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summary notes of the Russia course
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- PEARSON (PEARSON)
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Russia 1894-1924KT1 1895-1905
The nature of autocratic rule: the Tsarist principles of autocracy, nationality and orthodoxy
Autocracy is a form of government in which one person possesses unlimited power. Nicholas
II's commitment to the principle of autocracy, like that of his predecessors, was rigid and
unwavering. He believed that his right to wield unlimited power derived from the will of God
and was therefore beyond challenge. He was naive (he believed until the end that the vast
majority of his people were devoted to him) and indecisive. He fussed over trivialities and
failed to address bigger issues. In addition, he distrusted many of the politicians and officials
with whom he had to deal, regarding them as devious and self- seeking.
The Tsarist regime actively promoted industrial development, fearing that without it Russia
would lose its Great Power status. By doing so, however. it stored up trouble for itself In
Russia, as elsewhere, industrialisation led to the emergence of an urban working class.
Tsarist Russia's working class, wrestling with harsh living and working conditions, was sullen,
resentful and volatile. It was small in number -around three million, or just over two percent
of the total population, by the 1890s - but its influence in Tsarism's crisis years was out of all
proportion to its size because it was concentrated in the major cities alongside the nerve
centres of government and administration.
The population of the Russian Empire was 74 million. By 1914, it was 164 million. One
consequence of this population explosion was to add to tensions in the countryside. With
more mouths to feed, peasants, who made up more than 80 percent of the population,
desperately wanted to acquire extra land, but they lacked the financial means to do so.
Some government help was made available through the Peasant Land Bank, founded in the
1880s, but it was not enough to satisfy peasant ‘land hunger'. 'Land hunger' was one of the
main drivers of peasant discontent during the revolutionary era.
The early 1900s saw outbreaks of serious peasant rioting in the fertile 'Black Earth' region in
the southern part of European Russia. Landowners' estates were attacked, looted and
burned. The government bore at least some of the responsibility for these disturbances.
In 1902, the Combat Organisation, a terrorist group linked with the Socialist Revolutionary
Party, launched an assassination campaign targeting senior government officials.
Tsarism had a number of instruments of repression at its disposal. It censored newspapers
and other publications in an attempt to halt the spread of subversive ideas. In the event of
large-scale disorder, it could turn to the army. At the forefront of its struggle against its
internal enemies. however, was the Okhrana, Tsarism's political police force.
The role of the Okhrana was to infiltrate and destroy revolutionary and terrorist networks.
Opposition to Tsarism:
,The underlying cause of peasant unrest was poverty and desperation. Environmental factors
were one reason for rural poverty: in the northern districts of European Russia, the soil was
poor and the growing season short.
Working class unrest at the turn of the century mostly took the form of strikes. These were
often brutal affairs: the army was called out to deal with strikers almost 300 times in 1901, a
figure that increased to over 500 the following year. The willingness of workers to strike was
the result of their grim living and working conditions. Pay was low; hours were long,
averaging around 60 a week; factory discipline was harsh.
Reasons for the limited impact of opposition groups before 1905
• Russia's working class, upon whom Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and, to a lesser extent, the
SRs, pinned their hopes, was numerically small (just over two percent of the population in
the 1890s).
• Levels of literacy in Russia were low. The 1897 census suggested that only 21 percent of
the population could read. In these circumstances, one standard technique of political
agitation - the distribution of pamphlets, newspapers and other forms of written
propaganda - was of limited value.
Before 1905, opposition parties were illegal organisations that had to operate underground.
They were further handicapped by laws restricting freedom of speech and freedom of
assembly.
The Okhrana was adept at infiltrating and destroying revolutionary networks.
The differences between liberals and socialists were of a kind that made the formation of
any kind of united front between them virtually impossible. Liberals and socialists were
united in wanting to overthrow Tsarism, but the socialists wanted to overthrow capitalism as
well.
The 1905 Revolution:
Russia went to war with Japan in 1904 over rivalry for influence in Manchuria.
Russia went to war in 1904 under-prepared and overconfident. Nicholas II and his advisers
viewed the Japanese as racial inferiors who would be easily swatted aside.
• Japan laid siege to Port Arthur early in the war: in January 1905, it surrendered.
• In February 1905, Russian land forces lost a hard-fought major battle at Mukden.
• The greatest humiliation of all was Russia's defeat at the naval battle of Tsushima in May
1905.
Russia's military defeats, and the stories of bungling and incompetence that accompanied
them, affected the domestic political situation in a number of ways.
• Liberal opinion was angered by the mishandling of the war and its hostility towards the
regime intensified. Liberal leaders were aware that military setbacks aided their cause. 'The
worse, the better', said more radical liberals.
, • Aware that military failure left the regime wounded and vulnerable, liberals challenged it
more boldly. The League of Liberation's banquet campaign, launched in late 1904, reflected
this new assertiveness.
• Economic life was disrupted. Unemployment and food prices rose, deepening working-
class discontent.
In January 1905, around 150,000 unarmed demonstrators gathered at several assembly
points around St Petersburg with the intention of converging on the Tsar's Winter Palace in
the city centre. Before they got to their destination columns of demonstrators were
intercepted at a number of different places and fired upon by Russian army units. Estimates
vary but total casualties were in the order of 200 killed and 800 wounded. The episode was
quickly labelled Bloody Sunday.
massive wave of political protest swept across Russia. Nearly half a million workers went out
on strike. Strikes by students lead to the closure of universities for the remainder of the
academic year. Meanwhile, outraged liberals bombarded the government with petitions
demanding political reform. “We can no longer live like this”, declared one liberal
newspaper. Russia was in disarray.
Trouble in the Empire's north-western border areas, where nationalistic, anti-Russian feeling
was intense, began early and continued throughout 1905. Poland, in particular, was a
hotbed of revolutionary activity. Demonstrators clashed repeatedly with the Russian army,
and, on several occasions, lives were lost. The situation in Poland was so tense that over
250,000 Russian troops had to be deployed there to maintain order.
The St Petersburg Soviet began life as a strike committee. Its role was to organise and direct
the October general strike in the capital. It quickly spawned imitators: within weeks of its
formation, 50 other towns and cities in Russia had their own soviets.
When the general strike ended, the St Petersburg Soviet not only stayed in business but
diversified. It published a newspaper. Izvestia; it established an armed militia to protect the
city against counter revolutionaries; and it acted as a kind of unofficial local government
body, distributing food and money to those in need.
Above all, it engaged in political campaigning.
Under Trotsky's influence, the St Petersburg Soviet campaigned for an eight-hour day and
proclaimed its support for Polish rebels and mutineers in the Russian navy. In December
1905, the government, its confidence restored, hit back. The St Petersburg Soviet was
disbanded following the arrest and imprisonment of its entire membership.
Nicholas' first instinct was to rely on force to suppress agitation. Reliance on force alone,
however, was not a realistic option: agitation was too widespread to be easily contained and
a large part of the army was engaged in fighting the Japanese. Grudgingly, Nicholas agreed
to make concessions, if only to buy time
In January. the government promised that an inquiry would be held into the grievances of St
Petersburg's factory workers - a promise that it failed to keep. More importantly, it was
announced in February that an elected assembly was to be established. Liberals were
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