The Making of the Revolution 1881-1905

• keeping large multi-ethnic empire together
• maintain supreme political power - difficult because Alex II started reforms which raised expectations of change (after emancipation of Serfs people expected more reform)
• pressure to reform - like western powers - sharing power with gov
• pressure from Slavophiles to remain autocratic and dominated by Russians
• radicals wanted to end Tsarism - 'People's Will' was formed in 1879 for this purpose - many Tsarist officials were assassinated and many attempts to assassinate Tsar - one in 1887 - group of students - Alexander Ulyanov hanged (made bomb)
• moderates wanted reform - including liberals - wanted to allow freedom of the Press and a national parliament elected by educated and wealthy
• extremists wanted reform - inc. People's Will - others wanted political and economic power handed to the peasants

• those who wanted political reform were repressed - Tsar appointed Conservative reactionary ministers - Pobedonostev and Tolstoy
• Pobedonostev was PM and persuaded Alex to govern with advice from small no. of conservative ministers - supported repression but wanted to turn Russia into a police state
• Okhrana set up to deal with opposition
• composition of Zemstva changed - reduced peasant representation and landowners dominated
• people who could vote were restricted to those owning property above certain value
• uni's supervised and liberal teachers dismissed
• secondary schooling denied to working class and peasants
• police used torture, execution and exile to siberia to reduce number of revolutionaries
• strict policy of russification (c.55% of Russia were nationalities)
• 'one Tsar, one church, one state'
• Press freedom restricted

Alex III died naturally and throne passed to son Nicholas II

• shy, indecisive, weak, uninterested in gov affairs, dominated by wife Tsarina Alexandra
• tutored by Pobedonostev - therefore conservative by education - determined to maintain Tsarist autocracy
• Alexandra urged Nicholas to be strong like his father

Agriculture problems:

• low bread prices to help industry - difficult for peasants
• bad harvests were frequent
• gov tried to improve land problem by giving land bank funds and land reserves fro former state lands
• gov exploited land reserves by encouraging settlement on virgin land in east
• Russian land provided less food per acre than Brit or USA
• traditional attitudes of Mirs counteracted gov initiative

• Witte = Finance Minister
• Aim = make the Russian economy strong enough to maintain power
• Russian economy --> no sufficient funds to invest in industrial development
• 'Witte System' --> economic development = sponsored & directed by gov
• extra taxes imposed on over-taxed peasantry = deep resentment
• economic development financed from abroad - France, Belgium and Britain
• Trans-Siberian Railway - 7000km across Empire from st Pet to Vladivostock --> provided communication systems to exploit the economic potential of Siberia

Impact:

• coal, iron and oil production rose
• Trans Siberian railway helped development of Russian influence in Far East
• large cities grew at large rate (population of st Pet doubled between 1890-1914 from 1 million to 2 million)
• Russia exploited Siberias natural resources
• military power developed
• Russia still lagged behind other Great Powers
• poor conditions for workers

• largest and most dangerous socialist group - founded in 1901
• 'the party of the peasants' agrarian reformers and populists
• many policies that broadened membership which was partly urban
• central belief = redistribution of agricultural land to the peasants on the basis of how much each could profitably use
• leaders: Gershumi, Goetz, Breshko, Breskovsky and Chernov
• robbed banks to fund terror campaigns
• took orders from Central Committee

At 1st Party Congress meeting announced the following programme:

1) fall of monarchy would lead to socialism because Russian capitalism was so weak - party would cooperate with liberal middle class

2) peasants = most important class and land should be redistributed - taken from landowners and given to them

3) against centralisation and bureaucracy - wanted nothing to do with state socialism

4) believed in efficiency of political terror and propaganda

• looked west, to the radical ideas of Marxism
• for marxism to succeed, industrial development was essential
• socialist revolution not possible during social and economic conditions - still didn't have majority population industrial workers
• wanted 'dictatorship of the proletariat' in which the bourgeoisie and all other classes would be destroyed
• 'from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs'
• believed urban proletariat would lead revolution as peasantry were unable
• party leaders arrested by ohkrana but continued party in exile
• split in opinion when discussing party membership: menshoviks and bolsheviks

Mensheviks: 

• 'majority men' - were actually a minority
• regarded as most dangerous by the ohkrana
• revolution - time wasn't right for revolution - not enough working class and economic conditions weren't right - wanted to prepare for future revolution
• membership - open membership to as many as possible
• decision making - democractically by members after open debate
• role of party - educate workers for future role, work with other revolutionary groups

Bolsheviks: Lenin

• revolution: a dedicated party of revolutionaries could lead small working class to power - proletariat and bourgeousie combined to hasten revolution
• membership: wanted dedicated revolutionaries
• decision making: leaders made decisions and members should accept them
• role of party: party should be front line of the revolution, shouldn't work with other groups as they would undermine the revolution

Zemstva: beginnings of liberalism - 1st political organisation that contained elected officials - wanted a national organisation for the zemstva - Shipov (chairman of Moscow zemstva) in charge of this - he persuaded the Interior Minister to create zemstva across western Russia

Union of Liberation: some Russia liberal exiles created a newspaper called 'liberation' supporting constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament - these liberal exiles formed the 'Union of Liberation'

Octoberists: group of liberals who believed that the October Manifesto provided best settlement for Russia's constitutional development, and from 1905 they were supporters of Tsar Nicholas II

Kadets: (constitutional democrats) - radical group - saw the October Manifesto as a beginning rather than end of political reform - they believed a truly parliamentary system of gov based on a democatic franchise would help deal with social and economic problems facing Russia

long-term:

• considerable resentment to the social, economic and political situation 

social and economic:

• size of peasant landholdings fell as population increased - tried to get land for everyone
• 1892, 1898, 1905 - harvest failures = famine
• peasants attacked gov officials and documents that said they had to pay rents on land
• Witte - industrialising too quickly - peasants moved to towns - poor living and working conditions

political:

• pressure from liberals to reform gov
• SR's - willing to use violence to achieve aim of power to the peasants - assassinated many including Interior Minister Plehve and Tsar's uncle Grand Duke Sergei
• SD's - most radical - many leaders came out of exile once bloody sunday occured - wanted to use widespread unrest to force political change

Russo - Japanese War:

• Russia wanted to expand empire to far east and came into direct conflict with expansionist power, Japan
• Russia and Japan went to war over control of Northern China and Korea
• Russia saw themself as far superior power but suffered humiliating defeat
• 1905 - Russians forced to surrender their Port Arthur naval base in North China
• following months - Japanese forces defeated Russian army in Manchuria
• national humiliation - defeat at Battle of Tsushima - lost 25 out of 35 warships in defeat against Japanese navy

Bloody Sunday:

• demonstration had been peaceful and led by Father Gapon
• demonstrators who survived were expelled from st Pet - helped to spread news of massacre and spark sympathy strikes
• destroyed many peoples trust in the Tsar - no longer 'Little Father'

• STRIKES: by feb 1905- 400,000 workers striking in response to bloody sunday, end of 1905 - 2.7 million workers striking, strikes organised by workers, strikers set up worker's soviets to organise striking (worker's councils) - most successful general strike in Russian history - whole country was paralysed - railway workers striked causing gov to be seriously threatened as railways were crucial for moving troops to cities to diffuse unrest
• PEASANT UPRISINGS: (jacqueries) - faced with poor harvests and high taxes - most of european Russia had been affected by peasant uprisings by the end of the year
• MUTINIES: battleship Potemkin - crew killed some officers, took control of ship, bombarded Black Sea port Odessa and then went to neutral country Romania - mutinies recieved publicity and helped undermine Tsar's authority - however the army didn't turn against Tsarist regime
• ST PET SOVIET: assembly of workers - groups of workers elected representatives to the Soviet - had over 400 members representing 96 factories - leading figure = Leon Trotsky - most of its work included making sure strikers got food - soviet got closed down when leaders were arrested but showed workers what they were capable of organising
• ARMED UPRISING: general strike turned into armed uprising against police and troops - many died and left city in ruins - Bolsheviks surrendered = revolution over
• GOV REACTION: october manifesto - promised reforms - proposed elected national parliament - also proposed freedom of speech, religion and civil rights - split revolutionary groups (SR's and SD's wanted more social and economic reform)

Loyalty of armed forces:

• army stayed loyal to Tsar and arrested many revolutionaries
• most leaders were exiled or executed, Trotsky and Lenin fled the country
• pro-gov terrorist groups - e.g. Black Hundreds - hunted down and executed thousands or known reformers

Lack of unity amongst revolutionaries:

• spontenaity of revolutionary outbreaks meant that the armed forces, police and Black Hundreds could suppress them one at a time
• revolutionaries had different aims - fought amongst themselves as well as opposing gov

Splitting the opposition:

• october manifesto split opposition

The Fundamental Law 1906:

• issued by Tsar
• creation of national parliament with Lower House (Duma) being elected
• Upper House - council of State - partly elected and partly nominated by Tsar
• Tsar had the right to govern by decree, thereby ignoring parliament
• Tsar still had considerable political power and his changes fell short of demands of most revolutionaries

The Dumas:

• first duma elected 1906 - contained many reformers
• only lasted 73 days before Tsar dissolved it
• 2nd Duma - feb 1907 - also contained reformers - displeased Tsar and chief minister Stolypin
• 3rd Duma - nov 1907 - much more restricted (only wealthy could vote - excluded most of reformers supporters) - Tsar faced little demand for reform by first national parliament 1907-1912