side of the people. There was some fighting between the soldiers in different regiments and a number of officers were killed, but this was largely over by 27 February.

Answer 84

While these events unfolded, the Tsar was still at Mogilev. Rodzianko, the President of the Duma, sent him a telegram explaining how serious things were and suggested that a new government be formed with more power given to elected representatives. Nicholas' answer was to suspend the Duma and send troops to the capital to restore order. But the Duma members remained in the Tauride Palace and held informal meetings while crowds of people outside demanded that they do something. On Monday 27 February, the Duma formed a special committee made up of representatives of the main political parties. The committee realised that things had gone too far for the Tsar to be involved in any kind of government. The Russian Army High Command had come to the same conclusion and put a stop to the troop movements on Petrograd. Nicholas made a last ditch effort to get back to the capital but his train was stopped outside the city. When the generals told the Tsar they would not support him, he knew the time to go had come. On 2 March he abdicated in favour of his brother Michael; but Michael, realising the extent of anti-monarchical feeling, refused and the Romanov dynasty came to a swift end. The Duma committee set about forming a new government. The revolution of February 1917 was not a bloodless revolution. Some estimates put the death toll at around 1,500 with several thousands wounded. But it had been accomplished with remarkable self-restraint on the part of the people.