quotes to memorise Flashcards
Robert Service - within the Russian empire there was inequality everywhere. the state of Russia was “deeply fissured”
“the Russian Empire was deeply fissured (split) between the government and the Tsar’s subjects, between the capital and the provinces, between the educated and the uneducated, between Western and Russian ideas, between the rich and poor, between privilege and oppression”
Steve Smith - the fall of Russia’s autocracy was due to modernisation, as it uprooted society
“The collapse of the autocracy was rooted in a crisis of modernisation. The government hoped it could carry out modernisation whilst maintaining tight control. Yet the effect of industrialisation, urbanization, internal migration and the emergence of new social classes […] erode the foundations of the autocratic state”
Lenin in What Is To Be Done? on the exclusivity of the party:
“the more we confine the membership of such an organisation to the people who are professionally engaged in revolutionary activity […] the more difficult it will be to wipe out such an organisation”
Lenin in What Is To Be Done? on how a universal crisis creates a need for change:
“the broader the popular mass drawn spontaneously […] into the struggle […] the more urgent the need for such an organisation”
What does Orlando Figes say about Lenins What Is To Be Done?
“the founding text of international Leninism”
Harcave on the hardships the Peasants went through (circa 1905)
“their earnings were often so small that they could neither buy the food they needed nor keep up the payment of their taxes and redemptions […] By the tenth year of Nicholas II’s reign, their total arrears in payments of taxes and dues was 118 million roubles”
Richard Pipes on the state of Russia’s countryside
“At the turn of the century Russia faced a grave and intensifying agrarian crisis”
Harcave on situation of Workers in early 1900s
“Dissatisfaction turned into desperation for many impoverished workers, which made them more sympathetic to radical ideas”
Lauren Perfect - on the lack of promises for Representative National Legislature on Nicky’s Dec 1904 manifesto (in response to educated class pressure)
“it was an opportunity missed and tensions continued to mount”
What did Nicky say to Witte on the concept of having representative legislature
“I shall never, under any circumstances, agree to the representative form of government because I consider it harmful to the people God has entrusted to my care”
What did Nicky say about the Japanese?
“The Japanese are infidels. The might of the Holy Russian Empire will crush them”
What did the Minister of the Interior, Plehv say about the possibility of war with Japan?
” a little victorious war to stem the tide of revolution”
What did a British politician at the time call Nicholas after Bloody Sunday?
“a blood stained creature” and a “common murderer”
What does the official history of the communist party of the USSR say about Bloody Sunday and its effect on the workers?
“It was their [the workers] faith in the Tsar that was riddled with bullets that day.”
What did robert service say about the monarchy once the military started to revolt in 1905?
“the fate of the monarchy hung by a thread”
What did Witte say about the reason for the October Manifesto?
“the slogan “freedom” must become the slogan of the govt activity. There is no other way of saving the state.”
What did Trotsky say about the tsarist regime after the October manifesto?
“Although there were a few broken ribs, tsarism came out of the experience of 1905 alive and strong”
Steve Smith on the 1905 revolution and the lucky incompetence of the regime:
“That the autocracy came out of the Revolution unscathed had little to do with political tactics” and “not because of strategic or sound leadership”
What did Lenin say about 1905 rev?
it was a “dress rehearsal” for 1917.
Fitzpatrick on the 1905 revolution:
“the political outcome of the 1905 revolution was ambiguous and in some ways unsatisfactory to all concerned.”
Pipes on the 1905 revolution:
“In the end, Russia gained nothing but a breathing spell”
David Welch on how 1905 split the opposition:
“it served to split the opposition. It proved too much for conservatives and too little for the Social Democrats”
What did Nicky say about the Duma’s creation?
“i created the duma, not to be directed by it, but to be advised”
Trotsky on the Duma?
“a constitution is given, but the autocracy remains”
What did Stolypin say about his approach to being PM/protecting the tsar/ reform and repression
“Suppression first and then, and only, reform”
