history - russia in revolution: 1894-1924

how did autocracy contribute to the oppressive way that Russia was run before 1905?

• Nicholas II had unlimited power - he believed that his right to this power was god-given and beyond challenge.

• He believed that the empire needed autocracy to survive he viewed calls for reform that involved diluting his power with contempt and dismissed them as “senseless dreams”.

• At this point it was the most autocratic state in Europe. 

• There was no constitution placing limitations on what the Tsar could or could not do. 

• There was no parliament - laws were made by the Tsar issuing decrees. 

• There were no legal safeguards to protect the rights of individuals. 

• Russia was governed on a day to day basis by ministers who were appointed by and accountable to the Tsar, rather than the people. 

• Nicholas was naive and believed until he died that his people were devoted to him. He was also indecisive and fussed over trivialities and distrusted many of his ministers and officials.

how did orthodoxy contribute the oppressive way that Russia was run before 1905?

• The orthodox church was under state control, run by a wing of government headed by a minister titled the Procurator of the Holy Synod.

• It did the Tsar’s bidding and preached the need for obedience to the Tsar’s authority. 

• At the end of the 19th century, it was an institution in decline as its priests were often drunken and corrupt, tarnishing its reputation. It was especially losing influence in Russia’s cities.

how did nationality contribute to the oppressive way that Russia was run before 1905?

• The doctrine of nationality said two things: 

1. That the domination of the Tsars multinational empire was completely right and proper since Russians had built the empire and therefore were entitled to control it. 

2. Russia and Russians were unique and separated from the rest of western Europe by a distinct language, culture and religion. This also meant that supports of Tsarism argued that liberal and socialist ideas had no place inn the regime because they were unrussian. 

• This was also used to provide justification for Russification.

how was the oppression of nationalities used to oppress the people in Russia’s empire during the rule of Nicholas II?

• Russification: an attempt to impose Russia’s language, culture and religion on the empire’s non russian minorities.  This was implemented most aggressively in the areas of the empire where nationalist feeling was strongest (e.g., Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland). 

• In Poland and the Baltic Provinces, the use of russian language in court proceedings and school lessons became compulsory, despite it not being the native language of most of the people living there. 

• The Orthodox Church was given government money to support its efforts to convert non russians to Orthodoxy, and at the same time churches that had deep roots in non russian areas were bullied and harassed in the Baltic provinces, no new Protestant churches could be built without government permission in Armenia, the government in 1903 issued a decree confiscating the property of the Armenian church, provoking demonstrations that ended in troops opening fire on a crowd and killing 10, wounding 70. 

• Russification was counterproductive as instead of eradicating nationalist feeling, it created resentment amongst minority nationalities and caused a growth in nationalism.

how was anti-semitism used to oppress the people in Russia’s empire during the rule of Nicholas II?

• By 1900, there were nearly 5 million Jews in Russia, and most of them were forced to live within the Pale of Settlement (with a few exceptions, including Jewish university graduates). This was a demarcated zone on Russia’s western border. 

• The Jewish population was the group that suffered most as a result of the Tsarist regime. 

• In the 1880’s, Jews’ access to higher education was severely restricted and Jews were banned from living in the Pale of Settlement rural areas, forcing them into the towns and larger villages. 

• Jewish people also had to deal with pogroms.

how was the okhrana used to oppress the people in Russia’s empire during the rule of Nicholas II?

• The regime censored newspapers and could use the army, however their greatest means of oppression was the Okhrana. 

• Its role was to infiltrate and destroy revolutionary groups and terrorist networks, which it was generally effective at. 

• in the early 1900’s, the leadership of both the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats was riddled with Okhrana agents.

In 1900, there were only 2,500 full time okhrana agents in the whole of the empire, with ⅓ of them stationed in St Petersburg.

how did peasants contribute to organised opposition faced by the regime before 1905?

• Outbreaks of peasant unrest were usually localised and not explicitly anti-government, but rather targeted local landowners, however usually government policies were to blame for the worsening conditions in the countryside (e.g., high taxes and redemption payments). 

• The root cause was poverty and desperation . environmental factors were one reason for such extreme rural poverty, especially in the northern districts of Eastern Russia where the soil was poor and the growing season was short, and in the Black Earth Region in the south, the climate was erratic, meaning there were periodic crop failures and famine. 

• Methods of production was another indirect cause of the unrest, since they used strip farming, which was ineffective for a number of reasons, including: 

1. Time was wasted moving between strips 

2. Periodic reallocation of strips meant that families had no incentive to improve their strip

3. Some land was left uncultivated and therefore wasted to mark the borders between strips

This combined meant that crop yields in Russia were very low by European standards.

how did workers contribute to organised opposition faced by the regime before 1905?

• Working class unrest mainly occurred in the form of strikes. 

• The army was called out the deal with strikes almost 300 times in 1901 and over 500 times in 1902. 

• The cause of workers striking was low pay, long hours (around 60 a week), factory discipline was harsh and usually enforced with a system of fines and there was scant provision made for health and safety so workplace injuries were frequent and most lived on overcrowded slums where diseases such as cholera and typhus were rife.

how did the middle class contribute to organised opposition faced by the regime before 1905?

• Generally speaking, the middle class was hostile to Tsarism and strongly liberal. Liberalism at this time in Russia had two core principles: 

1. A belief in ending autocracy by adopting a constitution which would transfer power to democratically elected institutions which would guarantee basic rights such as freedom of speech. 

2. Belief in an economic system based on private enterprise rather than public ownership. 

• They favoured non violent methods and many saw a continuing role for the tsar as a british style constitutional monarch, although some wanted Russia to become a republic. 

• The university system in Russia was a stronghold of liberalism. 

• Between 1899 and 1901, there was a series of clashes between authorities and students, one which left 13 students dead. 

• The Zemstva was another liberal stronghold. In the 1890’s, the confidence of those associated with them was boosted by the contribution thry made to relief when famine struck in Southern Russian in 1891-92.

• The liberals had a secret newspaper “liberation, founded in 1902. 

• In 1904, the League of Liberation was formally established and they ran their Banquet Campaign to mobilise liberal opinion in Russia

how did the socialist revolutionaries contribute to organised opposition faced by the regime before 1905?

• They were the heirs of an ill fated populist movement from the 1860s and 70s who had wanted to ally with the peasants to overthrow tsarism, however peasant indifference, internal divisions and government repression prevented this, however many on the left still favoured the idea of a peasant based form of socialism. 

• All of the founders were middle or upper class in background. 

• They had a strong following amongst the workers in Russia - the line between peasants and workers was a blurry one as many workers were peasants who had left their commune to find work in the city and maintained strong links with their home commune. 

• They were a loosely organised group and lacked discipline and there was a wide range of beliefs amongst them - some were comparative moderates whereas some were prepared to use terrorist methods. 

• They believed that russia needed to remain peasant based rather than worker based like Marx said. They envisaged a russia consisting of a number of self governing villages with collective ownership of the farmland. 

• They wanted the decentralisation of political power

• They saw the use of violence as a legitimate political weapon as they recognised that a bloodless revolution was impossible, however, others were prepared to use force to raise the SR’s profile. These extremist SR’s formed the SR Combat Organisation and assassinated government ministers and officials. In 1906, a number of moderates who rejected the assasination campaign split from the SRs and established the Popular Socialist Party and the extremists who favoured attacks on ministers, landowners and capitalists formed the SR Maximalists.

1908: the head of the combat organisation was unmasked as an Okhrana spy.

how did the social democrats contribute to organised opposition faced by the regime before 1905?

• Led by Lenin and inspired by Marxism - Marxism was not a new idea and there had been opposition groups based on Marxist ideas before. 

• They wanted to radicalise the workers. 

• 1900: they founded an underground Newspaper- The Spark 

• They split in 1903 due to differences in strategies: some said that Russia was a way off of a proletarian revolution because it had not even entered the capitalist stage yet and therefore they should focus on improving the conditions of workers for now, but Lenin disagreed and believed the time was ready for a revolution, so he formed the Bolsheviks (majority) and Martov led the Mensheviks (minority).

give some limitations faced by opposition groups before 1905

SOCIAL FACTORS 

• Russia’s working class (which the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and SRs (to a lesser extent) had pinned their hopes on were small - just over 2% of the population in the 1980’s.

• The peasantry (80% of the population)  was difficult to organize because they were scattered across a vast area, living in ¾ of a million rural settlements. The transport network was primitive and communication between settlements poor. 

• Literacy levels were low - the 1897 census showed that only 21% of the population could read.

• The leaders of the revolutionary groups were middle/upper class and therefore it was difficult for them to reach over the class divide and win the confidence of workers and peasants.

REPRESSION 

• Before 1905, opposition parties were illegal and had to operate underground. There was also no freedom of speech or freedom of assembly, so it was difficult for them to win support.

• The Okhrana was good at infiltrating and destroying revolutionary networks. 

• Most socialists were forced to live abroad and cope with imprisonment or internal exile, isolating them from their followers and the Okhrana had a foreign bureau base in Paris which kept tabs on these exiles. 

DIVISIONS BETWEEN AND WITHIN GROUPS

• Liberals and socialists both wanted to overthrow tsarism, however socialists also wanted to overthrow capitalism. Liberals also disliked the use of political violence, whereas socialists were okay with it. 

• Different definitions of socialism which SRs and Marxists were committed to.

• Internal divisions within the groups: RSDLP becoming Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, the SR combat organisation etc.

how did the Russo Japanese War threaten the regime before 1905?

• Russia wanted to seize control of Manchuria because of its mineral wealth and warm water seaport at Port Arthur (open all year round, unlike the Russian ports). 

• Russia had previously forced China to give them control of Port Arthur, which had already angered Japan and negotiations between the countries broke down at the beginning of the 19th century, so Japan attacked in 1904. 

• Russia was overconfident and underprepared for war - they held a racist attitude towards the Japanese and believed that they would be easy to swat aside. 

• The minister for the Interior also said that a short victorious war would be good for the regime’s domestic issues. 

• In February 1905, Russian forces experienced defeat at Mukden. 

• In May 1905, Russian forces had to deal with a humiliating defeat at Tsushima, where only a handful of their 52 warships escaped sinking or capture.

This all also had a negative impact on domestic policy: 

• Liberals were angered by the mishandling of the war and hostility towards the war intensified, however liberal leaders were aware that military setbacks aided their cause. 

• Since the regime ws vulnerable after its defeat, liberals challenged it more boldly - e.g., the League of Liberation’s 1904 Banquet Campaign. 

• Unemployment and food prices rose, leading to further discontent.

how did Bloody Sunday pose a threat to the regime?

• 150,000 unarmed demonstrators gathered at assembly points around St Peterberg and prepared to march on the tsar’s Winter Palace. 

• There were around 200 killed and 800 wounded. 

• The marchers were industrial workers, not middle class liberals, and they planned to present a petition to Nicholas II, mainly focusing on issues such as the legislation of trade unions, higher wages and an 8 hour day. Amongst this, there were calls for free speech and political reform, however, there were no overt references to the evils of autocracy or the abolition of capitalism. 

• Organised by Father Gapon, who was an advocate for workers rights, however he did also have links with the Okhrana before 1905, and the organisation he ran had started as a police union - meaning it was funded and sanctioned by the Okhrana as a way of keeping workers away from socialist parties. Gapon was acting on his own by 1905, however it still would have been clear to the authorities that neither he nor his followers (mainly from the giant Putilov engineering works) represented a serious threat to the regime. 

• Following Bloody Sunday, nearly half a million workers went on strike, strikes by students led to universities being closed for the remainder of the academic year and liberals bombarded the government with petitions demanding reform. 

Bloody Sunday was the most important trigger for revolution: the Russo Japanese War was fought far away and by soldiers, but Bloody Sunday was a public display of government violence against unarmed, peaceful demonstrators. 

how did the spread of revolutionary activity up to 1905 pose a threat to the regime?

• All of the main disaffected groups in Russia participated in protests or some kind of revolutionary activity. Even in the armed forces there were mutinies - e.g., the Potemkin battleship in June 1905.

• However, these were not organised and coherent: parallel revolutions going on. 

• The middle class liberals were the prominent group, keeping the government under pressure until concessions were made by drafting petitions, holding conferences and forming new organisations such as the Union of Unions, however, once concessions were made, the liberals lost some momentum and started to worry that Russia may be sliding in to monarchy and disorder. 

• October 1905 - the labour movement began to gain momentum and there was a general strike, led by industrial workers, however students and middle class liberals also involved themselves. This led to the rise of the St Petersburg Soviet and the strike threw the government into crisis. 

• The socialist parties and their leaders played a fairly small role in the 1905 revolution. 

• The countryside remained quiet until November 1905, however peasant unrest mainly took place in the form of attacks on landowners property, driven by land hunger rather than ideological opposition to the regime.

• Russia was facing issues in other parts of the empire too: in Poland especially nationalist feeling was strong and demonstrators clashed with the Russian army resulting in several deaths. Over 250,000 troop had to be deployed there to maintain order.

how did the St Petersburg Soviet pose a threat to the regime before 1905?

• It was a council of elected representatives of the city’s industrial workers and in 1905 it had 562 representatives . 

• Its original role was as a strike committee, to organise and direct the October general strike. Within weeks of its formation, 50 other towns and cities in Russia also had soviets.

• When the strike was over, the Soviet not only remained in business but diversified, publishing a newspaper, establishing a militia to protect the city, distributing food and money to those in need as well as engaging in political campaigns. 

• It was a working class organisation and made sure it maintained its class identity. 

• The Executive Committee was increasingly dominated by the Mensheviks. 

• It campaigned for 8 hour days and proclaimed its support for the Polish rebels and the mutineers in the Russian navy. 

• Short term - it was disbanded following the arrest and imprisonment of its entire membership.

how did the August Manifesto contribute to the Tsarist recovery of power in 1905?

• There would be a new, elected assembly called the Duma.

• This body would be purely advisory or consultative - it could discuss proposed laws but would have no power.

• There would be a complex electoral system which would favour peasants, since the regime believed that they were fundamentally loyal as well as landowners. Urban workers, national minorities, Jews and much of the intelligentsia had no vote.

• Some of the ultra moderates believed that the the August Manifesto offered a basis for further negotiations, but almost everyone on the opposition dismissed it as totally inadequate since it was a cosmetic proposal that essentially left the core ideas of Tsarism intact. 

how did the October Manifesto contribute to the Tsarist recovery of power in 1905?

• Guaranteed basic freedoms such as speech, assembly and association. 

• A duma with real power: new laws could only come in to force with Duma approval.

• An extension of voting rights to all classes. 

• The October Manifesto was met with enthusiasm, as the general strike was called off and crowds gathered to celebrate. 

• Moderate liberals and business leaders welcomed the October Manifesto as it offered a balance between monarchy and autocracy as although they disliked autocracy, they also feared mob rule. They were willing to work with the government and became known as Octoberists

• Radical liberals rejected the October Manifesto. They argued that what was needed was an elected assembly to draw up a constitution for a democratic Russia. They believed that once calm returned, the government would go back on its word, so they formed the Kadets (led by Milyukov), essentially a replacement for the League of Liberation and the Union of Unions. 

• The Socialist parties were even more opposed to the October Manifesto. 

• This shows how the regime’s response was effective to a degree because they successfully divided the opposition and led to the formation of a pro Tsar, right wing, aggressive political movement : The Union of Russian People. They were closely linked with the Black Hundreds; a paramilitary group who mainly targeted Jewish people - Odessa, 1905 - 800 Jews were murdered.

how did the Moscow Uprising contribute to the Tsarist recovery of power in 1905?

• The Moscow Soviet called for a general strike to overthrow the “criminal tsarist government” and distributed weapons to the city’s workers.

• The government responded by using army units to clear the barricades that had been erected and used artillery fire to regain control of the working class districts.

• Once the battle was over, there were mass arrests, beatings and executions without trial.

• More than 1000 people died.

what year were the fundamental laws passed?

1906

give evidence that the fundamental laws did not modify the Tsarist system of government

• Article 4 said that the Tsar had continuing primacy in Russian government and has supreme autocratic power. 

• Areas of government such as defence and foreign policy were the Tsar’s jurisdiction only. 

• Article 87 allowed the Tsar to pass new laws when the duma was not sitting, they had to eb ratified by the Duma, but this could be delayed by months or years.

• The Tsar could dissolve the Duma whenever he wanted.

• The Tsar alone could appoint or dismiss government ministers.

• The Laws contained provisions guaranteeing freedom of speech, assembly and association, however there was nothing that prevented a  law being introduced to counter this in future. 

what year did the first duma meet?

1906

what year was the Vyborg manifesto?

1906

what did the Vyborg Manifesto call for?

for citizens to refuse to pay tax until the Duma was restored.

it fell flat and the signatories were arrested for inciting disorder.

summarise the events of the first Duma (1906)

• The duma was immediately on the attack, calling for the full democratisation of Russia as well as radical land reforms involving the transfer of the nobilities estates to the peasantry as well as an amnesty for all political detainees. The government obviously dismissed these demands and so the duma passed a vote of censure on the government and called for it to resign and then began to debate a land reform that they knew to be unacceptable to the regime, so the government dissolved the Duma. 

• However, they had expected dissolution and made a contingency plan: 200 Duma members left St Petersburg for Finland and called on their fellow citizens to refuse to pay taxes until the Duma was restored, but it fell flat and the signatories were arrested for inciting disorder,given short prison terms and banned from any further participation in political activity. 

summarise the events of the second duma (1907)

• The second Duma looked a lot different to the first: firstly because the revolutionary socialist parties (SR’s, mensheviks and bolsheviks) did not boycott this time and secondly because the government was actually involved by secretly financing the campaigns of right wing candidates and disrupting electioneering by opposition parties.

• 1907- The second Duma met and was dissolved after a few months and Stolypin overhauled the old electoral system and changed it to one where  the nobility (less than 1% of the population) elected half of the Duma.

what year was the second Duma?

1907

describe Nicholas II’s relationship with the Dumas

• Nicholas II remained uninvolved with the Duma, believing that it was beneath him to be involved in the political fray. 

• The third and fourth dumas were much more agreeable to the regime and mainly made up of Octobrists, however Nicholas II did not change his feelings towards it. 

• In the years leading up to WWI, some of the Tsar’s ministers suggested he strip the Duma of its power and made it purely consultative again, however after much debate he decided against it.  

give evidence that by 1914, the Tsar had regained his power

• It could be argued that autocracy had more or less been fully re-established (article 4). 

• The Fundamental Laws restricted the Duma to only law making. In other areas such as foreign policy and defence, the Tsar was unlimited. 

• Even within the sphere of law making, the Duma was limited - Nicholas II and his ministers were able to dissolve the Duma whenever they wanted and article 87 was open to abuse. 

• There was no rule of law (meaning that essentially the Tsar was not subject to the law). 

give evidence that by 1914, the Tsar had not regained his power

•  the duma was an elected, national, legislative body.

• By 1914, there was a relatively free press in Russia. 

why were Stolypin’s policies of repression introduced?

• serious peasant disorder between 1905 and 1907, mainly motivated by land hunger and in the forms of rent strikes, land seizures and attacks on manor houses, as well as physical violence - over 1000 people dead in 1906 (many of them government officials) and 3000 dead in 1907.

• in 1905, army units were sent to the areas of greatest unrest and ordered to show no mercy - 15,000 dead, 20,000 wounded and 45,000 exiled to Siberia.

• the government announced in 1905 that peasant redemption payments would be halved in 1906 and abolished in 1907 (however, they were due to end in 1910 anyway so this had a limited impact)

what were Stolypin’s policies of repression?

• in 1906 he declared a state of emergency over all of European Russia and gave government officials the power to imprison anyone without trial for up to six months and exile troublemakers.

• the state of emergency measures proved ineffective, so he introduced field courts martial, where

  • cases were heard within 24hrs

  • trials were held in secret

  • the accused did not have the right to a lawyer

  • trials lasted a maximum of two days

  • death sentences were carried out within 24 hours of the decision

  • no appeals

between 1906-07, over 1000 people were sentenced to death by these courts. the hangman’s noose was referred to as “stolypin’s necktie” and the trains carrying those exiled were “Stolypin’s wagons”.

unrest continued in some areas until 1908, however on the most part, it was effective.

how did Stolypin’s policies of repression target revolutionary parties?

•  Leaders were either arrested or drien in to foreign exile. In 1906, Trotsky and other leaders of the St Petersburg Soviet were sentenced to lifetime exile in Siberia, Trotsky fled to Finland in 1906 and by 1914, most revolutionary leaders were living abroad. 

• Revolutionary parties were further targeted by the dissolution of the second Duma in 1907, as dissolution was accompanied by the arrest of the Duma’s bolshevik members and action was also taken against menshevik and SR activists throughout the country. 

what were the key features of Stolypin’s land reforms?

• Every peasant householder could demand that his his share of the communal land be made in to his own private property. 

• In villages where there had been no redistribution of strips since emancipation in 1861, a peasant householder could request that his strips be converted in to a seperate small farm and if the commune was unwilling to grant this request, they had to pay him compensation. 

• In villages where strips had been periodically reallocated, separate small farm could only be created after a vote amongst villagers.

• The government established local bodies called Land Organisation Commissions to settle any disputes arising out of the land reform measures. 

• The rules of the Peasant Land Bank were relaxed, allowing enterprising peasants to gain money at more favourable rates to get more land

what were the political benefits of Stolypin’s land reforms?

• Peasants who owned their own land would develop a strong attachment to the principle of private ownership and resist socialist calls for communal or state ownership of land. 

• Peasants who benefitted from the land reforms would have a vested interest in the future of Tsarism.

what were the economic benefits of Stolypin’s land reforms?

• Peasant households who owned small farms would have a powerful incentive to develop and improve their land, incentives of which kind were absent in the current system where strips were reallocated every 10-15 years. 

• A more highly motivated peasantry would be more productive. 

• Increased agricultural production would ensure the supply of food to Russia’s growing industrial towns and eliminate the possibility of outbreaks of unrest as a result of high food prices. 

give the positive impacts of Stolypin’s land reforms

• initially there was a large uptake

• there was a sharp increase in agricultural production in the years before 1914, however Stolypin cannot take full credit for this as there was a run of good harvests, a step towards opening up Siberia and greater use of machinery and fertilisers.

give some limitations of Stolypin’s land reforms

• it is impossible to tell whether they would have been effective in the long run due to the revolutions - short term

• although there was a large initial uptake, this slowed rapidly after a year or two because most peasants saw no reason to leave their home commune, and those who did were often victimised by their fellow villagers.

• By 1914, only 20% of peasant households had left the village commune and become legal owners of the land that they farmed. Even of those leavers, not all of them became proprietors of separate farms, around half owned their land in the form of strips in an open field and retained links with the commune, meaning that in 1914, only around 10% of all peasant households were owners of separate farms - 80% remained full members of village communes. 

• Stolypin’s land reforms mainly involved making more productive use of the land the peasants already farmed and therefore did not really address the issue of land hunger. 

why did Stolypin encourage emigration to Siberia?

it was mineral rich, sparsely populated and economically underdeveloped. 

how did Stolypin encourage emigration to Siberia?

• The opening of the Trans Siberian Railway made it more accessible, so mass migration became a possibility.

• Peasants were offered a range of incentives to move to Siberia, including free or cheap land, interest-free loans and reduced railway fares.

• Between 1906 and 1913, 3.5 million peasants emigrated to Siberia, although nearly 20% of them failed to settle and made the return journey to European Russia. 

give some general criticisms of Stolypin’s reforms

• Stolypin wanted to reform other areas as well, including streamlining the system of government by getting rid of land captains and giving the zemstva more power, as well as reforming Russia’s school system so that all children receive 4 years of schooling, starting at age 8.

•  He wanted to introduce a proper scheme of compensation for workers who had been wounded in factory accidents. This brought opposition from other powerful institutions in Russian society, including the Orthodox Church as well as industrialists claiming that the workmen’s compensation scheme was too expensive. 

• Conservative Russia was turning against him - by the time of his assasination (1911) he was facing dismissal.

• His repression alienated moderates and his reforms antagonised conservatives. 

when was Stolypin assassinated?

1911

when was Stolypin made minister for the Interior?

1906

what year was the Lena Goldfields Massacre?

1912

summarise the Lena Goldfields Massacre

The strike that started the massacre was because of the serving of rancid horse meat in a works canteen, which then escalated to the workers demanding a 30% wage increase, an 8 hour day and improvements in medical care. After a month of this, the government sent troops to arrest the leaders. The miners responded by marching to demand their release. 

April 1912 - a company of 90 soldiers opened fire on 3,000 unarmed marchers and an estimate of losses is 160 killed and 200 wounded. 

They still did not manage to get improvements in their conditions or pay and therefore they all left in 1912 - almost 10,000 people. The mine owners replaced them with workers imported from China and Korea. 

give a consequence of the Lena Goldfields Massacre

After 1905, strikes had tailed off sharply and the trade union movement had been quite quiet during the Stolypin era. However, this ended that and created a storm of protest strikes that did not subside until the outbreak of war in 1914.

Lenin said that it had “inflamed the masses with revolutionary fire”

give some strengths of the armed forces in 1914

• It had a peacetime strength of around 1.4 million and 3 million reservists - it was the largest army in Europe. 

• After the disastrous Russo-Japanese War, it had been rearmed and modernised.

give some weaknesses of the army in 1914

• Too many generals owed their place to nepotism rather than ability. 

• The physical condition and educational standard of ordinary soldiers in the Russian army was low in comparison to other European armies. 

• Many conscripts identified more strongly with their home district than Russia as a whole → less highly motivated than other soldiers, so they surrendered more quickly and deserted in larger numbers. 

• It was poorly equipped → it did not have enough heavy artillery, machine guns or motorised vehicles and there was a shortage of rifles: at the start of WWI, the Russian army needed a minimum of 100,000 new ones a month, but Russian industry could only provide 27,000. 

what year was the great retreat?

1915

what year was the Brusilov Offensive?

1916

summarise the Great Retreat (1915)

The allies had high hopes for the Russian “steamroller”, however these were dashed quickly. In 1915, Russian forces were driven out of Poland, Lithuania and part of Belorussia, with one million men killed or wounded and a further million taken prisoner. 

summarise the Brusilov Offensive (1916)

Russian forces tried to regain an advantage by launching the Brusilov Offensive against Austria, however this was halted when German forces came to the aid of Austria. 

what year was the Munitions Crisis?

1915

summarise the Munitions Crisis (1915)

• It was assumed prior to 1914 that any war that Russia would be involved in was going to be relatively short, and therefore no effort was made to stockpile munitions or build up the armament making capacity of Russia.

• In 1914 and 15, Russia was unable to supply its needs from its own resources and therefore placed huge orders with British and American arms manufacturers. Often, these foreign suppliers were unable to meet the deadline agreed on in their contracts, which caused a political and economic crisis. Opponents of the government said that the shell shortage was symptomatic of its inability to properly organise Russia’s war effort. 

• In response, the government set up a Special Committee for State Defence to control armament production and build new factories, so by 1916, the munitions supply was hugely improved, however it was assumed that the losses of 1915 were from the Tsar’s incompetence. 

how did transport issues affect the economy in wartime Russia?

• The war placed a lot of strain on the transport network. Military traffic was given priority and therefore the movement of ordinary freight was disrupted. 

• The trans-Siberian railway was clogged up due to the movement of arms. 

• Trains carrying food were often seriously delayed and cargo sometimes rotted before it reached its destination. 

• This caused food shortages and rising food prices.

how did inflation affect the economy in wartime Russia?

• Grain production fell because many important, grain producing areas were occupied by Germans. 

• Grain hoarding by the peasants, who used to sell surplus grain to buy consumer goods, however the price of them rose too so instead they kept their grain. 

• Hold ups on the railway system disrupted food supplies. 

• The urban working class was hit the hardest by inflation. The wages of industrial workers went up during the war, but prices went up faster. In petrograd, the wages of skilled workers doubled between 1914 and 1917, however during this same timeframe, there was a fivefold increase in the cost of a bag of flour and a sevenfold increase in the cost of a bag of potatoes. 

• Inflation was not widespread - it did not really affect the peasants until the later stages of the war when the cost of consumer goods rose because in terms of food, they were largely self sufficient. 

how did Rasputin harm the Tsar’s reputation?

• Rasputin was a Siberian peasant with a reputation as a holy man (although he had no official position in the orthodox church). 

• Alexandra idolised him because she believed that he could control her son’s haemophilia. 

• The general public found the royal family’s relationship with Rasputin strange and unsettling as he was viewed as an “unsavoury character”.

• In 1916, he was murdered by a group of men, including the nephew of the Tsar and one of his nieces husbands, aiming to cleanse the monarchy. 

• Some historians have argued that in Nicholas II’s absence whilst he was st the front, Rasputin was in full control of domestic policy through his ability to manipulate Alexandra.

• However, there are also some counter arguments for this: 

  • Nicholas II’s presence at military headquarters was largely symbolic and he was still involved in political affairs whilst at the front. 

  • Although he listened to Alexandra’s advice, he did not always take it

  • He was not as convinced by Rasputin as Alexandra was 

  • Some of the opposition politicians who complained the most loudly about Rasputin’s influence had a vested interest in exaggerating it since their aim was to overthrow Tsarism. 

what is meant by “ministerial leapfrog”?

 Throughout 1916, there were 3 different chief ministers, three interior ministers, three foreign ministers and three ministers of justice. People believed that this was due to Alexandra and Rasputin handing out jobs to their favourites.  

how did the opposition parties feel about the war?

The Bolsheviks were the only opposition group who were also united in their dislike of the war. The Mensheviks were divided, as were the SRs. the middle class Octoberists and Kadets were deeply patriotic and therefore supportive of the war and rallied behind the government in wartime and they wanted a partnership between the government and the Duma, however, the government showed little interest in an arrangement like this. Middle class Russians therefore turned to voluntary work. 

when was the Zemstvo Union formed?

1914

what did the Zemstvo Union do?

it was formed by Zemstva across Russia and it undertook war relief work by providing medical care to wounded soldiers, operating field canteens, assisting refugees escaping battle zones and digging war graves.

which organisations joined and created Zemgor?

it was a combination of the Zemstvo Union and the Union of Towns, who carried out similar work to the Zemstvo Unions

what did Zemgor do?

manufactured wartime essentials such as uniforms, boots, pharmaceuticals and munitions.

when was Zemgor created?

1915

what was the contribution of Zemgor to the war effort?

no more than 5%

what was the impact of the Zemgor for the government?

the enterprise and initative displayed by Zemgor put the government to shame, and the head of Zemgor (Prince Lvov) set an example that none of the imperial ministers could match.

when was the third Duma recalled?

1915

what was the Progressive Bloc?

300 of the 430 Duma members formed the Progressive Bloc and demanded the formation of a “unified government” which the Tsar and the Duma could feel confident in. they also pressed for the introduction of measures which they felt were necessary for Russia to win the war.

however, Nicholas II interpreted this as a threat to his power and rejected the idea, as well as dismissing the ministers who had urged him to accept.

by late 1916, the Progressive Bloc was planning ton force the Tsar to abdicate.

how did unrest in towns lead to the 1917 February Revolution?

• The rate of inflation increased as the war went on and wages failed to match pace, meaning the industrial workers purchase power fell. In 1916-17, it fell by almost half, partially due to food prices but also rent workers in Petrograd had to pay for their accommodation trebled and fuel for domestic heating wa scarce and expensive. 

• This inflation led to labour unrest. Strikes became more of an issue in the war years and workers demonstrations began to include calls for an end to the war and the removal of the Tsar. 

how did unrest in the countryside lead to the 1917 February Revolution?

• Inflation played a part but was not the most significant reason. 

• The peasants were never really in favour of the war since they lacked a sense of Russian identity. 

• The peasants bore most of the human cost of the war. Between 1914 and 1917, almost 15 million men served in the Russian army. Of this, nearly 15 million men were killed and over 5 million were wounded or taken prisoner. Most of these were peasant conscripts. 

• The loss of able bodied men to the army meant that much of the farm work had to be done by women, the elderly and children. This extra workload was resented.]the army also requisitioned horses and other livestock, which exacerbated resentment. The peasants were left with inferior or unsuitable animals to plough their fields.

• Soldiers wives were paid an allowance by the state whilst their husbands were at the front,  however it did not increase in line with inflation. By 1916, peasant households were struggling to pay for consumer goods such as sugar and clothing, which gave way to disorder. In one case, 50 peasant women who had been unable to buy fabric at pre-war prices responded by looting local shops, and similar events occurred all over Russia. The soldiers wives called themselves “soldatki” and were almost always involved. 

how did International Women’s Day and the Petrograd General Strike lead to the 1917 February Revolution?

• In January (1917), almost half of the city’s workers came out on strike on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. 

• A second major strike occurred in February and Petrograd’s biggest factory, the Putilov Engineering Complex, was bought to a standstill by industrial action. The day after the closure was International Women’s Day and socialist activists encouraged Petrograd’s  workers to mark it by taking to the streets and demonstrating against the government. 

• Large numbers of women were employed in low paying jobs and needed little encouragement to take to the streets. They made up almost 70% of the textile industry and 20% of the engineering workforce. Women were also the ones who had to deal with the consequences of wartime inflation. All of this combined meant that women walked out of their factories shouting for bread and the end of the war, causing 5 days of disorder in which the regime lost control of the capital city.the day after International Women’s Day, the strike spread to other industries and involved over 200,000 workers  

describe the provisional committee

• It came in to being the day that the Petrograd Garrison mutinied. 

• It was dominated by Milyukov ( the Kadet leader ) and aimed to restore public order and establish a new government that enjoyed public confidence. 

• However, the Duma was not a democratically elected body and therefore its right to take charge was open to question. 

• The Petrograd Garrison was unwilling to recognise its authority - e.g., when ir ordered soldiers to leave the street and return to their barracks, it was not obeyed.

describe the Petrograd Soviet when it was first formed

• It was formed by socialists, many of which were Mensheviks. 

• It was elected by soldiers and workers. 

• It had the allegiance of the city’s workers and the garrison. 

• They believed themselves to be unqualified to govern due to their lack of administrative experience. 

summarise the abdication of Nicholas II

• Nicholas II did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation in Petrograd until the mutiny. He ordered his generals to send loyal troops to the capital to regain control and then began the journey himself, however, before he arrived he learnt that the army high command had overriden his instructions and favoured his abdication. 

• He agreed to abdicate in favour of his brother, however his brother refused to take the throne, thus ending monarchical rule in Russia. 

• He had lost the support of all sections of Russian society, which is why he had no choice but to abdicate. 

describe the political makeup of the provisional government

• it was essentially a Progressive Bloc government, and all of the members (excluding Kerensky) were middle class liberals. 

• Prince Lvov was chief minister and minister for the interior, however he was largely a figurehead, and the real driving force was Milyukov, who was also foreign minister. 

• There were 4 other Kadets (aside from Milyukov), three octoberists, two non party experts and Kerensky, a socialist. 

• Kerensky was a lawyer and had also been a member of the fourth Duma as a Trudovik. After the February Revolution, he became vice chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, and was the only minister in the Provisional Government who was a member of the Petrograd Soviet

is dual power accurate to describe the relationship between the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government?

• The Provisional Government was toothless - the Petrograd Garrison was firmly under Soviet control following Order Number One (said that the garrison was subordinate to the soviet and the orders of the provisional committee should only be obeyed if they did not conflict with those of the Soviet) and the Tsarist police force had made itself scarce following the February Revolution and the zemstva lost credibility. This meant that the provisional government was reliant on the Petrograd Soviet. 

• The Petrograd Soviet was in full control of the capital because it was supported by key workers and the army garrison. 

• The Soviet also had the loyalty of railway and postal workers, which allowed it to control the city’s links with the outside world. 

• The reach of the Soviet extended to provincial Russia, and during the course of 1917, soviets appeared all over Russia and by October there was around 1500 of them, all of which looked to the Petrograd Soviet for leadership and direction. 

• In June (1917) the All Russian Congress of Workers and Soldiers Deputies was formed, in which soviets from different parts of the country were represented 

• Overall, “dual power” is not an apt description of the relationship between the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government . 

what was Order Number One?

it said that the garrison was subordinate to the soviet and the orders of the provisional committee should only be obeyed if they did not conflict with those of the Soviet

when dud the Petrograd Soviet issue Order Number One?

March 1917

describe the aims and membership of the Petrograd Soviet

• It was elected by the city’s factory workers and the soldiers of the Petrograd Garrison. The Garrison was over-represented in the Soviet: ⅔ of its 3000 members were soldiers representatives, even though in 1917 there were fewer soldiers than workers in the cities. 

• There was no fixed term for representatives - they could be replaced at any time, meaning that the political complexion was constantly changing. 

• The policies were decided by an executive committee made up of experienced political activists and professional revolutionaries. In its early stages, this was dominated by Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. 

• The socialist intellectuals who led the early soviet saw its role as temporary and fairly limited - it would protect the interests of soldiers and workers until the Constituent Assembly created a fully democratic system of government by monitoring the Provisional Government and making sure that it did not abuse its authority, however, before long it had the command of the the Petrograd Garrison and was responsible for administering the capital’s affairs, essentially becoming a local government body. It also started to take an interest in foreign policy, bringing it into conflict with the Provisional Government. 

what early political reforms were passed by the Petrograd Soviet and Provisional Government in Spring 1917?

• An amnesty for all political prisoners, including those detained for political offences.

• The abolition of capital punishment. 

• Unrestricted freedom of speech and assembly. 

• Equal rights for all citizens, regardless of class, religion or nationality.

• The dissolution of the Tsarist police force and its replacement with local militias and elected officer.

• The  election of zemstva and town councils on a fully democratic basis. 

what was the Petrograd Soviets attitude to war in March 1917?

•  the leaders of the Soviet just wanted the war over quickly by means of a compromised peace negotiation between the Allies and the Central Powers. 

• In March, the Petrograd Soviet published “An Appeal to All the Peoples Of the World” where it established the policy of revolutionary defencism. 

• Revolutionary defencism - Russia did not want to participate in an imperialist war, and they knew the workers and peasants longed for peace. However, they also knew that in the event of Russia’s military defeat, it was likely that Germany (capitalist and autocratic) would attempt to impose a conservative regime on Russia. Therefore, they made three pledges:

  • Russia would not make a separate peace with Germany, but they would try to create a general peace involving all warring nations. 

  • Russia would not try to make territorial gains at the expense of other countries. 

  • Until a peace settlement was reached, Russia would continue to defend its territory and its revolution against invading armies. 

• After publishing it, the Soviet wanted to get the Provisional Government to endorse it, which put them on a collision course with the foreign minister Milyukov, who was a patriot and wanted to fight until the war was won. Not only this, the allies had made a secret agreement with him whereby Russia was promised control of the seaway between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean after the war - exactly the kind of territorial gain the Soviet had just dismissed. 

when was the Milyukov Crisis?

April 1917

explain the Milyukov Crisis

• The Soviet was determined to hold the Provisional Government to their “Declaration of War Aims” and therefore demanded that they be sent to Russia’s allies as a formal, diplomatic note, which the Provisional Government agreed to. 

• Milyukov added a private telegram, where he distanced himself from revolutionary defencism and promised to fight until a “conclusive victory” was won. This telegram got leaked, causing public uproar where supporters of the Soviet took to the streets, accused Milyukov of betrayal and demanded he resign. Clashes with pro-Milyukov demonstrators left people dead. 

explain the Provisional Government’s attitude to war in 1917

• Milyukov made no secret of his opposition to revolutionary defencism, however many of his colleagues, including Prince Lvov, favoured a compromise with the Petrograd Soviet. As a result, the Provisional Government published their “Declaration of War Aims”, affirming Russia’s commitment to the war whilst insisting that it would not forcibly seize territory belonging to other nations. 

• Milyukov had also made a secret agreement with the allies that after the war, Russia would get control of the seaway between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

explain the significance of the Milyukov Crisis

• It demonstrated the extent of Soviet Power and the weaknesses of the Provisional Government. 

• It brought “dual power” in its original format to an end. 

• It essentially wrote off Russia’s liberals (even though 4 of PG’s 16 new ministers were Kadets). 

• It ended the optimistic mood that had been present in Russia following the February Revolution. 

when did Lenin return to Russia?

April 1917

when did Lenin publish his “Letters from Afar”?

March 1917

how did Bolshevik membership increase around Lenin’s return?

in February 1917, they had 25,000 members, and by April this had risen to 75,000 members Russia.

what did Lenin say in his “Letters from Afar” (March 1917)

that the February Revolution had been a bourgeois revolution and what was needed now was a second revolution where the workers united with the peasants and seized power.

when was the June Offensive?

June 1917

what were the reasons for going ahead with the June Offensive?

• In November 1916, Russia, France and Britain had agreed to launch a coordinated attack on the central powers in mid 1917. Members of the Provisional Government were reluctant to break this agreement.

• The revolutionary defencists in the PG saw it as a way of getting negotiations back on track - a major victory would give the PG leverage. Britain and France would be unable to ignore a victorious Russia and a defeated Germany would be on the defensive and ready to enter peace talks.

• Kerensky wanted to lead Russia to victory and cover himself in glory - he went to the battlefield and tried to muster up enthusiasm. 

• Russia's army chiefs were dismayed by the breakdown of discipline and saw an effective offensive as a good way to restore discipline and morale. 

what was the outcome of the June Offensive?

The June Offensive was a disaster. Within a week, German forces were 150 miles deeper in Russian territory

what were the consequences of the June Offensive for the PG?

• The plans and hopes of revolutionary defencists  were dashed. 

• It undermined the credibility of the whole PG. 

• It increased the attraction of the Bolshevik alternative - an immediate peace and a transfer of power to the soviets. 

give evidence of the state of the army at the time of the June Offensive

100,000 soldiers deserted between February and June 1917

summarise the events of the July Days (1917)

• The First Machine Gun Regiment was one of the largest units in the Petrograd Garrison, with 10,000 men and 1,000 machine guns. At the end of June, it received orders to send 500 of its guns and their operators to the front to support the June Offensive, however they refused, claiming the right to stay in Petrograd and defend the revolution. They appealed to other units of the Petrograd garrison and the radical factory workers for support. 

• At this point, mid-level Bolsheviks got involved (no top leaders), intent on exploiting the mutiny for their own agenda. Without the approval of Lenin or any other high ranking Bolsheviks, they tried to convince the soldiers and civilian supporters that the time had come to overthrow the PG by force.

• On July 3rd, soldiers and workers took to the streets, calling for power to be transferred to the Soviets.

• The next day, they returned with 20,000 sailors from Kronstadt, who were disciplined, militant and fearsome. During the February Revolution,they had murdered their base commander and established the Kronstadt Soviet to govern their island. 

• Everything was in place for a Bolshevik Revolution, however, when Lenin was called upon to speak, he hesitated and appealed for calm instead of urging them on. He believed that if Bolsheviks took power at that point, they would have been unable to hold on to it. Lacking leadership and direction, the crowds dispersed and the PG hit back at the Bolsheviks. 

how did the Provisional Government retaliate against the Bolsheviks for the July Days?

• Documents “proving” that Lenin was a German spy were given to the newspapers 

• Warrants were issued for the arrest of Lenin and other leading Bolsheviks, so Lenin had to flee to Finland. 

• 800 prominent Bolsheviks were arrested and imprisoned. 

• The Red Guards (armed, pro-Bolshevik factory workers) had their weapons taken off them. 

• Army units that had taken part in the July Days were disbanded. 

what led to Kerensky becoming head of the second provisional government in 1917?

•  There was a widespread belief that Kerensky was a political strongman who could unite the nation and prevent the revolution being derailed by the Bolsheviks or the counter-revolutionaries. 

• However, as chief minister, he was neither decisive nor ruthless. His reputation was damaged by stories of his vanity and expensive lifestyle.

• He failed to control inflation or develop a land policy that the peasants would find acceptable.

• In summer 1917, the German army was only 300 miles from petrograd and the Russian army had lost the will to fight. In these circumstances, calls were heard for a change at the top and Prince Lvov recognised that he could not provide the kind of leadership that people wanted, and so he resigned as Prime minister. Kerensky was the obvious replacement as he was popular all throughout Russia. Despite his public championing of the June Offensive, his reputation was not tarnished when it failed, firstly because of his role in preventing the July Days and secondly because he blamed Bolsheviks for its failure, saying that it would have succeeded had it not been for those German spies. 

describe the membership of the second provisional government

• The Kadets were moving towards the right - they despaired of the condition of the army and the country in general and their hopes of a decisive victory had been shattered. They were exasperated by the soviets and wanted a government which would restore discipline to the army and order to the country. 

• The SRs were dividing between the moderates who supported revolutionary defencism and dual power and the more left wing members who supported Lenin and liked his idea of an immediate peace and soviet power. These “Left SRs” made up around 40% of party membership

• The Mensheviks also split since the rise of an anti-war faction (Menshevik Internationalists) which comprised for around ⅓ of the Mensheviks. 

• All of the political heavyweights aside from Kerensky were no longer a part of the government. 

how did problems in industry create issues for the second provisional government?

• Trade union membership increased rapidly over the course of 1917 and factory committees emerged - elected bodies of senior workers who spoke on behalf of everyone employed in the individual factories. 

• Workers used their newfound strength to get rid of unpopular foremen and managers, 8 hour days become the norm and wages doubled, and in some case, trebled. 

• The benefit of wage increases were wiped out by the rampant inflation since the PG was not much more successful than the Tsar at sorting out the problems with the railway or preventing peasant grain hoarding. The workers demanded a further wage increase, however, the businessmen refused and said that higher wage bills and falling productivity (due to the 8hr work day) left them facing bankruptcy, so the workers went on strike. Many businesses responded to this by closing down the businesses, adding unemployment to the list of issues facing Russia. Some factory committees took over these abandoned factories and ran them on the basis of worker control. 

• These economic issues then contributed to further class divisions. Middle and upper class Russians accused the working class of being unpatriotic and not sacrificing for the war effort, and workers responded that the propertied classes were clinging to their wealth and assets and refusing to come to terms with the revolution. This undermined the PG, who preached class unity + supported the Bolsheviks, who encouraged a class war. 

how did issues in agriculture cause problems for the second provisional government?

• The peasants assumed that land should belong to those who worked on it, and therefore they welcomed the February Revolution because they saw it as a means for them to access the land reform they favoured. 

• Originally, they were happy to wait for the Provisional Government to come forward with a land reform program, however by the Spring they turned to direct action. To begin with, they illegally gathered landowners timber,then they grazed cattle on landowners’ estates without their permission and before long, whole estates were being seized with force. 

• Those who had taken advantage of Stolypin’s land reforms and left the commune had been pressured by their fellow villagers in to rejoining it. 

• The Provisional Government had neither the means nor the will to impose order in the countryside. This failure to protect property rights contributed to growing middle and upper class disenchantment with the revolution.