Paper 2 - Lenin's Emergence

peasant’s grievances with the Tsarist regime

peasant’s grievances with the Tsarist regime

• want direct control of the land

• decrease in taxes

• abolition of redemption payments

• emancipation of the surfs didn’t go far enough → they still had to ask the landlords permission to leave the village

urban workers’ grievances with the Tsar

• due to industrialisation, cities like Moscow and St Petersburg grew enormously

• living conditions were terrible with overcrowding and no clean sanitation leading to diseases

• no health and safety laws or minimum wage or other workers’ rights legislation

• calls for Russia to mirror the democratic systems of Britain and Germany → no calls to overthrow the Tsar yet

middle class’ grievances with the Tsarist regime

• they were overall doing well from the Industrial Revolution

• but had no political say

• they called for a legal party system and constitution similar to Britain

• and the right to vote

• liberal nobles also supported the idea of parliament but resented the loss of 1/3 their land in the emancipation of the surfs

attempted reforms

• local legislation was introduced in the 1890s due to an increase in strikes

• female miners were banned

• employment of children under 12 was made illegal 1892

• 11.5 hour workday 1896

• factory inspections 1903

• reforms did not resolve the growing social problems

short term causes of the 1905 revolution

• trade recessions in 1899 caused increased unemployment and strikes

• so the state responds with force (which doesnt make them very popular)

• population boom: 1877→ 1905 +25% rural population

• by 1900 the population of the empire was over 126 million

• bad harvest of 1901 causes inflation and riots

• Russification despite under 50% population identifying as Russian

nationalism as a cause of the 1905 revolution

• rise in nationalism globally in the late 1800s

• the tsar was concerned with nationalism and doubles down on Russification measures

• this included anti-semitic measures

• Russian defeat by Japan at Tsushima makes the Russian navy seem incompetent

Bloody Sunday

9th January 1905 - Bloody Sunday

• strikes breakout in factories

• Marches for food led by Father Gapon

• soldier open fire on protestors without warning

• the massacre results in chaos and the Grand Duke Sergei is assassinated

Causes of the October Manifesto

17th October 1905

• Soviet established in St Petersburg comprised of soldiers, sailors, and workers etc. elected by colleagues

• Trotsky was the deputy-chairman

• soviets began to emerge across the country

• tsar is persuaded to bring in reforms by Sergei Witte

• these reforms stopped most protests and in December the St Petersburg Soviet was shut down

reforms of the October Manifesto

• freedom of speech

• national elections of the Duma

• almost universal male suffrage

• freedom of religion

• trade unions and strikes mad legal

• supposedly banned arbitrary arrests

• tsar need the approval of the Duma to pass laws

• redemption payments phased out by 1911

February 1906

• Tsar announces the State Council would be the Upper House of the Parliament to veto bills from the Duma

• 198 members appointed by the Tsar and Church

• takes out massive loans with france with means the Tsar is not as reliant on the Duma anymore but if her shuts it down entirely france would withdraw their loans

Fundamental Laws

23rd April

• Tsar can veto Duma

• Tsar can shut down Duma whenever

• Tsar can issue laws when Duma in recession

• Ministers were accountable to the Tsar not the Duma

• Duma deputies had the right to question ministers and free speech and were immune to persecution

• were a slow revival of monarchal power

Sergei Witte

• Sergei Witte and Pyotr Stolypin drove Russia’s reform agenda

• Witte was Minister of Finance from 1893 → 1903

  • he emphasised the importance of tariffs in market protection and sustaining the development of domestic industry

  • he believed Russian modernisation could only be achieved through state capitalism

  • he increased oil production and coal output in Ukraine

  • increased domestic taxes

  • placed Russia and the Rouble on the gold standard in 1897

• however by 1914 80% of the population were still traditional farming peasants

• he was the first Chairman of the Council of Ministers from October 1906 to May 1906 when he resigned due to a lack of support

• he died of a brain tumour in 1915

Pyotr Stolypin

• president of the Council of Ministers in the aftermath of 1905

• he established the land banks with low interest rates which enabled the emergence of Kulaks

• he was assassinated in 1911

how stable was the regime in 1914

• enough reforms to temporarily appease the peasantry

• still a lot of overcrowding in cities like St Petersburg

• middle class are upset by the fundamental laws and want further political reform

• army loyalty begins to fracture

• more votes to left wing parties like the bolsheviks, Mensheviks ans social revolutionaries

• Octobrist Party set up in 1905 was a liberal-reformist constitutional monarchist party

• Constitutional Democrats (kadets) held similar ideologies

• 1906 → 1914 there wer four Dumy and by the third a system of vote weight was introduced

timeline of Lenin

1898: RSDLP a marxist group is founded and Lenin is a member

1902: Lenin published “what is to be done” claiming there wasn’t a need to wait for a worker majority to start a worker’s revolution, instead a vanguard party of hardcore revolutionaries could sieze power in the name of the workers

1903: RSDLP splits into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

1905: Revolution

1907: Lenin flees to Switzerland and writes articles for marxist journals

why was it a mistake for Russia to join WW1

• Russia becomes involved in the war to support Serbia against Germany

• the tactics were severely out of date

• the industry wouldn’t be able to support an all out war

• the military forces are weakened and outdated

effects of WW1 on Russia

• Nicholas II assumed direct control over the war effort as Commander-in-Chief despite many cautions against it (including Mikhail Rodzyanko the president of the State Duma) in 1915

• this meant he was solely responsible for Russia’s failures in the war

• and he was isolated from the centre of power

• morale was low due to high losses: 1916 → 2 million casualties

• taxes were increased, country went off the gold standard and the gov spent 1.5 billion roubles on the war effort

• 1913 → 1916 national budget went from 4 mill to 30 mill

• because the army had priority in the transport system, a food crisis emerged as food couldn’t be transported from the countryside to cities

• peasants also began hoarding produce, reluctant to sell due to inflation

  • 1914 → 1916 earnings double but prices quadruple

battles in WW1

battle of Tannenberg 23rd → 30th august 1914

• germany: 13,000 dead/wounded

• russia: 130,000 dead/wounded

Battle of Masurian Lakes 2nd → 14th september 1914

• russia: 125,000 dead/wounded/missing

Transport

Railway network was expanded

• 1881: 13,000 miles of track

• 1914: 44,000 miles of track

badly organised and privately owned system so the British government took over during the war

army

• lack of basic equipment like boots, bullets, or rifles

• caused politicians in the Duma (esp Mikhail Rodzyanko) to become very critical

• because the Tsar was away on the front lines he delegated political power to Alexandra who know nothing

• she made mistakes and became increasingly unpopular in the press

• her reliance on Rasputin and his unpopularity ruined the credibility of the monarchy

• desertions increase and soldiers take their arms with them, overthrowing landlords on their way home and causing chaos in the countryside

political opposition

• Zemgor: members of the Duma + Zemstva started to run local affairs

• other European powers introduced cross party governments during the war

• 236/422 Duma deputies joined the “progressive bloc” campaigning for more effective management of the war effort

February Revolution

18th February 1917

• Putilov Steel Works Strike in Petrograd due to rumours that bread rations would be cut

• by 25th February it became a city-wide strike

• Tsar is 400 mi away at the battle of Mogilev and dithered on his decision to return

• Tsar order the Duma to disperse, 12 disagree and form the provisional government in defiance

• 27th February: Petrograd Soviet established with the help of the Kronstadt Sailors (bolsheviks not present)

• 28th February: Tsar’s train diverted and held at Pskov where generals hand and force him to sign abdication documents

problems facing the provisional government

• the gov was dominated by upper class and aristocrats who wanted to carry on Tsarist ideas

• they feel they have to stay in the war to maintain loans from britain and france → discredits SRs and Mensheviks

• it had no legitimacy in the eyes of the people

• 2nd march: agree that every decision must be approved by the Soviet

• Alexander Kerensky replaced Prince Lvov

• June: failed attack in the war

• July: failed uprising by bolsheviks (sans Lenin) in Petrograd + Trotsky and Kaminev put in jail, so Lenin goes into hiding in Finland

• complicates system of land claims and redemption payments that lenin criticises

laws passed by the provisional government

• amnesty for prisoners

• all politcal exiles (inc lenin) can return

• trade unions can legally strike again

• working day is max 8hrs

• found a people’s militia

• freedom of religion again

• freedom of speech in the press again

kornilov affair

august → september 1917

• claims he would lead troops to Petrograd with Kerensky’s blessing which Kerensky furiously denied

• he calls for the population of Petrograd to defend the city and releases Bolsheviks from prison and provides arms → STUPID

Lenin’s return

• Germany was not in a great place in the war

  the Zimmerman telegram was intercepted by Britain who gave it to the US

• Woodrow Wilson got very angry and declared war on germany

• Lenin and the Bolshevik party had been bankrolled for years as a tool to undermine the Tsar

• Germany organised a sealed train to transport Lenin through Sweden + Finland to Petrograd on the condition he started a revolution and took russia out of the war

April Theses

• lenin arrives in Petrograd April 3rd with the theses

  • bolsheviks will cooperate w/ no one

  • condemnation of the provisional government as a “parliamentary bourgeois republic”

  • called for a second revolution to overthrow the provisional government and for all power to be transferred to the Soviet

  • “Peace, Bread, Land: All power to the Soviets”

October Revolution

• lenin returns from hiding in Finland 7th September

• Lev Kamenev + Grigory Zinoviev called for a new revolution and lenin agrees

• Trotsky (chairman of the Petrograd Soviet Military) planned a takeover and got the support of the Kronstadt Sailors (20,000 sailors)

• he also guarantees the army would stay uninvolved

• 25th → 27th very little fighting or loss of life

• bolshevik forces were let into the Winter Palace by staff who agreed with the movement

• deputies of the prov. gov. were arrested and the Bolsheviks proposed a new cabinet comprised only of their own members

why did the Bolsheviks get into Power?

• only party that wanted out of the war like the general population

• no parliamentary tradition

• Kerensky released Bolsheviks and Trotsky from jail

• opposition were divided and ineffective

• provisional government was always meant to be temporary

• Kerensky takes v little action against the bolsheviks

• Soviets became increasingly radical and bought into Lenin’s slogan