History Russia Rev. AOS1 Causes

Political Parties

Modernisation - The Great Spurt

• 1893 - 1903 - Sergei Witte - Minister of Finance

• Trans Siberian Railway - 1891-1916

• The industrial labour force tripled from 1860–1905.

PROBLEMS!

• Number of industrial strikes suppressed by military force: 19 in 1893 to 522 in 1902.

• Population Increases (St Petersburg): 1890: Just over 1 million. 1910 - 1 million 900,000.

• 16 people in 1 apartment, 6 shared a room, 12hr shifts.

Russo-Japanese War:

Began 8th Feb - Ended 23rd August 1905 with Treaty of Portsmouth

Progression of the War:

2 Jan 1905: Port Arthur surrendered - Russia down 31,000 men.

11-25 Feb 1905: Battle of Mukden - Russia lost 90,000 men.

14-15 May 1905: Battle of Tsushima - Russian Baltic Fleet - 24 hours, 10,000 Russians killed, 690 Japanese.

IMPACT: The real worth of wages decreased by 25 % for workers in 12 months

Bloody Sunday (lead up and event)

• Pulitov Steelwork Factory - 4 December 1905 - 4 workers dismissed

• Strikes: Jan 1905, 120,000 industrial workers strike.

• January 9 1905: BLOODY SUNDAY -  150 000 protesters, Winter Palace

• Cossacks fired - 200 killed, 800 injured.

• Over 400,000 people protested after Bloody Sunday in February 1905.

1905 Revolution:

• Start - Bloody Sunday (9 January 1905), Ends 16 June 1907 ( Stolypin's Coup)

• One of the causes: 400,000 workers strike Jan 1905.

• Peasants: Burned manor houses (3,000 destroyed)

• Students: 3000 student rally

• Sailors: 14 June 1905 mutiny the Battleship Potemkin

• Liberals: Union of Unions (May 1905) - talked of rights

THE SOVIET: 1905 Revolution

• 13 October 1905 - founding of the St Petersburg Soviet

• 14th Oct. called for nationwide general strike (1.5 million), halting Moscow and St Petersburg.

*Influence over workers movement.

October Manifesto:

• 14th Oct - the economies of Moscow and St Petersburg were paralysed (1.5 mill general strike)

• October 17 1905!!!

• Reforms: A legislative State Duma, civil rights, elections on universal suffrage.

*In short - people satisfied with what was granted

*In ACTION - did not live up to statements - limitation by Tsar on Dumas

Dumas: + voting

Electing Members:

• Indirectly Vote: men 24+, Directly: landholders (200+ hectares)

• Over 60% of the urban population were unable to vote

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• 1st DUMA: 27 April 1906, Kadets (184 seats) and Peasants

  • Dismissed in July 1906 (73 Days)

• 2nd DUMA:  February 1907 - June 1907

  • Radical, Menshevik and Bolshevik

• 3rd DUMA: November 1907 - June 1912 full term

  • passive duma - passed agrarian reforms

• 4th DUMA: Nov 1912 - 6 Oct 1917

_{(the tsar continued to rule by divine right, the elected Duma represented the will of the people.)}

Fundemental Laws:

23 April 1906 (4 days before the opening of the Duma)

Article 87: under ‘exceptional circumstances’ the tsar could dismiss the Duma and legislate on his own.

_{The Fundamental Laws proclaimed that the tsar had supreme power—as all laws would require his approval. The tsar:}

_{• appointed ministers}

_{• retained complete control over foreign affairs + military matters}

_{• retained complete control over the declaration of states of emergency.}

Stolypin:

• Between 1906-1915

• 1825-1905 - 192 people executed for crimes

• 1906-1913 - 3376 executed for political crimes

Land Reforms:

• 3 million took up opportunities and went to Siberia

• Peasants: 15% classed as kulaks

• the total land owned by the peasantry increased from 4320 million to 4590 million acres

WW1

• 17th July 1914 - full mobilisation

• 6.5 million men mobilised 1914, only 4.6 million rifles, often limited to three bullets a day

• Battle of Tannenberg (13th-17th August 1914) - 230,000 Russia = over 170,000 casualties, Germans only lost 15,000 men

• By the end of 1915 - 4 million soldiers killed, wounded or captured. 

• 1917 POWs outnumbered dead 16 to 1

• Tsar takes command - replaced Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich as Commander in Chief of the Russian Armed Forces - 22nd August 1915

Home Front WW1

• 1916, Petrograd + Moscow receiving ⅓ of fuel/food supplies, ⅓ Petrograd bakeries closed - (citizens stand waiting for food - discontent festers)

• 1916 - Infant mortality rate doubled

• 1914 -1917, 1.5 billion roubles was spent on the war 

• Wages really 65% below 1913 levels

• LARGESCALE DIMISSAL: 26 ministers dismissed and replaced, including 4 Prime Ministers (Ministerial Leapfrog - Tsarina and Rasputin)

• 1916 - system of requisitioning set a grain quota - food shortages

FEB REV

• 9 Jan 1917 - 150,000 workers demonstrated -Petrograd (BloodyS)

• 24th Feb - 200,000 workers on the streets

• 25th Feb - Petrograd factories were closed and the protesters numbered 300,000.

• 27th Feb - 400,000 protestors (workers) and 70,000 soldiers (newly join!!)

  • PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE FORMED!

• 1st March - PROVISIONAL GOV PROCLIMATION. + soviet order No.1

• 2nd March - Tsar Abdicates, 300 romanov rule ended.

Dual Authority

• 27th Feb 1917 - Provisional Committee (P.G) assumes authority

• March 1st 1917 Petrograd Soviet issued ‘Order Number One’

  • _{follow the directives of the government ‘only if they do not conflict with the orders .. of the Soviet’}

• 2 March 1917, Provisional Committee proclaimed they were Provisional Gov of Russia. —> Prince Lvov = Prime Minister

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Competition for power! Ideologically opposed bodies

Provisional Government:

• 2 March 1917, Provisional Gov of Russia. —> Prince Lvov Prime Minister (Kadets + Octoberists)

Reforms (initially implemented):

• 8 hour day introduced for industrial workers.

• The Okhrana was abolished.

• Political prisoners were freed.

• Freedom of speech, assembly + press.

• Universal suffrage

• 8 July 1917, Lvov resigned —> Kerensky

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What are they doing?

• WWI - Stayed in the War wanted to wait for constituent

• Land seizures - wait and let the Constituent Assembly implement land redistribution - resulted in more seizures and further unrest

• National minorities - Countries - eg: Ukraine demanded self-government, P.G tried to stop it

• Economic situation - Increased payment to peasants for their grain by 100% - ended up sending out punishment brigades to requisition grain - increased hostility towards the PG by peasantry, expectation of reform did not happen

June Offensive

• June 18th - 2nd July- June Offensive

• 170,000  soldiers in deserted - despite death penalty  

• Cost territory - 230 km

• Initiated by Kerensky and General Brusilov - believed that a successful offensive would rally the Russian people around patriotism and boost the Provisional Government's legitimacy.

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July Days

CATALYST: Disastrous nature of June offensive - sparked spontaneous popular mobilisation.

• 2nd July - Meeting held by the 1st Machine Gun Regiment - Trotsky (July offifial Bolshevik)  - criticised Kerensky’s June Offensive

• 3rd July - Protesting

• 4th July -  50,000 workers, soldiers, sailors (including Putilov Plant). P.G loyalist troops FIRED ON CROWD - 400 casualties

• P.G arrests 800 bolshevik - 11 key bolshevik

*PG. looked powerful, bolshevik looked weak. Allowed the Bolsheviks to harness mass discontent for current leadership in their own favour. Alienate proletariate.

Kornilov Affair

• July 18th 1917 Kerensky appointed Kornilov as the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army

• DATE: 19th -30th August 1917 -

Misunderstanding:

• Kerensky dismissed Kornilov by telegram on August 27 1917 - Kornilov did not believed this was real - though coup, needed to protect Petrograd

• Kerensky called on Soviets and Red Guards to protect city = armed, also RELEASED dozens of bolshevik to assist.

• Kornilov and his troops never made it to Petrograd. - Bolshevik popularity increased (heros), declined popularity of Kerensy

• 9 September - Bolsheviks in control of the Petrograd Soviet, has increase membership by 1/3 in a month.

Kerensky’s leadership incompetence exposed - Allowed the Bolsheviks to assume power.

Trosky

• 25 September - Trotsky elected as Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet

• 16 October - MRC - Milrevcom formed (TROSKY = Chairman of Milrevcom)

Military Revolutionary Committee - formed to take control of the city’s garrison.

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24th- Trotsky used authority of Milrevcom to retake city against Kerensky’s 23rd October anti-soviet counter-revolution. Military response to kerensky.

24th - Trotsky’s forces seized control of strategic buildings and offices —> post offices, State Bank, electricity station and the train stations.

Once Lenin had convinced the party leadership to overthrow the government, Trotsky planned and directed the uprising.

Lenin

• Arrived in Russia 3 April 1917- German assistance

• APRIL THESES (4th April 1917) - Lenin addressed assembly of Bol + Mens at Tauride Palace. - denounced PG. (aimed to undermine P.g)

• Unite the Bolshevik party and establish them as the radical opponents of the Provisional Government.

Lenin’s ideas fuelled the October Revolution.

October Revolution: Early October AND 22nd - 24th

• 10 October - Bolshevik Central Committee meeting - agreed an armed insurrection

• 16 October - MRC - Milrevcom formed (Trotsky)

22 to 23 October - Kerensky tries to reduce Bolshevik power - (22nd - signed an arrest warrant for the members of Milrevcom.), Kerensky troops raided Bolshevik buildings, sabotaging their printing presses, cutting telephone lined to Smolny Institure (Bolshevik Headquarters).

• 24 October - Trotsky and MRC retakes control of key areas - 2pm printing press restored, seize control of post offices, the state bank, the train stations.

OCTOBER REV ACTUAL TAKEOVER

• 25 October and 26th - Red Guards and troops (Petrograd Soviet) captured critical infrastructure: government buildings, telegram stations, AND Winter Palace taken, PG ministers arrested

• Bolsheviks control the Soviet Congress

  • The defence of the Winter Palace was left to the 140 volunteers

  • Takeover was carried out by sympathetic soldiers and sailors, Red Guards and the Trotsky-led Milrevcom (MRC). 

  • WINTER PALACE - 11pm The palace was bombarded with artillery from across the Neva River, Red Guards firing on the building

  • P.G members arrested 4 hours after attack began.

OCTOBER TAKE OVER FROM AFFAR!

• The second Congress of Soviets was underway - Smolny. (8:40 pm 26th)

• Mensheviks and moderate SRs condemning the Bolsheviks for seizing power illegally.

• Walked out of the congress in protest = fatal error as it left the Soviets almost entirely in Bolshevik hands!!

• Lenin created a new government in which ‘All power to the Bolsheviks’ occurred and the bourgeoisie was removed from power.

Leading up to October Take Over

• October 1917 class tensions, economic hardship and the breakdown of law and order in Petrograd = Provisional Government’s authority rapidly decline.

• Anger has continued form Feb

• Weary soldiers, decreasing economy, etc. Nothing has been addressed.

• The peasants were again violently seizing land.

• Strikes increased: September 1917 - 700,000 railroad workers strike

• In early October: 300,000 textile factory workers went on strike