Russia 1856-1924 Miscellaneous Facts

What happened to serfs in the 1860s?

Alexander II emancipated the serfs in 1861 but many remained indebted and never saw true freedom.

What did Stolypin say his reforms needed to have effect?

“20 years of peace”

How many peasants moved to Siberia during Stolypin´s time?

3 million peasants

How many Russians killed or wounded at Tannenberg?

300000

What was the situation for the Russian army in late 1914 in terms of equipment?

December 1914 only 4.7 million rifles for 6.5 million men

What words did the Russian police department use to describe the mood in rural areas in Autumn 1916?

”contented and calm”

What was the initial composition of the February uprising?

January 1917: 145000 workers on strike in Petrograd -> Women joined on international women’s day in February. 23rd February 200000

What did Nicholas do to almost guarantee revolution?

He ordered the Petrograd garrison to put down the protests by force

What did the Petrograd garrison do when the command to suppress the protests came through?

It mutinied, by the 28th February, whole Petrograd garrison (170000) had mutinied 

What did the Petrograd Soviet do during dual power?

The Soviet did not cooperate, and instead encouraged peasant and worker disobedience

How many peasant disturbances occurred after the February revolution?

34 in March, 174 in April, 325 in July.

How did the number of desertions change post-February revolution?

195000 desertions between 1914 and February 1917, but between March and May 1917, 365000+ desertions

How was inflation during the war and revolution?

January 1917: prices were 300% of 1914 levels. In October this was 755%.

How did the electoral division of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets look in June 1917?

Bolsheviks only had 105 delegates, 248 Mensheviks and 285 SRs.

What did Vyshnegradsky (Russian finance minister 1887-1892) have as his motto?

“We shall not eat, but we shall export” Indeed he was right, and there was a famine in 1891.

How did foreign investment change due to Witte putting the rouble on the gold standard?

(mainly from France and Belgium) 98 million roubles in 1880 to 911 million in 1900. Foreign capital invested in Russian industry also grew from 26% in 1890 to 41% by 1915.

What was the growth rate between 1894-1904?

8% (per annum)

Russian oil production development

In 1900, Russia was entirely independent of other countries to meet its fuel needs, and had begun to surpass the USA. Oil production almost trebled 1885-1913.

Russian Railways

Before 1892, it was expanding at less than 640km per year. After Witte’s accession, roughly 2200km per year was built. By 1901, Russia had 53000km of railroad.

Issues despite Stolypin and Witte reforms?

Only 30% of national production was industrial, as opposed to 75% in the UK and 70% in Germany. Only 12% of Russian population lived in towns in 1900, as opposed to 55% in Germany. Life expectancy for a rural Russian man was 27.25 years, and they largely suffered as they had to provide the backbone for Russian industrialisation.

Stolypin’s necktie

• Government executed 2390 people on charges of terrorism, while terrorists assassinated 2691 people between 1906-1909.

Land reform (i guess)

Peasants hereditary ownership of land grew from 20% in 1905 to nearly 50% in 1915.

What did Tsarina Alexandra say about the state of Russia in 1913?

“Now you can see for yourself what cowards those state ministers are. They are constantly frightening the emperor with threats of revolution and here - you see it for yourself - we need merely to show ourselves and at once their hearts are ours.”

Russian social problems pre-WW1

60% illiteracy and widespread poverty.

1912 Lena goldfields strike suppressed, 270 miners killed. Provoked sympathy strikes, which resulted in more workers on strike in the summer and autumn of 1913 than in 1905.

Support for the Bolshevik coup in 1917?

Over 500 of the 670 delegates at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets favoured socialist government, but not all leaders approved of the Bolshevik revolution, including Tsereteli, and even Zinoviev and Kamenev.

Power base for Bolsheviks in 1917

Held little power outside Petrograd, civil servants refused to work for them, bank only handed over reserves after 10 days when threatened with military force, bankers refused to provide finance, police and military unreliable.

Decrees on Peace and Land

Decrees made by Lenin in the hope of winning support. “A peace without annexation and indemnities” and that land seizure by peasants and peasant ownership was now legal and legitimate.

Constituent Assembly Elections in November 1917

41.7million turnout, 24% for Bolsheviks, but over 50% for the Ukrainian + Russian SRs. Lenin refused this, said it was a bourgeouis remnant anyway, and dissolved the assembly in favour of the Soviets.

Terms of Brest-Litovsk

Russia lost a sixth of its population (62 million people), 2 million square kilometres of land, including the fields which had provided one-third of Russian agricultural produce. Also 26% of railway lines and 74% of iron and coal ore supplies.

Czechoslovak Legion

Volunteer force fighting for Russia during WW1. Roughly 45000-strong in 1918, granted permission by Bolsheviks to journey to Vladivostok and rejoin the war effort on the Western Front. Instead occupied the Trans-Siberian Railway and played a large part in the Civil War.

Trotsky and organisation

By august 1918, Red Army had increased from 100000 to 500000. By january 1920, over 5 million men enlisted. Also 48000 experienced former Tsarist officers recruited, including Brusilov. Trotsky himself travelled 104000km to keep in contact with the armies and maintain organisation in his train.

War Communism

February 1918, Petrograd citizens lived on 50 grams of bread a day. War Communism centralised the economy and put everything under state control. Worker’s councils were ignored in favour of “specialists” who would effectivise production, often the previous factory owners.

Economic situation 1921

Total industrial output at 20% of pre-war levels. Food prices escalated, severe famine in 1921, harvest yielded only 48% of what had been produced in 1913. Collapse in rail and river transport systems. Possibly as many as 25 million died. More than one million died of typhus and typhoid in 1920.T

Tambov Revolt

August 1920, Alexander Antonov gathered a 70000-strong peasant army to resist grain requisitioning. Fought until June 1921, and their influence spread even after that.

Kronstadt Rebellion 1921

30000 sailors sent a manifesto to Lenin, demanding end of Bolshevik rule. Lenin immediately attacked the base. 10000 died, and 15000 traitors were sent to a prison camp. N

New Economic Policy

• Reinstating Money economy

• end of grain requisitioning

• Private businesses permitted

• Cereal production up by 23%

• Factory production increased 200% between 1920 and 1923.

• Living standards rose and peasant revolts died out

• Britain and Germany willing to sign trade deals

Cheka

Early Soviet secret police, repressed opposition.

• execution of 350 SR rebels early in 1918.

• 500 SRs and Mensheviks shot in Petrograd alone, all SRs and Mensheviks branded traitors

• Led by the ruthless and relentless Felix Dzerzhinsky

• Local agents acted independently, settling old scores.

• Half a million people executed by the Cheka 1918-1921.

• 8000 priests executed in 1921.

• Villages in Tambov region were destroyed after 1921, as revenge for the revolt.

  • 50000 people in prison camps in 1920, 70000 by 1923.

Lenin Foreign Policy

• dreamed of spreading revolution to the rest of Europe

• Set up Comintern, trying to pursue revolution in Germany particularly, but just made the West more anti-Communist.

• Comintern weakened support of foreign workers for communism due to its insistence on Leninism.

• Devolved into peaceful co-existence. Began trading with Germany (Rapallo 1922) and the UK (trading treaty 1921.

• “the underlying chief task and basic condition of our victory is the propagation of revolution at least to several of the more advanced countries” - Lenin

How many Russian casualties in WW1 by the time of 1917?

1.7 million soldiers had died, 8 million were wounded and 2.5 prisoners of war