The main causes of the 1905 revolution Flashcards
Introduction - Ku
After years of living under the Tsar’s rule, the Russian people came together in the 1905 revolution to express their disapproval of their leader. This came in the form of Strikes and protests that spread across the country due to life threatening working conditions, the assassination of the current Tsar’s uncle, Nicholas II in 1905 and a mutiny on the Potemkin battleship amongst sailors.
Introduction - Ku
This showed the Tsar that his power over the people of Russia was weakening, leading him to sign the October Manifesto in October of 1905, which he gave away some of his power in an attempt to please his people.
Blooody Sunday - Ku
In January of 1905, Father Gapon led a peaceful march towards the home of the Tsar, the Winter Palace. He came holding a petition that called for improving working conditions of the middle class, because at the time, workers faced an average 11 hour work day and dangerous working environments.
Bloody Sunday - Ku
Father Gapon and the workers marching with him really believed that the Tsar cared for them and would hear what they had to say. However, when the march reached the Palace, the army was stationed outside. Even though the demonstration was peaceful, the army opened fire and killed 200 people and injured many more.
Bloody Sunday - Positive A
Bloody Sunday was important in causing the 1905 revolution as the majority of Russian people saw this event as a brutal massacre against unarmed and peaceful protesters. All of the blame was pushed on to the tsar and damaged the ‘Tsar Babushka’ facade that many still believed in - which, for some, the last reason that they still held support for the Tsar. We can see the Tsar lost many of his supporters, as strikes, protests and even assassinations of government officials were carried out right after Bloody Sunday took place.
Bloody Sunday - Negative A
This factor was less important in causing the 1905 revolution however, because it only really affected one specific group of people, workers in cities. This left out a huge population of peasants in the countryside, who it impacted much less, and therefore still held support for the tsar.
Bloody Sunday - Evaluation
Overall, Bloody Sunday was a very important factor as to why the 1905 revolution began. This is because directly after the event, the tsar lost control of huge areas of Russia, losing many supporters and making it much easier for a revolution to start. However, this was much less important than other factors because while Bloody Sunday had a huge impact on the Russian people, it was short lived. When compared to the Japanese war, the war was long and reinforced many Russian’s anti-tsarist views over a long period of time, leading to many large threats towards state forming, making it more important, and the most important out of all the factors.
Discontent Of Peasants - Ku
Peasants were already living in extremely poor conditions before the government put more financial pressure on them in the form of taxes. At the time, Russia did not have any form of income tax, so for the Tsar to be able to continue his regime, peasants were taxed. Peasants could simply not afford to pay, so rioting started.
Discontent Of Peasants - Ku
More financial pressure was put onto the peasant population in the form of ‘redemption payments’. This was after many were given land by the government in 1861, following being freed from serfdom. The money spent on the land had to be paid back to the government by the peasants, although the majority barely had enough money for themselves.
Discontent Of Peasants - Positive A
This was a very important factor in causing the 1905 revolution, as the peasants were the tsar’s biggest supporters and the unlikeliest to form anti-tsarist views. However, after the way the government treated the peasants, they lost their support for the tsar. This loosened the tsar’s control amongst the people of Russia, leaving him more vulnerable than before. Protests and strikes broke out amongst the peasants, which were shut down using violent tactics by the army. This again, furthered the peasants views to the Tsar and radicalised many of them.
Discontent Of Peasants - Negative A
On the other hand, this factor could be seen as less important in causing the 1905 revolution because many of the peasants who protested were not necessarily anti-tsarist, they just believed that protesting would make the tsar realise what was going on and would want to improve their conditions. It is also less important because the protests carried out weren’t anything we haven’t seen before and were quite easily dealt with by the army, not forming a key part of the revolution, however it was unusual for peasants to express anti-tsarism.
Discontent Of Peasants - Evaluation
Overall, this was quite an important factor as to why the 1905 revolution began. It didn’t really give peasants much of a choice other than to rebel against the Tsar. They were forced to make grain to give back to the country, while many did not even have enough grain to feed themselves. This led to resentment for the government brewing in the countryside, when they were previously loyal to the Tsar. This was not as important as other factors however, such as Bloody Sunday because the peasants really did not pose that big of a threat to the tsar and his regime, while the action in the cities after Bloody Sunday garnered a lot of attention from the government and showed a much larger threat if the workforce stopped.
War With Japan - Ku
The War between Russia and Japan began in 1904 because of land arguments. The tsar started the war with Russia in an attempt to make himself seem more competent as a leader and gain trust back from the people of Russia as well as fighting over land in Manchuria
War With Japan - Ku
The war didn’t go in Russia’s favour however, and Russia faced many losses. Some of these failures were the Yahu River, where 2000 Russian soldiers died and the Potemkin Mutiny. After Russia’s war effort began to fall apart, they had no choice but to surrender in 1905.
War With Japan - Positive A
This factor was important in causing the 1905 revolution as after the defeat, the tension in Russia increased. It confirmed for many Russian people that tsarism was outdated, and that the tsar was not fit to lead Russia, especially amongst the middle classes. National minorities also formed anti-tsarist views as many of the soldiers who died were from the other parts of the empire. They felt as though that the tsar did not care about their people and so protested and rioted, creating more enemies for the tsar. During the war, supplies were diverted towards the war effort. The poorer citizens were already suffering from starvation and bad living conditions, so this would’ve furthered their ideas of anti-tsarism.
