russia KT1 (mostly statistics, not a lot of information cuz that'll be too much)

History edexcel a level Russia In Revolution

Autocracy: form of government where one person…

has unlimited power

Autocracy: Where did Nicholas believe his right to wield unlimited power derived from?

the will of God

Autocracy: late 19th century Russia was the most autocratic state in Europe. There were no formal checks of any kind on the Tsar’s power. Examples?

• No constitution setting out what the tsar could and could not do

• no parliament, laws made by Tsar issuing decrees

• No legal safeguards protecting the rights of individuals

• Russia governed on a day-to-day basis by ministers who were appointed by and accountable to the tsar

the Okhrana: Stats on Okhrana agents

In 1900 there were only 2,500 full-time Okhrana agents, 1/3 of them in St Petersburg

Causes of 1905 Revolution: International slump, impact on oil industry

• job cuts, saw the number of workers employed in the oil industry dropping by 10,000 in just one year

Causes of 1905 Revolution: Metalworking industry suffering, drop in government orders. example?

The Donbass region had experienced huge rates of industrial growth in the late 19th century but by 1903 only 23 of the 35 blast furnaces across the region were still working

Great industrial spurt of the 1890s, what were the main growth hubs?

• Baku on the Caspian Sea (oil)

• Eastern Ukraine (coal, iron, and steel)

• Moscow and St Petersburg (textiles and engineering)

Industrialisation: Total industrial output ______ in Nicholas II’s first ten years as tsar

doubled

The industrial boom was accompanied by ….

fast-paced urbanisation. The populations of St Petersburg and Moscow increased by 25% in the 1890s. Most of the new city-dwellers were industrial workers

Unrest in cities in 1890s and early 1900s:

• disaffected urban workers turned to strike action, despite that under Russia’s Penal Code strikes were illegal.

• Highest-profile industrial stoppages were the 1896 and 1897 textile workers

Unrest in countryside early 1900s

• outbreaks of serious peasant rioting in the fertile ‘Black Earth’ region

• Landowners’ estates attacked, looted and burned

• disturbances caused by gov policy to make the peasantry pay for the industrialisation programme through higher taxes on basic items such as alcohol, sugar, tea.

1902 Combat Organisation (Socialist revolutionaries) launched assassination campaign, prominent early victims?

• Sipyagin, the minister of the interior, in 1902

• His successor, von Plehve, in 1904

Russification on Poland and Baltic states:

Use of Russian language in court proceedings and school became compulsory

Working class unrest, how many times was the army called out to deal with strikers in 1901 and 1902?

1901 - almost 300

1902 - over 500

Reasons for workers striking (1901-02)

• low pay, sometimes in company vouchers

• long hours (60 hours a week)

• harsh factory discipline

• workplace injuries frequent

• housed in overcrowded slums, 9 to a room often, diseases such as cholera

University clashes between students and tsarist authorities:

The years 1899-1901 saw a series of clashes between uni students and Tsarist authorities, one of which left 13 student protestors dead. Events had a radicalising effect on a generation of students

What did the zemstva do to demonstrate their effectiveness/utility

Contributed to relief efforts when famine struck southern Russia in 1891-92. Elected zemstvo members and technical experts, such as doctors and teachers, began to call openly for a zemstvo voice in national affairs.

What limited the impact of opposition groups before 1905?

• working class, who the revolution was meant to depend on, was numerically small (just over 2% of population in 1890s)

• Organising peasantry hard, scattered thinly across a vast land area, and transport network and communication primitive

• Literacy levels low, 1897 census suggested only 21% of population could read - written propaganda limited value

• leaders of socialist groups were middle-upper class, not easy to reach workers and peasants. Socialist groups still quite small, Bolsheviks & Mensheviks had 40-50,000 members each

• Okhrana intervention, exiled leaders, army break up demonstrations

• divisions between groups

Bloody Sunday events

• 150,000 unarmed demonstrators gathered in St Petersburg

• before reaching the Winter Palace they were fired upon by Russian army units

• around 200 killed, 800 wounded

1905 Revolution: The situation in Poland was so tense that over _______ Russian troops had to be deployed there to maintain order

250,000

In October 1905, what did the St Petersburg Soviet consist of?

562 delegates from 147 factories, 34 shops and 16 trade unions

Key elements of August manifesto

• New elected Duma, purely advisory

• complex electoral system favouring peasants and landowners

• urban workers, national minorities, jews, intelligentsia left without vote

Concessions of October Manifesto

• freedom of speech, assembly, association

• Duma real power - new laws only come into force with their approval

• extension of vote to all classes of the population

Worst single pogrom?

Odessa, late 1905, 800 Jews murdered

How many died in the Moscow uprising

1,000

How much did the Russo-Japanese war end up costing?

2 million roubles, equivalent to the total state budget in a single year

(russo-japanese war) What were Russian casualties at the land battle of Mukden?

90,000

(russo-Japanese war) Losses at Tsushima

4,000 dead, 7,000 captured

National Minority protests, how many killed in the general strike of Latvia?

70, when strikers clashed with troops in Riga

In Poland, how many protestors died?

93, when protestors clashed with troops in Warsaw (January), then another 30 killed (May)

Makeup of second Duma

37 SR’s

36 Mensheviks

18 Bolsheviks

What were the left-wing members of the 2nd Duma critical of?

Methods used by the gov to quell peasant disorder and refused to support the land reform proposals of Stolypin

What did the new electoral law do? (following 2nd duma dissolution) (1907)

• reduced representation of peasants, workers, and national minorities

• peasantry (80% of pop) elected 1/5 of Duma

• nobility (under 1% of pop) elected half the Duma

• all done in violation of 1906 Fundamental Laws and without Duma approval

Changes in 3rd Duma makeup and how did Nick’s attitude change?

• Tsarism’s most committed opponents such as socialists and Kadets won fewer than 100 seats

• dominated by Octobrists, 154 seats

• around 150 pro-regime right wingers

• did little to soften Nick’s hostility to it

Stolypin’s wave of repression

• 1144 death sentences Oct 1906-May 1907

• a thousand newspapers and 600 trade unions shut 1906-12

• Convicted 16,500 people of political crimes, 3,600 to death and 4,500 to hard labour in prison camps 1908-09

• political assassinations went from 1,200 in 1907 to 365 in 1908

Lena goldfields massacre: ___ traumatic accidents reported for every 1000 workers

700

Why did the strike break out at Lena Goldfields?

16 hour days, low pay, large amounts deducted for ‘poor work’, paid in food coupons where the food was inedible. Strike broke out Feb 1912 when issued rancid horse meat

Lena Goldfield, how many on strike and what demands?

6,000 strikers, demanding 30% wage increase, elimination of fines, 8 hour day, improvement of food

Gov reaction to Lena Goldfields

troops deployed, unarmed marchers shot, over 500 men dead or wounded

Population reaction to lena goldfields

news spread fast, mass protests broke out, saw 1000 strikes occur in Petrograd alone

Stolypin’s agricultural reforms:

• Redemption payments abolished 01/01/1907

• 6 million hectares of state and crown lands to be available to peasants

• migration to uncultivated land in Siberia encouraged, 4 million peasants migrated

• credit extended to more peasants through Land Bank (1908)

• peasants no longer need permission to leave communes - mobility of labour

Statistics on peasant land ownership under Stolypin’s reforms

in 1905, 20% of peasants owned their own land, by 1915 it was 55%.

Agricultural production change under stolypin

45 mil tonnes in 1906

62 million tonnes in 1915