3.1 specific evidence

Give examples of problems faced by russia pre 1900s

• population of 125 million

• outside city most roads became mud in heavy rain

• by 1900 russia only had as many miles of track as britain

• on trans siberian express took more than a week to travel from moscow to vladivostok

• 16 toher nationalities

• only 40 % of tsar’s subjects spoke russian as first language

Tsar Nicholas the second key facts

• crowned in 1896

• when he was crowned 1200 crushed to death in the crowd to see the new tsar

how was russia governed under the tsar

• autocracy so he had obsolute power and divine right to rule by God

• good deal of bribery and corruption lower down

• no way to get peoples views heard as newspapers and books were also censoredss

• okhrana to prevent opposition

• cossacks who stopped opposition with brutality

• orthadox church

• holy men like “startsy” were held in special regard

was tsar nicholas the right man

• his answer was always violence and supported things like pogroms

• elected successful ministers like stolypin and sergei witte

• spent time with his family rather than dealing with governmental issues (had pictures of family in every room)

socialists groups facts

russias industrialisaton 1894

• sergei witte introduced policies that led to oil and coal tripling and iron production quadrupled

• 12 - 15 hour work days

russia condition in villages in 1900s

• life expectancy of a peasant farmer was only 40 years

• short supply of land cause population increased by 50 percent between 1860 and 1897

• 80% of russia population were peasants

socialist revolutionaries

• radical movement and their main aim was to carve up the huge estates of the nobility and hand over to peasants

• assassination of 2 government officials aswell as murder of lots of okhrana

social democratic party

• bolsheviks and mensheviks

• marxism

• many members sent to exile in siberia

1905 revolution

• At the battle over Mukden, the Russians lost 60,000 soldiers in ruso japanese war

• january 1905 200 thousand peaceful portesters marched towards winter palace and at least hundred killed when troops opened fire

• known as bloody sunday

• october manifesto offered duma and free speech

the duma’s

• first duma meeting in 1906 but tsar ignored them

• second duma lasted less than a year

• 1907 tsar changed voting rules so his opponents werent elected as duma

• 1 in 8 hundred thousand peasons whereas nobility 1 in 28 thousand

stolypin’s policies

• over 20 thousand exiled and 100 thousand hanged by stolypins neck tie to kill of opposition

• allowed kulaks to buy up land out of their communes

• agricultural output increased by a third

• between 1910 and 1913 col production increased by 10 mil tonnes and grain production increased by 20 million tonnes. Economic growth best between 1908 to 1911

first world war before tsar took control

• august 1914 russia entered the war

• casualties in first world war was 9.15 million out of 13 mil

• battle of tannanberg august 1914- 78 thousand killed or wounded compared to germany were only 12 thousand killed or wounded

• battle of Masurian lakes september 1914 - Russia 125 thousand killed or wounded compared to 10 thousand killed or wounded in german forces

tsar taking control of armed forces and its effects

• took command of armed forces in september in 1915

• brusilov offensive which had 500 thousand to a million expected casualties in the defeat against austria hungary and germany

• average workers salary was 5 roubles a day which couldnt even buy you a kg of meat due to all the unemployment and bad economy during the war

rasputin

• rumours of affair between tsarinna and rasputin

• concerns were so serious aristocrats murdered him in december 1916

steps to revolution to abdicate tsar

• winter 1916 railway lines so iced up so barely any food or fueld into petrograd so prices went sky hgih

• march 7th in petrograd 40 thousand workers from the giant putilov engineering works went on strike for higher wages

• 12th march soldiers in petrograd refused to fire on crowds and shot their officers in the demonstration