Who opposed the Tsar?

• many people did not agree with the way the Tsar governed Russia
• they wanted to improve working conditions and living conditions
• by the early 1900s many radical groups had formed

• formed in 1901
• aim was to get rid of Tsar
• to give land to peasants, to form farming communities
• they appealed to the peasants, but these peasants usually supported parties which wanted to give them land
• theyre tactics included propaganda
• they also commited acts of terrorism to bring down the goverment.

• founded in 1895
• they also aimed to overthrow the Tsar
• they wanted to create a socialist state
• workers in large towns supported them as did students
• in 1903 the group split into the bolsheviks and the mensheviks

Bolsheviks

• believed in a restricted, secret group or organised professional revolutionaries.
• they thought that large parties could be infiltrated
• they organised small groups that would infiltrate factories and organise strikes

Menshevics

• they believed that anyone should join this organisation
• they believed it would grow untill they took power
• it wanted to work with trade unions to improve working conditions

• wanted the parliment to run the countries and free elections
• they wanted the Tsar to be a consulted monarch
• they wanted cuvil rights
• the middle classes supported them
• so did some members of the gentry
• to gain power they organised meetings, speeches, dicussions, published articles and books