Russo Japanese War and 1905 Revolution

Reasons for Russia’s interest

Plehve: “short victorious war to stem the tide of revolution” (Witte’s policies had been unpopular- grain exports, taxes, tariffs)

Increasing strikes and protests- 1903 Tsar authorised pogroms as part Russification campaign opposed by Witte and reformers, 50 Jews killed in Kishinev

Tsar wants to encourage nationalism and stabilise the regime

Key battles

Battle of the Yalu River, battle of the Yellow Sea 1904

Port Arthur surrender in 1905

Battle of Tsushima

Battle of Mukden

Impact?

Early losses → difficult for Russia to get Western finance so forced to export grain, raise tax and increase conscription

PA leads to strike by 100,000 steelworkers in St Petersburg

Tsushima leads to mutiny on Potemkin, soldiers and railway workers in TS railway strike

Bloody Sunday protest- why, who, impact?

Protestors led by Father Gapon carry images of Tsar (‘little father’) and demand an end to the RJ war, between 10 and 50,000 people

Massacred by the tsar- Nicholas the bloody- 200 die

Wave of student protest leads to university shut down

Witte brought back into government (Side lined 1903)

Sparks 1905 Rev

1905 Revolution events?

Bloody Sunday → revolt spreads after protestors exiled → soviets emerge → army and navy rebel→ Petrograd Soviet calls for General Strike → Trotsky emerges as leader

Evidence against Bloody Sunday as trigger for rev?

SR increasing in numbers and influence

Minister of interior killed 1902

Plehve killed 1904

Strike increasing 176 a year between 1895 and 1905

Evidence of Bloody Sunday trigger for rev?

Tsar asks for suggestions for reforms → peasants suggestions include abolishing redemption payments (happens in 1907) → petitions ignored leads to further unrest 3000 major houses burnt 1905 → General strike and naval mutiny after defeats at Tsushima and Mukden → Petrograd soviet emerges to coordinate unrest.

Impact of 1905 Rev/ limitations?

October Manifesto

Duma

Witte replaced by Stolypin

Petrograd soviet abolished, Trotsky sent to Siberia

Moscow Uprising is crushed

BUT: all protests subdued, 1906 opposition divided, Duma lacks power, Fundamental laws, Tsar approves mass executions/ rapes/ pogroms/arrests→ 15,000 executed between Oct Man and meeting of the first Duma.

Does RJ war lead to 1905 Rev?

Yes: Bloody Sunday demand to end war, protests, mutiny= more than series of strikes, destroys rep of Tsar, tax leads to unrest

No: periodic famine, gold standard→ expensive goods, high tax on peasants, majority of unrest in areas such as Poland, Finland, Georgia

Impact of RJ war?

Bloody Sunday, humiliation- Japanese believed to be inferior, US imposes peace under Treaty of Portsmouth

40-70,000 deaths→ military reform

1905 rev naval mutinied

Economy impacted due to reliance on foreign capital → France becomes a key investor after the war to promote strong Russia and ally against Germany

BUT: NII remains in power, autocracy no threatened

Stolypin’s necktie crushes peasant revolt

1913 300yrs of Romanovs demonstrates support for NII- celebrations

What was promised in the October Manifesto

Free elections to a legislative assembly, the right to assembly, freedom of speech