Political situation 1905-14

Responses to the October Manifesto:

Trotsky publically declared the Tsar’s promises worthless
General strike in St Petersburg but the Bolsheviks were unable to sustain it

3rd December 1905

HQ of St Petersburg Soviet was surrounded and all 300 members including Trotsky, were arrested. Trotsky exiled to Siberia

How many people were involved in the 1914 General Strike? Where did the movement spread?

135,000 workers were on strike in St Petersburg with the movement spreading to other cities including Moscow, Baku and Kyiv

Aims for the 1914 General Strike

Overthrowing the monarchy

Reasons for the 1914 General Strike

Low wages, dangerous conditions and police repression of protest. Triggered by police firing on workers at the Putilov steel plant in early July.

Events of the 1914 General Strike

Industrial sabotage: overturning streetcars and constructing barricades. Stopped trams and stoned one tram driver to death Demonstrated high worker solidarity.

What stopped the 1914 General Strike?

The outbreak of war in late July-August 1914 replaced labor unrest with a temporary, intense wave of patriotism

Menshevik membership

8,400 in 1905, rose to 38,200 by 1907

This Bolsheviks newspaper helped to spread revolutionary ideas

Pravda

How many copies of Pravda were sold from 1912-1914?

40,000 copies were sold daily before being officially shut down by Tsarist censorship

Liberals moving into opposition

The Kadets moved into opposition following failure of the first Duma after 72 days

Octobrists moved into opposition during the Third Duma

Bolshevik CSK

Membership figures were low 5000-10,000 members before 1914

CSK about Octobrists Tsar’s regime

Led by Rodzianko Guchkov, the Octobrists supported the rule of law and worked with the Tsar’s minister in the Duma.

CSK about Octobrists - Rodzianko

Rodzianko was a deputy in the Third Duma and the Chairman of the Fourth Duma

In a statement in 1906 the Tsar stated:

‘Actually, I feel that eighty per cent of the people are with me.’

Between ___________ Russia experienced an industrial growth rate of ____

1908-13, 8.5%

Railway expansion

21,000km in 1881 to 70,000km in 1914

How many independent farms did Wager on the strong result in by 1913?

134,500

Rapid expansion of agricultural programs caused by increased investment in the Zemstvo Agricultural Enterprises:

1906: 3,898,000 roubles

1913: 29,200,000 roubles

Evidence of the economy not being good: industrial production

30% of production is industrial (75% UK)

Evidence of the economy not being good: migration

Migration of 2 million peasants away from the communes had led to a shortage of labour there

Evidence of the economy not being good: state revenue

State revenue increased by 1.5 billion between 1905-14

Social: Improvement of health care provision by Zemstvas

In 1913 the Zemstvas estblished approximately 5,300 hospitals, which led to a 40% decline in infant mortality rates from the late ninteenth century to 1914

Social: Education

Literacy rate rose from under 30% in 1900 to over 40% by 1914

Spending on schools rose from 1.8% to 4.2% between 1907 and 1912

Social CSK; Wages

Wages only rose from 245-264 roubles per month, whilst inflation rose 40% in the same

Social CSK: Heallthcare

Cholera outbreak in St Petersburg in 1910 killed over 100,000

CSK Social: Living standards

Ourt of 1000 towns only 200 had piped water, and just 38 had a sewage system