Resistance and Reform, 191114

1
Resistance and Reform, 1911-14

• Describe the relationship between
• authority and lower classes.
• Was there mounting political
• and social strain in this period?

2
Key Questions

• Minister of the Interior Nikolai Makarov asserted
  to the State Duma "Thus it has always been and
  thus it will always be." (1912).
• Was repression in Russia any different in the
  period 1906-1917?

3
Summary

• .The people can be heard talking of the
  government in the sharpest and most unbridled
  terms.
• (Okhrana Report, 1912)
• .The daily blindness of the tsars government
  was daily driving people closer to revolution..
  
• (Guchkov)

4
Resources

• Oxley, p.72-77
• Lynch (3rd Ed), 48-49.

5
Lena Goldfields

• The Lena massacre or Lena execution refers to
  the shooting of striking goldfield workers by
  Russia's tsarist army on 17 April 1912 in
  northeast Siberia near the Lena River.
• (It has been suggested that Vladimir Ulyanov
  adopted his more popular alias after the river
  Lena Lenin after this event).

6
Ministers of State 1911-1914

• 1911 assassination of Stolypin.
• 1911-94 ministers characterised by ineptitude
  and lack of political imagination.
• Repression tactics part cause, part effect, part
  drama and disproportion.
• Number of strikes called political
• 1911 24
• 1914 2401

7
Impact

• Lena Goldfields 4/4/192 shook Russian society and
  rekindled the revolutionary and workers'
  movements after the post - 1905 repression.
• February 1912 protest over generally poor
  conditions, higher pay and a shorter working day.
• 4,000 workers arrived in April and police and
  army officers ordered the soldiers to open fire.
• Firestorm of protest against the government,
  including in the press and in the State Duma.
• Accusation collusion between state and company
  officials
• On a scale not seen since 1905, strikes broke out
  all over Russia and did not cease until the
  out-break of World War I.

8
Typical Question

• How far do you agree that Nicholas IIs failures
  after 1911 that were the main cause of the
  collapse of Tsardom in 1917?