The Russian Revolution-Part I

What was life like in Russia between 1890 and 1900?

Discuss for three minutes at your table.

Be prepared to share your thoughts/discussion.

A few of my thoughts …  Tsarist autocracy-the population was granted no voice in the government.

 No constitution or parliament  At 14 million men, Russia had the largest standing army in the world.

 Upper classes became Westernized  4/5, or 80%, of the population were peasants, living in village communes called mirs.

Russia ’s Goal  Russia wanted to find a new way to be modern without being capitalistic or European.

 Russification: forcible assimilation to Russian culture.

 Tsar Alexander III dreamed of building a “Holy Russia”

The Industrial Revolution  Began in the 1880’s in Russia  Backed by European capital  Railway mileage doubled, communication increased  Industrial working class grew out of the peasantry  Unions were illegal and strikes were prohibited.

Tsar Nicholas II

Tsar Nicholas II  Had limited intelligence and a weak will  Compensated for his short comings with occasional outbursts of stubbornness  Insisted on preserving an outdated political regime in the face of mounting opposition from the country’s educated elite.

The Romanov Family

Tsarina Alexandra  Alexandra Fedorovna  A native of Germany and the granddaughter of Queen Victoria  Aware of her husband’s weaknesses, she constantly badgered him to be a true autocrat like Peter the Great.

 Without her influence, Nicholas might have yielded to pressure and agreed to be a “ceremonial monarch”, which may have averted the Revolution.

The Intelligentsia  The term applies to intellectuals who want power in order to change the world.

 Professional managers of the revolution  The radical Intelligentsia claims to know better what the people need than they themselves do  Instead of sitting around and “thinking”, Intelligentsia became politically active and put their thoughts into practice

Political Thoughts and Parties Emerge 

The Constitutional Democratic Party:

liberals/progressives-who recognized the need for a nationally elected parliament. The majority of Russia’s professional people would affiliate themselves with this party.

 From this party, emerged the Menshevik faction, which at the time was lead by Lenin. Lenin was most concerned with workers-he believed that they were content being reformist rather than revolutionary. They required full time revolutionary inspiration.

Socialists-Revolutionaries  Carried out active propaganda and agitation in villages.

 Abolition of private property and transfer ownership to communes  SR’s principal activity was political terror. The main target of the this terror was the Tsarist regime.

A Split Occurs  The Russian Marxists held a party congress in Brussels and London in 1903.

 Hoping to unite the party, it is split:  Bolsheviks-Led by Lenin (who returned from exile) and believed in radical world-wide revolution  Mensheviks-Believed Russia was not yet ready for Revolution.

 By 1912, the split would be complete.

A quote from the text … “Leninism accomplished the marriage of Russian revolutionary traditions with the Western doctrine of Marxism. It was an improbable marriage, whose momentous offspring was to be communism”.

The Russo-Japanese War  Caused by the rivalry for control in Manchuria (China) and Korea  Russia entered into an agreement with China to build the Trans-Siberian railroad to Vladivostok  On Feb. 8th, 1904 the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Fort Arthur, fighting continues for a year--Russia lacks reinforcements and the Japanese navy is superior.

Russo-Japanese War Cont.

 The treaty to end the war was signed on Sept. 5th, 1905 in Portsmouth New Hampshire.

 Teddy Roosevelt wins the Nobel Prize for helping to negotiate peace between the two nations.

 Manchuria was returned to China, Japan recognized and given control of Korea and Port Arthur.

 Japan becomes the first Asia power to defeat a European power in the modern times.

Revolution of 1905  Propaganda of liberal revolutionary parties  Embarrassment by the loss to Japan earlier in the year  Father Gapon was allowed to meet with factory workers to listen to grievances and counter the propaganda.

Father Gapon

Bloody Sunday  Workers drew up a petition:  8 hour working day, increase in pay and better working conditions.

 January 22nd, 1905: approx. 200,000 unarmed people peacefully marched on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

 The Tsar was not in the city and officials were afraid and began to shoot the demonstrators.

Bloody Sunday Cont …  About 200 people are killed, 800 wounded  In October 1905, the workers declared a general strike.

 With the government paralyzed and no other choice, Tsar Nicholas issues the October Manifesto, which he really has no intention of following.

Document Review  Lenin Speech 1902  Workers’ Petition  Media Reports of Bloody Sunday  October Manifesto  At your table, please read and discuss the documents. Please analyze each using O, P, V,L in your notebooks.

 Be prepared to share your results from each document.

Results of 1905  What happened because of Bloody Sunday?

 The first and second Dumas (Parliament) are established  Stolypin Reforms and Policies: chosen by the Second Duma, Stolypin felt total devotion to the monarchy. However, he also realized that Russia could no longer be governed in the same manner.

Stolypin Reforms  Became Minister of the Interior in 1906  One of his earliest tasks was to quell the terror the SR’s were causing (they had murdered close to 4,500 officials).

 Allowed peasants to take land out of the communes for private ownership.

 The more successful Stolypin was, the less he was needed and the more intense the monarch’s antagonism grew towards him.

Stolypin assassinated in Sept. of 1911 at an opera in Kiev.

A teaser for Part II of the Russian Revolution ….

Rasputin

Lenin

Trotsky

Stalin