The Decline and Fall of the Romanov Dynasty

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The Decline and Fall of the Romanov Dynasty
Nicholas II

• Case Study
• Modern History Preliminary Course
• By
• S.Angelo
• History Head Teacher
• East Hills Girls Technology High School
• 2007

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Tsar Nicholas II - Main Issues

• Wanted to maintain the autocracy for his heir
  Alexis
• Lacked the personality skills necessary to rule
  as an autocrat
• Weak, mediocre ministers often corrupt
• Forced to grant October Manifesto
• Failed to follow through with political reforms
• Failed to maintain support/confidence of elite

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Nicholas II Ascension 1894

• Alexander III, father of Nicholas, a powerful,
  domineering man, dies aged 49
• Nicholas ascends to the throne at the age of 26
• Marriage to Alexandra
• Belief in his divine right to rule
• Council members chosen by the Tsar
• Used repression to try to control opposition
• Pogroms against Jews commence

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Political Issues

• 1895 Lenin led a league aimed at the emancipation
  of the working class leading to a rapid growth
  in strikes
• Major political parties were dominated by the
  intelligentsia and not the peasants
• Aim of all revolutionary parties was to end the
  autocracy although each wanted a different
  outcome
• Minister for Education assassinated 1901
• Minister for the Interior assassinated 1902

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Economic Issues

• Program of economic modernisation
• needed to raise money to pay for the
  Trans-Siberian railway
• Grain continued to be exported even in the face
  of famines in 1897, 1898, 1901
• Taxes were collected when grain prices were at
  their lowest increasing the economic demands on
  the peasants
• Peasants had to seek work in urban centres
• Some peasants wanted an end to the redemption
  payments
• Some peasants wanted more land
• 1903 wave of strikes oil, rail, engineering
  industries

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Social Issues

• Industrial workers now formed a new class
• Conditions for these workers were appalling
• Overcrowding, dirty, unhygienic, dangerous
• Long hours
• Communes were disrupted when peasants had to seek
  work in towns
• Families became resentful and demanded reforms

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Economic Reforms

• Sergii Witte
• wanted an equalizing of class status between
  peasants and other classes
• Wanted to create a market class farmers who had
  the means to purchase manufactured goods
• Supported autocracy as the means of ruling such a
  diverse country
• Supported the modernisation of Russia
• Better education, civil liberties, better working
  conditions, efficient administration, rapid
  industrial growth

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Russo-Japanese War 1904 - 5

• War over the control of Manchuria and Korea
• Russia defeated
• Belief in supremacy of Russia shaken
• Autocracy undermined
• Strikes and demonstrations in St Petersburg

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1905 Revolution Bloody Sunday

• 8 January 1905 Putilov iron factory strike
• Led by Father Gregory Gapon
• 111, 000 workers involved
• 99, 000 women and children also marched
• Marched on Winter Palace
• Demands included reforms to working conditions
• Demonstrators were fired on and ridden down by
  mounted Cossacks with sabres
• About 130 people were killed and hundreds injured
• This destroyed the image of the Peoples
  Saviour

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Results of Bloody Sunday

• Spread of disturbances and revolts in Kursk the
  Volga
• About 50 of peasants in 16 provinces revolted
• Union of Unions formed alliance of
  professionals leader Milyukov
• 1st socialist Soviet (workers council) formed
• June Potemkin mutiny
• 10 other mutinies followed
• August an offer of an elected consultative
  council failed to stop the revolution
• 7 October first general strike
• 14 October - St Petersburg Soviet Leon Trotsky
  (Menshevik)
• 17 October October Manifesto framed by Witte,
  Prime Minister

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End of Presentation