The Russian RevolutionPart I

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The Russian Revolution-Part I
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What was life like in Russia between 1890 and
1900?Discuss for three minutes at your
table.Be prepared to share your
thoughts/discussion.
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A few of my thoughts

• Tsarist autocracy-the population was granted no
  voice in the government.
• No constitution or parliament
• At 14 million men, Russia had the largest
  standing army in the world.
• Upper classes became Westernized
• 4/5, or 80, of the population were peasants,
  living in village communes called mirs.

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Russias Goal

• Russia wanted to find a new way to be modern
  without being capitalistic or European.
• Russification forcible assimilation to Russian
  culture.
• Tsar Alexander III dreamed of building a Holy
  Russia

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The Industrial Revolution

• Began in the 1880s in Russia
• Backed by European capital
• Railway mileage doubled, communication increased
• Industrial working class grew out of the
  peasantry
• Unions were illegal and strikes were prohibited.

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Tsar Nicholas II
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Tsar Nicholas II

• Had limited intelligence and a weak will
• Compensated for his short comings with occasional
  outbursts of stubbornness
• Insisted on preserving an outdated political
  regime in the face of mounting opposition from
  the countrys educated elite.

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The Romanov Family
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Tsarina Alexandra

• Alexandra Fedorovna
• A native of Germany and the granddaughter of
  Queen Victoria
• Aware of her husbands weaknesses, she constantly
  badgered him to be a true autocrat like Peter the
  Great.
• Without her influence, Nicholas might have
  yielded to pressure and agreed to be a
  ceremonial monarch, which may have averted the
  Revolution.

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The Intelligentsia

• The term applies to intellectuals who want power
  in order to change the world.
• Professional managers of the revolution
• The radical Intelligentsia claims to know better
  what the people need than they themselves do
• Instead of sitting around and thinking,
  Intelligentsia became politically active and put
  their thoughts into practice

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Political Thoughts and Parties Emerge

• The Constitutional Democratic Party
  liberals/progressives-who recognized the need for
  a nationally elected parliament. The majority of
  Russias professional people would affiliate
  themselves with this party.
• From this party, emerged the Menshevik faction,
  which at the time was lead by Lenin. Lenin was
  most concerned with workers-he believed that they
  were content being reformist rather than
  revolutionary. They required full time
  revolutionary inspiration.

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Socialists-Revolutionaries

• Carried out active propaganda and agitation in
  villages.
• Abolition of private property and transfer
  ownership to communes
• SRs principal activity was political terror.
  The main target of the this terror was the
  Tsarist regime.

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A Split Occurs

• The Russian Marxists held a party congress in
  Brussels and London in 1903.
• Hoping to unite the party, it is split
• Bolsheviks-Led by Lenin (who returned from exile)
  and believed in radical world-wide revolution
• Mensheviks-Believed Russia was not yet ready for
  Revolution.
• By 1912, the split would be complete.

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A quote from the text

• Leninism accomplished the marriage of Russian
  revolutionary traditions with the Western
  doctrine of Marxism. It was an improbable
  marriage, whose momentous offspring was to be
  communism.

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The Russo-Japanese War

• Caused by the rivalry for control in Manchuria
  (China) and Korea
• Russia entered into an agreement with China to
  build the Trans-Siberian railroad to Vladivostok
• On Feb. 8th, 1904 the Japanese launched a
  surprise attack on Fort Arthur, fighting
  continues for a year--Russia lacks reinforcements
  and the Japanese navy is superior.

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Russo-Japanese War Cont.

• The treaty to end the war was signed on Sept.
  5th, 1905 in Portsmouth New Hampshire.
• Teddy Roosevelt wins the Nobel Prize for helping
  to negotiate peace between the two nations.
• Manchuria was returned to China, Japan recognized
  and given control of Korea and Port Arthur.
• Japan becomes the first Asia power to defeat a
  European power in the modern times.

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Revolution of 1905

• Propaganda of liberal revolutionary parties
• Embarrassment by the loss to Japan earlier in the
  year
• Father Gapon was allowed to meet with factory
  workers to listen to grievances and counter the
  propaganda.

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Father Gapon
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Bloody Sunday

• Workers drew up a petition
• 8 hour working day, increase in pay and better
  working conditions.
• January 22nd, 1905 approx. 200,000 unarmed
  people peacefully marched on the Winter Palace in
  St. Petersburg.
• The Tsar was not in the city and officials were
  afraid and began to shoot the demonstrators.

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Bloody Sunday Cont

• About 200 people are killed, 800 wounded
• In October 1905, the workers declared a general
  strike.
• With the government paralyzed and no other
  choice, Tsar Nicholas issues the October
  Manifesto, which he really has no intention of
  following.

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Document Review

• Lenin Speech 1902
• Workers Petition
• Media Reports of Bloody Sunday
• October Manifesto
• At your table, please read and discuss the
  documents. Please analyze each using O, P, V,L
  in your notebooks.
• Be prepared to share your results from each
  document.

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Results of 1905

• What happened because of Bloody Sunday?
• The first and second Dumas (Parliament) are
  established
• Stolypin Reforms and Policies chosen by the
  Second Duma, Stolypin felt total devotion to the
  monarchy. However, he also realized that Russia
  could no longer be governed in the same manner.

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Stolypin Reforms

• Became Minister of the Interior in 1906
• One of his earliest tasks was to quell the terror
  the SRs were causing (they had murdered close to
  4,500 officials).
• Allowed peasants to take land out of the communes
  for private ownership.
• The more successful Stolypin was, the less he was
  needed and the more intense the monarchs
  antagonism grew towards him.

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Stolypin-assassinated in Sept. of 1911 at an
opera in Kiev.
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A teaser for Part II of the Russian Revolution.
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Rasputin
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Lenin
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Trotsky
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Stalin