1.6) 1905-1917 Flashcards
What did an engineering worker want from the 1905 revolution?
- 8 hour work days
- Better working conditions
- Better wages
What allowed the Tsar to survive the revolution?
- Loyalty of the army
- The October manifesto
What are the Fundamental Laws?
- Passed in April 1906
- The laws asserted the Tsars dominance over the Duma; the Tsar had any right to close the Duma and overrule it at any point
- Russification
- Tsar controlled zemstvas
- More influence to townspeople
When did the 1917 Revolution begin and what happened?
- **7th March **in Petrograd 40,000 workers an engineering fatory striked for higher wages. The next day was international women’s day and thousands of women joined the strikes
- 2 days later thousands more had joined and protested everything they were upset with e.g food
How did the Tsar repsond to the revolution?
- Tsar ordered strikes to be ended by force, Rodzianko, leader of the Duma sent a telegram saying the situation was at a cricis point
- The Tsar ignored him
How did the Army respond?
- 12th March soldiers in Petrograd refused to fire at the crowds
- Some regiments shot their officers and joined the strikes
- The soldiers and the strikers marched to the Duma to demand it take control
How did the Tsar respond to the Army’s response?
- Nicholas tried to return but it was too late
- Railway workers refused his train entry into Russia
- On the train the Tsar abdicated 15th March 1917
- Nicholas tried to pass the throne to his brother Alexis but people had had enough of the monarchy
What was the peasants land bank?
- Created by Stolypin
- A system where peasants could buy land from less productive peasants and add it to their land
- It was supposed to create a class of prosperous land-owning peasants, loyal to the govt
- it did and these were called kulaks
Why did the peasants land bank fail?
- The outbreak of war interrupted Stolypin’s reforms
- This lead to poorer peasants having to sell their land and roam the country looking for work
- 4 million peasants were encouraged to buy land along the Trans-Siberian railway. But returned home angry as all the good land had been taken by the rich
Why did Stolypin’s failures lead to revolution?
- The peasants were angered, and Stolypin lost their support
- Therefore the majority of Russia was ready for revolution
What economic change was there in the cities?
- Russia became the 4th highest global producer of coal, pig iron, and steel
- 40% of workers worked in a factory with thousands of workers. Factories became more efficient but strikes more likely
- Conditions and wages did not improve
What was the Lena goldfield massacre?
- In 1912 a strike in the lena goldfields in Siberia was protesting poor conditions, low wages, and long hours. It lasted 14 hours
- Troops were sent, 170 peasants died and 375 wounded
- this opened the floodgates for more worker protests
What were the Dumas?
Russian parliament, controlled by the Tsar
What were the successes of the Dumas?
- 1st and 2nd dumas were very radical and demanded change (were shut down by the Tsar)
- 3rd Duma more conservative and critical of the govt. But did improve army and insurance for workers
- 4th Duma showed Tsar’s acceptance of Dumas, but then war broke out
What were the failures of the Dumas?
- Fundamental laws proved the Dumas were empty promises and only a figure head
- The Tsar could dissolve Duma at any time
- Dumas could not pass laws oo appoint ministers and could not control finance
- Elections favoured nobles
How did the Tsar aproach order and control?
- Terrorist action in countryside
- Stolypin appointed as minister
- There were the Okhrana (secret police) everywhere
- Everyone had to carry passports and travellers had to check in with the police
- Censorship tightened, newspapers frequently fined and had white boxes over articles
What was Stolypin like?
- Tough
- He set up military courts that could sentence and hang a person on the spot
- He hung thousads of people, which became known as Stolypin’s necktie
What was the October manifesto?
- Signed on the 17th October 1905
- Introduced fundamental laws
- Those who couldnt vote could participate in the Duma
- Laws in the Duma had to be approved
- Elected Duma representatives had to supervise the govt affairs
How did the people recieve the October Manifesto?
- It appeased liberals
- upset the right wing (began to attack Jews and intellectuals)
- More strikes and threats of revolution
Who was Rasputin?
- Rumours he had wild drunken parties and orgies, and seduced women with his hypnotic powers.
- Rasputin Seduced Several Noblewomen of the Russian Empire. he was rarely sober, and when he did
- (In June of 1914, a beggar womanstabbed him, he made a full recovery, even though he was close to death.
- After ingesting poison Rasputin only died to a gunshot to the head)
What was the relationship between the Tsar and Rasputin?
- In 1907, Rasputin saved the Tsar’s only son from dying.
- Then it was runoured that the Tsarina an extremely holy women, had an affair with Rasputin.
- It was thought Rasputin had the Tsar wrapped around his finger.
What effect did Rasputin’s relationship with the Tsars have?
- The influence of Rasputin worried the govt as they believed he was controlling the tsarina.
- The tsarians relationship with Rasputin lost the people’s trust, as she was thought to be a cheating German
- Rasputin was seen to be making the monarchy unstable and a symbol of corruption
What were the effects of WW1 on Russia?
- Very little moral in the war. There was initial success against the Austrians, but Russians beaten badly by the Germans at Tannenberg and the Masurian lakes.
- Over 1 million soldiers were killed, wounded or taken as a POW by 1914. By March 1917, this number rose to 8 million
- All the damage caused was blamed on the officers who were ineffective, which only worsened as the war continued.
What were the effects of the war on Russian homes?
- There was food shortages. As millions of male peasants were drafted, so there were less people working on farms
- Many factories began to close, resulting in a lack of coal and fuel being produced, meaning people going cold and hungry.
- Prices of goods rose while worker’s wages did not. Workers were asked to work more hours making matters even worse.
- Factories closed leading to high unemployment and greater poverty
How does the Tsar respond to the War?
- Nicholas II went to the front line, in September 1915.
- Putting the Tsarina in charge, she ran the everyday duties of the Tsar.
- Nobody liked her and nobody trusted her
- Her close relationship with Rasputin also contributed to the collapse of her reputation, as it seemed he ruled the government
How did the Tsarina rule?
- The population disliked her as she was opposed to the Dumas
- She dismissed able ministers and replaced them with ‘our men’, meaning men who would do what they told, or friends of Rasputin.
- There were many changes of ministers which meant that nobody was organising food, fuel and other supplies
- The railway system fell into a state of chaos, and trainloads of food were left to rot