Russia, History notes.

TSARIST RULE

·          The tsar was an autocratic ruler, it was a dictatorship.

·          Censorship was enforced which was when all media would be checked to make sure that it was not against the Tsar.

·         The Okhrana were the Tsars secret police.

Why was Russia difficult to govern at this time?

·         Communication was hard because there were lots of different religions and beliefs and nationalities.

·         80% of the Russian population at that time were illiterate so people had the simplest jobs and many people were very unhappy.

·         There was a hierarchy of people; peasants at the bottom and the tsar at the top.

·         As a result of this, the tsar decided to introduce Russification. This meant that non-Russians had to live with Russian culture, beliefs and religion.

·         Russia was huge and there was no way to move things around apart from one train.

What were the results of Russification?

·         People were more patriotic and the tsar became more popular.

·         The people against it performed more extreme terrorist action.

·         There were executions for people who were against Russians or Russification and carried on with their own cultures etc.

Why did people oppose the tsar?

Why were people unhappy?

·         For 6/10 people, Russian was a foreign language, and they were forced to speak Russian because of Russification.

·         Peasants were unhappy because they got paid very little and landowners treated them badly and there was competition for work because the population was growing.

·         Town workers were unhappy because the conditions were terrible in factories and they lived in slums, ate little food and earned low wages. They worked long hours and weren’t allowed to protest.

The Russo-Japanese war

·         The tsar started this war to distract the people from all of the problems going on in Russia.

·         There were naval and military disasters in the war though and the tsar was humiliated.

·         It led to even more food shortages and inflation.

·         People hated the tsar.

·         The war showed how much the government was struggling and internationally their reputation got worse.

The 1905 revolution

·         Bloody Sunday was an event that led to the revolution. It was organised by Father Gapon and it was a march to the Winter Palace, the tsar’s home. It was peaceful even though there were 200,000 people. The tsar was not home at the time and the soldiers in the end panicked and fired on the crowd, killing hundreds and wounding thousands.

·         There were also mutinies on ships and strikes during the 1905 revolution and there was a lot of chaos.

Solution for the revolution

·         The tsar signed the October Manifesto which promised Freedom of speech, Freedom of assembly, civil liberties and the fact that no laws could…