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Nicholas II - Coggle Diagram
Nicholas II
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Political conditions
Russo Japanese war (1904-05) - Russia wanted to gain land in Manchuria and control of port Arthur, but so did Japan. Russia believed that Japan had a weaker army and overestimated their own skill. Japan launched a surprise attack on Russian ships 26th Jan 1904, Japan had better skilled army and navy, and was closer to Port Arthur than Russian troops were. Witte sent to debate Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 where they surrendered Port Arthur and Manchuria to Japan. July 1905 government was very unpopular as the war was humiliating and a waste of troops and money - anger seen in the assassination of Phleve.
October Manifesto (1905) - gave freedom of speech, religion and press as well as introducing elected Duma to help make decisions with the Tsar and Council. Second Manifesto in November - improved peasant land bank and abolished redemption payments within a year
Introduction of the Duma - all legislation approved by Tsar and Duma, both houses had equal legislative power, could all veto, Tsar appointed Prime Minister and Council. Men over 25 could vote and those over 400 acres could vote directly while those below had to vote for a delegate to vote on their behalf.
The Fundamental Laws (April 1906) - allowed Nicholas to rule by decree in emergency or when Duma not in session, can dissolve duma when he wants, control of Church and army, declare war and peace. Angered the public as Nicholas still had autocratic power, felt betrayed by the illusion of constitutional change.
First Duma (April-July 1906) - radical Duma as was strongly critical of Tsar and ministers, posed many amendments to Manifesto but were denied so voted no confidence and wanted ministers to resign - disbanded
Second Duma (Feb-June 1907) - most radical Duma, Stolypin couldn't find support for agrarian reform so pushed it through using Tsar's emergency powers but Duma refused to ratify it so began rumor that radicals planned to assassinate Tsar and arrested radical members.
Third Duma (Nov 1907 - June 1912) - submissive Duma, suspended twice in 1911, was clear by 1912 it wasnt working
Fourth Duma (Nov 1912 - Feb 1917) - New prime minister who ignored the Duma but it was too divided to fight back so its influence simply declined.
Political opposition (1905 - 1914) - social unrest made it easy to spread radical ideas in the cities and countryside - but the split of the Bolsheviks and the Memsheviks significantly weakened the socialists as their support was split into two.
Social Revolutionaries - organised peasant revolts, had lots of peasant support and assassinated Phleve.
Changes since 1905 - 1906 Stolypin introduced court martials to deal with political crimes, cases allowed two days max, no defense lawyer and death sentences carried out in 24 hours. Duma had mainly become insignificant and revolutionary groups incredibly weakened
Economic conditions
Land Reform - 1906 Agrarian Reform Act - allowed peasants to have a whole plot of land instead of a strip. Would be more effective as the peasants land had been split into sections which led to strip farming which limited the modern tools they could use and amount of crops growing therefore limiting profit. Statistics - individuals owning land increased 30% from 1905-1914 but only 10% of peasants actually changed to strip farming, many just sold their land to Kulaks and moved to cities.
Stolypin - minister of internal affairs in 1906, began Stolypin's necktie to punish and set an example before he attempted reform. Set up a new peasant land bank in 1910 and encouraged investment and abolished redemption payments in 1907 as peasants often joined revolutionaries thinking their houses would be taken away if they couldnt afford redemption payment so turned to only option they knew.