Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Challenges to the
Romanovs 1881-1905
- Marxism
- Class struggle would lead
to the abolition of feudalism
(the emancipation of the
serfs was part of this)
- Industrialisation caused the
oppression of the workers.
Eventually they would rise up and
overthrow the capitalist
oppressors in a revolution
- Society would then move to
a new phase - socialism.
The state would be in
charge of everything, and
all social classes would be
abolished.
- Once classes had been
abolished, society would move
into its final and permanent
stage - communism
- Alexander III: 1881-1894
- He was more repressive than Alex II: he issued the
Temporary Regulations which gave provincial governors
and officials the power to imprison without trial.
- The Okhrana restricted the press and
monitored revolutionary and socialist
groups.
- Pobedonostsev's Views
- Nationality
- Promoted Russification to make Russia more Russian.
1885: Russian became the official language
- The rights of the Russian majority were put before those
of the minority groups. However, the Tsar didn't distinguish
between loyal/disloyal minority groups e.g. Poles/Muslims
- This increased opposition to Tsarism
from many different sections of society.
- Autocracy
- Alex III was determined to keep up the tradition of Tsarist autocracy.
1889: eleced Justices of the Peace were replaced by Land Captains
appointed by the Tsar
- Justices of the Peace could overrule
the zemstva and charge peasant
farmers with minor offences.
- 1890: the Tsar restricted the right
to vote for the zemstva in the
countryside. This gave the land
gentry even more power.
- Orthodoxy
- The rights and priveleges of the Russian
Orthodox Church were championed above
those of other beliefs.
- Primary schools came
under church control
- Effect on Jews
- Loss of Rights
- Jewish people weren't allowed
to become doctors or lawyers
and very few were admitted to
universities.
- Violence
- Over 200 organised violent
attacks called pogroms had
been carried out on Jewish
communities in Russia for a
long time. The attacks
increased under
Russification because they
were encouraged by the
government
- Jew Response
- Many Jews left the country
and resettled in Western
Europe and the USA. Others
formed a radical organisation
called the Bund, which worked
with the opposition parties in
the years before 1917
- Economic Change
- Bunge 1881-1887
- He created the Peasants' Land Bank to make it
easier for peasants to expand their land.
However, it was too small to be effective.
- Vyshnegradsky 1887-1892
- He encouraged foreign investment and increased
taxes to raise money. Foreigners were enticed with
incentives to help the small railway network
expansion and the heavy industry growth.
- Witte
- He was the most important finance minister of the period who
developed a policy of state intervention in the Russian economy.
- He focussed on railways and foreign investment.
- 1891: the Trans-Siberian
Railway was started. It opened
up the eastern empire and
advanced the growth of new
towns and cities. It was also
planned to link western Russia
with new industrial centres. A
new railway linked the oil
refineries of Baku to the Black
Sea port of Batum.
- 1897: Witte put the rouble on
the gold standard - guaranteeing
the currency's value. This
encouraged western countries
to invest in Russia's industry.
Foreign investment then
increased from roughly 200
million roubles in 1890 to approx
900 million roubles in 1900.
- Pros
- Heavy industry saw massive
increases in production,
especially of coal and iron
- Output from the Baku oil refineries
increased tenfold between 1883
and 1900
- The economy grew rapidly by an estimated 8% a year in the 1890s
- From 1906-1914, the
economy grew by 6% a year
- Cons
- The T-S Railway was only
partially finished by 1914
- The taxes put in place made
the peasants less likely to
spend on consumer goods.
- The government ran up
enormous debts.
- Witte didn't improve the state of
agricultural industry, even though taxes
on the peasants accounted for over 80%
of the government's income.
- Opposition to Tsarism
- Reasons
- Peasants
- Most were still paying the
redemption payments.
- The nobles had the best farms,
leaving the peasants with poor soil.
- Farming practices
hadn't evolved much
- Peasants couldn't leave
the mir without permission
- Urban Workers
- They earned barely
enough to survive.
- Factory hours were not regulated;
peasants were expected to work an
11.5 hour day under Witte.
- Heath and education was poor,
creating more social inequality.
- Life expectancy
was under 30 years
- Liberals
- They wanted the autocracy of the Tsars to be
replaced with a constitutional government.
- They formed the League of Liberation
which wanted a shorter working day,
more land and an elected parliament.
- Social Revolutionaries
- They wanted to redistribute
land to the peasants.
- They wanted to improve living and
working conditions in towns.
- They wanted to overthrow Tsarism by force.
- Social Democrats
- They followed the political beliefs of Karl Marx.
- They formed the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party which included members
who would later become the Bolsheviks, who supported Lenin and his ideas, and the
Mensheviks, who preferred a less disciplined and more democratic form of communism.
- Failure
- Most were too small and ineffective to achieve their aims.
- There were major divisions between the parties,
which made them less effective at opposing the
government.
- The political parties faced
constant harassment and
violence from the Okhrana
- 1905 Revolution
- Causes
- LT: Huge
pressures and
food supplies
and famine
was common.
- ST: Russia were humiliated in the
1904 Russo-Japanese War.
- ST: Bloody Sunday
- Sunday Jan 9th 1905, an Othodox Priest named
father Gapon led a peaceful march of 150,000
workers to the Winter Palace to present the Tsar
with a petition.
- Gapon petitioned for an end to
the Russo-Japanese War, fair
wages and and eight-hour working
day, and the election of a national
parliament.
- The Tsar wasn't there so the guards open fired at
the crowd, killing hundreds of unarmed people.
- Effects
- Around 1/2 a million people went on strike in
protest of the massacre. These affected the
railways so food couldn't be delivered.
- The peasants illegally took land from the landowners
- National minorities engaged in widespread protests.
- A St. Petersburg Soviet was elected to organise strikes and demonstrations
- LT: Poor sanitation
and water supplies
- Nicholas II
- Concessions
- In August 1905, he announced the
formation of an elected Duma (parliament).
Its only power was to advise the Tsar.
- This pleased no one and people went
on strike which brought the country to a
standstill.
- October Manifesto
- Nick published the
Manifesto on 17th
October 1905.
- It promised freedom of speech,
religion and a free press; an
elected Duma with acutal
authority; and an improved
Peasants' Land Bank.
- The Manifesto worked and strikes were called off.
Demonstrations in favour of the Tsar were held in St.
Petersburg. The St. Petersburg Soviet was dissolved.
A December uprising was easily crushed.
- The Manifesto also split the opposition to the Tsar as the
Liberals welcomed the Manifesto but the Bolsheviks,
Mensheviks and SR's remained hostile.