1; Tsarist rule in Russia

How was Russia ruled in 1905?

• By the Romanov family; Tsar Nicholas II|

• Nicholas was never prepared to be Tsar and was a weak-willed person lacking strong personal ideas, struggling to meet the empire’s demands.

• The one thing Nicholas strongly believed was that he had to preserve autocracy (absolute power over the country) and pass it onto his son

Different groups’ reasons for discontent with the Tsar

PEASANTS

85% of the population

• their population was growing, but they were too poor to buy the land they needed

• Famines killed thousands. They were dealt with very poorly by the government

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS

• dangerous working conditions

• long hours, low pay

• housing shortages forced workers into dirty, crowded barracks where disease spread quickly

THE MIDDLE CLASSES

• Most were liberals and did want to see change, but not to the extremes of radical revolutionary groups wanting to share all property with the poor.

• Many wanted to non-violently replace the Tsar with a fair constitution & legal system

NON-RUSSIANS

more than half of the Russian Empire wasn’t Russian by nationality

• The empire’s “Russification” policy pressured other nationalities to adopt the Russian language & culture.

• Some other nationalities wanted independence due to the empire putting Russia first in everything

How was there a radical threat against Tsarism?

Revolutionaries assassinated key government figures in the early 1900s, believing Tsarism needed to be violently destroyed.

How was Tsarism protected from radical terrorism?

THE POLICE STATE

• Censorship prevented radical ideas being published

• Anyone suspected of working against the regime were imprisoned or exiled to Siberia

• Okhrana (secret police) kept watch of suspected revolutionaries & infiltrated revolutionary groups pretending to be revolutionaries

Immediate causes for the 1905 Revolution

THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

• Both Russia & Japan wanted Manchuria. Russia was confident in it’s ability to defeat Japan but their old-fashioned military tactics were defeated by the Japanese

• This was very embarrassing & the people blamed the Tsarist government

BLOODY SUNDAY MASSACRE

• A large crowd of unarmed protesters led by the priest Father Gapon tried to bring a petition asking for better worker’s rights to the Tsar.

• Soldiers shot at the crowd and attacked them, leaving over 100 dead and many wounded.

• People in Russia were united in disgust & anger at the government. Around the world, people were shocked by the massacre