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The 1905 Russian Revolution. Nicholas II: The Last Romanov Tsar [r. 1894-1917]. The Tsar & His Family. Hemophilia & the Tsarevich. Nicholas II & His Uncle, George V. THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM The state, militarized and costly, heavily exploited society (especially the peasantry)
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THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM The state, militarized and costly, heavily exploited society (especially the peasantry) The political system was autocratic-patrimonial, with the monarch being the supreme owner of the country and the sole source of sovereignty The church was subservient to the state Real power in the state was held by massive and corrupt bureaucracy Individual rights and liberties were severely curbed
Society had no legal means of influencing government policies – the people had an impact on the state either by obedience to it or by resistance to it (passive or active) • Market economy and private ownership had limited potential for development • When reforms became overdue, the state acted as the main agent of change, usually with limited effect
Russia’s 19th century: • The apex of expansion – and the lag behind the West • The pressures for change • The reforms of Alexander II • Development of capitalism vs. • Political modernization Capitalism was creating new classes, new issues, new conflicts – and the state was expected to evolve to be able to deal with them. But the Russian state was not up to the task. It was not part of the solution, it was the source of additional problems
2. First Stages of Industrialization An Early Russian Factory
3. Weak Economy 1905 Russian Rubles
4. Extensive Foreign Investments & Influence Building the Trans-Siberian RR[Economic benefits only in a few regions.]
5. Russo-Japanese War [1904-1905] The “Yellow Peril”
Treaty of Portsmouth [NH] - 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt Acts as the Peacemaker [He gets the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.]
6. Unrest Among the Peasants & Urban Working Poor Father Georgi Gapon:Leader of the People OR Police Informer?
Cunny or Sincere • "Gapon had certain peasant cunning, but was politically illiterate, and his personal tastes were rather inappropriate for either a revolutionary or a priest: he was unusually fond of gambling and drinking. Yet he became an object of a spirited competition among various branches of the radical movement.“ by Adam B. Ulam • "Gapon is a remarkable character. He seems to have believed sincerely in the possibility of reconciling the true interests of the workers with the authorities' good intentions". • Victor Serge
Bloody SundayJanuary 22, 1905 The Czar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
Petition • i) An 8-hour day and freedom to organize trade unions. • (ii) Improved working conditions, free medical aid, higher wages for women workers. • (iii) Elections to be held for a constituent assembly by universal, equal and secret suffrage. • (iv) Freedom of speech, press, association and religion. • (v) An end to the war with Japan.
The 1905-07 Revolution • January 1905 • Defeats of the Russian army and navy in war with Japan trigger off discontent over socioeconomic conditions and lack of political rights • January 9: The Bloody Sunday • In St. Petersburg, 140,000 workers, led by George Gapon , march to the Royal Palace with a petition to the Tsar, asking for reforms • They are met with troops who fire on the crowds
January 9th, 1905: 200 killed, 800 wounded, the first victims of the Russian revolution
Classic confrontation between state and society • Repression backfires • Society revolts against the state, demanding: • Resolution of pressing social issues, such as land reform • Political freedoms • Accountable government • Peace
Participants: • Industrial workers • Peasants • Soldiers • Students • Intellectuals • Businessmen • Clergy • Non-Russian nationalities
Forms of struggle: • Demonstrations • Strikes, many of them political • Takeovers of farmland • Armed revolts • Mutinies in the armed forces • Political self-organization of civil society • Creation of political parties – from Left to Right • Creation of labour unions, independent professional associations, etc. • Creation of Soviets as new bodies of democratic government, challenging the autocratic state
Mutiny on battleship “Potemkin”, June 1905 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtfsxK3zMeU
Russian Cossacks Slaughter The People in Odessa Anti-Jewish Attacks
The government’s response • Peace with Japan • Repression • Reforms, beginning with the Tsar’s October 1905 Manifesto, granting political freedoms and parliamentary elections • By 1907, the revolution subsides • But no viable new form of state-society relations has been created • Stalemate • The Tsar is a reactionary, rejects democracy • The nobility is stuck in the old order • The capitalist class is too dependent on the state, too afraid to show initiative
The gap between the rulers and the ruled • Reforms stimulate radical protest • THE ATTRACTIONS OF SOCIALISM • When the state resorts to repression, that only makes the state-society gap even wider • Russia’s options: • A liberal-capitalist path: what it would require • An authoritarian-capitalist path: what it would require • A non-capitalist path
About Soviets • Later that month, Trotsky and other Mensheviks established the St. Petersburg Soviet. • On 26th October the first meeting of the Soviet took place in the Technological Institute. • It was attended by only forty delegates as most factories in the city had time to elect the representatives. • It published a statement that claimed: "In the next few days decisive events will take place in Russia, which will determine for many years the fate of the working class in Russia. • We must be fully prepared to cope with these events united through our common Soviet."
The Bolsheviks had little influence in the Soviets. • Lenin regarded this "undisciplined organism as a dangerous rival to the Party, a spontaneous proletarian assembly which a small group of 'professional revolutionists' would not be able to control.” Lenin urged his supporter to become involved in the revolution. "It requires furious energy and more energy. I am appalled, truly appalled to see that more than half a year has been spent in talk about bombs - and not a single bomb has yet been made... Go to the youth. Organize at once and everywhere fighting brigades among students, and particularly among workers. Let them arm themselves immediately with whatever weapons they can obtain - a knife, a revolver, a kerosene-soaked rag for setting fires."
Alexandra Kollontai • What the Tsar did not realise was that "on that day he had killed something even greater, he had killed superstition, and the workers' faith that they could ever achieve justice from him. • From then on everything was different and new."
1. The Tsar’s October Manifesto October 30, 1905
On 22nd October, 1905, Sergei Witte sent a message to the Tsar: • "The present movement for freedom is not of new birth. Its roots are imbedded in centuries of Russian history. Freedom must become the slogan of the government. No other possibility for the salvation of the state exists. The march of historical progress cannot be halted. The idea of civil liberty will triumph if not through reform then by the path of revolution. The government must be ready to proceed along constitutional lines. The government must sincerely and openly strive for the well-being of the state and not endeavour to protect this or that type of government. There is no alternative. The government must either place itself at the head of the movement which has gripped the country or it must relinquish it to the elementary forces to tear it to pieces."
2. The Opening of the Duma:Possible Reforms? 1906 • The first two tries were too radical. • The third duma was elected by the richest people in Russia in 1907.
The Russian Constitution of 1906 • Known as the Fundamental Laws [April 23, 1906]. • The autocracy of the Russian Tsar was declared. • The Tsar was supreme over the law, the church, and the Duma. • It confirmed the basic human rights granted by the October Manifesto, BUT made them subordinate to the supremacy of the law.
