g7. Nicholas II and the Challenge to Autocracy

(about being a leader) nicholas II famously said

(about being a leader) nicholas II famously said

"i know nothing of the business of ruling"

widespread disturbances in towns and countryside

1902-07

"the year of the red cockerel" (peasants committed acts of arson)

nicholas II vowed to

"maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly as it was preserved by my unforgettable dead father"

nicholas II's coronation as tsar

may 1986

khodynka field

1400 people were crushed to death, and the ceremonies and dancing continued

outburst of intelligentsia in russian universities

1901 cossacks killed 13 students

imprisoned 1500 in the peter and paul fortress

harvest failures in the years

1892

1898

1901

percentage of peasants living in poverty

80%

russo-japanese war

1904-05

• russia wanted to expand the empire to manchuria

• japan already wanted this area

• russia suffered humiliating defeat for no reason

economic impact of russo-japanese war

shortage of raw materials such as silk, cotton, chemicals

meant that factories had to close down

unemployment was increasing

russia surrenders to japan at port arthur

20th december 1904

assembly formed by father gapon

1904

assembly of st petersburg factory workers

soon had 12 branches and 8000 members

a strike begins at _______ iron works, soon involving ______ workers

3rd january 1905

putilov iron works

150000

gapon and the workers wished to...

present a petition to the tsar

bloody sunday

9th january 1905

150000 unarmed workers and their families march to the winter palace

sang hymns, carried patriotic banners

at the narva gates

gapon's column charges

40 dead

hundreds wounded

at troitskaya square

more firing

150 dead and wounded

_____ troops were used to disperse the crowds using ...

12000

heavy artillery

grand duke sergei assassinated by a socialist revolutionary bomb

4th february 1905

nicholas meets the workers' representatives

4th february 1905

at the summer palace, tsarskoe selo

he enraged them by suggesting the strikers should return to work

nicholas II agrees to an elected consultative assembly

18th february 1905

proposals drafted by bulygin

workers begin forming ...

illegal trade unions in april 1905

"union of unions" set up

8th may 1905

demanded:

full civil and political rights

universal suffrage

nationwide elections to an assembly with full legislative powers

mutiny on battleship potemkin

14th june 1905

began over a mouldy meat ration

full scale mutiny, 7 officers killed

waved red revolutionary flag

troops fired on the townsfolk. 2000 killed, 3000 wounded

bulygin's proposal

24th july 1905

a purely advisory body

zemstvo reject bulygin's proposal

15th september 1905

demanded universal suffrage

general strike in st Petersburg

12th october 1905

st petersburg soviet set up

13th october 1905 to direct strikes

the october manifesto is issued

17th october 1905

strike called off

sergei witte becomes pm

pledges of the october manifesto

a constitution

extended franchise and civil liberties

trepov ordered troops to

"fire no blanks and spare no bullets"

members of the st peterburg soviet arrested and exiled

3rd december 1905

including trotsky

features of the new constitution

• lower chamber (state duma)

• upper chamber (state council)

• government (council of ministers under the pm)

lower chamber

• deputies elected through indirect voting (favoured nobility and peasants)

• elected for a five year term

upper chamber

• deps half elected by zemstva, half appointed by tsar

• reps of nobility from major institutions

government

• appointed by the tsar

• responsible to the crown not the duma

fundamental laws (7)

23rd april 1906

• rule by decree when duma not in session

• veto legislation

• dissolve the duma

• command army and navy

• control orthodox church

• overturn verdicts given in court

• direct foreign relations and declare war

article 87

pass emergency decrees when duma is not in session

proportion of new deputies who were peasants 1/3

first duma

duma of national hope

may to july 1906

made ___ requests in __ days

only _ passed

391 requests

72 days

only 2 passed

• abolish capital punishment

• famine relief

second duma

duma of national anger

february to june 1907

bolsh mensh SRs decided to take part

stolypin's agrarian reforms

third duma

duma of lords and lackeys

november 1907 - june 1912

third duma agreements

2,200 of 2,500 govt. proposals

fourth duma

november 1912 - august 1914

duma was too divided to fight back