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Assess the Causes of the Downfall of the Russian Monarchy (Backwardness…
Assess the Causes of the Downfall of the Russian Monarchy
War
World War I
1914 - Battles of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes (humiliating defeats)
1915 - Tsar took personal command of the army
Russo Japanese War 1904-5
War made conditions worse than they had been before - shortages of food
Russians humiliated by the Japanese (lost Port Arthur)
Russia's Geography + Population
100x the size of the UK
difficult country to govern
disunited, lack of national pride
125m Russians
1900 - 80% of Russians were peasants
1/2 new born children died before 5, the average life expectancy for those who reached 5 was only 50
Disease and malnutrition
Urban workers unhappy - long hours, trade unions and strikes illegal
Many were unemployed and so urban workers were disposable
Tsar Nicholas owned 8 palaces and 15000 servants
Nobles only 1% of Russian population but owned 25% of land
Opposition Groups
"hooligan movement" feb 1914
Strikes in Petrograd - attacked bakeries, strikes, joined by soldiers (dismissed by the tsar
Social Democratic Party founded in 1898 (split 1903)
Bolsheviks - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Mensheviks - Julius Martov
Social Revolutionary Party
Fighting organisation - organised terrorist campaigns
1900-1905 - 3 government ministers and dozens of government officials killed
Liberals
Law abiding russians who wanted a constitutional monarchy
The People's Will
Backwardness and troubled economy (agrarian + lack of industry)
Inflation - the rouble had fallen 1916
Farmers were conscripted which lead to food shortages
Transport/communications lead to shortages of raw materials, finished goods + food due to war
Army facced major food shortages
Peasants paid heavy taxes, redemption payments and workers wages were extremely low
1902 = industrial slump - thousands of knew workers lost their jobs
poor harvests 1902-1902
1905-1914 - total industrial production increased by 100%
World's 4tth largest producer of coal, pig iron and steel
1914- 2/5 factory workers were in factories with over 1k workers - easier to organise strikes
Average wages in 1905 were pitiful
1912 - Lena goldfields massacre - 170 workers killed 373 wounded (similar to Bloody Sunday)
Weaknesses of the Monarchy
The character of Nicholas II
Bloody Sunday
22nd January 1905
October Manifesto
Dumas
April 1906
Could not pass laws
One representative for every 2000 nobles, but one for every 90000 workers
First two dumas of 1906 and 1907 very radical, but these were dissolved
1907-1912 - Third duma created that favoured the rich, more conservative
1912-1914 - fourth duma achieved little but tsar began to work with it
200,000 people marched to winter palace lead by Father Gapon,
"Tsar and Autrocrat of all the Russias"
I am not ready to be the Tsar. I never wanted to become one. I know nothing of the business of ruling.
Rasputin and (German) Tsarina Alexandra
Government became increasingly weak and ineffective post 1915 - Tsarina in control
Rasputin - a starets (holy man) from Siberia belonging to religious sect - Kylysty - way to religious ecstasy lay in the senses
Stolypin exiled Rasputin to siberia, who returned upon stolypins death in 1912
Articles about Rasputin were censored, seen as attack on freedom of the press and increased gossip
Failures of domestic leadership
Nicholas named his brother Grand Duke Michael as successor, but as he refused the position, the Romanov dynasty surrendered control
Required Okhrana (secret police) and Cossacks (personal army) to maintain control
Divine Right of Kings
Tradition of autocracy
lead to discontent of the people, lack of rights
undemocratic monarchy, fragmented society
Peter Stolypin - Prime Minister (Military courts - sentence and hang a person on the spot (Stolypin's necktie)