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The collapse of autocracy, 1894-1917 - Coggle Diagram
The collapse of autocracy, 1894-1917
Nicholas II and the challenge to autocracy
political authority and government under Nicholas II
tsar nicholas II (1868-1918) was a small, naturally reserved and regarded by his father as a weakling
was very unpopular amongst ethnic minorities
demands for change and government reaction
years after 1894 were a time of major unrest with a firmer belief that the power of ordinary people had a role to play
new outbursts in universities and in 1901, a group of cossacks charged into a crowd of students in st petersburg, killing 13
there were so many outbursts in the countryside is was known as
the years of the red cockerel
pyotr stolypin dealt with disturbances and peasants were flogged, arrested or killed. The gallows were in such constant use it became known as
stolypins necktie
lots of industrial outbursts. 17,000 in 1894. 90,000 in 1904
the russo-japanese war
after a japanese attack on russian naval base Port Arthur in january 1904, the russians responded with a 'short swift victorious war' to detract from unrest at home
however, the russians had very little idea of their enemy and a series of defeats led to surges of opposition
when plehve was assasinated in 1904 there were renewed cries for a national assembly to which all the tsar would concede was an expansion of rights of the zemstva
events and outcome of the 1905 revolution
bloody sunday, 9th january 1905
on 20th december the russian forces in port arthur surrendered to the japanese
father gapon decided to conduct a peaceful march on sunday 9th january to present a petition to nicholas
12,000 troops were used to breakup the demonstration
it became known as bloody sunday and sparked an outbreak of rebellion
october manifesto
by october the empire seemed to be near total collapse where even the tsars uncles threatened to shoot themselves unless reforms were instituted
on 17th october the tsar made the october manifesto which promised...
to grant civic freedom
to establish a state duma so allowing a voice to all classes
to give the duma the power to approve laws
however nicholas had no intentions of becoming a constitutional monarch
counter-revolution
despite this, workers were still violently forced back to their factories and in the final months of 1905, jews suffered in terrible pogroms
on the 3rd december, the headquarters of the st petersburg soviet was surrounded and their leaders arrested which massively weakened the revolution
other events
nov 3rd - peasants redempion payments halved
14th nov - press censorship ends
dec 3rd - gov arrests 250 members of st petersburg soviet including trotsky
the era of the dumas
new constitution
lower chamber (state duma)
members elected via indirect voting
favored for nobles + peasants
upper chamber (state council)
half elected by zemstva and half by tsar
government (council of ministers under PM)
appointed and responsible to the tsar
the lower and upper chamber have equal power and any 3 bodies could veto legislation
the fundamental laws
5 days before the first duma met (23rd april 1906) nicholas issued a series of fundamental laws
the tsar claimed the right to...
veto legislation
appoint + dismiss minsiters
dissolve the duma
control military + household expenditure
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political groupings
liberals (e.g kadets) dominated in the first dumas but the system was changed to favour parties who were happy with the october manifesto (octobrists)
the four dumas
the
first duma
(duma of national hopes) was from may-july 1906 and it was boycotted by the bolsheviks + SR's therefore it was overwhelmingly radical-liberal and strongly critical of the tsar. As a result of this, the duma was dissolved and Goremykin was replaced by Stolypin as PM
the
second duma
(duma of national anger) from feb-june 1907 consisted of extreme socialists and was very oppositional. Stolypin ended up making a false plot about assassinating's the tsar and dissolved the duma aswell as now limiting the vote of peasants, workers and N.M
the
third duma
(duma of lords and lackeys) from nov 1907-jun 1912 was a much more submissive duma that passed 2200 of 2500 proposals
the
fourth duma
from 1912-17 didn't really do much with new PM Count Vladimir ignoring it and declining its influence
political developments by 1914
oppostions were much weaker by 1914 due to police activity and their own internal issues
from 1912, labour troubles resurfaced
summary
it would be fair to say that by 1914 the regime had modernised
the economic development of russia to 1914
industrial transformation
consistent annual growth of 8% per year from 1894-1913
masterminded by witte (minister of finance, 1892-1903) who built on policies established by ivan vyshnegradsky in the 1880s
in 11 years under witte, railway trackage doubled, coal output in southern russia jumped from 183m puds (1890) to 671 million (900)
foreign investment went from 280m roubles (1895) to 2000m roubles (1914)
railways
the state continued to buy smaller private railway companies so by 1905 russia had 59,616km, 66% state owned
stimulated iron and coals industries
had 62,000km by 1913
most acclaimed development was trans-siberian railway
heavy industry
1887 - 30,888 factories - 1.3m factory workers
1908 - 39,856 factories - 2.6m factory workers
coal
1880 - 5.9m tons
1900 - 16.1m tons
1910 - 25.4m tons
population
1897 - 93,442,900
1913 - 121,780,000
however, lowest growth of national income from 1894-1913 compared to europe
developments in agriculture
was largely ignored when focus shifted to industy
amount of land stayed the same as population grew and traditional farming methods remained
grain output on american farms was 1.5x russian farms
stolypins land reforms
sep 1906 - more land available for peasants to buy
oct 1906 - peasants granted equal rights in their local administration
nov 1906 - hereditary land rule abolished, new peasants land bank and peasants given right to leave the commune
1st jan 1907 - redemption payments officially abolished
june 1910 - all communes who hadn't distributed land since 1861 were dissolved
grain production was 56m tons (1900) to 90m tons (1914)
however, by 1914, only 10% of land had been transferred from communal to private ownership
by 1914, 90% still strip farmed
probably fewer than 1% achieved kulak status
50% of land remained in hands of nobility
social developments to 1914
developments in working and living conditions in towns
2m factory workers in 1900 and that had tripled by 1913
by 1914, 3 out of 4 people living in st petersburg were peasants by birth
facilities needed to provide for this urban working class were inadequate
conditions at home + work were poor and around 40% of houses in st petersburg had no running water or sewage system
30,000 inhabitants died of cholera from 1908-09
wages remained the same whilst inflation rocketed
in order to improve these some laws were introduced and normal factory working hours were reduced to 10 hours
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developments in working and living conditions in the countryside
conditions for peasant farmers didn't improve substantially
the wealth divide got bigger as kulaks took advantage
a new settlement was setup in siberia but only 3.5m peasants out of 97m went
a large amount of peasants were deemed unfit for military service and mortality rates were high
in 1914, there was still around 60% illiteracy
social divisions
became more complex with economic change but still an upside down triangle structure
the middle classes
grew from industrialisation which encouraged entrepreneurial businessmen and a high demand for professional positions
found their natural home in the zemstva + state dumas and exerted a large influence
challenged the normal social structure
workers + peasantry
many began to move to towns and lost their peasant identities
the nobility
around 1/3 of nobles land was transferred to peasants from 1861-1905
however, there was no redistributive tax to attack the nobilities wealth so they retained much of their power, status + money
suffered a lot from the emancipation
cultural changes
women were now more involved (dec 1908, first all russian congress of women)
by 1911, over 6.5million children (8-11) were receiving primary education
there were 1767 newspapers being published weekly by 1914
69,000 uni students by 1914
opposition: ideas and ideologies
growth of liberal opposition to 1905
spread of education helped their cause and liberalism was particularly strong in the zemstva
union of liberation setup by pyotr struve in 1903 who held 50 banquets in the winter of 1904
the development of socialism and the emergence of the SR's
agarian socialism was revived after the great famine 1891-92
after the murder of boglepov (minister of education) in 1901 riots supporting his death broke out
the same year the SR party was founded with its most influential theorist being Victor Chernov
like the populists, they tried to appeal to the peasants and stir up discontent in the countryside
they also disrupted government with assassination's on ministers such as plehve in 1904 and PM stolypin in 1911
the influence of marxism and the development of the social democratic workers party
the industrial take off helped make marxist theories more attractive and the SD's emerged in 1898 from an amalgam of various marxist groups
in their first congress they established their stand for the working class
however, the congress was broken up by okhrana agents
Lenin then played a dominant role and he wanted revolution (bolshevik side) whereas Martov wanted a broad party with a mass-working class memberships (menshevik side)
the party then basically split into these two sides
the extent of opposition between 1905-1914
other opposition groups
moderate liberal opposition were appeased by the october manifesto
SR's and SDs were weakened by the exile of their leaders
aswell as this the internal issues of the SD's and their rivalry with the SR's meant opposition was not united and as a result of this made minimal progress before 1914
trade unions
497 trade unions were closed down between 1906-1910
union activity remained mostly in st petersburg
political authority, opposition and the state of russia in wartime
political problems of tsardom in wartime
the tsars decision to go to war in 1914 was originally a popular one and the duma dissolved itself to prevent unnecessary politics during wartime
however, spirits dampened with defeats such as the battle of tennenburg which left 300,000 dead or wounded in august 1914
incompetence's began to flare in the russian capital
wartime government and organization
disputes began over the organization of the war effort
in june 1915, the zemstva and municipal dumas joined together to form the zemgor which claimed the right to help the governments war effort
in september 1915, more defeats in galacia led Nicholas to appoint himself as commander in chief of the army and navy, making him solely responsible for war failures
back at home, rasputin was exerting his influence over the tsarina and there were many minister changes in the 12 months after september 1915
the economic and social problems created by the war
the russian economy showed strains of the war and by christmas 1914, there was already a large shortage in munitions
military issues
soldiers sent to fight without suitable weaponary
in 1914 they had two rifles for every three soldiers
artillery was limited to 2-3 shells a day
by the end of 1916 morale had plummeted and it led to 1.5 million desertions that year
internal problems
the economic exertion on the war effort devastated living conditions at home with peasants starving and more strikes in cities
the opposition to the autocracy and the political collapse of feb/march 1917
chronology of february 1917
strikes from 14th-22nd
23rd - international womens day - 90,000 workers go on strike and 50 factories close
by 25th, 250,000 (over half of the capitals workforce) are on strike and petrograd is at a standstill
chaos breaks out on the streets with workers attacking and killing police
on the 27th, nicholas orders the military to enforce order but a mutiny breaks out and later that day the duma holds a meeting which setup a 12-man provisional committee to take over government
nicholas II leaves a military headquarters to head home but he is told it's too late and there is no return by rodzianko
nicholas never returned to petrograd and he abdicated in favour of his brother who then refused the throne
the development of russia under the dual power of 1917
the provisional government
grand duke mihail established a 'provisional government' under prince lvov made from members of the duma
it was the original intentions for it to be temporary and elections would be help asap for a new constituent assembly
the petrograd soviet
dominated by mensheviks + SR's but also contained some bolsheviks
Kerensky laid the foundations for dual power as he was a member of both groups
they agreed to eachothers promises and the dual power was on behalf of the people which allowed freedom of religion, press and it abolished the death penalty
the dual power in action
the soviets order no1 said the army should obey PG only when the soviet agreed with them
disturbances on the front line and in the countryside continued and the dual power started to disagree on what to do
milyukov announced they would stay in the war until a 'just peace' had been won which led to anti-war demonstrations forcing milyukov + guchkov to resign
they were replaced by socialists from the soviet (viktor churnov + kerensky)
in july 1917, kerensky became chairman which sparked inital hope which then plummeted after the july days and the kornilov offensive
more chaos broke out with drop in wages,high inflation and continued war failures
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The establishment of Bolshevik government
lenin's return and the growth of bolshevik support
lenin published the
april theses
in the parties official newspaper, the pravda
they demanded that...
the war should be brought to an immediate end
power should be transferred to the soviets
all land should be reallocated to peasants
the april theses split the soviets into those who wanted to cooperate with the PG (e.g stalin) and those who didn't (e.g lenin)
lenin gradually built up support for the bolshevik cause including trotsky. As well as this, kerensky's determination to stay in the war grew support for the bolsheviks
however, the july day riots and suggestions that lenin was working with germans against russia massively damaged the bolsheviks
on july 8th, kerensky replaced prince lvov as PM and it appeared the bolsheviks had missed their moment
however, their hope was re-ignited with the kornilov affair
as a result of this, bolshevik support increased by 164% between june and december
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key chronology
april - september 1917
3rd april - lenin returns and compiles april theses
3rd june - first all russian congress of workers and soldiers meet
2nd july - trotsky joins bolsheviks
3rd to 4th july - the 'july days'
5th to 7th july - bolshevik leaders arrested
18th july - kerensky becomes first minister
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the bolshevik seizure of power, october 1917
key chronology
october - december 1917
10th october - lenin attends a meeting of the bolshevik central comitee and his call for a bolshevik-led revolution is agreed
20th october - the military revolutionary committee (MRC) meet for the first time
24th-25th october - armed workers and soldiers led by bolsheviks and organised by the MRC take over key buildings in petrograd
25th-27th october - remaining members of PG arrested, revolution is announced at the second congress of the soviets. The congress appoints the first soviet government (the council of peoples commissars) with lenin as chairman
december - a secret police force, the cheka, is established
on the night of the 24th-25th, 5000 sailors and soldiers stormed the capital under the order of trotsky and the MRC
they took key buildings + positions and in the morning a further 3000 troops arrived
kerensky fled, disguised as a nurse, and on the evening of the 25th a gunshot from the battleship aurora was heard and shots were fired at the winter palace
The executive committee established the Sovnarkom consisting of exclusively bolsheviks with lenin as chairman. Lenin then announced a series of decrees designed to fufil his promises of change and win support
Strikes against the one party government emerging occurred and armed forces prepared to fight and Lenin agreed to inter-party talks but this was barely fulfilled, he only let left wing SR's join the Sovnarkom. Lenin also used propaganda, censorship and he dissolved the constituent assembly after 1 day of it meeting when the SR's won a majority