I remember when I was doing my A Levels there weren't a whole lot of resources particularly when it came to A Level History 2N Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia. So I compiled the notes that I used to achieve an A* in AQA A LEVEL HISTORY in 2024, saving you the trouble of having to look for compr...
1.1 - The Condition of Russia in 1917
The Russian Empire & Its People
● Geography: spans EU/Asia + west-east: 6400km, north-south: 3000km ~ ⅙ landmass world =
communications poor, most parts sparsely populated, roads impassable in winter
● 1900: Trans-Siberian Railway: 9228 km (longest) - journey (Moscow - Vladivostok) = 1 week
● Vast Sprawling empire w/ patchwork quilt of different national groups - Russians in EU/Ural
mountains to nomadic Muslims in southern desert areas, to tribes in Siberia
● Social Structure: Strongly hierarchical, inequitable, immobile, divided by class ~ nobility (1%
own 25% land), MC (burgeoning cultural/artistic life + lawyers in politics), UW (1900: ⅓ young
men whose dads worked), Peasants (rich kulaks hired labour + 1891 bad harvest - 400k die)
○ Elite: Czar and family, aristocrats - NOBILITY: 1.1%
○ Russian Orthodox Church - PRIESTS: 1.1%
○ Czarist military officers - OFFICIAL: 3.7% / MILITARY: 5%
○ Middle class (bourgeoisie) - URBAN WORKERS: 3.7% / MERCHANTS: 0.5%
○ Peasants, farmers, workers - SERFS: 84.9% - poor peasant/industrial WC = ⅔ pop
● 1861: emancipation of the serfs - manifesto declaring their full rights as free citizens: to marry
w/o consent, own property and own a business = 23m
○ RESULT: more responsibility on ministers/bureaucrats but Tsar Alexander II had no
intention of making elective national assembly - led to civil unrest
● Reactionary: opposes reform/change vs. Reformer: works to change and improve a society
● Bureaucracy: not well-educated or well-paid = susceptible to corruption + bribery - nobility
● Police: 10k policemen would convict w/o court + Okhrana spied on suspected revolutionaries
or enemies to regime - prison, exile + public gatherings more than 12 need police permission
○ 1898: nearly 300k sent to Siberia - Tsarist Russia was oppressive/intolerant regime
● Army: officers = noble, active service 7 yrs + reserve 8 yrs, poor pay so soldiers grew own
food, suppress revolts but being ex-peasants became disenchanted with 2nd role as police
○ COSSACKS: loyal tsarists from Don area - formed best cavalry units - brutal
● Tsarist Rule: 3 key principles underpinning their power
○ Autocracy - 1832: Article 1 of Fundamental Laws “an autocratic and unlimited gov”
○ Nationality - Tsar had an obligation to preserve and strengthen national identity
○ Orthodoxy - independent from Pope - church taught to obey the tsar as god’s agent
The Tsars
Alexander II
● Reforms: emancipation serfs, modernised judiciary: independent judges + trial by jury + local
JPs, started modernising army, new local elected gov (Zemsta BUT 0.7% pop in Moscow/St
Petersburg can vote), prim/secondary education open to more + unis more independent
Alexander III
● 1881: Consequences of assassination ~ hardened stance to opposition, police strengthened,
social/political reforms halted, undermined tsarist regime as vulnerable, organised revs
● 1892: Serge Witte appointed Finance Minister + took policies to create 1880s industrial boom
Nicholas II
● Influenced by his tutor, Pobedonostev, he believed democracy would bring down Empire
● 1896: (May) During coronation celebrations = crowd crush ~ 1400 killed + 600 injured in
Khodynka Field - Nicholas was followed by public outrage for his apparent lack of concern
● Nicholas the Unlucky - Nicholas the Bloody: delighted by Baltic campaign where 1200
executed and praised its commanders for “acting splendidly”
● Alec Nove: Witte’s dominant motive behind industrialisation policy was to catch up w/ more
developed powers and “produce the means of national power, above all armaments”
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