RUSSIA: Analysing the Leaders, Events and Ideas of the Russian Revolution

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RUSSIA Analysing the Leaders, Events and Ideas
of the Russian Revolution

• Nick Frigo, Santa Maria College/Education
  Consultant
• . . . I just found the most amazing information
  about Lenin. Did you know what Kerensky did
  after the revolution? How was Rasputin
  killed?The ideas, leaders and movements of the
  Russian Revolution abound in rich content, the
  challenge is balancing the amount of material,
  the student 'interest' level and building student
  preparedness for the exam. During the session
  Nick will explore a range of visual and written
  primary sources relevant to the first Outcome for
  Unit 3 and strategies for scaffolding student
  learning.

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Advice to students

• Key Historical Terminology
• Leader Profiles
• Chronology of events
• Document and image analysis
• Overview of revolutionary groups
• Note taking grid
• Date/Event-Leader-Group/Factual/Primary/Secondary
• Historiography

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Ideas

• Autocracy
• Marxism
• Socialism
• Leninism

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Show me . . .
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The Social Revolutionaries

• Secondary Evidence
• The SRs also belief that peasants were crucial
  to revolution made them a primary political party
  of rural Russia. Malone
• Lynch emphasises the two differing groups within
  the SRs, Left social Revolutionaries wanted to
  continue the policy of terrorism inherited from
  The Peoples Will. In contrast to, The Right
  Social Revolutionaries, the more moderate members
  believed in revolution as the ultimate goal, but
  were prepared to work with other parties for
  immediate improvement in the conditions of the
  workers and peasants Lynch

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The Social Revolutionaries

• Secondary Evidence
• Referring to the Socialist Revolutionaries, they
  believed that Societies only had two classes
  The exploited or toilers and the exploiters
  those who earned their livelihood and those who
  lived off the labour of others. Richard Pipes.
  
• The SRs alsodemanded greater political
  liberty, an eight hour day in factories and
  villages, and a constituent assembly representing
  the whole people and entrusted them with the task
  of working out a new political system for the
  Empire. Lionel Kochan

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The Kadets

• Secondary Evidence
• The government under the old regime was, of
  course, incapable of grasping and sharing these
  ideas of the liberating character Milyukovs
  speech from Kadets newspaper in 1917.
• The Kadets were the party of the liberal
  intelligentsia, containing progressive landlords,
  the smaller industrial entrepreneurs and members
  of the professions. - Lynch
• Backwardness of Russia, and tradition of lack of
  initiative from below, made Russian Liberalism
  weak. - John Hitte

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The Octobrists

• Secondary Evidence
• They were a group which had accepted the
  October manifesto as a signal to halt the
  opposition to the tsar A J Koutsoukis
• They may not have wanted the overthrow of
  Tsardom, but they were very willing to point out
  its failings. - Lynch.
• Moderates sought to use the manifesto as a
  basis for the peaceful reconstruction of Russia
  Graeme Gill

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Mensheviks

• Secondary Evidence
• Martov believed that behind Lenins tactics was
  a fierce determination to become dictator of the
  party. - Lynch
• It was in their mutual interests to campaign for
  the dismantling of the despotic state and the
  establishment of a democracy. Orlando Figes
• It was the Mensheviks (as opposed to the
  Bolsheviks) who were closely monitored by the
  Okhrana as the major revolutionary threat. -
  Malone

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Revolutionary Leader - Lenin
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Revolutionary Leader - Kerensky
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Revolutionary Leader Father Gapon
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• (1) Bernard Pares, a British academic, was a
  regular visitor to Russia during the reign of
  Nicholas II.
• Gapon's organization was based on a
  representation of one person for every thousand
  workers. He planned a peaceful demonstration in
  the form of a march to the Winter Palace,
  carrying church banners and singing religious and
  national songs. Owing to the idiocy of the
  military authorities, the crowd was met with
  rifle fire both at the outskirts of the city and
  the palace square. The actual victims, as
  certified by a public commission of lawyers of
  the Opposition, was approximately 150 killed and
  200 wounded and as all who had taken a leading
  part in the procession were then expelled from
  the capital, the news was circulated all over the
  Empire.

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• (2) Father George Gapon, letter to Nicholas II
  (21st January, 1905)
• The people believe in thee. They have made up
  their minds to gather at the Winter Palace
  tomorrow at 2 p.m. to lay their needs before
  thee. Do not fear anything. Stand tomorrow before
  the party and accept our humblest petition. I,
  the representative of the workingmen, and my
  comrades, guarantee the inviolability of thy
  person.

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• (3) Nicholas II, diary entry (21st January, 1917)
• Since yesterday all the factories and workshops
  in St. Petersburg have been on strike. Troops
  have been brought in from the surroundings to
  strengthen the garrison. The workers have
  conducted themselves calmly hitherto. Their
  number is estimated at 120,000. At the head of
  the workers' union some priest - socialist Gapon.
  Mirsky came in the evening with a report of the
  measures taken.

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• (4) Extract from the petition that Father George
  Gapon hoped to present to Nicholas II on 22nd
  January, 1905.
• We workers, our children, our wives and our old,
  helpless parents have come, Lord, to seek truth
  and protection from you. We are impoverished and
  oppressed, unbearable work is imposed on us, we
  are despised and not recognized as human beings.
  We are treated as slaves, who must bear their
  fate and be silent. We have suffered terrible
  things, but we are pressed ever deeper into the
  abyss of poverty, ignorance and lack of rights.

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Gapon The Story of My Life (1905)

• Suddenly the company of Cossacks galloped rapidly
  towards us with drawn swords. So, then, it was to
  be a massacre after all! There was no time for
  consideration, for making plans, or giving
  orders. A cry of alarm arose as the Cossacks came
  down upon us. Our front ranks broke before them,
  opening to right and left, and down the lane the
  soldiers drove their horses, striking on both
  sides. I saw the swords lifted and falling, the
  men, women and children dropping to the earth
  like logs of wood, while moans, curses and shouts
  filled the air.

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Gapon The Story of My Life (1905)

• An old man named Lavrentiev, who was carrying the
  Tsar's portrait, had been one of the first
  victims. Another old man caught the portrait as
  it fell from his hands and carried it till he too
  was killed by the next volley. With his last gasp
  the old man said "I may die, but I will see the
  Tsar".

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Gapon The Story of My Life (1905)

• At last the firing ceased. I stood up with a few
  others who remained uninjured and looked down at
  the bodies that lay prostrate around me. Horror
  crept into my heart. The thought flashed through
  my mind, And this is the work of our Little
  Father, the Tsar". Perhaps the anger saved me,
  for now I knew in very truth that a new chapter
  was opened in the book of history of our people.

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• (8) Victor Serge, Year One of the Russian
  Revolution (1930)
• Gapon is a remarkable character. He seems to have
  believed sincerely in the possibility of
  reconciling the true interests of the workers
  with the authorities' good intentions. At any
  rate it was he who organized the movement to
  petition the Tsar which ended with the massacre
  of 22 January, 1905. The petition of the workers
  of St. Petersburg on Nicholas II, drafted by
  Gapon and endorsed by tens of thousands of
  proletarians, was both a lugubrious entreaty and
  a daring set of demands . . . From all quarters
  of the capital the petitioners, carrying icons
  and singing hymns, set off marching through the
  snow, late on a January morning, to see their
  "little father, the Tsar". - cont.

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• (8) Victor Serge, Year One of the Russian
  Revolution (1930) cont . . .
• At every cross-road armed ambushes were waiting
  for them. The soldiers machine-gunned them down
  and the Cossacks charged them. "Treat them like
  rebels" had been the Emperor's command. The
  outcome of the day was several hundred dead and
  as many wounded. This stupid and criminal
  repression detonated the first Russian
  revolution.

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Revolutionary Leader? Rasputin
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Lenin Rediscovered?

• Exploration of political ideas.
• Lenins work What is to be done? 1901-2
• In What Is to Be Done?, Lenin argues that the
  working class will not spontaneously become
  political simply by fighting economic battles
  with employers over wages, working hours and the
  like. To convert the working class to Marxism,
  Lenin argues that Marxists should form a
  political party, or vanguard Marxism, Lenin
  argues that Marxists should form a political
  party, or vanguard, of dedicated
  revolutionaries to spread Marxist political ideas
  among the workers.

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Lenin Rediscovered?

• Lenins attitude towards the workers . . .
• Lenins concerns about how to motivate and
  mobilise the workers . . .
• Lenin and the impact of producing a newspaper . .
  .