Political Authority, Opposition and ideologies to 1914

Question 1

What two key events galvanized liberal opposition to the tsarist regime

Answer 1

Great famine 91-92
Alexander III restrictions on the zemstva

Question 2

Which Prince advocated throughout the 1890s for an all class-zemstvo and a national assembly

Answer 2

Prince Lvov

Question 3

Who was a key liberal figure in the early 1900s, having defected from marxist orgs after condemning violent revolution, and creating the ‘Union of Revolution’

Answer 3

Pyotr Struve

Question 4

What was an archaic idea, somewhat associated with former populist movements, that came into relevance after the great famines

Answer 4

agrarian socialism, or rural reform by the way of of seizing land and dividing it up among the peasants for communal farming

Question 5

Who was assassinated by a student in 1901, sparking much support for populist causes and sympathy.

Answer 5

The minister of education, Bogolepov

Question 6

What year was the Social Revolutionary part founded, and who was its most influential member, and what was its core belief

Answer 6

1901, Viktor Chernov and that the labourers and peasatns had much in common and should work following marxist and populist principles to destroy autocracy. They were differentiated from pure marxists with their uniquely russian spin, quickly garnerd support, and held their first congress in 1906

Question 7

Who was Yezno Azef

Answer 7

A tsarist double agent with the SR organization

Question 8

How many assassination did the SR’s carry out between 1901 and 1905

Answer 8

2000, including many important officials, notably Plehve in 1904 and Stolypin in 1911

Question 9

How many socilist revolutionaries were sentenced to death between 1905 and 1909

Answer 9

around 4500

Question 10

What group did Georgi Plekhanov lead

Answer 10

Emancipation of Labour

Question 11

Which new Russian party was much more in line with traditional Marxism and when was it founded

Answer 11

SD or the Social Democratic Workers party, 1898

Question 12

When was the SD split into Bolshevik and Mensheviks finalised and who lead each party

Answer 12

1906
Bolsheviks-Lenin
Mensheviks-Julius Martov

Question 13

What caused the SD split

Answer 13

Lenin wanted dedication only to violetn revolution whilst the mensheviks were happy to cooperate with other liberals and wanted to see a broad party with working class support, trade unions and workers orgs to oversee a peaceful transition of power

Question 14

Between 1904 and 1917 what did Trotsky describe himself as

Answer 14

a non-factional social democrat

Question 15

How many trade unions were closed between 1906 and 1910

Answer 15

around 500, with those surviving typically being those of the better paid male workers, generally in the metal industry

Question 16

What took place in 1911, granting trade unions more power

Answer 16

Recovery from eocnomic recessions, granting workers more bargaining power (this coincided roughly with the shooting of unarmed protestors at the Lena Goldfields strike)

Question 17

Where in Russia did three quarter of all strikes take place after 1905

Answer 17

St petersburg and its surrounding area, with the drastic and harsh measures taken against them further contributing to anger and dissatisfaction

Question 18

Of the pre war strikes, how many enterprises were actually affected

Answer 18

12%, with the 1914 St petersburg general strike only bringing out a quarter of the population.

Question 19

What handicappe moderate liberal opposition, or otherwise lead them to not want to purseu total opposition to the tsar

Answer 19

They were mollified by the concessions of 1905 to 06, aand were happy to attempt cooperation with the duma system. Furthermore, among the ethnic minorities, aside from the Poles and the Finns, not many wanted outright independence due to the policies of assimilation and oppression, their forming of a national consciousness was beleaguered