The collapse of autocracy, 1894–1917 Flashcards
What is important to remember about the power of the Dumas?
- They were only representative assemblies and not responsible for creating legislation and policies.
Why did support for the Tsar decrease in the nobility during WW1?
- The nobility were powerful landowners. They were
advisors to the Tsar and had a big influence on the
running of the country. - Whilst the Tsar was on the front line, the Tsarina and Rasputin were inept and began dismissing noble advisors.
- Consequently the Tsar lost the faith of his, traditionally, closest supporters
What did the PG do about the workers?
- To appease the workers the government introduced one of their main demands - an eight hour day.
- But, they also tried to limit the power of the new Workers Committees that were springing up in many
factories. - Workers were keen to take control of factories and introduce changes.
What were 2 slogans of the Bolshevik Party?
‘Peace, Land and Bread,’ and ‘All power to the Soviets.’
What did the Fundamental Laws allow the Tsar to do?
‘Regain’ his position as supreme leader.
Shows that the Tsar never had any intention of being a constitutional monarch.
What was the difference in beliefs between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks?
Bolsheviks - Wanted a small, centrally controlled, highly disciplined party of professional revolutionaries who would lead the revolution on behalf of the Bolsheviks.
- Refused to work with other parties and trade unions.
- Believed the bourgeois and proletariat revolutions could occur simultaneously.
Mensheviks - Wanted a democratic party open to all.
- Was willing to cooperate with other parties and trade unions.
- Believed the workers should lead the revolution and that a proletariat revolution could only occur after the bourgeois revolution.
Who did Nicolas rely on to deal with challenges to his authority?
The army and the Okhrana.
Who assassinated Plehve and when?
- July 1904
- Ordered by Ezno Asif (Head of the socialist brigade of SR’S).
Why was 1905 only a ‘dress rehearsal’ for revolution?
- No real devolution of power; which still rested in the hands of an irresolute Tsar and his ministers.
- No radical redistribution of property or re-alignment of the hierarchical class structure in society.
- The traditional institutions of the State (bureaucracy, church, military and police) continued to function as usual.
Explain how the Zemstva became more liberal before 1905.
- The liberals were strongly represented in the Zemstva, and were highly critical of autocracy.
- Alexander III’s introduction of Land Captains in 1889 to remove complaining Zemstva members and overrule Zemstva decisions only increased their opposition.
- Furthermore, the govts inability to coordinate famine relief 91/92, which the Zemstva were left to provide, exemplified Tsarist incompetence.
- When the Zemstvo of Tver petitioned Nicolas II for a national Duma in 1895, it was dismissed as a ‘senseless dream’.
What were the features of the Second Duma?
- Peter Stolypin , the new Prime Minister, (illegally) engineered the elections to increase the number of Octobrists.
- However, this time, the Bolsheviks and SR’s participated, increasing the number of radical deputies.
- It opposed most Tsarist proposals, including agrarian reform.
- It was dissolved and leading radicals were exiled.
How many strikes were there in the years 1912, 1913 and 1914 individually?
- 1912 - over 2000
- 1913 - 24,000
- 1914 - over a million
Who were the liberals mostly represented by in the Duma and what did call for?
- The liberal opposition were largely represented by the Kadets (Constitutional Democrats) who favoured a constitutional monarchy with parliamentary government, full civil rights, the compulsory redistribution of the nobles’ estates and the legal settlement of industrial disputes.
Why did the middle class grow before 1914?
- As industrialisation gained pace, an emerging middle class of businessmen and professionals grew in size
- A minority of nobles’ sons also entered the world of industry and commerce, as did a number of enterprising peasants.
- Many of the middle class served on the Zemstva.
What was the literacy rate amongst the working class relative to the whole population?
- 57.2% compared to 21% in the whole population.
What were peasant living and working conditions in the countryside like?
- Many peasants (50%) continued to work at subsistence level, subject to recurrent famine.
- Rural population growth made conditions worse, particularly as holdings were divided between sons and the amount of land farmed by individual families declined.
- The gulf between the kulaks and poorest landless peasants widened, and too few moved to the towns to ease the pressure on resources.
- Peasant mortality rates were high and very few had access to doctors.
Who wrote for the SD party newspaper and what was it called?
- Lenin, co-edited by Martov
- ‘Iskra’
Describe the ‘July Days’.
- There was a political crisis when the Kadet ministers resigned in a protest over the June Offensive (400k dead, 170k deserted).
- Demonstrations on the streets were only put down when the Government managed to persuade some loyal troops to attack the demonstrators.
- The Bolsheviks were closely involved, and Kerensky took the opportunity to arrest all the leaders he could find. Lenin fled to Finland.
- Took 3 days to quell
Who was Plehve?
- Minister of the Interior 1902-04
- Ruthlessly pursued revolutionaries and radicals.
- Secretly organised Jewish pogroms.
- Hated by all radicals.
What was the change in the urban population between 1867 and 1917?
- Quadrupled from 7 million to 28 million.
- By 1914, more than 10% of the population were factory workers.
What was the issue with offering improvements in living conditions for the working class?
Every change led to demands for more.
How much rail did Russia have by 1914?
62,000km, the second most in the world.
Describe the Kornilov Affair
- The Kornilov Affair on the 27th August 1917 was a coup d’état by the General of the Russian Army, Lavr Kornilov.
- He ordered 6 regiments of troops to march on Petrograd. It failed when Kerensky, who initially backed Kornilov, panicked. He released imprisoned Bolsheviks and provided the Soviet with weapons to halt the advance.
- Kornilov’s supply lines were cut and the coup leaders arrested
What were some negatives about Nicolas II’s character?
- Not blessed with his father’s strength of character or intelligence.
- 5’7 compared to 6’4 father, not built to be an autocrat.
- Provided no support for govt, instead disrupted it when he meddled.
- Too mild-mannered and shy to lead his subordinates.
- Raging anti-semite, encouraged and enforced pogroms.
- Completely indecisive. Incapable of making firm decisions or providing any sense of direction.
- Easily manipulated
How did the Tsar deal with the liberals?
- The liberals tried to cooperate, through the Duma, with the Tsarist government but were frustrated with the lack of cooperation of the Tsar and his advisors.
- A number of Kadet leaders were arrested after the dissolution of the first Duma in 1906
- After dissolving the second Duma in 1907, the Tsarist government altered the franchise so that the electorate was reduced in size, favouring the right-leaning parties.
- The Tsar increasingly ignored and overruled the Dumas, resorting to emergency powers to pass the laws he wanted.
- THERE WAS LITTLE SEMBLANCE OF A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY BY 1914.
What were the long-term reasons for the Tsar agreeing to the October Manifesto?
- Russia had modernised economically but autocracy had not kept pace and failed to adapt to an evolving Russia.
- Discontent amongst the urban workers living/working in subhuman conditions.
- Discontent among the peasants: high taxation, low living standards, redemption payments, land issues.
- Discontent from minorities - Russification
- Resentment from m/c over Russia’s backwardness and lack of power sharing.
Did the middle class support or oppose the regime?
The lack of an elected national assembly, at any rate until 1906, often made them opponents of the regime.
Why did support for the Tsar decrease in the liberals?
- The liberals were the dissatisfied nobility who actually
formed opposition parties against the Tsar. - They mainly wanted more political influence and a democratic parliament.
- The introduction of the Duma in 1906 seemed like a great leap in the right direction but the consequent fundamental laws restricted its power.
- Overall therefore the Nobility had lost faith in the Tsar
and were frustrated by their lack of power.
When were most of the liberals largely won over by the Tsar?
- The majority of liberals were won over by the October Manifesto in 1905, but many were angered again after the 1906 Fundamental Laws.
When and who was assassinated in February 1905?
4th Feb - Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Nicolas’ Uncle and governor-general of Moscow
How much did membership for the Bolsheviks rise by in 1917?
Membership of the Bolsehevik party had risen from 24,000 members in February 1917 to 200,000 members by September 1917.
What happened in 1913 which proved the strength of autocracy at the time?
- Millions came out onto the streets of St Petersburg, Moscow and other cities on the 300th anniversary (tercentenary) of the Romanov dynasty.
What did the ‘Emancipation of Labour’ Marxist association do?
- Smuggled Marxist literature into Russia, encouraging urban workers to collaborate with the bourgeoisie in order to overthrow Tsardom.
- First Russian Marxist group.
What were the successes of agricultural legislation?
- Peasant ownership of land increased from 20% in 1905 to nearly 50% in 1915.
- Grain production rose annually, and by 1909, Russia was the world’s largest cereal exporter.
- Some peasants, the kulaks, consolidated their land, often ‘buying out’ poorer peasants to create more efficient and profitable farms.
- Some peasants sold out and moved to the towns to find work, so boosting the industrial labour supply.
How was Tsarist authority recovered after the 1905 ‘revolution’?
- Most of the army remained loyal and helped to storm the HQ’s of the Moscow and St Petersburg Soviets in Nov/Dec 1905.
- Most of the leaders of the Soviets were arrested, executed or sent to Siberia.
- Troops restored order in the countryside and the government proposed an end to redemption payments.
- The October Manifesto split the opposition between radicals and liberals.
What did the October Manifesto promise?
- Civil liberties, such as freedom of speech, conscience, press and assembly for all.
- A State Duma, elected by universal suffrage, to pass laws.
- Although it promised constitutional reform, Nicolas had no real intentions of becoming a constitutional monarch.
What were the immediate triggers for Nicolas agreeing to the October Manifesto? (long don’t learn all)
- Rejection of the Tsarist proposal for a restricted Duma by a conference of Zemstva conservatives in September.
- The Government’s inability to exert order and repress the various opposition movements - such as the Petrograd Soviet who coordinated activities in other cities, or the widespread disorder in the countryside.
- The October General Strike brought Russia to an economic standstill - included workers and employees, even some in the treasury and state bank went on strike.
- Mutinies in the army meant that the Tsar had too few troops to repress disorder and run essential services.
- Sergei Witte saw it as the only way of preserving Tsardom and preventing ‘sweeping away a thousand years of history’.
List some key battles in the Russo-Japanese war.
- Russia surrendered the naval base at Port Arthur on 5th January 1905.
- 20 February – 10 March 1905 - Russian forces defeated at Mukden, with 90,000 Russians killed/wounded.
- After 7 months of sailing to Japan, 24/27 ships of the Baltic fleet were sunk in the battle of Tsushima on 27–28 May 1905 - in just 90 minutes.
What were the main priorities of the liberal opposition?
- Civil rights and a State Duma which had the power to initiate and pass laws.
When and why was the idea of rural socialism revived?
- The famine of 1891-92
What was the issue with peasant grain production?
- Grain output per acre was less than a third of that of Britain or Germany, yet peasants were driven hard to produce a surplus for export and paid high taxes, contributing to famine and poor living conditions.
Describe the events in Odessa in 1905
14th-24th June - Naval Mutiny of the Battleship Potemkin. In Odessa, the authorities tried to disperse sympathetic crowds, killing more than 2000.
What was the condition of agriculture before 1905?
Small and inefficient.
When and where did a strike occur in January 1905?
3rd Jan - Outbreak of a strike at the Putilov works in St Petersburg, involving 150,000 workers.
Who drew up the October Manifesto and what was his aim?
Sergei Witte. He aimed to isolate the left by pacifying the liberals.
What is important to remember about Bloody Sunday?
It was a symptom of the conditions in Russia, not a cause of them.
What was the conditions of the nobility in 1914?
- Although about a third of nobles’ land was transferred to peasants and town dwellers between 1861 and 1914, the majority of the nobles retained their landed wealth and were relied upon to fill the top positions in government.
What union was created in March 1905?
An ‘All-Russian Union of Railway Workers’.
Soviets of elected factory workers were also formed to coordinate strikes.
What were some errors the Tsar made that lead to the failure of WW1?
- When he went to the Front in 1915 the Tsar left his wife, Alexandra, in charge of the Government. She
was German, so people suspected her of sabotaging the war effort so Germany would win. - It was widely thought that Alexandra and Rasputin were lovers - not true - and that Rasputin had a
great political influence although the Tsar was often ‘bullied’ by his wife into doing things. - By 1916 there was a clear feeling that the Government under the Tsar could not win the war. Nicholas
II was managing to alienate moderates as well as revolutionaries. - At this stage the revolutionaries still had very little support - they were still tiny, minority parties pursued by the Okhrana and with very little influence.
When did the Third Duma exist?
Nov 1907 - June 1912
What were some military factors that lead to the failure of WW1?
- There were real difficulties in supplying the troops in the front line. There was a severe shortage of ammunition. Transport was a nightmare, as Russia’s roads were so poor and the railways just could not cope.
- Russia’s Generals had been promoted on seniority, and loyalty to the Tsar, rather than on their understanding of modern warfare. Many were old and had not learnt the lessons of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5.
- In 1915, when the Tsar assumed control of the army, things became even worse. He was no better at military planning than his generals.
- Constant defeats drained the loyalty of the troops - by 1917 desertions were high.
When was peace agreed and what were the arrangements in the Russo-Japanese war?
23rd August 1905
- Russia recognised Japan’s sphere of influence and and surrendered the lease of Port Arthur to Japan.
What and when were The Fundamental Laws?
- Issued in April 1906, it was 124 point de facto constitution.
