1905 - A Failed Revolution?

LONG TERM CAUSES:

Social & Economic causes:

•  80% population = peasants, most living in poverty - rapid population growth led to land hunger
•  harvest failures 1892, 1898 & 1901 led to widespread famine - peasant reacted w/ violence
•  agriculture remained backwards, economy grew rapidly
•  towns & cities population grew rapidly - led to poor living & working conditions
•  poor conditions meant demands for change had a willing audience

Political causes: 

•  autocratic state - Tsar had complete political power
  • no elected national parliament, only elected bodies = zemstva (were only at local level)
• demand for political reform grew, but reformers = mixed group w/ little in common
  • most moderates = liberals, wanted Tsar to share political power w/ elected parliament
  • SRs = more extreme, wanted to give peasants political power, willing to use violence
  • SDP = most extreme, wanted to give power to peasants & workers, willing to use violence

IMMEDIATE CAUSES:

Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05:

• undermined support for Tsar’s regime & gave encouragement to revolutionaries
• Russia saw selves as superior in military power - suffered humiliating defeat
• national humiliation helped cause unrest against govt
• helped prolong revolution - many of the events took place during the revolution

Bloody Sunday:

• disaster for govt & Tsar - widespread outrage - damaged ‘Little Father’ popularity
• spread of news sparked sympathy strikes in other parts of Russia

HOW DID REVOLUTION DEVELOP DURING 1905?

Strikes:

• wave of strikes developed into general strike - organised by discontented workers, not rvltnaries
• set up soviets (workers’ councils) to direct strikes in industrial centres
• railway workers strike = bad…