Opposition Flashcards
How did opposition spread under Nicholas?
1) Peasant migration to cities lead to social unrest and tension
2) Workers were concentrated in factories, making it easier to organise strikes
How did liberal opposition recover in the 1890s?
1) 1896: decided to hold congresses to discuss problems, the first being in 1898
2) 1899: A beseda – symposium – met in secret to discuss liberal matters
3) Meetings were often held under the guise of professional organisations (such as
the Congress of Activists in the Field of Agronomic Aid)
How did liberal opposition occur in the 1900s?
1) 1900: Hundreds of liberals were dismissed from zemstvo boards
2) 1902: the underground newspaper ‘Liberation’ published a program of change
3) 1904: the Union of Liberation is founded, with a intention to establish a
constitutional government.
4) 1905: formed the Kadets and Octobrist
Who was Prince Lvov?
1) Wealthy landowner
2) Leader of the Kadet party
3) Demanded creation of an all-class zemstvo at the district level and a national
assembly
What revolutionary activity did the SRs take part in?
1) 1901-1905: 2000 government officials, including two ministers for Internal
Affairs (1902, 1904).
2) Radicalised industrial workers, who formed 50% of the membership (ex-peasants)
3) After 1905, the SRs maintained violence through the SR Combat Organisation,
mainly made up of students
4) 1905-1909: 2365 SRs executed
5) 1911: Stolypin is assassinated
Why did the SRs not achieve anything?
1) Loose party structure was easily infiltrated by the police
2) 1905-1909: 2365 SRs executed
What revolutionary activity did the SDs take part in?
1) 1898: founded in Minsk by Plehhanov
2) 1900: Newspaper, Iskra, published to unite Marxist revolutionaries
3) 1903: split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
What revolutionary activity did the Bolsheviks take part in?
1) The Pravda newspaper had high circulation
2) Membership declined after 1905
3) Most party leaders were in exile
What revolutionary activity did the trade unions take part in?
1) 1905: legalised
2) 1906-1910: 604 trade unions were denied registration and 497 trade unions
were closed
How did repression of the working class continue after 1905?
1) Unions of better paid male skilled workers generally survived
2) 1907: economic depression + rise in unemployment + political clampdown =
limited opportunity for union action
When did the trade unions begin to be active again?
1) 1911: beginnings of economic recovery, as skilled labourers had more bargaining
power in the market place
2) 1912: Lena Goldfield’s Massacre
3) More strikes occurred, mainly in St. Petersburg, showing that the working class
had not been pacified in 1905
What were the 1914 St p strikes?
1) Mill and factory owners resisted
2) Repressive measures taken to break strikes (fines, lockouts, blacklists)
3) 12% enterprises had their worker’s strike
4) General strike in July 1914 on brought out ¼ of manufacturing labour force
5) Geographically limited
How did strike activity change over time?
1) 1911: 100,000
2) 1912: 700,000
3) 1913: 900,000
4) Jan-July 1914: 1,370,000
How were the opposition parties weakened?
1) Ideological divisions within revolutionary parties
2) The secret police were effective at infiltrative revolutionary groups
3) Industrial depression made organisation difficult
4) None of the exiled leaders had control over their parties
How successful were the Bolsheviks by 1914?
1) 1912-1914: Successful takeovers of labour institutions in St. Petersburg and
Moscow
2) April 1912: A newspaper, ‘The Truth’ was launched, which had a much higher
circulation than the Menshevik ‘The Ray’
