Social Divisions: Workers + Peasantry Flashcards
What was the main reason for peasant protest before 1914?
-result of traditions grievances like failed harvest or unfair land allocation
-awakening of peasantry from inertia to political activism already underway by 1914
What happened to former peasants alienated from their roots?
-in urban areas former peasants gradually lost something of former identity
-began associate with others who lived + worked in close proximity sharing grievances
What was the impact of this?
-became easy targets for political agitators
What was one of the gravest mistakes of the tsarist gov?
-failed respond effectively to effects of social change in cities
-from the large + discontented urban working class that impetus to overthrow regime in 1917 would eventually come
How did Russias in 1914 remain culturally unchanged?
-‘patrairchal’ structure Rus society remained untouched with ties of family + household predominating
Despite this what brought new opportunities?
-econ + political developments brought new opportunities + aspirations for women
What did Alexander II + Nicholas II try to do for women but how did this change?
-cut back on women’s educational opportunities
-but this grey from c1900 while more women found greater independence through factory work
What happened in dec 1908?
-first all Russia congress of women attended by 1035 delegates in St.P
-campaigned for female franchise
How did the growth of education bring change?
-gov expenditure of primary education grew from 5m 1896 to over 82m 1914
-by 1911 over 6.5m children age 8-11 receiving primary education but only 1/3 girls
What was the impact?
-still 40% illiterate
-but basic level of education helped increase sense of self worth among literate
What happened to reading forms of media?
-number books + publications proliferated after 1905 when popular press boomed
What is an example of this?
-1767 newspapers published weekly by 1914
-reading rooms est. + popular lit flourished
What happened to art?
-more serious writers + artists used forms to address problems in Rus society
What is an example of this?
-Anton Chekhov produced stream of strokes + plays from 1880s until 1904 continuing realist traditions of Leo Tolstoy in 1860s
What did the relaxation of censorship controls produce?
-the silver age of Rus culture dominated by poets
-experiments in modernism e.g. Stavinsky’s music offering shocking challenges to convention
What had happened to Russian culture by 1914?
-had broadened c diversified to encompass wider group that intelligentsia elites
-mirrored many other changes running through Rus society
What aspects of Russian culture exhibited little change?
-1913 + the tercentenary year of the Romanov dynasty where Nicholas + wife revelled in traditional jubilee rituals celebrate permanency of romanovs
What did this celebration encourage?
-encouraged wearing of traditional Muscovite costumes + orthodox ceremonies to mark occasion
-Nicholas returned believing his people loved him
What happened in the tercentenary celebrations?
-tsar + family drive through St.P + attended thanksgiving service in Kazan cathedral
-3 month tour of old Muscovy enjoying triumphal entry into Moscow with confetti throwing crowds
What remained in society?
-fundamental bulwarks of autocracy retained hold on Rus society
-orthodox Church still influence gov + community
-traditions of subservience to authority remained despite sporadic outbursts
What did traditionalism bring?
-outpouring of patriotism for tsar when decisions for war announced 1914
-soldiers carried icons of Nicholas as marched to front + all social groups rallied in support of motherland
