Russian Revolution aos1

SAC 3

Institutional tensions and weaknesses in Tsarist Russia

‘a word from the tsar was sufficient to alter, override, or abolish any existing legislation or institution’ - Historian Alan Wood

Working conditions

• Great spurt - 1893-1903

• 12-16 hr shift, 16 ppl to 1 apartment, 6 ppl to a room

• growth pop in st petersburg + 928,000 in 1881 to 2,217,500 in 1914

Russo Japanese War

• a little victorious war to stem the tide of revolution’

• 11- 25 Febuary 1905 Battle of Mukden

• real worth of wages dropped 25% in 12 months

• Historian Orlando Figes - ‘the autocracy had shown itself to be incapable of defending national interest’

Bloody Sunday

• January 1904- number of striking industrial workers had swelled to 120,000

• ‘justice and protection’

• Sunday 9 Jan 1905

• 200 killed, 800 injured

• ‘there is no God any longer, there is no tsar’ -father gapon

• ‘the popular myth of the good tsar that had sustained the regime through centuries had been destroyed’ - Historian Orlando Figes

1905 revolution

• end of jan 1904- over 400,000 workers on strike in st petersburg alone

• ‘you must support witte at all costs. It is necessary for the good of Russia and all of us’ - Grand duke Nikolai Romanov

October Manifesto

17 October 1905 - manifesto was proclaimed

The Fundamental Laws

• ‘although with a few broken ribs, tsarism came out of the experience of 1905 alive and strong enough’- Leon Trotsky

• issued on 23 April 1906

Limitations of the Duma

• 60 percent of the Urban Working Population were excluded from voting

• first duma - 391 critical statements of the tsar, lasted 73 days

• second duma - 103 days

• only 1/6 males were entitled to vote, 1% of population was responsible for electing 300/441 deputies

supply shortages during ww1

• 6.5 million men, only 4.6 million rifles available

• short of the recommended number of cartridges by a billion

Human cost of ww1

• by mid 1914, about 4 million soldiers were dead, wounded or captured

• ‘this is not war, sir, it is slaughter’ - officer complaining to his superior

• end of 1915 23 million Russians lived under German Occupation

Economic issues of ww1

• ’ the country has everything it needs but cannot make adequate use of it’ - Mikhail Rodzianko

• by 1916, Petrograd and Moscow recieving 1/3 of their usual food and fuel supples

• by 1916, calorie intake of unskilled workers had fallen by a quarter

• ‘it was russia’s disastrous performance in ww1 that brought about the final destruction of power’- Historian John Reed

• ‘ between sep 1815 and feb 1917- russia had 5 ministers of interior

Febuary revolution

• 18 Feb - workers of Petrograds steel factory go on strike, brings 40,000 workers on the street, 400,000 by the 27th

• Rozianko to tsar:’ imperative to take immediate steps for tomorrow will be too late’

• 2 march - tsar abdicates

effectiveness of prov gov

• 2 march 1917- prov committee proclaimed they were the prov gov of Russia

• ‘we were appointed by the revolution itself!’- Miliukov

• 18 April- ‘a decisive victory’ - 25,00 soliders protest ‘down with miliukov and guchkov’

Dual Authority

• 1 march- petrograd soviet release order no.1 ‘only in such cases as they do not conflict with the orders and resolutions of the soviet’

• kerenksy ‘the soviets had power without authority, the Provisional government authority without power’

Lenin Returns + april theses

• 4th April - April theses, Tauride palace

• ‘capitalist nature’ ‘predatory imperialist war’

• ‘no support for the provisional government, the utter falsivity of all it’s promises must be made clear’

July Days

• 2 July, 1st Machine Gun Regiment of petrograd garrsion held a meeting

• 3 july, soliders took to streets ‘all power to the soviets ‘

• keresnky had 800 bolsheviks arrested

Kornilov Affair

• 19 August - Kornilov moved troops closer to petrograd

• 40,000 Red Guard, 3000 Kronstadt sailors

• ‘The Red Guard, for example, remained permanently larger, radicalized and better armed and organized. Rex Wade

The events of October 1917

• 10th Oct - meeting of Bolshevik central committee ‘history will not forgive us if we do not take power now’

• 16th Oct- formation of milrevcom