80% of the polpulation were peasants, most were agricultural workers and
most lived in poverty in an already growing population. To make matters
worse, there were harvest failures and peasants reacted with extreme
violence, attacking government officials
The Tsarist regime was social and economic in origin. Both in industry
and in africulture, Russian peasants and workers faced the uncertainty of
poverty and poor living conditions, as a result of this continuous
resentment, demans for poltical change had a wiliing audience.
Political causes
By 1905 the demand for political reform was
growing rapidly, Russia was still an autocracy and
had no elected national parliament.
Liberals, lawyers and other profesionals wanted the Tsar
regime to share political power with a pariliament elected
by more wealthy members of the population
The social revolutionaries. This group was willing to use
violence to achieve their aims, they wanted to give political
power to the peasnts. They plotted thousands of
assasinations.
Another extreme group, the social democrats who wanted to
use revolution to achieve their aims. This group caused much
civil unrest because they wanted to give power to the workers
and peasants.
Immediate causes
The Russo-Japenese war. Russia aimed to
expand its empire and came into to conflict with
Japan, and Russia suffered a humiliating defeat
and this national humiliation helped to cause
major unrest against the government and
greatly undermimed support for the Tsars, the
fact they looked weak encouraged
revolutionaries to act aainst them.
Bloody sunday - this was a disaster for the
government and the Tsar. Peaceful protests turned
into a massacre by Tsarist roops firing on the
demonstrators. This greatly decresed the Tsar's
popularity and destroyed any existing trust between
the Tsar and his people
How did the revolution develope? These
results of the causes will help me
determine which cause had the most
impact.
Strikes - There was an outbreak of strikes by industrial workers, this was in response to
bloody sunday, this then developed into a far larger general strike - this led to the
government becoming seriously threatened. The railway workers went on strike, which
stopped troop movement to put down the strikes
Peasant uprisings - faced with
poor harvest and high taxes,
there were major peasant revolts
across Russia.
Mutinies - these occured in some
army units, these did not do much in
terms of affect, but gave the
rovolution publicity ans undermimed
the Tsars authority.
What were the most significant causes?
1. Bloody sunday - this caused absolute outrage from
many members of society, it gave fuel for strikers in
the Russian empire, providing them with sympathy for
the strikes. I think this was the most important cause
because this was the moment when people no longer
felt protected by the Tsar, there was no longer any
trust between the Tsar and his people which was the
greatest spark for the revolution.
2. Lack of political reform -
Russia was still an autocracy, with
the Tsar having complete and
total control over the country - this
was a primitive way of governing
a country compared to many
Euopean states. There was a
huge demand for reform, but the
fact that Russia's autocracy was
unable to proide it . The only
elected body was the Zemstva.
The people called for change -
and no change came.
3. The Russo-Japense war
- this was the point where
Russia ultimately stopped
being a great power, in
attempting to expand into
the east, they suffered a
nationaly humiliating defeat.
It also helped prolong the
revolution as many of the
events took place after the
revolution had begun.