Russia Key Topic 1: SK Booklet
CONTEXT OF RUSSIA IN 1894
Character and abilities of Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas came to the throne at the age of 26 in 1894, he knew himself that he was not capable of ruling Russia. Upon hearing of his father’s death, he wept and said “I am not prepared to be a Tsar. I never wanted to become one.”
Nicholas believed strongly in the Divine Right of Kings and considered it his duty to continue the autocratic rule of his father. He saw revolutionary ideas as the product of ‘dark forces’ and attributed them to a minority of Jewish plotters and university students (liberals).
Nicholas was tutored by and heavily influenced by the ideas of Pobedonostev, a highly conservative and repressive minister who called representative government “the great lie of our time”.
In 1890 Nicholas went on a world tour, where he was able to visit Egypt, India, Singapore, Siam (Thailand) and Japan. In each location he was honoured as a distinguished guest. Though it was on his visit to Japan that he was attacked by one of his escorting policemen leaving him with a 9cm long scar.
Nicholas was considered intelligent and loyal. Witte described him as more intelligent than his father. He was also trained as a soldier.
1.2 Geography of Imperial Russia
In 1894 Imperial Russia’s Geography included a space of 8 million square miles, covering two continents and 11 time zones.
The greater part of the population, which quadrupled from 40 to 160 million between 1815 to 1914 was concentrated in European Russia, mostly in the historical cities of St Petersburg and Moscow.
The sheer size of Russia gave a false impression of strength and power and Russia certainly did have large natural reserves of coal, natural gas and oil.
Russia was covered by the dense Tyga forest and Northern Russia was made up of frozen tundra, making it difficult to develop the country and exploit its resources.
The only productive arable land was the Black Earth region in the Ukraine.
The population was diverse, containing different races, religions, languages and cultures. The largest ethnic minorities were Ukrainians (22m), Tatars (13m) and Polish (8m). Alongside a Jewish population numbering 5 million.
1.3 Political situation in 1894
The political situation in Russia was steeped on the traditions of autocracy. The Romanov dynasty, that Nicholas II was head of, had ruled for 300 years.
The Fundamental Laws of 1832 had declared that the Tsar was absolute ruler. This meant that Russia had advanced very little compared with her European neighbours, who had by the beginning of the 20th Century established some form of representative government.
There were some reforming Tsars such as Alexander II, who in 1861, emancipated the serfs.
Although he had been assassinated in 1881, discrediting his liberal views and the Okhrana (secret police) ruthlessly prevented any further calls for liberal ideas.
The Russian civil service was an area of serious reform under Peter I. However, by the 19th century it had become a cess pit of nepotism that characterised the Russian state. At a local level, the law, the government, the police and the militia were in the hands of a set of men whose first thought was their own advantage.
1.4 Russian Orthodox Church in 1894
The Russian Orthodox Church was the established religion of Russia. It was a branch of Christianity that was somewhat unique to Russia, with contemporaries commenting on the beauty of liturgy and music.
By the late 19th century the Church had become a conservative body, deeply opposed to political change and determined to preserve Tsarism.
The Church had also become detached from the emerging urban population, with one suburb in Moscow only having one priest for 40,000 people.
Pobedonostev was Over-Procurator of the Holy Synod (Head of the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church), from 1880, a position that he used to speak out forcibly in favour of absolutism, nationalism and anti-semitism.
1.5 Social situation in 1894
There was a comparatively small commercial class (1.5% of the population) that included merchants, factory owners and financiers.
The working class made up only 4% of the population, whereas the British population was over 70% working class by this point.
The Russian peasantry made up 82% of the population. The peasants were viewed with suspicion by the ruling classes, going so far to call them the ‘dark masses’, due to their predominately illiterate and uneducated status.
The peasants were also heavily in debt due to taking out loans to pay for their lands during their emancipation in 1861. This meant they could not afford to invest in modern farming equipment.
1.6 Economic situation in 1894
The Russian economy lagged behind Germany, Britain and the USA. The economic stagnation is evidenced by how Russia’s GDP in 1890 was $108,772 million compared to Britain’s $351,527 million.
There was some industry in the Urals region, where they produced iron amongst other raw materials. However, most production was done on a domestic scale and not on an industrial, factory driven, scale.
The poor transport system hindered progress, and the absence of an effective banking system meant that entrepreneurs found it hard to raise capital.
1.7 Military situation in 1894
The top-ranking generals were made up of the nobility who bought commissions in the army, and not those who deserved to command on merit, this meant that the standard of Russia’s officers was often poor.
The army used conscription as a punishment for law-breaking, making army bases more like prisons than training camps.
The Russian army in 1894 was the largest in the world numbering nearly 1.5 million people and costing the government 45% of its annual GDP.
The Russian army, barring the Crimean War, was mostly only needed to put down national risings and border raids with Turkey and had not faced a serious European power since the days of Napoleon.
NATIONAL MINORITIES
2.1 National Minorities - Poles
Historically the Poles had been passionate about breaking away from Russian influence and The Polish Revolt of 1863 was an indication of growing nationalism.
As a result of industrialisation in Poland, a proletariat began to emerge in the 1890s that showed an interest in Marxism and socialism. Workers’ political parties formed, including the Polish Socialist Party (1892) and the Democratic Party (1893).
New nationalist parties emerged at the same time, including the National Democrat Party.
2.2 National Minorities – Ukrainians
Inspired by Pobedonostsev and encouraged by the fact that nationalist violence was rare there, Nicholas II continued the process of Russification in the Ukraine.
The Valuev circular (1863) and the Ems Ukase (1876) blocked the development of Ukrainian literature and only after 1905 did Ukrainians gain the right to use their own language in publications and education.
2.3 National Minorities – The Caucasians
Internal division in the Caucasus between Armenian Christians and Muslim Chechens made Russification easier for Nicholas.
Some populist movements emerged to challenge Russian rule, for example the Dashnaks and the Georgian Mensheviks.
The Dashnaks organised self-defence military units to combat intrusions by Russian officials.
The Georgian Mensheviks provoked the rise of nationalism and campaigned for Georgia to ally with Germany.
2.4 National Minorities – The Finns
Prior to Nicholas II’s rule in 1894, Finland had been allowed a separate Finnish parliament (Diet) and even a constitution.
Nicholas II appointed Nikolai Bobrikov as governor general of Finland and he promptly integrated it into the Russian Empire and began the process of Russification.
Opposition against this was so strong that the governor general was assassinated in 1904 and in 1905 Finland was given full autonomy, though Stolypin quickly reneged on this and it wasn’t until 1917 that Finland eventually gained independence.
2.5 National Minorities – The Baltic Provinces
The Baltic Provinces were relatively stable and prosperous. Riga, in Latvia became an important commercial and business centre, which led to the migration of large numbers of Russians. As a result, the process of Russification happened quite naturally and there was little opposition.
2.6 National Minorities – The Jews
Nicholas II was personally anti-Jewish and pursued many of the same hostile policies as his father, Alexander III, though the number of pogroms increased sharply, as ultra-conservative Russian nationalists in the ‘Black Hundreds’ were encouraged by the Tsar’s stance.
Over 600 new measures were introduced against the Jews, including a requirement that Jews had to live in ghettoes.
This alienated the vast majority of Russia’s 5 million Jews, large numbers of whom fled in desperation to Western Europe, or North America, carrying with them a hatred of Tsarism.
Some Jews were social democrats and they set up their own Jewish SD party called the Bund. This led to the accusation that they were revolutionaries, which prompted a 1905 pogrom in the Pale Settlement.
In 1902, the Okhrana released the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, a conspiracy theory which claimed Jews were trying to take over the world. Between 1905 and 1916, 14 million copies of 3,000 different antisemitic books were printed.
In a 1903 pogrom in Kishinev, 47 Jews were murdered, 400 wounded and over 1300 properties destroyed in the space of 2 days.
Nicholas II did make a concession to the Jews by allowing them to sit on the Duma.
2.8 Pobodonostsev and Russification
Pobedonostev tutored Nicholas II as a young man and held the position of chief minister in the Russian government from 1881 to 1905. As a result, he had a lot of influence over the Tsar and therefore the future of Russia.
He probably wrote Alexander III’s accession manifesto, which reasserted Tsarist autocracy and because of his extensive influence he received the nickname ‘the Black Tsar’.
Pobedonostev also had a strong influence over Russian law. He published three volumes of ‘A Course of Civil Law’, which influenced the training of Russian legal experts under Nicholas II.
Pobedonostev disliked liberalism and democracy and as a result he opposed most forms of modernisation. He called representative government ‘the great lie of our time’ and he called the peasantry (the majority of the Russian population) the ‘dark masses’.
Pobedonostev believed that the Russian people had to be ruled harshly and taught obedience and conformity in every area of their lives. Reform was to be avoided, as it would only encourage trouble makers.
Pobedonostev was a strong believer in Russification and was particularly anti-Semitic, referring to Judaism as the ‘Hebrew Leprosy’.
Russificiation was the idea that everything Russian should be emphasized as superior in order to reduce the influence of non-Russian national minority groups. Non-Russian culture and traditions were dismissed and attacked by the state, in order to produce a unified and homogenous nation of loyal Russians. This policy was begun under Alexander III, then extended under Nicholas II.
Russian was declared the official language and all legal proceedings, trials and government/administration had to be done in Russian. If you were not fluent in Russian, you were not allowed to hold public office.
Officials were encouraged to maintain the dominance of Russian values, at the expense of minority groups and discrimination against non-Russians became common. State interference in their education, religion and culture became widespread and systematic.
POLITICAL OPPOSITION
3.1 Political Opposition – The Populists (Narodniks)
The Populists believed that peasants should overthrow the Tsarist system in a popular revolution.
‘The People’s Will’ assassinated Tsar Alexander II, however he was a reformists Tsar and their assassination of him decreased their popularity.
Middle class movements to educate and revolutionise the peasantry were completely ineffective as the peasantry were naturally conservative. As a result, the Populists were unable to gain widespread support.
The ideas and violent tradition of the Populists went on to inspire the beliefs and tactics of the SRs and the Trudoviks.
3.2 Political Opposition – Social Revolutionaries (SRs)
SRs were similar to Populists, but focused on factory workers and believed that Russia needed capitalism so the Proletariat would grow.
2,000 successful political assassination, including the much-hated interior minister Vyacheslav Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei, Nicholas II’s uncle.
In 1903, the head of the SR Combat Organisation (responsible for assassinations) was betrayed to the Okhrana and sentenced to a life of hard labour.
The same Okhrana agent, Yevno Azef, was able to become the new head of the SR Combat Organisation, undermining them from the inside and having lots of SRs arrested.
The SRs split into left and right SRs, with the left wanting terrorism and the right wanting moderate reform. The SRs were weakened by the fact that they were a collection of radical groups and not a united party.
3.3 Political Opposition – The Mensheviks (SDs)
The Mensheviks believed Marxist theories of how to achieve socialism. They wanted a large party of activists with broad representation.
Controlled Iskra (Spark), the first underground Marxist paper to be distributed in Russia from December 1900.
The Mensheviks played a leading role in the 1905 Revolution and were very active in the soviets and the emerging trade union movement.
However, the Menshevik insistence on a large party of activists made them vulnerable to infiltration by the Okhrana and many of the SDs killed in Stolypin’s show trials and summary executions were Mensheviks.
Total membership of the Mensheviks was only 8,400 in 1905, though it rose to 38,200 by 1907.
3.4 Political Opposition – The Bolsheviks (SDs)
The Bolsheviks believed Leninist theories of how to achieve socialism. They wanted a small party of professional revolutionaries.
Lenin’s political pamphlet ‘What is to be Done?’, written in 1901, provided inspiration and new ideas for Russian revolutionaries.
At the 2nd Party Congress, held in Brussels and London in 1903, the Bolsheviks cemented their split from the Mensheviks and began building a small party of dedicated revolutionaries. This made it very difficult for the Okhrana to infiltrate them.
The Bolsheviks played only a minor role in the 1905 Revolution and were a minority in the St Petersburg Soviet, though they dominated the Moscow Soviet.
The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda helped to spread revolutionary ideas. From 1912 to 1914, 40,000 copies were sold per day before the paper was officially shut down by Tsarist censorship. Over the next 2 years it continued to function under 8 different names and was integral in its ability to give a popular voice to Russian discontent.
3.5 Political Opposition – The Liberals
The Liberals wanted Russia to be governed in a similar way to Western European democracies, such as Britain.
These liberal ideas were encouraged by the emergence of the zemstvo and the mid-1890s revival of the concept of a zemstvo union.
In 1904, Peter Struve founded the Union of Liberation, which demanded greater freedoms and justice for all Russians. In particular, the Union wanted fairer land distribution for peasants, a representative constituent assembly and improved conditions for industrial workers.
Struve was originally a Marxist, but rejected these views and founded a liberal magazine. He was from a distinguished academic family in Perm.
3.5 Political Opposition – The Octobrists
The Octobrists were moderates who formed after the October Manifesto (1905). They wanted gradual liberal reforms, but supported the Tsar initially.
Led by Rodzianko and Guchkov, the Octobrists supported the rule of law and worked with the Tsar’s ministers in the Duma. Rodzianko was a deputy in the Third Duma and the Chairman of the Fourth Duma.
Even Rodzianko criticised the emergence of Rasputin and called it the ‘beginning of the decay of the Russian society’. He became increasingly critical of the Tsar and his government as WW1 progressed and Nicholas refused to work with the Zemgor, or give in to liberal demands for a government of national unity.
3.6 Political Opposition – The Kadets
The Kadets were Constitutional Democrats, who wanted a constitutional monarchy. They were happy to keep the Tsar, but only if he agreed to reforms and curbs on his power.
The Kadets succeeded in appealing to middle class liberals, including progressive landlord, industrial entrepreneurs and professionals. They came into being after 1905 and were led by Milyukov who was a founder member of the Union of Liberation.
The Kadets were seen to pose little threat to the Tsar, as they were unable to gain support from the peasantry and the middle class only made up 1.5% of the population in the 1897 census.
The Kadets were dominant in the first Duma, gaining over 30% of the seats, as the SRs and SDs refused to participate.
When the first Duma was dissolved, 120 Kadet deputies went to Vyborg (in Finland) and put together the Vyborg Manifesto, calling for passive resistance against the government. This was completely ineffective and the Kadet leaders were banned from involvement in future Dumas.
Initially supported the government when war broke out and took part in the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and the All-Russian Union of Cities.
As the government’s incompetence in the war became clear, the Kadets joined the Progressive Bloc in August 1915 and Milyukov gave a key speech accusing government ministers of either incompetence or treason.
During the February 1917 Revolution, Kadet deputies from the Duma formed the core of the new Provisional Government. One of the Kadet leaders, Prince Lvov, became Prime Minister and Milyukov became Foreign Minister.
REFORM UNDER WITTE
4.1 Sergei Witte
Witte was Finance Minister of Imperial Russia from 1893 to 1903.
He was totally committed to economic modernisation, seeing it as the only way of preserving Russia’s ‘great’ power status. He realised that without industrialisation, Russia would be unable to produce modern weapons, vital for great power status.
Witte believed in industrialisation ‘from above’, because there was no entrepreneurial class to drive change.
Witte was by far the most capable minister in government, though he was disliked by the conservative elements (supporters of Pobedonstev) and their antagonism led to his dismissal in 1903. He was also an outsider, as he had a business background and was married to a Jewish divorcee, neither of which endeared him to the nobility.
4.2 Industry
Witte focused almost exclusively on heavy industry, putting into motion a process known as the ‘Great Spurt’. This resulted in Russia becoming the fourth largest industrial economy by 1897.
By 1899, the state owned 2/3 of metallurgical production, controlled 70% of railways and owned several oil fields and mines.
Coal production doubled and that of iron and steel increased sevenfold from the 1890s to 1905.
By 1900, Russia had overtaken France as the fourth largest iron producer in the world.
Income from industry rose from 42 million roubles in 1893, to 161 million roubles by 1897.
As a result of this ‘Great Spurt’ in industry, Russia’s economic growth in the 1890s hit 9%.
This led to migration from the countryside to the cities, as well as an increase in education. Both of these factors led to more politicisation and calls for reform.
The focus on heavy industry meant that domestic and lighter industry like textiles were neglected, as well as smaller, sophisticated machine tool and electrical industries that would have reduced the need for imports and helped modernise manufacturing.
4.3 Agriculture
Agriculture also suffered from a lack of investment and the high tariffs Witte put on foreign industrial goods in order to protect Russia’s fledgling industries made it almost impossible for farmers to invest in foreign agricultural machinery.
Farming methods were exceptionally inefficient and new Western methods were treated with suspicion. Agricultural output was hampered by the system of the mir, in which farmers were bound to work together. The solcha (wooden plough) was still widely used and medieval rotation systems, which wastefully left land fallow (empty) each year were practiced. A lack of animal husbandry also left the soil deprived of manure, further decreasing productivity.
In good years peasants’ income remained low because bread prices were kept down and in bad years they faced starvation, as occurred in 1891-92 and again in 1898 and 1901.
The increase in population meant that average land holding had fallen from 35 acres to 28 acres from 1877 to 1905.
The output of American farms was on average 1.5 times that of Russian farms, while British farmland was 4 times as productive.
Wealthier peasants called Kulaks were able to take advantage of the situation to increase their land holdings by taking loans from the peasant land banks to buy the land of their impoverished neighbours. They would also buy the grain of poorer peasants in the autumn to tide them over through winter, before selling it back to them at inflated prices in the spring. This only benefitted the Kulaks however, at the expense of the rest of the peasants whose lives only became harsher.
Standards of farming did vary across the country, with prosperous commercial farming taking place in the peripheral regions such as parts of the Baltic, the Western Ukraine, the Kuban and Northern Caucasus to the South and in Western Siberia. Whereas backward farming methods were concentrated in the Russian heartland.
4.4 Expansion of railways
In 1866, there was 3,000 miles of track. By 1900 there was 33,270 and by 1913, there was 43,850 miles.
By the end of the 1890s, nearly 60% of all iron and steel was consumed by the railways.
Despite this progress however, Russia still had 11 times fewer miles of railway track than Germany.
Witte was said to have ‘a kind of holy passion for railways’ and saw them as agents of civilisation and progress.
Witte’s most famous project was the Trans-Siberian Railway, which connected isolated parts of the country, from the large cities in the West to Vladivostok in the East. This was largely symbolic in nature and unfinished in parts, though it did help to develop Western Siberia.
4.5 Foreign loans, investment and expertise
Foreign companies, engineers and experts were recruited from places like France, Britain, Germany and Sweden.
From France alone, Witte was able to procure loans of 900 million roubles to support the growth of Russia’s heavy industry.
The influence of foreign expertise was especially prevalent in new industrial areas in the South and West, metallurgical production in the Donbass region and the Baku oil industry.
A Welsh businessman named John Hughes bought land and mineral rights in Donbass with support from Witte’s government. Accompanied by 100 mostly Welsh ironworkers and miners, they set up the settlement of Yuzovka. By the early 1900s, the population of Yuzovka had reached about 50,000 and it was the largest steel works in Russia.
Supporters of Pobedonostev and Russification saw Witte’s reliance on foreigners as dangerous and shameful. It certainly undermined the message of Russian superiority they were trying to convey.
4.6 Fiscal Policy
The Russian currency (roubles) was placed onto the Gold Standard – where a currency’s value is directly linked to the value of gold. This helped to stabilise the currency and allowed Russia to trade more with foreign countries.
Witte increased taxes, directly and indirectly on items such as kerosene, alcohol and salt. This forced peasants to sell more grain to pay for taxes, which in turn gave more grain for Witte to sell abroad.
Witte also placed high tariffs on foreign goods to promote Russian industry, which led to high prices on agricultural machinery that could not easily be made within Russia.
Witte kept wages low, so profits were invested into industry and not on wage bills. The peasants and urban workers were squeezed hard and this significantly increased resentment amongst the Russian people.
Under Witte the state budget more than doubled, eating into the profits of the country’s economic growth.
4.7 Social Impact
The middle classes grew as a result of increased industrialisation and there was a rapidly escalating demand for bankers, doctors, teachers and administrators, as society grew more complex.
This growth was limited though and in the 1897 census there were still no more than half a million people classified as middle class.
The need for industrial workers led to urbanisation and by 1897, Moscow had 1.5 million inhabitants, with St Petersburg reaching over 2 million. By 1900, Moscow was the fastest growing city East of New York and one of the 10 biggest cities in the world.
Witte favoured the spread of technical education, which would support the growth of industry and the government promoted schools and universities, leading to a more educated work force. Though investment in education was far less than that in railways.
The infrastructure of the cities was woefully inadequate for the huge influx of people. In St Petersburg in 1900, 40% of houses had no running water of sewage system. Excrement was simply set in piles in the backyards and collected by workers with wooden carts at night. This led to the spread of diseases like cholera.
Workers were forced to live in overcrowded barracks style buildings next to their factories, eating in communal canteens and washing in communal bathhouses, with little more than a rough curtain around their plank bed for privacy.
A survey of St Petersburg in 1904 showed 16 people in the average apartment, six people per room and this was even higher in workers’ districts.
For this luxury, they would pay most of their wages. With a survey of printers in Saratov in 1900 revealing that food and rent represented 75% of the household budget, while clothes, laundry and baths accounted for the rest.
Women, who made up 20% of the industrial workforce in 1885, though this rapidly increased under Witte, were amongst the lowest paid, earning less than half the average industrial wage.
There were some efforts to improve the situation for workers with an 1897 law reducing the number of hours worked to 11.5 per day and a 1903 law expanding the provision for factor inspection. But these were not enough to alleviate the horrendous conditions. Pobedonostev believed it was wrong even to take these actions and that they should not raise workers’ expectations.
Average life expectancy at the end of the 19th Century was 27.25 years for Russian males and 29.83 years for Russian females, whilst in England the average life expectancy was 45.25 years.
4.8 Political Impact
The growing middle classes found their natural home on the councils of the zemstva, where they were able to influence local decision making.
Prior to 1905, they were blocked from any role or influence in central government however. Whilst in most Western states the moderate liberal-minded middle class became supporters of the establishment, the opposite was true in Russia and many revolutionary leaders came from the middle classes.
The growing working classes found it much easier to take concerted action against the government than the peasantry, as they were concentrated in large numbers in the cities. This resulted in 176 strikes per year between 1895 and 1904, compared to only 33 a year from 1886 to 1894.
A massive strike among the textile workers of St Petersburg in 1896-97 revealed a high degree of unity and discipline amongst the workers and in 1903 alone there were 550 stoppages. These disgruntled workers swelled the ranks of revolutionary parties, in particular the SRs and SDs.
RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
5.1 Causes and Events
The Russian government had 3 main motivations for going to war. The first was that they wanted to pursue an expansionist policy in the Far East to make up for a relative decline in power in Europe. This linked closely to the Tsar’s own legacy, as to be remembered as a great Tsar you needed to increase Russian territory. The Russians saw Manchuria and Korea as excellent opportunities for expansion, as did the Japanese.
The Russian government also wanted to obtain an ice-free port, as all of Russia’s major ports on its northern coastline were frozen up for some part of the year. This would be beneficial strategically, as well as boosting trade.
Finally, the Russian government wanted to distract its people from domestic troubles with the prospect of foreign glory. If Russia were to pull off a glorious victory, nationalistic fervour could quieten down the peasantry and working classes for long enough to complete Witte’s industrial goals.
After a long siege, the Japanese were able to sink the Russian Pacific Fleet, which was holed up at Port Arthur. Soon after in January 1905, Port Arthur, one of Russia’s most fortified positions, surrendered to the Japanese.
During the siege of Port Arthur, the Russian government made the decision to send the Russian Baltic Fleet (based in Europe) to the Pacific to relieve the siege by sea. They embarked on a mammoth 8 month, 33,000km journey, requiring the support of 60 colliers (coal ships) to supply them en-route.
Meanwhile, back in Manchuria the land battles were not progressing well and Russian forces lost the largest land battle in the war, The Battle of Mukden, with the loss of 90,000 soldiers, as well as most of their artillery and heavy machine guns.
Finally, the Russian Baltic Fleet reached the far East in May 1905. As Port Arthur had already surrendered, they wanted to slip undetected into Vladivostok, where they could undergo a much-needed repair and resupply.
Standing in their way however, was the Japanese navy under the command of Admiral Togo. The Japanese lay in wait for the Russians and engaged them in Tsushima Strait.
In the Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese used better tactics and superior naval vessels to decimate the Russians. 7 of the 11 Russian Battleships were sunk, while the other 4 were captured and a total of 126,792 tons of Russian shipping was sunk compared to only 450 tons of Japanese shipping. This, above all else, was a bitterly humiliating defeat for Russia, after the 8-month journey of the Russian Baltic Fleet had attracted global media attention.
Soon after, with the bulk of their navy destroyed or captured and their land forces in the far East decisively defeated, the Russian government was forced to sue for peace.
5.2 Treaty of Portsmouth – Territorial Impact
Mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the war was actually quite generous to Russia and the Japanese were unhappy with the terms.
Russia was forced to recognise Japanese claims to Korea, evacuate her forces from Manchuria and cede its leases in Southern Manchuria to Japan. This included the important Port Arthur and the South Manchuria Railway, with its mining concessions.
Russia was allowed to retain the Chinese Eastern Railway in Northern Manchuria.
Russia was forced to give the Southern half of Sakhalin to Japan. But the Japanese negotiator Komura was outraged that Russia was not made to pay reparations.
Although the loss of the war was humiliating for Russia and they were forced to give up on their territorial aspirations in the far East, the Treaty of Portsmouth was well negotiated by Witte and nowhere near as bad as it should have been given the crushing nature of the military defeat.
5.3 Political Impact
This was a national humiliation for Russia, who had been defeated by an ‘inferior’ and much smaller Asian country. This was the first major defeat of a European power by an Asian opponent. To make matters worse, the Tsar was held personally responsible for military defeats and the anger of the Russian people was directed squarely at him.
This loss undermined the principle of Russification and encouraged the national minority groups in Russia who were fighting for their rights. An army of 300,000 men (larger than the one facing Japan) had to be stationed in Poland to quell unrest there. Polish leaders like Jozef Pilsudski collaborated with the Japanese against the Russians.
Russia also lost prestige internationally, particularly in Europe, where they were the victims of extensive political satire campaigns by magazines like Punch. Such humiliation served to undermine the image of Russia and made Germany and Austria-Hungary more eager to challenge Russia in 1914.
The war strained relations with Britain, as British fishing vessels were accidentally attacked by the Baltic Fleet en-route to the Pacific and Britain had an alliance with Japan at the time.
Back at home in domestic politics, defeat in the war turned Russian liberals against the Tsar and led to them forming the Union of Liberation, which played a key role in leading the 1905 Revolution.
Witte’s intelligent negotiating at the Treaty of Portsmouth ensured that the peace was not as humiliating as it could have been.
5.4 Socio-economic Impact
To pay for the war the Russians had to increase military spending by 50% and take out a loan worth 800 million Francs from France, as well as a separate loan of 500 million Marks from Germany.
This exacerbated the recession in Russia, leading to food shortages, high prices and unemployment. Wages dropped by 20%. One of the main purposes of the war had been to distract the Russian population from the grim socio-economic conditions they were facing domestically, instead the war did the opposite.
Witte’s intelligent negotiating at the Treaty of Portsmouth ensured that Russia did not have to pay reparations to the Japanese, which would have further worsened an already dire economic situation.
1905 REVOLUTION
6.1 Bloody Sunday
On 22 January 1905, a group of peaceful protesters led by the loyal, Tsarist, Orthodox priest Georgy Gapon attempted a peaceful march to the Winter Palace.
When the 150,000 protesters arrived and realised that the Tsar was not in attendance, chaos ensued.
Eventually, infantry opened fire on the crowd, killing over 200 and injuring many more. The bond between the Tsar and his people was broken.
The protesters had requested a reduction of the working day to 8 hours, a minimum wage of 1 rouble a day, a say in how taxes are spent and reform of the government. Gapon’s ideas were heavily influenced by the Union of Liberation.
On the same day, cavalry were used to stop another group of 60,000 protesters on Palace Square, again the protest ended with government troops opening fire.
As these events became known, waves of protests erupted across the country with 400,000 people joining strikes in the largest Russian labour protest there had ever been.
Students went on strike to protest the massacre and virtually all institutions of higher learning had to be shut down.
Unions united for the first time at a national level to form a Union of Unions, which was dominated by liberals and gave them a link to the masses. The 1905 Revolution had begun.
The argument can be made, that the events of Bloody Sunday were simply an indication that revolution was spreading in Russia, after all, open insurrection had been occurring in Poland throughout 1904 and peasant land seizures had been common in the Years of the Red Cockerel.
6.2 Key events of the 1905 Revolution
In May, Paul Milyukov formed a Union of Unions. This was a group of leaders representing professionals, workers and the zemstva. Disillusioned with the slow progress being made by Nicholas II over political reforms and prompted by the naval disaster at Tsushima, the Union of Unions demanded the setting up of a democratically elected constituent assembly. This was followed by the All-Russian Peasant Union, which had similar beliefs as the Union of Unions with the addition of a demand for land reform. They wanted redistribution of land from the nobility to the peasants. Both of these groups put pressure on the tsar.
Following news of the loss at Tsushima in May, morale in the Russian navy was at an all time low. On 27th June, sailors on board the Russian battleship Potemkin refused to eat the borscht they were given, which had been made with rotten, maggot infested meat. After the ships second in command threatened to shoot anyone who refused to eat the borscht, the ship’s crew mutinied, killing 7 of the 18 officers on board, including the captain and second in command. The Tsar was reliant on the army and navy to keep control in the face of revolution, so it was fortunate that the mutiny did not spread and the events on the Potemkin were an isolated incident.
Witte encouraged the release of a manifesto as an attempt to lessen the tensions by making concessions, the principal one being a promise to create a state assembly of elected representatives of the 51 provinces of the empire, to begin sitting in January 1906. However, the powers of the assembly were not clearly defined. Moreover, since the Tsar added the clause, ‘We reserve to ourselves exclusively the care of perfecting the organisation of the Assembly,’ the clear implication was that he did not intend his royal authority to be restricted in any way. The limited concessions of this first August Manifesto did not work and strikes had begun in both Moscow and St Petersburg.
In September 1905, another wave of strikes ensued, culminating in a general strike in October. On this occasion, workers attempted to coordinate their activities more effectively by forming soviets or workers councils. The largest soviets were established in St Petersburg and Moscow, and initially focused on campaigning for improved wages, shorter working hours and better working conditions.
It was not long, though, before the revolutionary potential of the soviets were recognised by radicals, especially those from the SD and SR. Leon Trotsky became chairman of the St Petersburg soviet and was instrumental in encouraging strike action to continue. The soviets were undoubtedly a major influence on Nicholas II’s decision to call upon his ministers to formulate a manifesto for change.
From January to October 1905, the army was deployed 2,700 times to put down peasant uprisings.
6.3 October Manifesto
Following the failure of the August Manifesto and the increasing involvement of SDs and SRs in the revolution, Witte was eventually able to persuade the Tsar to issue the October Manifesto, a much more powerful statement for reform.
The manifesto promised freedom of speech, religion and free press.
An elected Duma (parliament) was promised, which had actual authority and laws issued by the Tsar would need approval from the Duma.
Additions in November promised to improve the peasants’ land bank and abolish redemption payments within a year.
The October Manifesto worked and strikes were called off. Spontaneous demonstrations in favour of the Tsar were held in St Petersburg and the St Petersburg Soviet was dissolved.
In December, a final isolated uprising in Moscow, led by the Bolsheviks, was easily crushed, marking an end to the 1905 Revolution.
POST 1905 REFORMS
7.1 The New Government
It is important to remember that the aims of these reforms were to protect the Tsar’s authority and supress/prevent uprisings, not to genuinely reform Russia. The goal of the Tsar and those close to him was to change as little as possible, maintain the Tsar’s autocratic power and do just enough to appease the people and prevent another revolution.
Stolypin’s stated aims were to win over the peasantry and suppress the radicals. He was a political conservative and wanted to strengthen Tsarism.
In April 1906, just days before the Duma was due to open, a new set of Fundamental Laws was passed. They confirmed the October Manifesto, but also reasserted the Tsar’s powers over the Duma.
The Fundamental Laws confirmed that the Tsar had the power to: rule independently of the Duma when it was not in session, dissolve the Duma at any time, change the electoral system, appoint whatever ministers he wanted to the Council. Finally, they confirmed that the Tsar was the sole commander of the army and navy, giving him the military power to crush any uprising.
In the Fundamental Laws, the Tsar stated ‘I do not believe that there is need to alter the nature of my supreme power’, claiming that ‘80% of the people are with me’ and he did not really believe that Russia wanted him to give up his autocratic powers.
With these Fundamental Laws, the Tsar had reasserted his position as supreme leader. Much of the hope from liberal reformists that the Tsar would be willing to facilitate a more democratic Russia was over and it seemed as though much of what was promised in the October Manifesto had been undermined.
The new government was to have a lower chamber and an upper chamber, some parallels can be drawn between this and the House of Commons/House of Lords in the UK.
The Lower Chamber was The State Duma. Members were elected by a system of indirect voting by estates (groups in society). This was heavily weighted in favour of the peasants and the nobility, who were assumed to be the crown’s natural allies. Deputies were to be elected for a five-year term.
The Upper Chamber was The State Council. Half of its members were elected by the Zemstva and half were directly appointed by the Tsar. This ensured that members were nobles from major social, religious, educational and financial institutions and that the body as a whole would always be loyal to the Tsar.
The two houses had equal legislative power and all legislation also had to receive the approval of the Tsar. Any one of the three bodies could veto legislation.
A group of men would be appointed directly by the Tsar to form a Council of Ministers under the Prime Minister, who was also exclusively appointed by the Tsar. This Council of Ministers would be the day to day government of Russia. They were entirely responsible to the Tsar and not the Duma.
7.2 The First Duma (Duma of National Hopes)
The government obtained a loan of 2,250 million gold Francs from France in April 1906, weakening the Duma’s opportunity to use financial powers over the Tsar.
The Tsar’s displeasure at the Duma project led to Witte being replaced by Goremykin as Prime Minister. Goremykin was much more right-wing and traditional.
The first Duma opened on 27th April 1906 with around 500 deputies. It ran for 73 days until 8th July 1906.
For the first time, there was some form of elected government in Russia and there was genuine representation from every part of Russian society, with more than a third of the deputies identifying as peasants, numbering 191 in total.
Extreme left-wing parties, including the SRs and SDs, boycotted the Duma, as did the extreme right-wing party Union of Russian People. They did not believe that it should exist in its current form at all. This meant the Duma was dominated by moderate reformists, including the Kadets (180 seats). There was a powerful faction of Trudoviks (100 seats) on the left and a smaller faction of right-wing Tsarists led by the Octobrists (45 seats). Many peasant deputies were unaffiliated with any political party.
The Tsar’s loyal Prime Minister Ivan Goremykin was keen to keep the Duma in check and reluctant to share power, whilst the Duma itself was keen on electoral and land reform.
One of the first things the Duma did was pass ‘The Address to the throne’, which demanded that the Duma should pick ministers, all gentry land should be seized without compensation, the 1906 Fundamental Laws should be scrapped, the death penalty should be abolished and there should be direct male suffrage. When this was rejected, the Duma immediately demanded the resignation of the Tsar’s ministers. These demands were much too extreme for the Tsar’s government to ever accept and by asking for too much, too quickly, the Duma ensured that nothing would be achieved.
In the end, the first Duma only approved one law initiated by the Government, a law that assigned 15 million roubles to people affected by crop failure.
After Sergei Muromstev, Professor of Law at Moscow University, was elected Chairman, Lev Urosov gave a famous speech in favour of reform. Scared by this liberalism, the Tsar dissolved the Duma, reportedly saying ‘curse the Duma. It is all Witte’s doing’. On the same day, Pyotr Stolypin was named as the new Prime Minister.
In frustration, Paul Miliukov and approximately 200 deputies, mostly from the liberal Kadets party, headed to Vyborg in Russian Finland, where they issued the Vyborg Appeal, calling for civil disobedience in Russia. Largely ignored, this ended with their arrest and the closure of the Kadet Party offices.
7.3 The Second Duma (Duma of National Anger)
The Second Duma opened on 20th February 1907 and lasted 103 days, until 3rd June 1907.
Right and left-wing parties abandoned their policy of boycotting elections to the Duma, leading to a Duma that was dominated by deputies who actively wanted the Duma project to fail. This was however the most representative Duma of all.
Left-wing parties did particularly well, with the Trudoviks winning 104 seats, the SDs winning 65 (47 Mensheviks and 18 Bolsheviks), the SRs winning 37 and the Popular Socialists winning 16.
The Kadets, who were the most moderate, centrist party, found themselves outnumbered two-to-one by their more radical counterparts and their number of seats was halved.
Stolypin struggled to build a working relationship with the Duma, as they fundamentally disagreed on issues like land confiscation and Stolypin’s brutal attitude towards law and order. The Duma also angered the Tsar by actively criticising the administration of the military.
Stolypin did try to work with the Duma on agrarian reform, but ultimately the SDs and SRs were too attached to the issue of land confiscation. This led to the Duma opposing Stolypin’s Land Reform Bill, which he had to pass using Article 87 (emergency powers), when the Duma was not in session.
On 1st June 1907, Prime Minister Stolypin accused the SDs of preparing an armed uprising and demanded that the Duma exclude 55 SDs from Duma sessions and strip 16 of their parliamentary immunity.
When this ultimatum was rejected by the Duma, it was dissolved on 3rd June by imperial decree in what became known by the left-wing parties as the Coup of June 1907. The SD deputies were then immediately arrested and exiled, despite the fact that Duma deputies were supposed to have immunity from arrest.
7.3 The Third Duma (Duma of Lords and Lackeys)
Prior to the elections for the Third Duma, Stolypin and the Tsar used Article 87 (emergency powers) to change the electoral law and give greater electoral value to the votes of landowners and owners of city properties and less value to the votes of the peasantry, whom he accused of being ‘misled’. This was an illegal process, which broke the Tsar’s own Fundamental Laws and ensured that only 1 in 6 of the male population had the right to vote. However, it did succeed in its purpose of creating a Duma that would be dominated by gentry, landowners and businessmen, facilitating cooperation between the Duma and the government.
The Third Duma opened on 7th November 1907 and was the only Duma to run a full five-year term, dissolving on 9th June 1912.
The Duma was dominated by the Octobrists, who had around one-third of all the deputies.
The Third Duma succeeded in passing 200 pieces of its own legislation and voting on 2,500 government proposals, of which 2,200 were passed.
The Duma supported an improvement in Russia’s military capabilities, Stolypin’s plans for land reform and basic social welfare measures. The Duma even helped develop schemes of national insurance for industrial workers. The power of Nicholas’ hated land captains was also consistently reduced.
The Duma exercised its right to question ministers and discuss state finances, leading to some basic level of quality assurance and ministerial responsibility.
The Duma did pass some more regressive laws however, including laws supporting Russification and criticising Finnish pleas for more autonomy.
Tension between the Tsar and the Duma did begin to mount and the Octobrists eventually moved into opposition, raising disputes over naval staff, Stolypin’s proposals to extend primary education and some of his local government reforms. The Duma had to be shut down twice so that laws could be passed using Article 87. By 1912 it was clear that the Duma system was not working and that they had no real control over the Tsar, or his government.
Stolypin was assassinated in September 1911 and replaced by his Finance Minister, Count Kokovstov.
7.4 The Fourth Duma (The Final Duma)
The Fourth Duma opened on the 15th of November 1912.
Although party groupings were generally similar to the Third Duma, the Octobrists did considerably less well, leading to a greater rift between the left-wing and the right-wing.
Reports from the Okhrana about protests in the Fourth Duma show how seriously authorities took the assembly as a focus of public opinion.
Kokovstov largely ignored the Duma and actually said ‘Thank God we still have no parliament’.
The Tsar suggested that the Duma should be downgraded to a purely consultative body on 1st July 1914.
As a result of their lack of power, left-wing groups ignored the Duma and resorted to strikes/direct action to get their political point across.
The Duma was able to unite with the outbreak of war and on the 8th August 1914, they met for three hours to pass emergency war credits. They then volunteered to dissolve until 14th February 1915.
In May 1915 Guchkov (leader of the Octobrists and President of the Duma), set up the War Industries Committees to unite industrialists that supplied military equipment. This improved efficiency and moved Russia closer to a total war economy. It also put political pressure on the Tsar and his government.
When the Tsar refused the Duma’s call to replace his cabinet with a Ministry of National Confidence, roughly half of the deputies formed a Progressive Bloc, which became a focal point of political resistance in 1917.
7.5 Repression following the 1905 Revolution
The army was used to suppress the revolution itself. When fighting broke out between the army and Bolshevik strikers in December 1905, the army killed over 1,000.
The Union of Russian People was established to fight against the revolutionary groups. It had the power to arrest, sentence and execute those who committed crimes against the state.
Terrorist groups such as the Black Hundreds were used by the government to intimidate and attack those opposed to the Tsar.
During the second Duma, the Okhrana arrested Bolshevik and Menshevik representatives who were attempting to develop opposition to the Tsarist state within the army.
The Okhrana was also used extensively to infiltrate the revolutionary parties and inform on their intentions and any influential, or dangerous members. The Okhrana’s exposure of Bolshevik revolutionary plans forced Lenin into exile in 1907.
The hangman’s noose became known as ‘Stolypin’s neckties’, after the hangings administered by the military field courts to quell the peasant revolution on the land. The railway cars that were used to carry prisoner to Siberia were called ‘Stolypin Carriages’.
Hundreds of radical newspapers and trade unions were closed down, while nearly 60,000 political detainees were executed, sentenced to penal servitude, or exiled without trial during Stolypin’s first three years in office.
Show trials and summary executions had reduced membership of revolutionary groups from 100,000 to 10,000 by 1910. However, revolutionary groups survived underground and continued to attract support. Revolutionaries got the final victory over Stolypin’s repression when Dmitri Bogrov (an SR) assassinated him on 18th September 1911.
Between 1905 and 1909 there were 2,828 terrorist assassinations and 3,332 woundings.
1913 was the tercentenary year (300th year) of the Romanov dynasty and Nicholas and Alexandra were able to revel in the lavish celebrations. Nicholas and his family left the Winter Palace to drive through the streets in open carriages and crowds flocked to cheer, wave banners and thank God for their Tsar, culminating in an elaborate thanksgiving service at Kazan Cathedral. The fact that such a celebration took place unhindered shows how the Tsar still retained some popularity and was able to celebrate without the overriding fear of assassination.
7.6 The Agricultural Problem
Stolypin recognised that the reason why the peasants, who still made up over 80% of Russia’s population had joined in with the 1905 revolution was due to an agricultural crisis.
An increase in Russia’s population had led to land shortages and overpopulation. Russia’s population grew from 125 million in 1897, to 166 million in 1914.
Bad harvests had led to famines in 1891 and 1897.
The government’s mortgages system after the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861 had burdened the peasants with huge debts and failed to create stability. The peasants were terrified that the government was going to repossess land from those who’d fallen behind on their payments.
Land was collectively owned by village communes (mir) and divided into strips, which were distributed among the households for cultivation, this led to peasant families owning small strips of land randomly distributed around the village, which was extremely inefficient.
Finally, in central Russia in particular, farming methods themselves were antiquated and inefficient, wooden ploughs called sokha were used, medieval land treatments left land fallow (empty so that it can rest) and modern Western methods were treated with suspicion.
7.7 Land Distribution Reforms
In 1906, the amount of crown land available for peasants increased and the collective ownership of land by a family was abolished. This meant that land was now personal property and could be consolidated more easily.
Peasant ownership of land increased from 20% in 1905 to 50% in 1915.
16% of people moved out of the commune by 1913.
Some people wanted to keep their land and legal battles occurred, the resolution of these in Russia’s legal system was extremely slow.
The bureaucracy was slow and only 1.3 million out of 5 million applications were dealt with by 1913.
By 1914, 90% of land holdings were still in strips taken out of Mirs, peasants were reluctant to change their ways.
Ultimately land reform needed time to be effective. Stolypin spoke of needing 20 years, but was killed after 5 years and the start of World War 1 essentially ended any chances of his reforms succeeding.
7.8 De-Revolutionising the Peasantry
Redemption payments on prior loans were officially abolished in 1907.
This policy was pretty much universally supported by all peasants and even the nobility saw it as a necessary part of preventing unrest, given their obsession with maintaining law and order in the aftermath of 1905, as such this was probably the most popular policy Stolypin ever enacted.
Peasants now had greater freedoms, including the freedom to leave the Mir and their representation in the first two Dumas gave them an avenue to address their concerns peacefully, rather than turning to direct action.
The peasantry were not entirely ‘de-revolutionised’ however, as they remained upset about other issues, in particular the amount of fertile land that was reserved for the gentry and the nobility in the ‘black earth’ region.
7.9 The Wager on the Strong
In order to encourage prosperous and productive peasants to raise agricultural standards, Stolypin facilitated the migration of peasants and land purchases in undeveloped areas of Russia.
Peasants largely resisted improvement and the Ministry of Agriculture began to lose faith. 134,000 people set up independent farms in 1913, but only 97,000 in 1914.
Land in Siberia was difficult to farm so increases in productivity were small. Though eventually 3.5 million peasants would move there, creating a brand-new agricultural region.
Even Kulaks (the beneficiaries of Stolypin’s policies) remained discontented, as the majority of fertile land was still reserved for the gentry and nobility.
Some areas became large producers of eggs, dairy and cereal.
Grain production increased to 90 million tonnes by 1914 and Russia became the world’s leading cereal exporter.
Increasing agricultural efficiency allowed some peasants to sell out and move to towns, boosting industrial labour supply from 2.5 million workers in 1908, to 2.9 million in 1914. In return, Kulaks were able to buy out other peasants and consolidate their land, making more efficient and profitable farms.
7.10 Economic Reform by 1914
Between 1908 and 1913, Russia experienced an industrial growth rate of 8.5% and a 50% growth in national income.
Industrial output had grown year-on-year from 1905.
This bolstered state revenue, which doubled from 2 billion to 4 billion roubles, from 1908-1914.
In the same time period, the numbers of banks rose from 1,146, to 2,393 and the number of factories rose from 22,600 to 24,900.
In 1881 there were 21,000km of railway track. By 1914, this had grown to 70,000km.
Production of coal rose from 16.1 million tons to 35.4 million tons from 1900 to 1913.
Production of pig iron rose from 2.66 million tons to 4.12 million tons from 1900 to 1913.
Production of oil shrank from 10.2 million tons in 1900 to 9.4 million tons in 1914.
Russia had now become the 4th largest producer of steel and the 5th largest industrial power in the world. Germany was concerned that if war did not begin soon, Russia might overtake her industrial production.
However, only 30% of production was industrial, compared to 75% in Britain.
The Trans-Siberian railway still wasn’t complete and this made it difficult for Eastern Russia to develop.
The migration of 2 million peasants away from the communes had led to a shortage of labour there.
Wages only rose from 245, to 264 roubles per month, while inflation soared by 40% in the same period.
7.11 Social Reform by 1914
There had been an extension of health care provision, as laid down by the Zemstvas and a state system of health insurance for workers was established in 1912.
Stolypin had promised that universal education would be offered 10 years from 1908.
Spending on schools rose from 1.8% to 4.2% between 1907 and 1912.
There was a 77% growth in the number of pupils and a 85% increase in the number of schools between 1905 and 1914.
The literacy rate rose from under 30% in 1900, to over 40% by 1914.
Conditions in the cities were grim, with a Cholera outbreak in St Petersburg in 1910 killing over 100,000 people.
Out of 1,000 towns, only 200 had piped water, and just 38 had a sewage system.
80% of the population were still classed as peasants.
Worker frustration and the lack of effective trade unions boiled over in 1912 at the Lena Goldfields, workers were forced to work long hours for low pay in an inhospitable climate, but the spark which inflamed tensions was the quality of rotten horsemeat that workers had been given to eat. Miners went and strike and supported by the Bolsheviks, the strike spread to other groups of miners and they were able to present a long series of demands. The management had the support of the police, who arrested several ring-leaders. When several thousand workers converged on one mine to present individual petitions, the order was given to open fire and 500 were killed. This set off a wave of sympathetic strikes through Siberia and beyond.
Poor worker conditions and the lack of any effective avenue to voice their discontent led to many workers joining the radical SRs and SDs. Between 1912 and 1914, around 3 million workers were involved in strike activity.