Opponents to the Tsarist System

• Wanted to take land form the Tsar, nobles and the Church
• Give more land to the mir and village communes
• So peasants could have a bigger share of land
• 'Fighting Organisation' to organise terrorist campaigns
• Between 1900 - 1905 the 'Fighting Organisation' killed three government ministers and dozens of government officials
• SR's gained support from millions of peasants who wanted their own land
• However SR's were weakened by disagreements among themselves
• Almost two groups, 'Left SR's' and 'Right SR's'
• Between 1901 - 1905 the SR's were responsible for over 2000 political assinatations
• But they failed to bring around the desired link between urban workers
• Land policy that kept them popular with the peasants
• Further disagreements in the party led them to being collections of radical groups
• Despite this, until the Bolsheviks outlaws them in 1917, the SR's remained the most popular party in Russia.
  

• Followed the Marxist idea, that a violent revolution will overthrow the capitalists and share everything they make and earn
• Set up in 1898
• Leaders quickly began to arugue and in 1903 they split to the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
• The Bolsheviks wanted a quick revolution, organised by a small group of dedicated and skilled revolutionaries
• The Mensheviks wanted to wait for the Capitalist phase to run its course

• Nicolas II continued with his father's Statue of State Security from 1881
• Strikes grew in the industrial cities
• More peasant discontent as taxes grew and land holding decreased
• Tensions grew after the humiliating defeat of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905
• January 22nd 1905, Bloody Sunday
• Mass murder of a peacful protesting Putilov factory workers
• This led to a wave of revolutionary activity across Russia

• Tsar's uncle was assinated on the 4th of Feb
• 3 million people came out on strike
• Major clashes between police and strikers
• Peasant sburnt down manor houses, looted lords' grain stocks, illegally felled trees
• In May a National Peasants' Union was formed
• In June Potemkin sailors mutinied, followed by Kronstadt sailors and in the ranks of the Far Eastern Army
• National minorities fought for their independance, Georgia, Finland and Poland
• St. Petersburg Soviet was set up in Oct, led by Trotsky.

• Using the 'October Manifesto' offered a national elected assembly - the Duma
• It also promised civil rights like freedom of speech, assembly and worship
• It also satisfied the demands of the Liberals, like the Kadets and Octoberists

• He also promised to reduce then abolish redemption payments
• Led to immediate reduction in level of peasant uprisings

• Most of the army stayed loyal
• Troops from the Russo-Japanese war used to disperse St. Petersburg Soviet
• The Moscow Soviet, influenced by Lenin was violently suppressed in January 1906, this signalled the end of the revolution

• As soon as the immediate crisis was over Nicholas goes back on his promises and sets up the Fundamental Laws
• The Fundamental Laws lets him over ride any laws made by the Duma
• This allowed Nicholas to hold onto his autocratic power without giving much away to the Duma

• As a result many of the represntitives of the people elected to the Duma were fuming
• He dismissed the first two Dumas in 1906 and 1907 when they complained about The Fundamental Laws
• Tsar's chief minister altered the voting system to favour the rich, this meant the thrid and fourth Dumas were more loyal to the Tsar, which lasted from 1907-19017
• This again reduced power of the Duma

• Military Defeats
• Difficult living conditions
• Role of the Tsarina and Rasputin
• Failure to make political reforms

• Russian political and economical system could not deal with the ravages of WW1
• Russia saw a rise in the number of demonstartions after 1914
• One such outbreak happened in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in Feb 1917 

Events unfolded as follows:

Feb 14th - 80,000 demonstrated in support of the Duma

Feb 18th - Putilov strike

Feb 23-25th - demostrations against food shortages

Feb 26th - 40 demonstrators shot by troops

Feb 27th - Volynsky regiment mutinied and refused to shoot demonstrators

• Feb 27th until March 2nd saw a wave of revolutionary disturbances throughout Russia
• Kronstadt naval base munitied, workers seized factories and attacked managers and peasants seized land and illegaly felled trees. National minorities in Russia took their indpendence
• Duma formed  commitee to try and persuade Nicholas to set up a constitutional monarch
• Nicholas was travelling back on a train when he was forced to ABDICATED!