1.

1 THE RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY IN 1855

Sinficane of army feb revolution

1855-1881

● 1855 - Russia was an autocratic empire

● Tsar took the title ‘Emperor and Autocrat of Russia’
● ‘God himself ordains that all must bow to his supreme power, not only out of fear but
also out of conscience’
● The tsar was in name only the head of the church
● The vast Russian lands were his private property & the people his children
● Russians were taught to show devotion to Tsar & accept their conditions on Earth as
the will of God
● The Tsar’s edicts were the Law of the Land
● CHANCELLERY: 35-50 nobles that advised the Tsar, but no one could do anything
w/out the Tsar’s approval
○ COUNCIL OF MINISTERS 8-14 in charge of different Gov departments &
the Senate who were supposed to oversee the Government were largely
redundant by 1856
● Tsar depended on provincial nobility to govern areas outside the capital
● Civil servants who made up bureaucracy were paid nobles
○ 14 levels, 1 is top, 14 is lowest, information was sent down the ranks but never
up, if you were at the bottom you couldn’t get to the top
○ Bureaucracy was riddled w/ corruption
● World’s largest army (1.5 million conscripted serfs) - 25 years of service & made to
live in military colony
○ 45% of annual spending went towards the army & navy
● Higher ranks were reserved for the noble who bought & sold positions
○ Lower ranks: discipline was harsh & life was tough
● COSSACKS: special & prestigious military class serving the Tsar = provided with
arms & supplies by the tsarist government - rode horses
● POLICE STATE: prevented freedom of speech, press & to travel abroad,
meetings & strikes were forbidden, censorship existed at every level of
Government & exercised by the church and the state
● Third section agents kept strict surveillance over the population & had unlimited
powers to carry out raids, arrest imprison or exile anyone suspected anti-tsarist
behaviour

ECONOMIC & SOCIAL CONTEXT

● 1855 - Britain, Belgium, France and German states were already well advanced
industrially (mills, factories, coal pits, quarries & railways transforming landscape)
 ○ Russian economy remained rural , 11:1 village to town dwellers (2:1 in
England)
● Inhospitable land - climate placed severe strains on economic development
● Mid 19th cent: Russia was Europe’s main exporter of agricultural produce & had
reserves of timber, coal, oil & gold & other precious metals but remained untapped
● Communications between different parts of the Empire were poor
● Most important was Russian commitment to serf-based economy
● Landowning aristocracy, Tsarist government and army all reliant on the serf
■ Inhibited economic development (no wage earners, markets or
entrepreneurs)
● Serfs were poor & many only survived by the produce they grew on the land the
landlord gave to them
Often suffered w/ starvation in the winter - little incentive to become wage
earners
● Self-sufficiency meant that few goods were actually purchased money was not usual
form of payment, payment in kind (markets did exist but small scale, mainly sold
vodka, metal tools and salt)
● Land-owning elite - obtained what they needed from serfs in the form of service &
feudal dues (uninterested in how the estate operated)
● No opportunity to accumulate capital (income generally fell)

SOCIAL
● Stark difference between landowning elite & the serf
○ Former consisted of nobility, military officials, army, navy & royals
● Urban artisans - manufacturers and merchants = ‘productive classes’
● There was NO middle class like elsewhere in Europe
● Small number of professionals, doctors teachers lawyers, some of whom were
intelligentsia but were often sons of nobles
● 1855 legal barriers limited social mobility , serfs were liable to dues & had to pay
direct & indirect taxes to the government (the clergy and nobility were exempt from
this tax (keeping the poor poor))

IMPACT OF THE CRIMEAN WAR

WAS PARTICULARLY EMBARRASSING BECAUSE THE ARMY WAS THE
CROWN JEWEL OF RUSSIA; AND THEY POURED MONEY INTO IT
● Turko-Russian war
● Purpose of the war was to gain access to the Balkans & the Mediterranean Sea (trade)
● Russia suffered badly from outdated technology, poor transport & inadequate
leadership
● Russian army was larger in number, but lacked the flexibility & determination on
smaller French & Britain troops
● Defeated at Balaclava in October 1854
● Course of the fighting revealed Russia’s military & administrative inadequacies
 ○ Disrupted trade, peasant uprisings escalated intelligentsia argued to close gap
between Russia & the West
● TREATY OF PARIS (1856): prevented Russian warships from using the Black Sea
● Failure in the Crimean war gave Russia the ‘wake-up call’ it needed
● Nicholas I dies & Alex II comes (new generation of liberal-minded nobles &
officials)
○ Dilemma was how to match other European powers w/out weakening
autocracy

1. 2 ALEXANDER II, THE ‘TSAR REFORMER’

THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS

● Decision to emancipate 51 million serfs in 1861 = the Tsar's own liberal ideas
● Free serfs have a greater incentive to work - move to towns to work in industry -
prosperity
● Followed by a series of other reforms (army, local Gov, judiciary, education) =
nickname the Tsar liberator
● TERRENCE EMMONS: Emancipation was a piece of ‘state-directed’ manipulation
of society that aimed to ‘strengthen social & political stability’ rather than as a
product of ‘liberal’ thinking from an Enlightened Tsar who cared about his subjects
○ Edict & reforms were government driven & produced serious long term and
short term ‘stresses and strains’
○ Reforms were intended to maintain tsarist authority
○ Backfired - created division between the Tsar & landed gentry on whom the
government relied
○ Reforms weakened faith in the Tsar (wasn't capable of leading effective
change & created a desire for ‘popular participation in government’

MOTIVES FOR REFORM

● brother , aunt & miyultin brothers who were in Gov had been committed to the
abolition of serfdom for a while - helped to fuel determination
● Increase in peasant uprisings since the 1840s alarmed him
● Humiliation of the Crimean was main catalyst
○ Dmitry Miyultin pleaded for reform, to ‘Strengthen the State and restore
dignity’ - army must be modernised & only a free population would provide
the labour needed to improve military
● A II released political prisoners, relaxed censorship lessened restrictions on foreign
travel & university entrance, cancelled tax debts & restored rights of Poland &
Catholic Church
● 1861 Emancipation Edict - initially only applied to private serfs, state serfs
emancipated in ‘66
● Freed serfs required to pay redemption payment s for 49 years & had to remain in the
commune(Mir) until paid off
 ○ Mir made responsible for distributing the allotments, controlling farming,
collecting & paying taxes
● Volosts were in charge of supervising the mirs
○ POST 1863: Volosts had their own courts, replacing landlords’ jurisdiction
over serfs
● Kulaks did well from land allocations, bought extra land to produce surplus grain to
export
○ Others who got a passport and left the Mir raised living standard by finding
work in industrial cities
● Some landowners used compensation to get out of debt/ some individuals made
profits through investment in industry
● Land allocations were not fair, landowners kept the best land for themselves
● Mir system was traditional - technical backwardness persisted (1878 - 50% of
peasantry was capable of producing a surplus)
● Loss of former benefits, restrictions on travel, burden for redemption payment made
rural life difficult
○ Resentment of kulaks lead to violent outbreaks- 647 riots
○ Landowners resented loss of influence = wave of student protests & riots
● still had to work in obruk for a two year period of ‘temporary obligation’
MILITARY REFORMS (1874-75)
● POSITIVES
● Conscription made compulsory for all classes from age of 21, length of service
reduced from 25 -15 years
● Less severe punishments & system of military colonies abandoned
○ Better provisions & health care
● Modern weaponry introduced
● Military college set up to provide better training
● Literacy into the army improved
○ Mass army education campaigns in ‘70s-90s

● NEGATIVES
● Better off found substitutes to take their place in the army
● Officer class remained aristocratic
● Problems of supply & leadership continued

LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORMS (1864-70)

● POSITIVES
● Elected local councils (zemstvo) est. (district & provincial)
● Chosen through electoral colleges (separate colleges for nobles, townspeople, Church
& peasants)
○ Nobility still dominated
● Zemstvo given power to improve public services (roads, public health, schools,
prisons) & develop industrial projects & administer relief in time of need
● 1870: reform extended to towns (had dumas)
1905: STATE DUMA 1870: TOWN DUMA
● Raised the hopes of intelligentsia who wanted a representative National Assembly
○ Power of zemstvo strictly limited (no control over state & local tax)
● Provincial governors take control of the law & can even overturn zemstva
● Zemstvo composed of men who understood the locality and its needs

● NEGATIVES
● Never truly people’s assemblies
● Attracted doctors lawyers teachers & scientist who used meetings as an opportunity to
debate political issues & criticise central government = rise of opposition

JUDICIARY REFORMS (1864)

● POSITIVES
● Pre-emancipation: no jury no lawyers & no examination of witness & guilty until
proven innocent, judge's decision is final
● New system modelled on the west:
○ Equality before the law, single system of local, provincial & national courts
○ Innocent until proven guilty & could employ a lawyer to defend themselves
○ Criminal cases heard before barristers & jury
○ Judges appointed by Tsar & given training & pay
○ Local Justices of the Peace elected every three years, independent from
political control
○ Courts were open to the public
■ National trials recorded in a government newspaper
● NEGATIVES
● Articulate lawyers criticised the regime
● New juries sometimes acquitted because they sympathised with their plight
● Trial by jury never est. in Poland
● Ecclesiastical & military courts excluded from reform
● Peasantry in Volosts courts treated differently than higher class

EDUCATION REFORMS (1863-64)

● POSITIVES
● Emancipation increased need from basic literacy & numeracy in peasants
● Universities given to the opportunity to govern themselves & appoint their own staff
● Responsibility for schooling given to zemstvo (previously owned by Church)
● Primary & secondary school extended
● Schools were open to all regardless of class & sex allowed women in non-vocation
post 1870)
● Number of kids in primary doubled
● Number of students at uni tripled 56-80
● NEGATIVES
● New independence increased number of radical & militant thinkers
● Post 1866 - necessary to reassert Gov control
CENSORSHIP REFORMS (1858-1870)
● POSITIVES
● initial relaxation of press censorship
● Restrictions on publisher's reduced
● Foreign publication permitted w/Gov approval
● Press was allowed to print editorials w/comment on Gov policy
● Led to short-lived growth in # of books journals & newspaper
● # of books published 1020 in 1855 - 10,691 in 1894
● NEGATIVES
● Growth in critical writing brought re-tightening
● 1862- young Russia
● 1863- the organisation

A II reforms taught that change was possible, but expectation raised & not fulfilled =
autocracy in danger

1.3 THE AUTOCRACY OF ALEXANDER II AND ALEXANDER III

&10 years post A II’s rise to the throne, more enlightened members of society felt optimistic
= various reforms had begun to change the Russian state
● Optimism did not last (1866 ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE TSAR)
● The assassination shook the Tsar’s confidence & after this a more repressive policy
was adapted
● Although there was a brief ‘flirtation’ with constitutional reforms in the final years of
his life
FROM 1881 - A III was simply characterised by reaction as made clear in his address to the
nation:
 “The voice of God orders us to take up the task of ruling,
with total faith in the strength and righteousness of our
autocratic power. We are summoned to re affirm that
power + to preserve it for the benefit of the people from
any encroachment upon it”

HOSKING: - the problems of later years of 19th cent were result of A II’s failure to set up
‘institutions of civil society’/ ‘rule of law’ = Tsarist regime to fall back on nothing but
repression
· He accuses the Tsar of a ‘change of mind’ & suggests that the attempt to
‘repair’ the Tsarist autocracy was a threat to the whole system, producing an
’insoluble’ dilemma.
· To have introduced ‘civic institutions’ would have undermined stability.

ALEXANDER II’S LATER YEARS

1865 - A II’s eldest son & heir dies & wife, who suffers from TB, withdraws from public
appearances.
● Sought consolation w/mistress
Distanced him from the reforming elements within his own family (brother & aunt)
● These developments & the assassination attempts, helped to make him aloof & he
became less inclined to resist the reactionary conservatives who believed the Tsar's
reforming instincts had gone too far, weakening the props on which the Imperial
monarchy replied, the Church & the nobility.

The reactionaries feared the spread of ‘Western’ ideas through liberal universities & freer
press & ethnic minorities with their different religions were diluting Russian strength.
Alexander was persuaded to make a series of new appointments in 1866, replacing
 Liberal ministers w/conservatives:
DMITRY TOLSTOY (Min. of Education)
ALEKSANDR TIMASHEV (Min. of IA)
PYOTR SHUVALOV (Head of 3rd Section)
KONSTANTIN PAHLEN (Min of Justice)

EDUCATION

DMITRY TOLSTOY:
· Staunch Orthodox believer
· Tight control over edu. Was essential to eradicate Western liberal ideas &
growing criticism of autocracy
· Reduced zemstva’s power over education
· Church regained its authority over rural schools
· Gimnazii schools were ordered to follow trad. classical curriculum &
abandon teaching natural sciences
· POST 1871 - only gimnaziya students could go to uni (modern tech schools
go to higher tech institutions)
· UNIVERSITIES: more liberal courses replaced w/trad curriculum
· Subjects that encouraged critical thought (Lit, Science, Languages &
History) were forced out & Maths, Latin, Greek & Divinity were encouraged
· Censorship was tightened & strict control over student activities &
organisations
· More state teacher-training colleges were set up ( was to increase tsarist
control, rather than improve education)
· Tolstoy reluctantly accepted Moscow Uni’s decision to organise lectures for
women, but he used Gov’s right to veto uni appointments when he felt
necessary & many students chose to attend uni abroad rather than in ‘stifling’
atmosphere at home.

POLICE, LAW & CONTROL

PYOTR SHUVALOV:
· Strengthened the police
· Encouraged the Third Section
· Stepped up persecution of other religious & ethnic minorities

KONSTANTIN PAHLEN:
· Ensured the judicial system made an example of those accused of political
agitation
· Searches & arrests increased & new governor-general’s were est. in 1879
w/emergency powers to prosecute in military courts & exile political offenders
 · Even radicals who fled the country & settled in Switzerland/ Germany were
liable to be tracked down & recalled to face justice
· Pahlen held open ‘show trials’ w/the intention of deterring others from
revolutionary activity, experiment backfired & in 1878, political crimes were
transferred from civil courts to special secret courts.

THE LORIS-MELIKOV CONSTITUTION

LATE 1870’S - time of political crisis in Russia (Russian army bogged down in Russo-
Turkish War 1877-78, famine swept the countryside in 1879-80 & an industrial recession
began.)

However the further attempts on the Tsar’s life in 1879 & 1880 led Alexander to accept that
the violence & unrest might be better curbed by widening democratic consultation.

Count Mikhail Loris-Melikov was appointed Minister of IA

● Released political prisoners
● Relaxed censorship
● Removed salt-tax
● Abolished the Third Section & powers transferred to regular police
● Although special section called the ‘Okhrana’ was created & soon became just as
oppressive

1880 - Loris-Melikov produced a report in response to zemstva demands

● It recommended the inclusion of elected representatives of the nobility, of the zemstva
& of town governments in debating the drafts of some state decrees

These proposals became known as ‘Loris-Melikov’s Constitution’, although they did not
really create a constitution at all.

An II accepted & signed the report on the morning on 13 March 1881, calling for a meeting
of the Council of Ministers to discuss the document. The same day, the Tsar was killed by a
bomb.

2. ALEXANDER III AS TSAR

A change of direction
Tutored by Konstantin Pobedonostsev, A III had been brought up w/ a very strong sense of
commitment & sincerely believed that, with God’s direction he alone could decide what was
right for his country; the duty of his subjects was not to question, but to love & obey.

His reign began w/the public hanging of the conspirators involved w/his father’s
assassination & the 1881 MANIFESTO OF UNSHAKABLE AUTOCRACY.
He also issued a Law on Exceptional Measures that declared that if necessary, a
Commander-in-chief could be appointed to take control of a locality; using military police
courts & arbitrary powers of imprisonment.

CHANGES IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

JULY 1889 - Creation of the ‘Land-Captain’

● Had the power to override elections to the zemstvo & village assemblies & to
disregard zemstvo decisions.
● Land Captains were made responsible for law enforcement & government in the
countryside & could ignore the normal judicial process, overturning court judgements.

1890 - New act that changed election arrangements for the zemstva - to reduce the peasants’
vote & placed zemstva under central govt control. = channelled efforts away from political
discussion & towards social services (education, health, local transport & engineering
projects)

JUNE 1892 - similar arrangement for town's, electorate reduced to owners of property above
a certain value & mayor & members of town councils became state employees, subject to
government direction.

CHANGES IN POLICING

Department of Policing (including the Okhrana) was led by VYACHESLAV VON

PLEHVE (1881-84) & PYOTR DURNOVO (1884 - )

# of police increased & new branches of the criminal investigation department was set up.
There was also a drive to recruit spies, counter-spies (to spy on the spies) & ‘agents
provocateurs’ who would pose as revolutionaries in order to incriminate others.

The Okhrana
took responsibility for ‘security + investigation’.
Intercepted + read mail
Checked activities in the factories, unis, the army, + the State
Detained suspects + used torture + summary executions
communists , socialists + trade unionists were particular subjects of
their investigations
They also watched members of the civil service + government
1882 STATUTE OF POLICE SURVEILLANCE
● Any area of the Empire could be deemed an ‘area of subversion’ & police agents
could search, arrest, detain, question, imprison/exile not only those who had
committed a crime, but any who were thought likely to commit crimes/knew, or were
related to, people who had committed crimes.
This gave them tremendous power over people’s lives particularly since any such arrested
person had no right to legal representation.

CHANGES IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

The judicial reforms of Alexander II were partially reversed.

1885 - Decree for Minister of Justice to exercise greater control e.g. in the dismissal of
judges.
1887 - Ministry granted powers to hold closed court sessions
1889 - became responsible for the appointment of town judges
1887 - Property & educational qualifications needed by jurors
1889 - Volosts courts were put under direct jurisdiction of the Land Captains in the
countryside & judges in the towns.

CHANGES IN EDUCATION

Educational developments were overseen by Delyanov whose new uni charter in 1884 made
appointments of chancellors, deans & professors subject to the approval of the Education
Ministry based on ‘religious, moral & patriotic orientation’ rather than academic grounds.

Delyanov also closed universities for women & abolished separate university courts.

All university life was closely supervised, with students forbidden from gathering in groups
of more than five.

Children from the lowest classes were to be restricted to primary education, lest they ‘be
taken out of the social environment to which they belong’ and primary education was
placed firmly in the hands of the Orthodox Church.

Although the overall # of schools & the # of those receiving some education increased,
nevertheless, only 21 per cent of the population were literate by the time of the first census
in 1897.

These education policies were of dubious value, since they both ran counter to the
government’s attempts to promote economic modernisation & failed to prevent student
involvement in illegal political movements, particularly in the 1890s.
CHANGES IN CENSORSHIP

Tolstoy est. a government committee in 1882, which issued the so-called ‘temporary
regulations’. These allowed newspapers to be closed down and a life ban placed on editors
and publishers. Censors became more active; all literary publications had to be officially
approved and libraries and reading rooms were restricted in the books they were allowed to
stock. Censorship also extended to theatre, art & culture where ‘Russification’ was enforced.

EXTENT AND IMPACT OF COUNTER-REFORM

Although A II’s policies helped to reverse the trends set into motion by his father, not all of A
II’s reforms disappeared & there was some positive change.

MAY 1881 - law reduced the redemption fees payable & cancelled the arrears of ex-serfs in
the 37 central provinces of the Empire.

MAY 1885 - the poll tax was abolished & the introduction of inheritance tax helped to shift
the burden of taxation away from the lowest classes.

Other reforms included the introduction of the right of appeal to the higher courts (after trial
before the Land Captain), the est. of the Peasants’ Land Bank in 1883 & some reformist
factory legislation.

Could have been said to have been introduced in an effort to forestall rebellion, but the same
accusation could be said for A II.

1.4 POLITICAL AUTHORITY IN ACTION

THE PROBLEM POSED BY ETHNIC MINORITIES

Tsarist Russia was a multi-national Empire inhabited by over 100 different ethnic groups.
Although the Slavs in Russia, Ukraine, and Belorussia comprised ⅔ of the population, the
remaining peoples were a mixture of many different nationalities, languages, religions &
cultural traditions.

Diverse empire posed a continual challenge for the tsarist autocracy particularly as the
development of national ideology in the nineteenth century provoked ethnic groups
(including the Russian Slavs) to assert their distinctive identities.

Polish nationalism had surfaced & brought rebellion in 1830.

1840 - Finnish language pressure was set up & local language newspapers were founded in
the Baltic regions.
Ukraine - the secret ‘Brotherhood of Saints Cyril & Methodius’ provoked a national
consciousness that sought to separate Ukrainian Slavs from Russian Slavs.

Such aspirations were met by a Russian determination to assert their national superiority

ALEXANDER II AND THE ETHNIC MINORITIES

A II like predecessors was more concerned w/control than racial superiority - reacted strongly
after Polish rebellion in 1863 & sent brother to deal w/rebels

More than 200k Poles had joined in underground National Government for Poland & they
used guerrilla warfare (a form of fighting using ambushes & sabotage rather than raids &
conventional fighting) against Imperial masters, but were crushed in 1864.

A II did not engage in systematic persecution of racial minorities & used concessions as
means to keep control. E.g. Latvians & Estonians were allowed to revert to Lutheranism,
where previously they had been forced Orthodox.

He allowed the Finns to have own Parli. (Diet) & tried to maintain good relationship w/them.

HOWEVER

The period of increased reaction towards the end of the reign saw growing intolerance of
national differences (Tsar's ministers & administrators who were keen to reinforce tsarist
regime).
= prohibition on the use of the Ukrainian language in publications or performances in 1876.
This more hostile attitude was to turn into far more aggressive campaign under A III.

RUSSIFICATION UNDER A III

A III & ministers, particularly Pobedonostsev, engaged in policy of ‘cultural Russification’

● This sought to merge all the Tsar’s subjects into a single nation with a feeling of
shared identity.

The destruction of non-Russian cultures was most evident within Poland & Finland.

In Finland, the diet was re-organised in 1892 to weaken its’ political influence. Use of
Russian language was increasingly demanded, independent postal service abolished &
Russian currency replaced local.

In Poland, the Polish National Bank was closed (1885) & in schools & unis all subjects
except Polish lang. were taught in Russian (even Polish lit) - the administration of Poland was
changed to curb independence.

The Baltic Germans who had special protection pre A III were under severe Russification.
1885-1889 - enforced Russian in all state offices, schools, police force & judicial system.

German University ‘Dorpar’ was russified & became Iurev University (1889-93).

Russification was extended to Belorussia, Georgia & the Ukraine.

In Ukraine, use of Ukrainian language was limited in 1883 & in 1884 all theatres in Ukraine
were closed. Military service was extended to those previously w/out & conscripts from
national areas were dispersed to prevent national groupings developing in the army, where
business was entirely in Russian.

Uprisings of ethnic peoples were suppressed in Guriya, Georgia 1892, Bashkiria 1884,
Fergana (modern day Uzbekistan) & Armenia 1886 & at Tashkent 1892.

Adherence to Orthodox Church was encouraged & there were laws that benefited Orthodoxs.
In Baltic 37,000 Lutherans mass converted to Orthodox to take adv. Of special support.

Poland, Catholic monasteries closed down, reduced influence of Priest & incentives for non-
Catholics to settle there. In Asia, Orthodox Missionary Society converted ‘heathen (Muslims)
& forced baptised.

POST 1883 - members of non-Orthodox Church were not allowed to build new places of
worship, wear religious dress except within meeting place / spread any religious propaganda.
Any attempt to convert a member of the Orthodox Church to another faith was made
punishable by exile to Siberia.

RESULTS OF RUSSIFICATION

Russification was not accepted w/out resistance.

JUNE 1888, Department of Police estimated ≈ 332 cases of mass disturbance in 61 ⁄ 92

provinces & districts. (incl. 43 disturbances in 9/12 central provinces)

In 51 cases, the military was employed.

Russification caused resentment w/more educated & wealthy Finns, Poles & Baltic Germans
is West of Russia. - Here, national groups petitioned the Tsars for more liberties, & secret
publication of local language books cont.

Some ethnic schools survived (partic. Poland) & fanned flames of resentment to Tsar.

Supporters of Russification genuinely beloved they were acting for the greater good of Russia
● Believed it was necessary to ‘unite’ the country to improve administration & allow
modernisation & reassert Russian strength
 ● Was a time of strong nationalistic feeling in Europe

Generally believed that Russification was a misguided policy, had the opposite effect from
that intended.

PETER WALDRON - writes that Russification ‘failed to achieve its ends’ & ‘intensified
national feeling among the non-Russians of the Empire’ & drove some of the wealthier
citizens to emigrate & persuaded others to join political opposition groups.

ANTI-SEMITISM

Racial group that suffered the most from intense nationalism was Jews
● Possessed a distinctive ethnic background & religion
● ≈ 5 million Jews in Russian Empire & since 1736 most had been confined to PALE
OF SETTLEMENT

During A II, anti-Semitism existed in poorer elements in society (hated Jews bc. teachings of
Orthodox Church (believed Jews killed Jesus) & personal riches bc. Jews were money
lenders)

A II allowed wealthier Jews to settle elsewhere until Polish revolt scared him into
withdrawing concessions & reducing participation of Jews in town gov.
● This action encouraged the growth of anti-Semitism.

FURTHER ENCOURAGED in A III by ministers like Pobedonostsev who said ‘Beat the
Yids - Save Russia’ & said that ‘⅓ should emigrate, ⅓ die & ⅓ assimilate’.

A III himself was anti-Semitic, (mostly religious reasons), he wrote in the margin of a
Document ‘but we must never forget that the Jews have crucified our Master & have shed his
precious blood’.

Also had poli concerns. Right wing Russian oppressors had helped encourage belief that Jews
had orchestrated A II’s assassination & real fear of Jewish involvement in growing
opposition movements.

THE JEWISH POGROMS OF 1881-84

THE MAY LAWS (1882)

Pogroms exploded in Russia in

1881 and lasted for the next two
years. Tsar Alexander III, following
the policy of "isolation and
assimilation," enacted the following
anti-Jewish laws in May 1882.

Article 1. As a temporary measure

 regulating their status, Jews are
forbidden to settle hereafter outside
of cities and towns. Exception is
made with regard to Jewish villages
already in existence where the Jews
are engaged in agriculture.

Article 2. Until further order all

contracts for the mortgaging or
Concentration of Jews
renting of real estatein the Pale made them ready targets for the anti-Jewish pogroms that
situated
outside of cities and towns to a Jew,
brokeshall
outbe
inofApril 1881Equally
no effect. in Yelizavetgrad,
void is Ukraine.
●anyImmediate cause granted
power of attorney of pogroms
to a is unknown - could have been business competition for
Jew for the administration or
railway ofcontracts
disposition property of the
above-indicated
○ Highly nature.
probable that they were encouraged by the Okhrana by using A II's
assassination
Article 3. Jews are forbiddenastoandoexcuse
business on Sundays and Christian
Governing authorities did little to stop violence - were slow to act & ‘Holy League’ org,
holidays; the laws compelling
supported by Pobedonostsev,
Christians helped
to close their places of to coordinate early attacks - but stopped in 82.
business on those days will be
applied to Jewish places of
Frombusiness.
Yelizavetgrad, riots spread to Kiev & Odessa & Warsaw & Nizhny Novgorod, -
causing many Jews to flee across the border into West Europe.
Article 4. The above measures are
●applicable
≈ 16 maj.
onlyCities
in the affected, w/Jewish property burnt & shops & businesses destroyed &
governments
situated within the pale of
many incidences of rape & murder.
settlement.
Main outbreaks continued into 84, but there were some in Odessa in 86.

ANTISEMITIC LAWS IN 19TH CENTURY RUSSIA

This chronology highlights anti-Jewish laws passed under Tsar Alexander III and Nicholas II.

1882 The Governor-General of St. Petersburg orders fourteen Jewish apothecaries to shut down their
businesses.

1886 A Senatorial decision sets forth that no Jew could be elected to a vacancy on the board of an
orphan asylum.

1886 A circular of the Minister of Finance and a Senatorial decree introduced rigorous restrictions
concerning Jews engaged in the liquor traffic, permitting them to sell liquor only from their own
homes and owned property.

1887 A Senatorial resolution states that Jews who graduated from a university outside Russia do not
belong to the privileged class possessing the universal right of residence by virtue of their diplomas,
and therefore must not settle outside the Pale of Settlement.

1887 An Imperial sanction prohibits Jews from settling in Finland.

1889 Jews must obtain a special permit from the Minister of Justice to be elected to the Bar.

1891 An order forbids non-Christians from acquiring real estate in the provinces of Akmolinski,
Semirietchensk, Uralsk and Turgai.

1892 In accordance with a proposal of the Imperial Council, the mining industry in Turkestan was
closed to Jews.

THE IMPACT OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Many Jews left the country - some of free will but others were forcibly expelled e.g. Kiev
1886.
POST 1890 - Foreign Jews began to be deported from Russia w/Russian Jews who had
settled outside the Pale
WINTER 1891-92 ≈ 10K Jewish artisans expelled from Moscow where they were legally
settled in A II reign.
● More expulsions occurred when A III's brother was made Governor General in 92 -
forced ≈ 20K Jews from city during Passover & closed a newly built synagogue
Among Jews left in Russia: driven to revolutionary groups in partic. Marxist social orgs

1.5 THE GROWTH OF OPPOSITION TO TSARIST RULE

THE EMERGENCE OF NEW IDEAS AND OPPOSITION

Both the hope & disappointment of A II’s reforms stimulated opposition to the tsarist regime
- initial relaxation in censorship encouraged the spread of radical literature, while the
relaxation of controls in higher edu. Increased # of ind. minded students.

The creation of the zemstva & dumas provide platform for intellectuals to challenge tsarist
policies, while judicial reform produced profess. Trained lawyers skilled in art of persuasion
& ready to question & challenge autocratic practices.

Repressive atmosphere from late A II’s reign translated to A III - reinforced demands for
change - came from mildly behaved, intelligentsia to radicals & socialist groups.

MODERATE LIBERAL OPPOSITION

Since there were few literate and educated Russians, the size and influence of the Liberal
intelligentsia grew with the reforms and economic changes of the late 19th Century
● Liberal intellectuals had benefit of edu. Wealth, time & interest to reflect on political
matters
○ Many had travelled and had seen the political & social stagnation in Russia
Some of the intelligentsia sought ‘the truth’ - ‘nihilism’/’anarchism’ but most were either
Westernisers/Slavophiles (lovers of the west v those who favoured a superior Russian path)

The zemstva = natural home for Westernising liberal opposition voices as local decision
making encouraged members to think nationally
● Members hope was to reform autocracy so that Tsar would listen and rule w/subjects

HOWEVER

Although A II created zemstva - was not prepared to give national inf. - when St Petersburg
zemstvo demanded a central regional body, Tsar stood firmly against.
● At end of 70’s changed mind & if Loris-Melikov had taken effect they would have
been increased representation
● Restriction of zemstva powers by A III in 1889-90 disappointed liberals.
After peaking in 81- attractions of Slavophiles diminished in 90’s as country moved towards
industrialisation - Western-style socialism started.
● Split the intelligentsia; some attracted by Marxism & socialism while others
maintained moderate liberal stance & continued to hope for reform of tsardom.

Exp. of 1891-92 increased conviction that tsarist system must change & provided confidence

MID 1890’s - renewed zemstva-led calls for a national body to advise the Gov.

RADICAL THINKERS

Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (12 July 1828 – 17 October 1889)

● Russian revolutionary democrat, materialist philosopher, critic, and socialist

● (Seen by some as a utopian socialist). He was the leader of the revolutionary

democratic movement of the 1860s.

● 1862, arrested & where he wrote his famous novel What Is to Be Done?

● inspiration to many later Russian revolutionaries

● They sought to emulate the novel's hero Rakhmetov, who was wholly dedicated to
the revolution, to the point of sleeping on a bed of nails and eating only raw steak
in order to build strength for the Revolution.

● founder of Narodism, Russian populism, and agitated for the revolutionary

overthrow of the autocracy and the creation of a socialist society

1874 - Pyotr Lavrov & 2000 men & women from nobility & intelligentsia travelled to the
countryside to persuade the peasants
● Dressed = spoke like peasants & ≈ 1600 were arrested (deep rooted loyalty to Tsar)

● class struggle = society's forward movement

● Advocated for the interests of the working people.

● Used the phrase "the worse the better", to indicate that the worse the social
conditions became for the poor, the more inclined they would be to launch a
revolution.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin May 1814 – 1 July 1876

 ● Russian revolutionary anarchist, and founder of collectivist anarchism.

● considered among the most influential figures of anarchism, and one of the principal
founders of the social anarchist tradition
● one of the most famous ideologues in Europe

● Gained substantial influence among radicals throughout Russia and Europe.

● became involved in politics in his late teens and met Marx and Proudhon in Paris,
1844

● Bakunin founded the newspaper Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher.

● In 1849, after years of revolutionary efforts throughout Europe, Bakunin was arrested

● Sentenced to death in Saxony, sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

● Extradited to Austria, sentenced to death again, and again his sentence was commuted
to life imprisonment, severe beatings and torture.

● Exiled to Siberia

● In June 1861 Bakunin escaped Siberia, and travelled through Japan and North
America to London.

● After imprisonment, Bakunin wrote the large majority of his political works, and
further consolidated and refined his anarchistic theory.

● The driving force throughout Bakunin's life was towards emancipating the human
spirit- to achieve equality and liberty for all people.

Sergey Gennadiyevich Nechayev (October 2, 1847 – November 21 or December 3, 1882)

● Russian revolutionary associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his
single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including
terrorism.
● He was the author of the radical Catechism of a Revolutionary

● won the confidence of revolutionary-in-exile Mikhail Bakunin

● Was a man so feared by the Czar and the aristocratic, ruling classes, he became the
Tsar's special prisoner.

● The Czar received weekly special reports on Nechayev’s prison activities.

 ● He was convicted for the murder of a fellow student, but his real crimes were
political.

● He frightened the state because he claimed to head a secret society four million
strong.

● In truth, it was a small group, maybe a few hundred, mainly of St. Petersburg
students.

● The trial sentenced him to 20 years in Siberia.

● He rejected the authority of the state to his dismal end and, for that, gained legendary
status in Russia.

● Nechayev was even said to have slept on bare wood and lived on black bread in
imitation of Rakhmetov, the ascetic revolutionary in Chernyshevsky's novel

Nikolai Vasilyevich Tchaikovsky (7 January 1851 [O.S. 26 December 1850] – 30 April

1926) was a Russian revolutionary.

● While studying in St. Petersburg, he joined a radical student group (the circle)

● The Circle was founded in St. Petersburg during student unrest in 1868-1869 as a
group opposed to the reckless violence of Sergey Nechayev

● The initial purpose of which was to share books and knowledge that had been banned
in the Russian Empire.

● main tasks were to unite students of Petersburg and other cities, and conduct
propaganda among workers and peasants with the purpose of fomenting a social
revolution

● Tchaikovsky was twice arrested working for the circle

● The new party soon lost its educational character and became a revolutionary and
terrorist association.

● Tchaikovsky did not approve of this new tendency and joined a social-religious
group, which received the name of “God-men” because its members tried to find in
themselves a reflection of God.

● In 1874 Tchaikovsky left Russia, and a year later he went to the United States with a
small party of men and women who shared his political views and religious feelings
 ● In 1918 Tchaikovsky was one of the founders of the “Union of the reconstruction of
Russia,” an anti-Bolshevik organization of the left parties of Moscow

‘LAND AND LIBERTY’

● Continued Populist trad. - members sought work in peasant communes in less
obtrusive way
● Some carried out assassinations of Third Section

1879 - L&L splits into two groups

BLACK REPARTITION
● Organised by Plekhanov
● Share black soil among peasants
● Publishing radical materials in hope of stimulating social change
● Weakened by arrest in 1880-81 - ceased to exist as separate org.
● Leaders turned to Marxism
PEOPLE’S WILL
● Planted a spy in Third Section to keep informed of police activity - evade arrest
● Bigger group than BP & advocated violence/assassinated officials
● Assassinated A II - 1881

TSARIST REACTION AND THE RADICAL OPPOSITION AFTER 1881

An II’s assassination = turning point, security stepped up and A III fled.

● Ended the Populist movement
● ‘Self-education’ circles continued underground & contact with radicals in exile & the
West
● Plekhanov est. ‘Emancipation of Labour’ 1883; smuggled Marxist texts into Russia -
vital in est. Marxism in Russia

1.6 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS

THE BEGINNINGS OF STATE-PROMOTED INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

Industrialisation in Russia was driven by State in attempt to match economic development of

Western Europe

MINISTER OF FINANCE 1862-78 MIKHAIL VON REUTERN REFORMS

● Treasury formed & new arrangements for collecting taxes
● Tax-farming (groups bought rights to collect tax) abolished & new indirect tax system
● Govt subsidies for private entrepreneurs to build the railways
● Est State bank 1860, municipal banks 1862, savings bank 1863
● Encouraged foreign investment
● Gov support offered for cotton and mining
Foreign technical expertise & capital supported industrial expansion & marked exp in
railways - 6% growth P/A

Textiles were dominant, Oil extraction in Baku 1871, and mining in Krivoi Rog region.

⅓ Gov expenditure = debts & Russian rouble varied dramatically

Indirect taxation = 66% Govt revenue - kept peasantry poor & domestic market small

● Peasantry forced to support industrialisation by the drive to export grain and an

increase in direct taxation - Vyshnegradsky policy ‘we ourselves shall not eat but we
shall export’ = GREAT FAMINE 1891-92
● - Grain requisitions meant there was no store for winter = famine = 350,000
people dead
● Grain exports rose by 18% and budget was in surplus

AGRICULTURE AND THE LAND ISSUE

● Emancipation failed to bring any change in agricultural practice
● Avg. Peasant only received less than 4 hectares
● High taxes, grain requisitions, redemption payments & trad. Farming practices
hampered agricultural change
● Yields remained low in comparison to West
● Nobles’ est 1882, and Peasants 1855 LAND BANKS’ loans increased debt
● Some peasants became kulaks but the avg. peasant had too little land to become
prosperous

SOCIAL DIVISIONS: NOBLES, LANDOWNERS AND THE POSITION OF THE

PEASANTRY
● Industrialisation brought social change affecting landowners, a growing ‘middle
class’, expanding the ranks of urban workers and causing greater social division in the
countryside
○ Landed Elite
After Emancipation; some sold up to pay off debts and got out of farming
1880: ≈ ⅕ of uni professors came from nobility
1882: more than 700 nobles owned their own business in Moscow & ≈ 2500
employed in commerce/transport/industry
Some found places in zemstva/provincial governorships
SOME CHANGES TO POSITION, MOST FORMER SERF-OWNERS
RETAINED PREVIOUS WEALTH & STATUS & SOCIETY REMAINED
HIGHLY STRATIFIED

o THE MIDDLE CLASS

Increase in educational opportunities = rise of middle class
 Bankers, Doctors, Teachers & administrators were in greater demand
BUT only ½ a million in 1891 census
Govt. contracts to build railways & state loans to est. factories = tremendous support
for those who were enterprising

o THE URBAN WORKING CLASS

# of urban workers was v. small in this period (no more than 2%)
Common for peasants to move to towns to work temp. &n return to villages to help
out at peak times e.g. harvest`
Some peasants sold up & left the countryside (migrant/urban workers)
1864 ⅓ St.Petersburgians were peasants by birth
Working conditions were bad - no heed paid to welfare
1882-90- series of reforms: regulation of child labour, reduction in workers hours &
appointment of inspectors with powers to check on working and living conditions -
contributed little to improving lives
Payments were rarely generous
33 strikes are year - 1886-1894
Nothing stopped drive from country to city

o THE POSITION OF THE PEASANTRY

Divided - some like kulaks were rich: acted like ‘pawn brokers’ to poorest (bought
grain in autumn = resold it to them in the spring at inflated price) - would take land if
could not afford
Poorest peasants found life getting harder -1800’s 2:3 former serfs were unable to
feed the household w/out falling into debt
Areas of former state peasants tended to be better off post emancipation (granted
more land)
Despite zemstvo health care improvements; large prop of peasants were unfit for the
military service & mortality rates were higher than those in any other European
country
Avg. life expectancy was 27 males & 29 females - in Eng., avg age = 45
Economic change failed to improve the lot of the peasantry & may have even affected
them for the worse

THE CULTURAL INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH

Orthodox Church (70% of pop subscribed to) had a close bond w/tsarist regime
Trad said that Russia was holy land chosen by God to save the world
Tsar - divine right to rule
LATE 19TH CENT: Tsar’s position had become had secular; Imperial Russia still
remained a strong orthodox state
Moral domination of the church helped keep control - ill-educated peasantry
Religious observance was a sig. Part of life - integral; to peasant culture
Priests had close tie to villages - rooted our opposition #& informed police of suspicious
activities
● Encourage to pass on statements in confession to authorities, even when not supposed
to
1862: Church given increased control over primary education
Church had strict censorship control & church courts judged moral & social ‘crimes’ &
awarded punishment like ‘spells’
Russification enabled A III to promote Orthodoxy -and became an offence to convert from to
Orthodoxy to another faith
Enforced post 1863 - 8500 Muslims 50,000 pagans & 40,000 Catholic & Lutherans from
Baltic regions

SUMMARY:
● The backward Russian economy began to develop after defeat in the Crimean war and
emancipation
● The State played an active role in promoting industry. Financial policies and
encouragement of overseas investment and expertise were crucial
● The peasantry was forced to support industrialisation by the drive to export growth
and increase in indirect taxation
● Railway development mother cruise your first step and, in addition to traditional
textiles, heavy industry and oil grew more important
● Emancipation industrialisation also but first change affecting landowners, a growing
‘middle class’, expanding the ranks of urban workers and causing greater social
division in the countryside
● Throughout this period the Orthodox church maintained strong cultural influence and
was used by the state to help keep the population under control

SECTION 2 THE COLLAPSE OF AUTOCRACY, 1894-1917

2.7 NICHOLAS II AND THE CHALLENGE TO AUTOCRACY

POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND GOVERNMENT UNDER NICHOLAS II, 1894-1904

NICHOLAS II - resolved ‘to maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and
unflinchingly as it was preserved by my unforgettable dead father’
● Commitment to Orthodoxy ensured that the Church maintained influenced
 ● Continued russification & support for the ‘Black Hundreds’ organisations (right
wing & anti-Semitic policies’ ensured that Nicholas was no more popular w/ethnic
minorities than father was

DEMANDS FOR CHANGE AND THE GOVERNMENT

POST 1894: time of serious unrest in Russia

Society had more politicised post Great Famine of 1891-92
● Failure to cope w/crisis - zemstva & voluntary organisations had to provide relief
work bred scorn and despair
● Greater public mistrust of govt competence & firmer belief in power of ordinary
people in society to play a role in national affairs
● Reformist groups developed stronger support by base by 1900

New outbursts of trouble in Russia Uni’s ∴ increased use of the okhrana - expelled, exiled or
drafted rebels/submitted to military force
1901: mounted Cossacks stormed students in St. Petersburg killing thirteen arrested 1500
students

1902-1907 widespread disturbances in town & countryside

Many instances of arson in the rural committees - nicknamed ‘the years of the red cockerel’
● Unrest the worst in central Russian provinces where landlord/peasant relationship
remained
● Spread to Georgia, Ukraine & Poland
● Peasants set fire to their landlord’ barns destroying grain/ physically attacked

STOLYPIN: dealt w/disturbances by flogging, arresting, exiling, or shooting (in the

thousands’
● Gallows became in frequent use (STOLYPIN’S NECKTIE)

Indst. Strikes escalated in the towns - 17,000 in 1894 - ≈ 90,000 in 1904 - violent attacks
between police and strikers became commonplace

1900: introduction of police-sponsored trade unions - provide official channels for

complaints to be heard, in attempt to prevent workers joining the radical socialists
● Lasted to 1903 when chief of Okhrana Zubatov was exiled after one of his union's
became involved in a strike in Odessa.

1904: Father Gregorii Gapon created the Assembly of St Petersburg Factory Workers,
modelled on Zubatov version
● Was approved by minister of IA (Plehve) & had the support of the Orthodox
Church
● Soon had 12 branches & 8000 members
THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

ORIGINAL CAUSE OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

Russian drive to the East + building of Trans-
Siberian railway
1896: Chinese allowed an additional line to be
constructed south
1898: a spur line added to Port Arthur granted

Plehve encouraged the Tsar to respond to Japanese assault on the base

● JANUARY 1904: proceeded with a ‘short swift victorious war’ - would detract from
unrest at home
Russians had no idea of enemy/inadequacies of their own forces
● War 6000 miles from capital was not easy & series of defeats turned initial surge of
anti-Japanese patriotism into opposition for Govt

When Plehve was assassinated in JULY 1904 crowds turned out on the streets to celebrate in
Warsaw
● Renewed cries for a representative National Assembly & in NOVEMBER 1904
Mirsky (Plehve replacement agreed to invite zemstvo reps to come to St Petersburg
for discussions
● N II - ‘ I will never agree to the representative form of government because I
consider it harmful to the people whom God entrusted to me’ - concede to
expansion of the zemstva

THE EVENTS AND OUTCOME OF THE 1905 REVOLUTION

BLOODY SUNDAY, 9 JANUARY 1905

20TH DECEMBER - Russian forces surrendered to Japanese

 ● Humiliation added to growing discontent 1904 2 October - whole Baltic fleet lost to
3 Japanese torpedo boats

3 JANUARY 1905 - Strike at Putilov Iron Works in St. Petersburg involved ≈ 150,000
workers
● Economic & political grievances & father Gapon (the union many of the striker
belonged to) decided to conduct a peace march to Winter Palace on SUNDAY 9
JANUARY
● Gapon wished to present a petition to N II demonstrating the workers’ loyalty but also
requesting reform
● N II was at summer palace away from palace & 12,000 troops were issued to break up
the demonstration
● Came to be known as Bloody Sunday - sparked an outbreak of rebellion which
spread throughout Empire

4 FEBRUARY, Tsar decide to meet workers’ representatives after Grand Duke Sergei
(uncle) was shot
● Inflamed sentiment by upsetting marchers that they were badly advised & should
return to work
● Dismissed Mirsky & brought in Buygin as Minister of IA & major-General Trepov
Military Governor of St Petersburg to follow a hard-line policy

MUTINY ON THE SHIP

● Began due to mould meat ration & lead to a full-scale mutiny in which seven officers
were killed
● Soldiers hoisted revolutionary flag & sailed to Odessa where they placed a dead
soldier's’ body at the steps between the city & the harbour
● When townsfolk arrived to pay respects troops fired on them
● More than 2000 killed & 3000 wounded

OCTOBER MANIFESTO

1905: Russian Empire near to total collapse

Strikes & demonstrations in all maj. Cities, peasant uprisings throughout country & demands
for independence from Poles latvians and finns

PS set up & directed general strike in Oct 1905

WITTE - Country as on verge of a revolution that would ‘sweep away a thousand years of
history’

17th October - Oct Manifesto signed

● Grant civic freedoms (speech, personal rights)

 ● Est. a state duma for all classes
● Give duma powers of legislation

Workers celebrated in crows and sang La Marseillaise - radicals defied this ‘we have been
granted a constitution, but autocracy remains’ - N II did not want constitutional Monarch &
few of ministers had a real commitment to manifest promises

COUNTER REVOLUTION

Trepov ordered troops to fire in forcing striking workers back to their factories

Jews suffered in terrible pogroms - gangs sent to round up and flop peasants to restore order

3 DEC - leaders of PS surrounded & arrested & exiled to siberia

- Weakened movement and restored control to authorities

- Another month of warfare in moscow
- Countryside outbreaks for another two years

THE ERA OF THE DUMAS

LOWER CHAMBER - STATE DUMA

Members elected through indirect voting (peasants & nobles) but was weighted in favour of
the nobility (Tsar’s natural allies)

UPPER CHAMBER - STATE COUNCIL

Half zemstva elected, half Tsar appointments - nobles from maj. Social, religious, educational
and financial institutions

Both houses had equal legislative power & all legislation needed Tsar approval & any three
bodies could veto legislation

GOVERNMENT (COUNCIL OF MINISTER SUNDER THE PRIME MINISTER)

Appointed exclusively by Tsar, loyal to tsar not duma

FUNDAMENTAL LAWS

23 APRIL 1906: REASSESSMENT OF AUTOCRATIC POWER

● ‘God himself ordains that all must bow to his supreme power, not only out of fear but
also out of conscience’
Tsar claimed the right to

- Veto legislation
- Rule by decree in an emergency/ when duma was not in session
 - appoint/dismiss govt ministers
- Dissolve duma when wished
- Command russia’s land and sea forces
- Declare war, conclude peace/ control all foreign relations
- Overturn verdicts & sentences in a court of law
- Control the orthodox church

Political Groups in Russia 1900 - 1917

Bolsheviks

The Bolsheviks were the more hard-line wing of the Social Democratic party. They
believed in fast change, and disliked the idea of working together with other parties or
more centrist organisations. They split from the Mensheviks in 1903, and were led by
Vladimir Lenin. They kept a much lower profile than the Mensheviks and SRs until
1917, when Lenin's personal charisma and the ruthless Bolshevik leadership managed
to turn the situation to their advantage and gain military power. They managed to re-
split the Mensheviks, gaining members such as Alexandra Kollontai and Leon Trotsky,
and later took control of the government, becoming the core of the governance of
Communist Russia under Lenin as (essentially) a dictator.

Kadets

The Constitutional Democratic Party, or Kadets, were a moderate liberal party. They
were more radical than the octobrists and tended to ally with the socialists, believing in
a socially progressive manifesto for Russia, which would not necessarily include the
Tsar keeping power. They formed the largest factions in the first and second Dumas
(although were able to do very little due to vetoes being used by Tsar Nicholas and Peter
Stolypin) but were restricted in numbers over time as the government sought to remove
left-wingers from the Duma. Even after their losses due to voting regulations rigged
against left-wingers, they attempted to push through reforms against the larger right-
wing factions; this they sometimes managed with Octobrist help. These would usually
then be vetoed by Nicholas, however. In 1917 the Kadets were the only functioning non-
socialist party after the February revolution, suddenly going from being radicals to
finding themselves on the right of the political spectrum. After their leader, Lvov, fell
from power in favour of Kerensky the party mostly ceased to have any real power, with
its members mostly tending to make up the left wing of the whites in the civil war.
Mensheviks

The Mensheviks were the slightly less hardline of the Social Democrat factions. They
believed in a gradual transition towards a socialist state, and were more positive about
democracy and working with the Kadets and SRs than Lenin's Bolshevik faction. Led
by Julius Martov, they played a major role in the transitional governments of 1917,
supporting Kerensky. Later that year they split again with some members returning to
join the Bolshevik faction. The Mensheviks were split between the red and white
factions in the civil war, although several prominent members such as Trotsky joined
the Bolsheviks. Trotsky re-organised the Red Army and was instrumental in winning
the civil war for the Red faction. The party became illegal in 1921 after the Kronstadt
uprising. Martov then left for Paris, where he died in 1923.

Octobrists

The Octobrists were, after the 1905 revolution, the centrist party in the Duma. They
believed in a constitutional monarchy, where the Tsar would listen to and accept rule by
the Duma without actually being removed from power. Unlike the left-wing and liberal
Kadets, the Octobrists supported most of Stolypin's reforms and after the left-wingers
were suppressed formed the main faction in the third Duma and most between then and
1917. The party mostly ceased to exist after the February revolution, though many of its
members were instrumental in persuading the Tsar to abdicate rather than fight (and
die).

Socialist Revolutionaries

The Socialist Revolutionaries were the main socialist faction in Russia from 1900 to
1917. Their radical stance on reform, redistributing land to the peasants and removing
the Tsar, made them very popular with the peasantry. The SRs were also violent at
times, sometimes killing 500 or so people in a year for being opposed to their cause. The
SRs were a major faction in the transitional government and won the elections of 1917
with huge peasant support. The Bolsheviks, who had taken power from the transitional
government a few days earlier, shut the SRs out and dissolved the assembly. The right
of the SRs supported the whites in the civil war, the left supported the reds; others
supported neither side. SRs included Alexander Kerensky and Victor Chernov. The
First duma:

The liberals hoped for more power in the first duma but these hopes were dashed even before
the duma was presented because of the fundamental laws, and the tsarist regime recovering
slightly from the 1905 revolution. Early in the year Russia negotiated a loan from France
meaning the government had tremendous financial independence. And the monarchies power
was enforced by the fundamental laws meaning left-wing groups decided to boycott the first
set of elections, meaning the first duma was dominated by liberals and reformist parties.
(BOYCOTTED BY BOLSHEVIKS, SRS)

Nicholas closed the duma down after two months ( it demanded further political reform,
including land reform and the release of political prisoners.) and a group of Kadets and
Trudoviks set up an unofficial meeting in Finland and wanted the Russian people to stop
paying taxes in an effort to make the Tsar keep his original promises. The Tsar appointed
Peter Stolypin as chief minister to sort out the trouble that followed

The second Duma February - June 1907

The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries all abandoned their
policies of boycotting elections to the Duma, and consequently won a number of seats. The
Kadets found themselves outnumbered two-to-one by their more radical counterparts.

On June 1, 1907, Prime Minister Stolypin accused social-democrats in preparation of armed

uprising and demanded to exclude 55 social-democrats from Duma sessions and strip 16 of
them from parliamentary immunity. When this ultimatum was rejected by the Duma, it was
dissolved on 3 June by an imperial decree

The Tsar was unwilling to be rid of the system of the State Duma, despite the problems.
Instead, using emergency powers, Stolypin and the Tsar changed the electoral law and gave
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" and in the process
breaking his own Fundamental Laws

The third Duma November 1907 - June 1912

Stolypin changed the electoral laws so that only one in six men had the right the vote, and
peasants and industrial workers were virtually forbidden to vote. The result was that the third
and fourth Dumas were dominated by right wing supporters of the regime.

The Duma lasted a full five years and succeeded in 200 pieces of legislation and voting on
2500 bills. Due to its more noble, and Great Russian composition, the third Duma, like the
first, was also given a nickname, "The Duma of the Lords and Lackeys" or "The Master's
Duma". The Octobrist party were the largest, with around one-third of all the deputies

Fourth Duma:
The Fourth Duma was written under the same terms as the Third Duma. The reactionaries
and the nationalists were still in the majority but there had been an increase in the number of
radicals (Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks) elected.

Soon after the outbreak of the First World War the Duma voted to support Nicholas II and his
government. When the Bolshevik deputies voted against the government on this issue, they
were arrested, had their property confiscated and sent to Siberia.

Members of the Duma, including its leader, Michael Rodzianko, became increasingly critical
of the way Nicholas II was managing the war. In 1916 Rodzianko tried to persuade the
government to introduce reforms and to appoint a Duma government. In February, 1917, he
sent a series of telegrams explaining the dangers of revolution.

After the Tsar's abdication in March, 1917, Michael Rodzianko, helped form the Provisional
Government led by George Lvov. The Duma was closed down after the Bolshevik
Revolution in October, 1917

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS TO 1914

- Stolypin had restored order in the countryside

- Est. court martials to dealw /political crimes (cases had to finish in 2 days & accused
was not allowed defence - deaths sentence carried out in a day) - 3000 convicted and
arrest 1906-9
- Agrarian situation improving
- Dumas weakened to point of meaninglessness
- Opposition was weakened (police & IA)
- Only party favoured was UofRP - reinforced mystical bond between tsar and people
- Rasputin debuted/ nicholas’ failure to take action, damaged tsars’ reputation
w/nobility & civil servants and army officers & orthodox bishops

SUMMARY:

● As a result of the events of Bloody Sunday, it would be fair to say that the tsarist
regime had, in some respects, modernised along Western Lines by 1914. The
introduction of the Dumas, together with the economic policies of Witte and Stolypin,
all marked major advances. However, Nicholas II had never fully appreciated the
Social and political consequences of economic modernisation. while he wanted
Russia to be a 20th century power that could compete with the west, he himself
disliked Western civilization and preferred to look back to the old Muscovite
traditions. His autocracy was reactionary, oppressive and hats were still, inefficient.
the people of Russia became more and more urban, more educated and more
 politicised, he strives to maintain 17th century autocracy of the dynasty's founder
Romanov.
2.8 THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIA TO 1914

It was hoped that agrarian reform would reduce demand for labour in the countryside, hence
increasing urbanisation as people flooded into the towns and cities looking for work.
However, a strike at the Lena gold fields in 1912 emphasised that there was still a great deal
of discontent. POST THIS STRIKES BECAME MORE POLITICAL + IN RESPONSE
TO POLITICAL DISCONTENT RATHER THAN ABOUT MONEY
Hundreds of the protesters were killed by army and police. It was clear that opposition to the
Tsarist state was again on the increase.
- RAILWAY TRACKAGE DOUBLED - linked grain-growing areas/ opened up
russia’s interior & allowed more extensive exploitation for russia’s raw materials
- Stimulus for development 0of iron
- & coal
- Permitted development of new industries along rail network
- TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY: industrial & psychological boost
- 2nd largest railway in world 1913
- Witte - introduced new rouble (strengthened currency)
- Main areas of industry were baltic coat, baku coalfields, krivoi rog etc.
- Heavy industry increased considerably. The production of iron and steel rose by 50
per cent and by the outbreak of World War One, Russia was the fourth largest
producer of steel, coal and iron. (183 million in 1890 - 671 million 1900)
- 1913: russia was self sufficient & able to compete w/usa on int. level (2nd world in oil
production)
- Indst. Growth of 8.5% p/a
- Comparative growth: 1894-1913 Italy 121% Russia 50%
- Foreign trade in 1913 £ millions - GBR 1,223 Russia 190

AGARIAN REFORMS

Stolypin wanted to reform agriculture in order to modernise Russia and make it more
competitive with other European powers.
He hoped that reorganising the land would increase support for the Tsar among unskilled
farmhands.
- Instead of collective of scattered strips, peasants should have one whole land
This would reduce the threat of the Social Revolutionaries. Stolypin believed the key to
success was to increase the number of peasant landowners, which would result in a more
invested peasantry. (KULAKS)
Redemption Payments (loans from the state) were abolished. Loans for peasants to buy land
became available with the introduction of Peasants' Land Banks.

Mirs (communities of peasant farmers) could no longer stop individuals from leaving to buy
private land. Mirs that did not cooperate were to be dissolved. Peasants were also given
financial incentives to move to remote areas of Siberia in an attempt to open up the
countryside.
Siberia became prosperous in grain + dairy BUT ONLY 3.7 million peasants of 97
million actually emigrated
Agricultural output increased by a third, while peasant land ownership increased by 30 per
cent. The number of Kadets increased dramatically and they were increasingly supportive of
the Tsar.

● Stolypin: needed 20 years of peace for reforms to have large effect - war prevented,
but legislation encourage land transfers & development of larger farms
● Hereditary ownership of land: 20% 1905 - 50% 1915
● Grain production rose annually from 56 million tons in 1900 = 90 million in 1914
● 1909: Russia - world’s leading grain exporter

FAILURES
➔ 1913: 1.⅗ million applications for consolidation of farms had been dealt with
➔ 1914: 10% of land transferred from communal to private ownership
➔ 1914: 90% of peasant holdings were still in traditional strips w/conservative peasants
reluctant to give them up traditional practices & security of mir
➔ Landowners reluctant to give up land & division of land often brought legal battles
➔ 50% of land remained in hands of nobility
➔ Fewer than one per cent achieved kulak status, and many were forced to leave their
farms and join the bands of migrant workers where working and living conditions
were even worse.

2.9 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS TO 1914

DEVELOPMENTS IN WORKING AND LIVING CONDITIONS

- 2 million factory workers by 1900 - six million by 1913
- 1867-1917 urban pop. quadrupled 7-28 million
- In Russia's major cities, the arrival of new factories swelled the urban population, and
by 1913, 6 million urban factory workers were living in cities. By 1914, 3 out of 4
people settled in St Petersburg were peasants by birth.
- Facilities to provide for growing urban class were grossly inadequate
 - Workers lived in barrack-like conditions - dangerously overcrowded and lacked
sanitation
- ST PETERSBURG - 40% of houses had no running water/sewage system - piled
excrement in backyards (30l died of cholera 1908-9)
- High rents - those who couldn’t afford lived rough/ in the factories
- Women earned less than half the average indst. wage
- Wages did not keep up w/inflation price
- Working hours reduced to ten hours by 1914
- 85% rise in primary school provision by 194 & govt promoted uni’s
- Investment in education was less than indst. - 55% of people went into full time
education by 1914
- It was easy for towns and cities to become breeding places for political discontent
which was evidenced by the fact that strikes were now caused because of political
frustration rather than economic or social matters. The Government chose to repress
the strikes instead of addressing them which led to the murder of 270 workers and
injury of 250 in 1912 at the Lena Goldfields when workers striked for better wages
and conditions.

DEVELOPMENTS IN WORKING AND LIVING CONDITIONS IN THE

COUNTRYSIDE

● Gap between richest and poorest grew - kulaks

● Poorest peasants life grew harder - many became migrant labourers/ minority
migrated to siberia (only 3.5 million of 97 million peasants were able to)
● Govt scheme was inadequate to relieve pressure
● Living standards varied across the country - areas in baltic & western siberia more
prosperous
● Continuation of nobles landowning & backward farming in russian heartland
○ Areas of bolshevik support in 1917/prosperous on counter revolution
○ Areas of former state peasants tended to be better off post emancipation
(granted more land)
○ Mortality rates in russia were higher than any other european country
○ Topo few doctors for rural population
○ Lack of teachers
○ 1914: 60% illiteracy
○ Peasantry remained bottom of social ladder
○ Loyalty to church and tsar remained

NOBILITY
● Some fell post emancipation but some thrived on arrangement of land/involvement in
enterprise/military connections/serving in Govt. office
 ● ⅓ transferred to townsmen/peasants between 1861-1905 some nobles struggled to pay
debts & failed to understand modern money management , investment for the future
& the need to adjust living standards.
● No redistributive tax on wealthy = incomes not attacked = no change from traditional
life
● Nicholas wanted to encourage noble influence in the zemstva
● Regularly appointed to provincial governorships
● Each district had a noble assembly which met once a year
● MAY 1906 first meeting of ‘united nobility’ took place- nobles determined to retain
property rights and tra. Interest in face of change
● Strength & determination of class
● Some noblemen found adjustments necessary, most retained much of previous wealth
and status

THE MIDDLE CLASSES

● Traditional structure of nobles merchants clergy & peasantry was challenged by new
emerging middle classes - expanded as pace of economic change quickened
● New business & professional men were able to assure comfortable lives for
themselves & offspring
● Nobles’ sons chose to join the business world/ peasant stock rose through hard work
to join ranks of middle management & w/in a generation become factory proprietors
● Group grew as a force as management & professional position became more in
demand in increasingly complex industrialising society
● w/in industrialising regions & and in development of Russia's infrastructure, there
were plenty of opportunities for enterprising
● Growth of education & demand for more administrators also fuelled a growing
middle class
● Growing middle classes found their natural home on the councils of the zemstva & in
the town & state dumas where they exerted an influence beyond their size

WORKERS AND PEASANTRY

● Population growth & economic development most affected the workers & the
peasantry
● Countryside was where social developments were taking place
● Most peasant protest pre-1914 was the result of traditional grievances (failed
harvest/unfair land allocation)
● Slow process of awakening peasantry from inertia to political activism was underway
by 1914/ although took conditions of war to complete the task
● Urban areas: form peasants alienated from their families & roots gradually lost
something of former identity & associated w/others who loved & worked in close
proximity sharing grievances
● Became an easy target for the political agitators
One of the gravest mistakes of the tsarist government was failure to respond effectively to
effects of social change in the cities - from the large & discontented urban working class that
the impetus to overthrow the regime in 19197 would eventually come

CULTURE CHANGES
Government increased the expenditure of education from 5 million roubles in 1896 to over 82
million by 1914 meant that more people were becoming literate and contributed to the
increasing influence of the middle classes. The relaxation of censorship and subsequent
increase in literary texts helped Russian culture to diversify beyond just the intelligentsia as
now more people were beginning to become educated and have their own opinions.

Patriarchal structure remained unchanged; women found greater independence through

factory work
- DECEMBER 1908: All-Russian Congress of Women was attended by 1035 delegates

During the Romanov Tercentenary in 1913, it was outlined in a speech made by the Tsar that
while the celebrations had been designed to reaffirm thoughts of 'reverence and popular
support for autocracy', the underlying theme displayed an urge to retreat 'to the past, hoping it
would save them from the future'.

SUMMARY:
● The years 1894 to 1914 brought social changes in both the towns and the countryside.
While it was not always obvious at the time, changes in the position of the middle
classes, workers and peasants in particular were to have political consequences during
the war years. Culturally, there was some ‘modernist’ experimentation, which clashed
with an in-built traditionalism. In 1914, Russia was a society of contrasts but the ‘old
ways’ of seeing to be swept aside but coming of War.

2.10 OPPOSITION: IDEAS AND IDEOLOGIES

Liberals
The provincial Zemstvas were often highly critical of Tsarist policies. They cited famine and
industrial stagnation as major problems that the government was responsible for.
The lack of power they had to influence decision-making at a national level also frustrated
them. They wanted the introduction of a state Duma (Parliament) which would advise the
Tsar.
The Union of Liberation was formed in St Petersburg in 1904 under the guidance of Liberal
politician Peter Struve. The Union pushed for a constitutional monarchy with
enfranchisement (the right to vote) for all men. - believed that Russia needed a period of
peaceful 3 volution to adapt to new industrialising status
- Struve wanted to see constitutional system put in place - urban workers can campaign
to improve their own conditions
 - 1905: grand meeting held - members declared their intention to work for
establishment of constitutional govt
- Contributed to momentum that was building up for political change

- Nobles like Prince Lvov wanted national assembly even though tsar said it was a
senseless dream
- Ban of ‘All-Zemstvo Organisation’ in 1896 encouraged more radical liberals to est.
Beseda Symposium in 1899 to meet in secret and discuss matters of liberal interest -
judicial reform & universal education
- 1900: dismissal of hundredds of liberals from zemstva, Beseda Symposium assumed
leadership of liberal movement; atgtracting support frompublic figures, town leaders,
mombers oif legal & tecahers & indutrialists

Social Revolutionaries
The Socialist Revolutionaries adopted a combination of Marxist and Populist beliefs. They
wanted to overthrow the government in favour of giving power to the peasants.
Although they were greatly uncoordinated in their efforts, they carried out approximately
2,000 political assassinations in the years leading up to the 1905 Revolution.
- Most influential theorist: Viktor Chernov
- Fairly loose org
- Wide variety of views
- Wanted redistributing of land
- Concept of land coalition rather than land nationalisation set them apart from the pure
Marxists
- Wide national base w/large peasant membership
- 50% of supporters from urban working class
- Maintained killing campaign over following years until secret police foiled activities
and infiltrated them
- 1905-9: 4579 SR’s killed
development of Marxism
From the 1880s, Marxist ideas began to spread through Russia. Based on the theories of the
German economist Karl Marx, they proposed that the proletariat - the underclass of society -
would rise up in rebellion and seize power from the wealthy ruling class and establish a fairer
society.

Social Democrats
Social Democrat beliefs were based on Marxism. They did not consider that the peasants
would rise in revolution. They focused on agitation amongst the workers in the cities. -
working class are exploited by masters and future of Russia = class struggle/impetus for
change came from working class
the group split in 1903 after an ideological disagreement. The Mensheviks, led by Martov,
wanted revolution by the workers to occur naturally. The Bolsheviks led by Lenin, believed
revolution should come as soon as possible.
- Won vote in favour of a more centralised party structure
 - Then claimed that his supporters were the maj when opponents dubbed minority
(Mensheviks is minority in russian and bolshevik maj)
- Next few years there was continued rivalry and arguing
- 1906 - effectively two separate parties
Although not directly involved in the 1905 revolution, these revolutionary groups had been
able to help spread strikes and protests throughout the Empire. 

TRADE UNIONS
- After legalisation of trade unions in 05, a reduction in discontent was expected
through better employer-employee relationship
- Despite reforms fish as the 1912 insurance law, the state continued to fear
independent work class activity and in particular the potential for revolutionaries to
work through the trade unions
- 497 tu closed down
- 604 denied registration 06-10
- Unions that survived were mainly unions of the better paid male skilled workers in
metal trades
- POST 1907 - economic depression and rise in unemployment & clampdown of
opportunity for political action
- LENA GOLDFIELDS - new impetus/new round of strikes ensued
- Tu activity mainly confined to St Petersburg and surrounding area where ¾ of strikes
took place
- Demonstrated failure to pacify working class
- Bitter resistance of employees and repressive measures to strikes added to anger and
opposing

BUT
- Danger to autocracy of the pre war movement was less than it seemed
- Geographically limited
- Only 12% of enterprises experienced strikes
- even general strike in St Petersburg in 1914 only brought out a ¼ of total labour force

OTHER OPPOSITION GROUPS

- Moderate liberal opposition appeased by tsarist concessions in 1905-6 and tried to
cooperate with duma system to further constitutional change
- No single strong opp fro, nationalities post 05
- Apart from Poles and finns no one wanted outright independence
- Ukrainians and belorussians had a combo of assimilation and repression which had
some success
- SR & SD weakened by exile of leaders in 05
- Damaging split in SD
- Rivalry between SD & SR
- Ideological divisions w/in party and disagreement over appropriate reps one to 05 rev
and how the parties should make use of the legal opportunities to work in and through
the duma
- Secret police were v good at infiltrating and smashing revolutionary cells
 - Industrial depression post 07, lack of finance and shortage of secret printing presses
made organisation difficult
- None of exiled leaders could hold control over parties in Russia
- Membership declined and neither SD’s nor SR’s succeeded in establishing national
regional or even city organisations
- At best they maintained ungrounded organisations in individual factories and
workshops - leaders were local labour activists
- Local revolutionaries cooperated irrespective of ideological differences
- Revival of bolshevik 12-14 when they took of Mensheviks holdings in petersburg and
moscow and secure 6 workers deputies in elections for the 4th duma
- Pravda (their newspaper) enjoyed more circulation than Menshevik paper
- But growing support of bolshevik ideas was limited
- SR boycott helped them to secure deputies in 4th duma
- Had no success w/army or navy
- Nothing came of promise to launch general political strike/ provoke street
demonstrations and recreate a soviet of workers deputies

- Pre 1914 - opposition in Russia appeared weakened and demoralised

- Most workers were politically apathetic
- Trade unions failed to have popular base
- Labour protest contained by repression and minimal concession
- Coming of War diminished support for action as a patriotic fervour swept through all
political groupings save for Bolsheviks
- Lenin wanted defeat - though it would bring Russia closer to revolution
2.11 POLITICAL AUTHORITY, OPPOSITION AND THE STATE OF RUSSIAN
WARFARE

The tsar’s decision to go war in 1914 was initially a popular one supported by a wave of anti-
german sentiment // strike activity ceased & extremists were arrested for a lack of patriotism

Duma dissolved itself - didn’t want to burden country with unnecessary politics in war time

St Petersburg became Petrograd (St. was too germanic sounding) & vast army readily
assembled

Spirit of victory dampened when initial victories gave way - 1914 – Defeat at Tannenberg;
300,000 dead
- Defeat at masurian lake forced russian army into temp.retreat from east prussia

SOON CLEAR THAT THE WAR WOULD NOT END IN A QUICK VICTORY AS
HOPED & REPORTS MILITARY INCOMPETENCE INFLAMED DISCONTENT IN
CAPITAL

WARTIME GOVERNMENT AND ORGANISATION

JULY 1914 - est of ‘military zones’ where all civilian authority was suspended & military
assumed command
 - Opposed by liberal zemstva who regarded govt as insensitive to needs of the people
believed citizens had major part in running the war
- E.g 1914 ban of alcohol (peasants made their own vodka)

Zemstva est ‘Union of Zemstva’ to provide medical facilities forgotten by state

- Congress of Representatives of Industry and Business est from factory and business
owners to help coordinate production

ALL-RUSSIAN UNION OF ZEMSTVA AND CITIES (ZEMGOR) - chaired by Prince

Lvov & claimed the right to help the Tsar in the war effort

BUT

Never allowed and direct influence and soon turned into a liberal focus for sdictonent

N II blamed it for starting trouble

•August 1915 Kadets, Octobrists, Progressives and even nationalists in the Duma formed
‘progressive bloc’ demanding reform
- Demanded Tsar change ministers and est a ‘government of public confidence’
- Asking for a constitutional monarchy but N was not ready

SEPTEMBER 1915: suspension of Duma sittings and remained closed until jan 17 -
unauthorised meetings continued

SEPTEMBER 1915: Nicholas made the decision to appoint himself Commander-in-Chief of

the Russian Army and Navy and relocate himself to the frontline in Eastern Russia, extremely
far from the Capital in St Petersburg. While this move was meant to be a showing of
Nicholas' bravery and heroism, it did not help his cause as Nicholas had already lost the
confidence of the Russian General Staff and did not possess the military experience to turn
the war around. Instead, his new position had the effect of making the Tsar appear more
responsible for the disasters accosted to his troops and the State while distancing himself
even more from the developments in Petrograd.

When Nicholas left Petrograd in 1915, Rasputin began to take on a more authoritative role in
governing Russia, while the Tsarina who was German, was accused of deliberately
sabotaging the war effort. With Nicholas gone, the Tsarina and Rasputin became the figures
to look to which was particularly offensive to some who disliked Rasputin for his ‘peasant’
upbringing and had heard of the rumours circulating that Tsarina and Rasputin were engaged
in an affair. Nicholas had been told of these rumours but was unwilling to remove Rasputin,
which added to the growing dislike of the Tsar. This was heightened by the fact that Nicholas
seemed more concerned with the illnesses of his children than ‘young boys and girls running
about screaming that they have no bread’ as he wrote in a letter to Alexandra and was
convinced that ‘this will all pass and quieten down’.
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS CREATED BY WAR

MILITARY DEFEATS & INTERNAL PROBLEMS

1914, Russia suffered a lot of military defeats mainly because of the unreadiness of the
Russian army
- poor conditions that soldiers fought in, shortages and low morale.
- Although the Russian government managed to mobilise around 15 million between
1914-17, it possessed considerably fewer arms for a militia that size and was,
therefore, unable to provide for them.
- The problems of the initial war outbreak grew worse as the war grew on as soldiers
went to fight not only without weapons, essential clothing and proper fitting or
waterproof footwear.
- In some cases, soldiers had to fight barefoot because of poor redistribution of
clothes. It was also not uncommon to find that many soldiers caught diseases from
the cold and some dead bodies that lay in the trenches uncollected of whom
weapons had to be collected from to fight at all.
- In 1914, there were only two rifles for every three soldiers, and in 1915, it was not
unusual for the artillery to only fire 2 or 3 shells a day which is not effective when
trying to fight a war.
- By the end of 1916, morale in the army had plummeted, heavy casualties and a
deteriorating economic and political situation led to 1.5 million desertions that year.
- In 1916, the recruitment drive meant that though armament manufacture improved in
1916 when production quadrupled, it was at the expense of civilians who had already
become impoverished by low prices the Government paid for food and the scarcity of
everyday household goods.
THE OPPOSITION TO THE AUTOCRACY AND THE POLITICAL COLLAPSE OF
FEBRUARY/MARCH 1917

MONDAY 14 FEBRUARY
100,00 workers from 58 factories go on strike in Petrograd
Bread rations on 1 March leads to round the clock and violent exchanges
Police who try to keep control are attacked

WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY
20,000 workers from Putilov works strike

THURSDAY 23 FEBRUARY INT. WOMEN’S DAY

International Women’s day march swelled by striking workers and militant students. 200,000
demonstrations for bread reform
- 90,000 strike and 50 factories close

FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY
200,000 on strike/ crowds overrun tsarist statues
Red communist red flags
Wear red rosettes
Shout revolutionary slogans calling for end to tsardom
Sing ‘la marseillaise’

SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY
250,000 ppl = ½ workforce on strike & Petrograd = virtual standstill
Almost all maj. Factories & shops close
No newspapers
No pub. Transport
Violence escalates as Police Chief Shalfeev is dragged from horse, beaten & shot
A band of civilians killed on Nevsky Prospekt
Some Cossacks refuse to attack a procession of strokers when ordered

SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY
Duma President Rodzianko sends Tsar a telegram “the capital is in a state of anarchy, the
government is paralysed..food and fuel supplies are completely disorganised..there is wild
shooting in the stress..it is urgent that someone enjoying the confidence of the country be
entrusted with the formation of a new government’

Tsar writes in diary ‘fat-bellied Rodzianko has written some nonsense to which I shall not
even bother to reply’ - tells Duma to stop meeting
MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY
Tsar orders Maj.General Khabalov to restore order by military force - 40 demonstrators are
killed
Mutiny begins in Volynskii regiment, sergeant shoots his commanding officer dead
66,000 soldiers mutiny & join the protestors - arming them w/40k rifles
Police hq’s attacked & prisons opened
Duma holds meeting & sets up 12 man provisional committee to take over the Gov
Army’s high command which ordered troops to march to capital & restore stability, the order
them to halt and give support to Duma committee
Revolutionaries set up the Petrograd soviet = intended to take over Govt and begins to
organise food supplies for the city

TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY
N leaves military hq to head back to Petrograd
Sends telegram to Rodzianko offering to share power w/Duma - replies w/”the measures
you propose are too late. The time has gone. There is no return”

PETROGRAD SOVIET
Each regiment (soldiers & navy seals) should elect committees & send reps to the soviet.
The ‘order No.1) - charter of soldiers’ rights was produced & promised
All units to elect a deputy to the soviet & agree to political control of Petrograd Soviet
Military Commission of the Duma to be obeyed only; if agreed w/soviet’s order
All weapons to be controlled by elected soldiers’ committees - not officers
Akk soldiers to enjoy full citizens right when off duty e.g no req to salute/stand to attention
No honorific titles to be used for officers - only Mr General, Mr Colonel etc
Officers are not to address soldiers in the ‘ty’ form like ‘tu’ in french (used to address
children, pets & serfs’

NII never returned to petrograd -n train was diverted by rebellious railway workers & forced
to stoop as Pskov, 200 miles south of destination
Was put under pressure by General alekseev toregin
Had been told on March 1 that Petrograd Soviet would accept a provisional Govt. formed by
members of the Duma & suggested that the Tsar resigned for son Alexei to come through &
younger bro Mikhail to act as regent

MARCH 2 - NII agreed to demands but named younger brother Mikhail as new Tsar
(Alexei’s poor health) - Mikhail was not consulted
Added that mikhail should lead the country ‘in complete union w/the reps of the people in the
legislative bodies on principles to be est. by them & to take an inviolable oath to this effect’
By the time members of Duma committee reached Pskov on March 2, terms of abdication
had already been agreed, although in the event Mikhail refused the offer of the throne

Tsar &family were placed under house arrest as well as most of Council of Minister. = the
end of the Romanov dynasty

THE DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIA UNDER THE DUAL POWER OF 1917

The Provisional Government

The Provisional Government (PG) met in the Tauride Palace (Where the Duma used to meet).
It was lead by Prince L’vov as Prime Minister; “all we did was exchange a Tsar with a
Prince”. The PG consisted of:
Prince L’vov (No party) - PM
Milyukov (Kadets) – Foreign Affairs
Guchkov (Octobrist) – War and Navy
Kerensky (Trudovik) – Justice

Supposed to be temporary & elections soon as possible for a new constituent assembly that
would draw up a new Russian constitution by old tsarist civil service, army officers & police

The Petrograd Soviet

The Petrograd Soviet (PS) was formed from Industrial workers, Soldiers and Sailors. They
issued ‘Order Number 1’ on March 1st 1917 to protect the rights and freedoms of the workers
and armed forces. Soldiers and Sailors only had to obey orders if the PS agreed with the
decisions of the PG/State Duma. Alexander Kerensky was a member of both the PG and PS
and served as a link between the two, leading to him being popular and well-liked by both
executive bodies. The PS controlled the railways, the Army and Navy, the power supplies,
factories and the Petrograd telegraph station.

During the initial ‘honeymoon period’ in which the PG and PS worked together after the
revolution of February 1917, many Tsarist ministers were arrested and imprisoned, the Police
were told to ‘disband themselves’ as well as the Okhrana, the PG introduced total political
and religious amnesty as well as abolishing capital punishment and establishing freedom of
speech and the free press. The PG also promised elections for a constituent assembly as well
as much needed land reform and redistribution. Regarding the war, the PG adopted a policy
of Revolutionary Defencism which meant continuing the war on the defence in order not to
lose any more land.

Dual authorities issued decrees allowing: -civil liberty (for civilians and soldiers) –abolition
for political, military and religious prisoners –abolition of capital punishment and exile –
appointment of independent judges –self government for army –disbanding of secret police
and censorship –imprisonment of tsarist officials.
- Allowed freedom of religion & press
- Abolished death penalty
- Replaced tsarist police force w/people's militia

Workers’ strikes and military detentions continued

Peasant disturbances affected 34 districts in March 17 ------> 325 July
Anti-war demonstrations in Petrograd forcing Milyukov & Guchkov to resign following
announcement of ‘just peace’ in APRIL 17
- Replaced by socialists from the soviet
- CHERNOV - Minister of Agriculture
- KERENSKY - Minister of War

JULY 1917 - Lvov replaced by kerensky as chairman

- Changes alarmed upper class (govt had failed to maintain order, property/win the war)

‘JULY DAYS’ -street riots, exacerbated fears

KORNILOV AFFAIR
- Kornilov ordered troops to march on petrograd - intending to crush the soviet & est a
military dictatorship
- Coup failed when Kerensky who at first had support of Kornilov, panicked & released
imprisoned Bolshevik leaders and armed them to halt Kornilov’s advances

SUMMER 17: little support left for PG

- Food supplies chaotic in towns
- 8 hour day did not do much to alleviate pressure - real wages fell in 17 as prices rose
- JAN 17 - prices 300% of 1914 levels -------> OCT 755%
- Right of factory owners to dismiss workers who went on strike confirmed
- Meetings of factory committees during work hours forbidden
- Continuation of war and govt failure to redist land lost it support in country side
- Electoral commission est in May to arrange elections for Nov, suspicion that the
‘bourgeois’ govt was deliberately delaying a move to greater democracy to order to
preserve its own power was rife
- BOLSHEVIKS benefitted most from this theory
- Govt claimed it was issue to be left until after russia had democratic assembly
- Peasants took matters into their own hands & seized land anyway

2.12 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT

LENIN’S RETURN AND THE GROWTH OF BOLSHEVIK SUPPORT

Lenin was in exile in Switzerland in 1917. he heard about the overthrow of the Tsar and
returned to Russia to reshape its future. The provisional government could not stop him
because they agreed on political amnesty and abolition of exile as punishment. Lenin was a
Bolshevik and a key supporter of Marxism. Lenin wanted all power to the soviets and an end
to the cooperation with the provisional government. Lenin worked hard to make the
Bolsheviks the minority party in the soviet to the majority party.
He issued the April Theses on his train journey back to Russia.
The Germans provided Lenin and other Bolsheviks a sealed train so that they could travel
back to Russia. The Germans hoped Lenin would hinder war effort.
The theses stated:
-All land to be relocated to the Peasants.
–An end to the war
–all power to the soviets.
‘peace, bread and land’ was a slogan commonly used by Lenin
The theses was based on Marxist ideas and Lenin’s own beliefs. They stated what Russian
people wanted to hear which helped Lenin to gain mass support.

REACTION to the reappearance was mixed:

- Some bolsheviks feared Lenin had grown out of touch and that radical proposals
would do more harm than good
- Allegations that Lenin was in pay of the germans |(partly true)
Mensheviks feared Lenin would undermine what they had been doing and by stirring
up discontent would provoke a right-wing reaction
- Thought Lenin's call to oppose PG was unrealistic (Bolsheviks had 26k members and
still a minority)
- Bolsheviks were internally divided over whether to cooperate w/OG or not (Stalin
did)

Lenin gradually built support w/speeches : claimed credit for what was happening.
APRIL: Lenin had wqo over the maj of the central committee of the bolshevik party by sheer
force of personality

‘All-Russian Congress of Soviets’ first meeting in Petrograd 3 JUNE - passed a vote of

confidence in PG by 543 to 126

Lenin won a key adherent when Trotsky threw weight behind Bolsheviks at the beginning of
July

Kerensky’s determination to continue war played into Bolshevik’ hands - although

frustrations & disappointments of works/soldiers/sailors resulted in July Day rioting

By July Lenin had been joined by Trotsky. An armed riot broke out by soldiers, Kronstadt
sailors and factory workers in Petrograd on 3rd-4th July which attracted some Bolshevik
followers. The provisional government used troops to break up the protest. Prominent
Bolsheviks like Trotsky were arrested and Lenin escaped to Finland.
- Troops loyal to soviet dispersed cwod & soviet newspaper Izvestia denounced role of
Bolsheviks (Lenin was working for Germans & against interests of Russia)

Pravda closed, & bolshevik propaganda burnt// Lenin’s reputation fell

When Kerensky replaced Prince Lvov as PM - it appeared Bolshevik moment had passed
Cause was saved by Kornilov affair - Bolsheviks able to bask in reputation of having being
the only group that opposed Kornilov// Lenin sent orders from Finland urging followers to
keep up pressure & committees to save the revolution est throughout country

Bolsheviks elected in increased #’s in urban Russia and Duma elections is moscow - support
increased by 164%

FEBRUARY 23k ----------> OCTOBER 200k

OCTOBER: Party producing 41 newspapers & 10k red guards in capitals factories

SEPTEMBER: Bolsheviks won maj. in PS// control of Moscow Soviet put them in powerful
position

BOLSHEVIKS were not tight organised/disciplined group at this time - went along w/events
rather than org them

MID-SEPT Lenin (still in Finland) bombarded central committee of Bolshevik party

w/demands to stage revolution & seize power

Grigorri Zinoviev & Lev Kamenev said no fearing Russia was not yet economically ready for
revolution/urged restraint & burned Lenin's letter

12 SEPTEMBER: Lenin wrote claiming that ‘history will not forgive us if we do not assume
power now’ - 3 days later committee voted against coup

Zinoviev & Kamenev believe they should not act before results of the Constituent Assembly
elections were known

TROTSKY: should work w/PS & wait fro Congress of Soviets in Oct.
- Believed they could win the support of all socialist parties for a society govt w/out
violence

THE BOLSHEVIK SEIZURE OF POWER, OCTOBER 1917

•Lenin returns secretly to Petrograd in October and demands another vote. They won 10 to 2.
Lenin appeases them by convincing them that ‘history would never forgive them’ if they did
not stage the revolution. Kerensky fearing uprise orders ‘disloyal’ troops to leave Petrograd.
•The Bolsheviks become the main party in Petrograd soviets. Trotsky was elected chairman
of the soviet. They set up Military revolutionary committee (MRC) under Trotsky. It
controlled the defence for Petrograd.
•Kerensky orders the arrest of MRC leaders and close Bolshevik party paper
•MRC gain control over red guards, Petrograd, Peter and Paul fortress Garrisons and
Kronstadt sailors. Lenin issues statement ‘the Provisional Government is no more and all
power has been passed to the Soviets.
•8000 red guards and Kronstadt sailors seize key positions like post office, bridges, railways
etc.. Kerensky flees to the front disguising himself as a nurse to bring troops and defeat
Bolsheviks
•25th October: Warship Aurora fires at winter palace and Bolshevik attack begins. The palace
is defended by women and cadets. At 2.00pm the Provisional government are captures and 6
people die in the attack.
•October 26th the second ‘all Russian congress of soviets’ held its first session. Lenin would
head up a new Governing committee who would form Sovnarkom (cabinet of important
ministers)
•Trotsky taunts Lenin and leaves claiming the revolution was a coup. Bolsheviks had 390
representatives.
• Lenin issues a decree calling for peace and land was the property of the people.

THE CONSOLIDATION OF BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT OCTOBER-

DECEMBER 1917

26 OCTOBER 1917 - 670 delegates arrived for Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets
- Bolshevik actions not universally approved
- Zinoviev & Kamenev spoke out against coup
- Irakli Tsereteli, Menshevik leader predicted Bolshevik power would last not longer
than 3 weeks
- SR were split: left congratulated Lenin, right accused him of using violence to seize
power illegally
- 500 voted in favour of a socialist govt, Mensheviks & right wing SRs dismayed to
find the maj of estas for new exec went to Bolsheviks & extreme left wing SRs
- ‘Moderates’ walked out of congress (left wing SR & Bolshevik coalition) - Trotsky
told them they were in the ‘dustbin of history’

The Bolsheviks establish Sovnarkom (new government)

- Comprised of Bolsheviks & include one female commisar ‘Alexandra Kollontai’

LENIN’S DECREES
Divorce and abortions were permitted. Education was open to workers and there was a drive
for literacy and education. The working class was also greatly encouraged to go to university.
The NEP was introduced as a result of the devastating effects of the famine in 1921. Labour
resources were geared up to the war effort through the militarization of labour. Workers were
expected to focus on producing goods that would be essential to winning the war. Decrees
passed included; the decree on peace, civil marriage and divorce made easier, institute for the
protection of mothers and children formed, commissariat of public education took education
out of the hands of the Church. All titles were abolished – everyone was a ‘comrade’ –
signified an attempt to establish equality in Russia a traditionally socialist principle.
The Decree on Peace outlined measures for Russia's withdrawal from the First World War
without "payment of indemnities or annexations". This decree aimed to secure the support of
many soldiers on the disintegrating Russian front. The sincerity of this Bolshevik assurance
came under scrutiny when V.L Lenin endorsed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which divested
Russia of its Baltic territory.
The Decree on Land outlined measures by which the peasants were to divide up rural land
among themselves. It advocated the forceful dissolution of many wealthy estates by peasant
forces. Such measures no doubt contributed to an increase in Bolshevik support amongst the
peasantry, but were counterproductive in that the Russian war front disintegrated as soldiers
(who were formerly peasants) returned to secure land for themselves.
The Workers' Decrees outlined measures for minimum wage, limitations on workers' hours,
and the running of factories by elected workers' committees. This consolidated Bolshevik
support amongst the working classes in the cities, where they had taken power.
NATIONALITY DECREE - self-determination to peoples of former Russian Empire
(Finland became ind. State & Ukraine got an elected parlia)

OUTLAW OF SEX DISCRIMINATION & gave women the right to own property

THE SUPPRESSION OF OPPOSITION TO THE BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT,

OCTOBER-DECEMBER 1917

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CONTROL

Bolshevik position precarious//support limited
- Civil; servants refused to serve under them & bankers refused to provide finance
- Took 10 days to persuade sarare bank to hand over reserves & then only under threat
of armed intervention

After departure Kerensky set up HQ at Gatchina & org an army of 18 cossack regiments & a
small force of SR cadets & officers
- Against this threat, Bolsheviks looked weak
- Many of petrograd garrison and return home to country and Lenin had no direct
contact w/ troops at the front - forces were smaller compared to opponents
10 days of fighting followed but soon Kerensky’s troops defected (persuaded by Bolshevik
agitators). Revolution was a success.
- Fight between those loyal to PG & BOLSHEVIKS
- Fight was heavy around Kremlin & many muscovites were scared to leave homes
- KIEV: strong resistance to bolshevik control// railway & communications workers
went on strike to protest against emergence of one party govt
- Forced Lenin to agree to inter-party talks & revolution is saved

END OF THE YEAR: Bolsheviks dominated major towns and railways although large areas
of countryside were still outside control - It would take 4 years of civil war before
communists claim victory and military control.
Lenin’s promise to consider coalition w/other socialist parties was barely fufilled - only went
as far to allowing left wing SR’s to join Sovnarkom in DEC & made clear to them they had to
follow Bolshevik lead

OTHER MEANS OF COMBATTING OPPOSITION

Lenin moved quickly to ensure Bolshevik control, his method included :
- A propaganda campaign against political and ‘class’ enemies particularly bourgeoisie
- Closure of anti-bolshevik newspapers
- Purge of civil service
- Est of ‘all-Russian Commission for the Suppression of Counter-Revolutionary,
Sabotage and Speculation’ in DECEMBER 17 (more often known as Cheka)
- Leading kadets (right wing SR’s) and Mensheviks were rounded up & imprisoned in
December

Lenin’s consolidation of control was so efficient that opponents could only pin their hopes on
his promise of a constituent assembly
- ELECTIONS BEGAN IN NOV
- 41.7 MILLION TURNOUT
- Sr’s won the most seats
- Many votes cast w/out full understanding of political situation in petrograd
- Lenin was appalled - ‘we must not be deceived by the election figures elections prove
nothing’
- Said constituent assembly was a remnant of bourgeois parliamentary democracy & to
accept would be a step back
- Constituent Assembly was allowed to meet for one day only (5th JAN 1918) after
which Lenin dissolved it
- Lenin believed Bolsheviks understood needs of proletariat more than themselves

MAXIM GORKY: Lenin had ‘a ruthless contempt, worthy of an aristocrat, for the lives of
ordinary individuals’

ROSA LUXEMBURG - revolutionary ‘feared that Lenin’s policy had brought about, not the
dictatorship of the working classes over the middle classes, which he approved of, but the
dictatorship of the communist party over the working classes’