★ The Tsar and the Tsarist forms of Government Flashcards
Character of Tsar Nicholas II
★ Tsar of Russia from 1894-1917
★ Would rather spend time with his family than deal with governmental matters
★ Had one son, Alexis, who had haemophilia (inability for blood to clot)
★ Four daughters - Tatiana, Olga, Maria and Anastasia
★ German wife - Alexandra
★ Was particularly Anti-Jewish and encouraged attacks against Jewish settlements
★ Believed he was fit to rule because he believed he had been appointed by God to rule Russia, knew very little about his people
Evidence to show the Tsar was fit to rule
★ Introduced progressive reforms
★ Had the divine right to rule
★ Trained soldier
★ Married, had heirs
★ Advanced Russian industry
★ Geniune love for Russia
Evidence to show the Tsar wasn’t fit to rule
★ Deeply distrusted Parliament
★ Found criticism difficult
★ Took questionable advice
★ Didn’t give national minorities civil rights
★ Unprepared
★ Bad military
★ Had a bad reaction to uprising which only fuelled them further
★ Wanted to be with his family
What was the Okhrana?
★ The Okhrana were the secret police of the Russian Empire, dealt with people who spoke against the government and often led to people being repressed via censorship of the media
Who politically opposed the Tsar?
★ Social Revolutionary Party, Social Democratic Party, Liberals
What did Social Revolutionaries want?
★ Wanted to get rid of the Tsar and Government
★ Wanted land for the peasants
★ Appealed to peasants
★ Believed a revolution would be led by the peasants
★ Had 2 main wings: Left Social Revolutionaries who claimed a policy of terrorism was necessary to bring about change & the Right Social Revolutionaries who were prepared to work with other parties
What did Social Democrats want?
★ Also wanted to overthrow Tsar
★ Wanted to create a Socialist state, followed Karl Marx
★ Support base was made up of workers
★ Split into the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
What did the Liberals want?
★ Octobrists and Kadets
★ Octobrists - wanted Tsar to follow the October manifesto
★ Kadets - wanted Russia to develop a constitutional monarchy with a democratically elected assembly
★ Didn’t oppose the Tsar, just wanted more Western ideals such as democracy
Evidence to show Marxism as a threat to the Tsar
★ Change in Government
★ Encouraged revolution
★ Encouraged extremeism in Russia
★ Wanted to make Marxism universal
Evidence to show that Marxism wasn’t a threat to the Tsar
★ Saw capitalism as a necessity and saw industrialisation as a good thing
★ 4% classed as proletariats, industrialisation was only beginning and therefore was useless to Marxism
★ Repressive nature of Tsardom meant ideas about Marxism were hard to spread
★ Marx himself didn’t think Russia would be able to become a Marxist society
What was the Duma?
★ After the 1905 revolution, Tsar Nicholas agreed to make a parliament in 1906, this was the Duma
★ Made up of two houses, the upper appointed chamber and the lower elected chamber
★ All political parties were represented there, acted as a forum for criticism against the Government
★ Never had any real power, only served to guide the Tsar who still had full control
