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nicholas ii 1894-1917 - Coggle Diagram
nicholas ii 1894-1917
early years
- small, naturally reserved and recognised as a 'weakling'
- politics bored him and said he wasn't prepared to rule Russia
- commitment to orthodxy ensured church remained powerful
KHODYNKA FIELD MASSACRE
-reign was ill omened as during celebrations in 1896 after coronation, 1400 killed
- people tramples trying to get free food and water
- public on outrage at ack of tsar's concern
GOVERNMENT BEFORE NICHOLAS
- before nicholas, Russia hit with catastrophic famine
government exposed & civil society mobalised to help
- people began to wonder if they should have a larger say
- pursued Russification more vigourasly
- Witte driving them to modernisation
TSARINA ALEXANDRA
- born of German royal house & protestant but converted to Orthodoxy after marriage
- disliked court and court disliked her
- demanded tsar be present at family meals
WORKERS BEFORE NICHOLAS
- millions of peasants pouring into ities to work in factories (social tension)
- more educated workforce could read political literature
- growth of middle class created pressure for political change
- textile workers striked in 1896, 7,30,000 spinners striked marking arrival of proletariat that was able to organise strike
- working day lowered to 11 1/2 hours
- used politcal repression
STUDENTS BEFORE NICHOLAS
- series of disturbances involving students
- began as protest agaisnt governemtn restrictions on unis led to huge demos where students beat with sticks
RUSSIA EARLY 20TH CENTURY
- unstable & volatile condition
international recession after 1900 causing deep depression affecting all areas of economy - workers hit with unemployment
- 1902 Poltava Province - first wave off peasant violonce as landlords taking land needed for families
ZUBATOV TRADE UNIONS
- believed repressive measures alone can't combat working class
- workers had to be convinced life could improve
-1901 set up 3 trade unions in Moscow
- government believed this would politicise workers
economy
INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION
- major transformation - more than 8% per annum annual growth
-11 years of Witte - railways doubled, coal output in South went from 183mill puds to 671mill
- releied of foreign investment ) France supported 1/2)
- more than 23% income from these
RAILWAY
- by 1905, had 59km worth but still limited with size of country
- linked grain growing areas to black sea ports which improve trade
- transport costs fell bringing price of goods down
HEAVY INDUSTRY
- Witte believed concentrating on production in key areas means increace in heavy goods
- 1914 = 4th largest producer of coal, steel
- became self sufficient and able to compete with USA
PUTILOV IRON WORKS
- 1885 provided nearly 1/4 of all state orders for locomotives, wagons
- helped develop railway factories
AGRICULTURE
- provided 80-90% livelihood
- population grew but land didn't
- 1896 - gov initiative to sponsor emigration to new agricultural settlements
STOLYPIN LAND REFORM
- wanted peasants to be permenant owners of land (not divided) so complete transformation needed
- Stolypin said he needed 20 years of peace for reforms to have effect but WW1 prevented this
STOLYPIN LAND REFORM WEAKNESS
- long time to process
by 1914 only 10% of land transferred
landowners reluctant to givr up land
50% land still in nobility hand
- no structure just focus on current issue
social developments
towns
- in major cities new factories swelled the urban population
- some workers only temporatily settled to retain land then returned home to help their family
- by 1914, 3/4 of people born were peasants
- often lived in barrack like buildings
- in ST Petersburg around 40% housing had no running water
- demand for work/accommodation so high that rents were high & often took half a wage
- after recession, wages failed to keep up with inflation
OPPOSITION
- easy for towns/cities to become breeding places for political discontempt
- governments only response was repression
LENA GOLDFIELDS MASSACRE
- gold miners of Lena riverbanks worked long hours for low pay
- 1912 went on strike
- converged to one mine & when approached they were fired
improvements for workers
- normal factory working hours redued to 10 hours but not appliable for workshops
- investment in primary school far less than railways
- 1885 prohibited night-time employment of women & children
- 1892 employment of children under 12 forbidden to work
countryside
- conditions for farmers didn't improve
- gap between poor and rich became wider
- peasants found life getting harsher
- only 3.5mill able to take advantage of moving
- despite improvements in health care a large proportion of population deemed unfit
social divisions
nobility
- suffered as result of emancipation
- those in government office retained influence
- no redistributive taxation on wealthy to diminish income
NEW INDUSTRY SOCIETY
- INDUSTRY REQUIRED SPECIALISTS
- NUMBER OF DOTORS ROSE TO 28000
- NUMBER OF GRADUATES OVER 20,000
WORKERS/PEASANTRY
- population growth affected them
- in countryside, social adjustments took place though most peasants protested
- in urban areas, former peasants were alienated from families & roots as gradually losing their former identity
- easy target for political agitators
MIDDLE CLASS
- business men could live comfortably
- growth of education fuelled this
opposition
liberals
- traced back to intelligentsia in 1850s
- many middle class professionals wanted to improve conditions for peasants
inadequacies of government bureaucracy became very apparent to this
- 1903 = union of liberations formed demanding economic/ politcal reform - formed kadets/octoberists
- wanted civil rights, rule of law, free elctions, democracy, limit on tsar's power
- used reform instead of violence, articles and meetings
- main support from middle class intelligentsia (lawyers, docs etc) also industrialists
social revolutionaries
- grew from populist movement
- loose organisation but accomodated many with wide views
- moderate groups followed
- never well co-ordianted till 1906 (first congress)
-extremists assassinated as many as 2000 gov officials in 4 years
- land was taken from landowners & distributed amongst peasants
- Chernov was leading exponent and didnt think peasants needed to go through capitilism
- used agitation & terrorism
- peasants large source of support
social democrats
- Plekhanov in exile in Europe and in 1898 met with small group of socialist exiles & formed social democrats
- split in 1903 due to some wanting to encourage trade unions to improve workers conditions but others wanted focu on revolutionary tactics for working class
- split into mensheviks & bolsheviks
- bolsheviks had majority votes but fewer members
mensheviks
- believed party should be :
broadly based
more democratic allowing members to have say
encourage trade unions
- support mainly from working class & attracted different types of workers
bolsheviks
- Lenin believed a revolutionary party should be :
small number of hughly disciplined professional revolutionaries
centralised leadership
- critics said this would lead to dictatrship
- support mainly from working class and attracted younger militant workers