overview of Russia in 1914

Question 1

What was life like pre 1914

Answer 1

• Russia continued to be an autocratic state governed by a leader who had little interest in the plight of his people
• The Tsar’s autocratic powers were not shared or limited
• The social system featured the privilege of the upper classes and the exploitation of the urban industrial workers and rural peasants
• The autocracy was unwilling to face the political demands of the people
• Criticism of the Duma by the Tsar meant that this institution found it difficult to combat the attacks made by the more radical political factions within Russia
• The First and Second Dumas were dismissed for their determination to radically reform the power structure and land ownership
• The Third and Fourth Dumas were comprised primarily of supporters of the Tsar, which resulted in greater conservatism and less influence

Question 2

Main Grievances

Answer 2

• Peasants wanted to own village lands
• Autocracy was blamed for Russia’s backwardness and lack of modernisation
• Working and housing conditions in Russian cities were the worst in Europe
• Not surprisingly, ideas of rebellion and revolution began to emerge… although many sources of information were censored, European ideologies such as Marxism began to seep into Russia
• Intelligentsia – mixture of social group and a state of mind, defined by common hatred of the Tsarist regime and commitment to its replacement by a just and equal society

Question 3

Characteristics of imperial Russia

Answer 3

• Dynastic rule by the Romanov family
• Prominence of the Russian Orthodox Church
• A hierarchical social structure with the Tsar and family at the top
• Division existed between the privileged ruling and landowning classes and the impoverished rural and urban worker
• Maintained what was seen as an old-fashioned form of government in a continent that was shifting away from autocratic rule
• Most other western nations had incorporated some form of representative or democratic government

Question 4

Russia Info

Answer 4

• Covered 20 million square kilometres, eleven different time zones and five different vegetation zones
• By 1914 – almost 170 million people
• Citizens were born into specific social classes with little opportunity for social mobility
• The census also indicated a diverse ethnic population with sixty different nationalities
• Policy of ‘Russification’ – the imposition of Russian language, culture and religion on non-Russians, especially ethnic minorities in Imperial Russia
• Led to the persecution and alienation of many ethnic minorities with some responding with extreme and revolutionary actions

Question 5

Tsar Nicholas II

Answer 5

• Staunch advocate of autocracy
• Tsarist system was based on the theory of absolute authority where the tsar was believed to have been divinely appointed, with direct authority from God
• He had unlimited executive, legislative and judicial power, the tsar’s word was law to be questioned by no-one
• State Council of Imperial Russia (Tsar’s personal advisors), Cabinet of Ministers and Senators were all appointed by him and answered directly to him – they were only there to enact the will of the Tsar

Question 6

Control/oppression

Answer 6

• Political parties were officially banned
• Protest met with censorship, imprisonment or exile
• National military – used for defence and repression in Imperial Russia
• Okhrana – the Tsar’s secret police designed to protect the interests of the state and revolutionaries
• Police – general law and order
• Cossacks – groups of men from the Don River region near the Black Sea, formed an elite military-style group or militia (operated on horseback and rewarded with grants of land)
• Nicholas’ father (Alexander III) reacted to his own father’s assassination with a firm hand, crushed virtually all political opposition and a strict regime of repression and censorship followed

Question 7

Agriculture

Answer 7

• Stolypin’s reforms allowed peasants to leave the mir (commune)
• Land bank to help peasants buy land
• By allowing peasants to be property owner thought that it would make them supporters of Tsarism (but did not succeed in completely winning over)
• Russia still overwhelmingly agricultural country responsibility of 20 million peasant households who still used the inefficient strip system

Question 8

Industry

Answer 8

• Still behind major western industrial powers
• Although by 1914 Russia was the world’s fourth largest producer of coal, pig iron and steel
• Heavy industry still driving force
• Russian industry was uneven and unbalanced e.g. chemical and machine tools industries remained weak so still needed to buy from abroad

Question 9

Economy

Answer 9

• In 1913 per capita income in Russia was 1/10 of USA and 1/5 of Britain
• Per capita output was only half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Industrial growth less rapid than the USA and Germany so the gap in productive capacity widened

Question 10

Workers

Answer 10

• By 1914 industrial workforce established itself as a distinct section of the population
• Literacy rate 64% in 1914 compared with 40% for whole adult population
• Wages less than 1/3 average of Western Europe
• Revival of labour movement in 1913
• Lena Goldfields massacre where striking workers clashed with troops leaving 200 dead
• Strikes grew between 1912-1914
• Historians argue that most workers in 1914 were not socialists or involved in radical activity and mainly about pay and conditions
• Political groups/supporters/opponents
• Liberals (Octobrists and Kadets) firmly support Tsar and feared mass anarchy – did not support strike movement and were dependent on government and Tsar
• Bolsheviks in 1914 had more influence in trade unions than Mensheviks gaining control of the biggest trade unions in St Petersburg and Moscow
• The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda had achieved national circulation of 40,000 copies per issue
• However, leadership was either in exile or abroad
• Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries were thoroughly infiltrated by the Okhrana
• 1914 the army was still loyal to the Tsar – but became increasing opposed to crushing civilian disturbances