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04 BACKGROUND TO THE SOVIET REVOLUTION, image, image, image, image, image,…
04 BACKGROUND TO THE SOVIET REVOLUTION
1 TSARIST RUSSIA
Russian Empire
had around 150 million inhabitants
population was very unevenly distributed
consisted of a great diversity of nationalities, peoples and cultures
economy, based on agriculture, was slowly beginning to develop industrially
autocratic monarchy
tsar exercised his power
absolute ruler
feudal aristocracy
Orthodox Church
corrupt bureaucracy
Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDWP)
Marxist-inspired
felt that the working class should carry out a revolution
to eliminate injustice and inequality
1903
RSDWP split into two groups
Bolsheviks
defended the seizure of power by a committed working-class minority
Vladimir Lenin
Mensheviks
moderate and favoured an alliance with reformist liberalism
Julius Martov
GRIGORI RASPUTIN (1869–1916)
mystic
called to the palace to cure the tsar’s eldest son, Alexei
was assassinated in 1916.
2 FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1905 TO THE GREAT WAR
Russo-Japanese War
economic, political and social crisis that led to many strikes
Russia was defeated and the weakness of the tsarist regime was revealed
1904–1905
Bloody Sunday
tsarist army repressed thousands of demonstrators gathered
in front of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg
more than a thousand victims
massacre of men, women and children
first Soviet
Political strikes became the main weapon
formed in St. Petersburg
capital of the Empire
consisted of
peasants
soldiers
workers
revolutionaries did not succeed in taking power
but, implementing some reforms:
creation of the Duma or National Legislative Assembly
equivalent of a parliament
controlled by the tsar
start of an
agrarian reform
distribution of lands
serve to create a social base of support for the liberal regime
project was cancelled
because of the assassination of its promoter
Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin
1911
establishment of
limited individual and citizens’ liberties
World War I began
Tsar Nicholas II took direct control of the army in 1915
could not prevent the collapse of the front or the breakdown of civil power
serious economic and social situation due to increasingly poor living conditions
demoralisation of the army and the people
which generated conditions for a new revolutionary outburst
The Russian Empire in 1914
covered a territory that made up one sixth of the Earth’s surface
Trans-Siberian Railroad
inaugurated in 1904
Managed to connect the European part with the most remote regions of the Russian Empire
