Emergence - weakness of political system

Question 1

what kind of rule was there in Russia?

Answer 1

absolutist monarchy
autocracy

Question 2

what wasn’t there? [5]

Answer 2

no national elections
no parliament
no political parties
no trade unions
no free press

Question 3

what did the Tsar believe to be best?
what did he believe in?

Answer 3

Autocracy - key to maintaining order
believed in Divine Right of Kings

Question 4

define: Divine Right of Kings

Answer 4

appointed by and accountable to God
doesn’t share power

Question 5

political opposition - Liberals
why were they angry?
what did they want?

Answer 5

educated classes hoping for change after abolishment of serfdom were disappointed
zemstva reform (1864) - introduced local self-government - Alexander II then removed it
wanted to pressurise monarchy into conceding an elected assembly

Question 6

political opposition - Revolutionaries
who?
what did they want?

Answer 6

Populists & Social Revolutionaries (SR)
Marxists
wanted to overthrow the monarchy entirely

Question 7

Populists / SR - date?
aim?
when was SR founded? - led by?
aims?

Answer 7

19th century / 20th century
aimed at a peasant revolution - transfer of land from monarchy/nobility to peasant masses
1901 - Victor Chernov
campaigned for universal suffrage & peasant revolution

Question 8

Marxists - date
aims
when was the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party formed

Answer 8

1883 onwards
sought to transform Russia by means of a revolution of the proletariat
1898 - Lenin was one of the founders

Question 9

were the Marxists a united party?

Answer 9

No - very argumentative
split between economists [better conditions for workers]
and revolutionaries [social revolution]

Question 10

how did the Marxist party split

when?
how popular were they?

Answer 10

between Bolsheviks - led by Lenin
and Mensheviks - led by Julius Martov
1903 - at a congress in Brussels & London
both of them remained tiny until outbreak of WWI

Question 11

Peasants rising - March 1902
scale?
location
how many were affected?
duration?
resolution?

Answer 11

SR were involved
large-scale peasant revolt
in Poltava and Kharkov provinces (now part of Ukraine)
174 communes with 38,000 peasants
lasted about two weeks
suppressed only with the help of several army detachments