Russia: Causes of the 1905 Revolution

• Living conditions poor: cramped, no privacy, rooms divided by curtains
• High unemployment after 1900 due to economic depression
• Had to work long hours 12+
• Working conditions dangerous, no health and safety - many died from incidents at work
• No social insurance scheme
• Strikes illegal and trade unions unsupported - no change to conditions

St Petersburg

• 40% of buildings timber
• 40,000 prostitutes
• 7700 had typhus in 1908
• 7.4 people per apartment on average

Moscow

• 2/3 buildings wooden
• 16% unskilled   8% unemployed
• Illiterate 75% men, 50% women

• 77% peasants
• Stripe farming inefficient - less food, less money
• Lack of machinery - less food, less money
• Bad harvests led to starvation - 400,000 deaths in 1891
• Not enough land per peasant
• Debt, squalor, drunkness, STDs
• Disease widespread - typhus , diphtheria
• Poor, illiterate, uneducated

• Over 100 different ethnic groups - religions and languages
• Russification deeply resented
• Judaephobia - pogrom 1903 - loots, assaults, ropes, murders of large local jewish populations by mobs
• Inter-ethnic rivalries - Armenians v Turkic Azeris in Baku

• No political influence
• No sign of reform from Nicholas II
• University students banned from holding political meetings
• Over 70,000 involved in zemstva of 1905 - they wanted influence
• Zemstva's work held back by government officials
• 1901 Student demonstration in St P. Cossacks charged at the crowds- 13 killed, 100s injured, 1500 arrested and imprisoned with no trial.

• Russification
• Pogroms against Jews
• Zemstvas has no influence
• 1900 - officials criticising government purged
• Middle class unhappy they had no say
• Increased industrialisation and urbanisation led to economic and social for peasants and workers
• Bad leader who made poor decisions, easily influenced

• Deliberately picked quarrel with Far-Eastern neighbour Japan
• Russia wanted to expand her influence in Far East - Korea, Manchuria
• 1904 - Japan attacked Port Arthur
• Japanese defeated Russia in every major confrontation
• Main Russian Army defeated in Mukden - forced to seek peace
• Treaty of Portsmouth gave Korea and Port Arthur to the Japanese, Russian forces left manchuria

• Worker Strike - 7th January 1905, 105,000 workers
• 9th January - demonstration by Father Gapon, march on Winter Palace peacefully
• Armed troops tried to disperse them peacefully
• Then shot into the crowds (women and children at the front)
• 200 died, 800 wounded

• Liberals - elected government to end tsar - Milyukov leads 'Union of Unions'
• Russian political parties emerged from the shadows after censorship laws were relaxed in 1905.
• The SRs sought land reform and changes to agrarian policy, a position that made them popular with peasants.
• The large size of their party, however, invited differences of opinion, divisions and factionalism.
• Social Democrats led by Lenin wanted an end to tsarism and equality - split to Mensheviks and Bolsheviks  (uber-revolutionary) 1903 all Marxists.
• The Kadets were the largest liberal-democratic party, favouring a British-style constitutional system.
• The Octobrists were moderates and conservatives who were loyal to tsarism and supportive of the changes outlined in the October Manifesto.

• Russian chief minister in the govt 1881 – 1905.
• Had a strong influence over Alexander III and Nicholas II.
• Held the position of Director General of the Synod which controlled the Russian Orthodox Church.
• Very conservative and believed that autocratic monarchy was the only way forward for Tsarist Russia.
• Known as the ‘Grand Inquisitor’ and blocked social reform.
• Was the person most associated with the anti-Jewish policies. 
• Many people disliked him because he personified the obstructions in the way of Russia’s necessary political and social reform.

• Finance Minister between 1893 – 1903 and wanted to modernise using state capitalism.
• What did Witte do?
• Invited foreign experts such as engineers into Russia to offer advice.
• 1894 – Interest rates on peasant loans were cut and payments were extended to 1896.
• He encouraged foreign countries to invest in Russian Industry = large loans from abroad
• He paid the government’s loans with indirect taxes on the urban poor and the peasants.
• He imposed high import taxes on foreign goods
• Taxes on the poor and Russian grain to invest back into industry
• How successful were Witte’s policies?
• Russian railways doubled and the Transiberian Railway (1891 – 1904) was built.
• Economic growth was false and hard to keep up.
• Industry grew by 8% annually from the 1890s but mainly in areas such as iron and coal.
• Witte ignored agriculture which led to him being dismissed after the 1905 Revolution.
• He only took taxes from the poor which made their lives worse and taxes on Russian grain caused peasant lives to worsen.
• He was working in isolation and without the support of much of the rest of the govt.
• He was limited by the Tsar and Russia didn't have many entrepreneur.