Modern History - 1905 Rev

Question 1

Nicholas 2nd ruled as an autocrat?
What does that mean?

Answer 1

There were absolutely no controls on his power.

Question 2

Why were peasant’s lives a reason for discontent in Russia in 1905?

Answer 2

• They were hungry for land
• Overtaxed
• Desperate poverty
• 85% of Russia’s population were peasants
• Growing population needed more land - too poor
• Famines in the 1890s and 1901 killed thousands

Question 3

Why was nationality a reason for discontent in Russia in 1905?

Answer 3

Russification - Russian policy that pressured people to speak the language and adopt their culture, despite only 44% of Russia’s population Russia by nationality.

(Leaving 56% discontented)

Question 4

Why were industrial worker’s lives a reason for discontent in Russia in 1905?

Answer 4

• Terrible (dangerous) working and living conditions
• Low pay
• Unemployment
• Long working hours

(Housing shortages - had to live in overcrowded dirty barracks where diseases spread rapidly)

Question 5

Why were radicals a reason for discontent in Russia in 1905?

Answer 5

They wanted the peasants or workers to take power for themselves

(Socialist Revolutionary Party and Bolsheviks)

Question 6

Why was the Police State a reason for discontent in Russia in 1905?

Answer 6

No one could feel free because the police were always watching

The courts and and police served the Tsarist Autocracy, not the people of the Russian empire

Question 7

Why were the Middle Classes a reason for discontent in Russia?

Answer 7

They wanted a say in how Russia was governed - had none

• Most of the Middle Class were liberals - wanted to see changes but frightened of SR groups (wanted to share everything)
• Wanted to replace the Tsarist regime with a constitution that guaranteed rights to everyone under a fair legal system

Question 8

What were the Socialist Revolutionary Party?

Answer 8

They believed that the Tsarist government deserved to be destroyed through violence.

• Believed in a revolution
• Thought the state should share wealth created by important industries among everyone (socialists)

Question 9

What was the Russian Democratic Party?

Answer 9

Believed in ideas of Karl Marx, with small membership, made up of the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks

Question 10

What set the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks apart?

Answer 10

Mensheviks believed that it would be a long time until Russia had industrialised enough to have a worker’s revolution
Bolsheviks believed in leading a revolution when the time seemed right. - Lead by Lenin (and other radicals)

Question 11

What were the (long term) reasons for discontent with Tsarist rule in 1905?

Answer 11

• Peasants and industrial worker’s lives
• Middle Class ignored
• Police State
• Radicals wanting change
• Nationality

Question 12

What were the immediate causes of the revolution?

Answer 12

• The Russo-Japanese War
  -Bloody Sunday

Question 13

When and where was Bloody Sunday?

Answer 13

St Petersburg on Sunday 9th January 1905

Question 14

What was Bloody Sunday?

Answer 14

It was a massacre of unarmed protestors (factory workers and their families), led by a priest Father Gapon who were bringing a petition to the Tsar

Question 15

What did the petition call for on Bloody Sunday and how many people had signed it?

Answer 15

The petition, signed by 150,000 people, called for:
- an 8-hour working day
- the right to organise trade unions
- for a constitution to guarantee these rights and other freedoms in law

Question 16

Why did Russia lose the Russo-Japanese War?

Answer 16

• Overconfidence (bigger empire)
• Old-fashioned military tactics
• Slow and inefficient ships

The Russian people blamed the Tsarist government for this embarrassing defeat

Question 17

When was the Potemkin Mutiny?

Answer 17

June 1905

Question 18

When was the Russo-Japanese War?

Answer 18

8th February 1904

Question 19

What were the events of the 1905 revolution?

Answer 19

• Potemkin Mutiny
• Peasants and workers
• General strike
• St Petersburg Soviet

Question 20

What were the effects of the 1905 revolution?

Answer 20

• October Manifesto
• Reppressions

Question 21

What caused the Potemkin Mutiny?

Answer 21

• Like the industrial workers, the sailors in the Russian navy faced very tough discipline and very poor conditions - maggots in meat for sailors.
• They believed it was wrong for officers to have complete control over the lives of ordinary sailors, just because they were from the upper classes
• The navy was also suffering from embarrassment from the Russo-Japanese War

Question 22

What happened during the Potemkin Mutiny in order?

Answer 22

1. After the sailors reported that the meat was full of maggots and told it was fine, the ship’s executive officer threatened to shoot anyone who refused to eat it
2. When the sailors continued to disobey orders, the officer shot one of the leading mutineers
3. This set off the Potemkin Mutiny
4. Other sailors killed the officer, and attacked the rest, taking control of the ship
5. The mutineers sailed Potemkin to the port of Odessa, where strikes and protests had been happening for several weeks
6. There were demonstrations in support of the mutiny and large crowds attended the funerals of sailor’s killed by the ship’s officers
7. Riots spread throughout the city
8. Nicholas ordered the army in Odessa to stop the riots.
9. They did by firing into the crowds. Over 1000 citizens were killed.

Question 23

How many citizens were killed at which port during the Potemkin mutiny?

Answer 23

1000 citizens were killed in Odessa

Question 24

What happened after the demonstrators shouted abuse at soldiers on Bloody Sunday and how many protestors were killed?

Answer 24

The soldiers fired two rounds of warning shots.
Mounted Cossacks (the regime’s elite troops) charged into the crowd, attacking with their whips and then with swords. The soldiers fired into the crowd.

Over 100 protestors were killed and hundreds more wounded.

Around the world, people were shocked by the massacre. In Russia, the events of Bloody Sunday united people in anger and disgust of the actions of the Tsarist government.