InNo+JonathanK2013+10.12.2010

=**Part 1 - Russia Under the Tsar**= =--= Awesomee: = =

This is a pie chart of the population of the Russian Empire. In 1900s, Russia was a great empire ruled by Tsar, there were many different kinds of people living under Tsar's rule, these people had their own languages as a standard one was no made in Russia. They also had their own customs and own way of life. Less than half of the population were Russians as on the graph, Russians people were then considered foreigners in their own country.

Video of the Bloody Sunday, 1905 media type="youtube" key="MgOLaRInUog?fs=1" height="385" width="480" This video provides more in-depth information to the Bloody Sunday. On Sunday, 27th January, 1905. 200,000 people marched towards Tsar's Winter Palace, they were massacred there by police and soldiers. Over 500 died and thousands wounded.

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The Land and the Climate

 * Russia's land is vast but useless
 * Southern Border:
 * High mountains
 * Good defense against foreign invaders
 * Keep out warm air trying to spread from the South
 * Leaves Russia open to cold air from Arctic Ocean
 * Tundra
 * Land where nothing grows
 * Taiga
 * Cold land covered in forests of pine trees
 * Cold Climate
 * Land useless for farming
 * Sea and river trade were impossible until spring - before 1900, when ice-breaker ships were not powerful
 * New Railway: **the Trans-Siberian**
 * Built to allow trade between east and west all year round
 * In 1900, only half built

** An Empire of many Peoples **

 * **Russia great empire, 1900**
 * **Ruled by** Tsar, **or** Emperor - Nicholas II.
 * Less than half of the population were Russians
 * People not even spread throughout Russia's vast land
 * Most people lived in 5% where good farming

The Autocracy
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 * Tsar Nicholas II, an **Autocrat**
 * Monarch who does not have to share power
 * **Table of Ranks**
 * Tsar employed civil servants and organized them like an army into fourteen ranks
 * Bottom:
 * Minor officials: Post office clerks, Custom inspectors
 * Job:
 * Collect taxes from Russian people
 * Make sure decisions were carried out
 * Civil Servants took bribes to meet ends, because they were underpaid
 * **Okrana** (Protective Section)
 * Secret police force to make sure no one opposed him
 * Censored all books and newspapers
 * Agents spied n political groups, arrested people who critised government
 * **Famines**
 * Okhrana could not cope with opponents
 * **Cossacks** help
 * Fierce mounted soldiers armed with sabers
 * Specialized in breaking up mobs
 * **Russian Orthodox Church**
 * Church taught people to respect autocracy, loyal to Tsar
 * Head or church was government minister
 * Tsar had control over many Russian Church

** Nicholas and Alexandra **

 * **Nicholas**
 * Did not like to work
 * Uneducated
 * **Alexandra**
 * Nicholas's German wife
 * Confident and Strong willed
 * Encouraged Nicholas to rule as an autocrat
 * Ignore ideas about sharing power
 * Nicholas and Alexandra, deeply religious

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** The Peasants **

 * Made up most of Russia's population
 * Lived off farming
 * **Serfs**
 * Peasants that are slaves of their landlords
 * No rights
 * No freedom
 * No land
 * Tsar Alexander II (Nicholas II's grand father) freed serfs
 * Strings attached to this:
 * Food that peasants grew was given to village commune
 * **Mir** : Where peasants lived
 * **Redemption Payments**
 * Peasants had to pay for their land to the commune
 * Yearly installments, next 49 years
 * Freed did not improve living conditions
 * Each year, the land would be divided to each family according to family size
 * Population increased --> Less land for each family --> Harder to support families
 * Diseases and malnutrition very common

** The Town Workers **

 * Peasants move to towns and cities to improve lives
 * Work in factories or mines
 * Return to communes during harvest time
 * St Petersburg, largest city in Russia, over crowded
 * Overcrowded --> Wages Decreased
 * Workers could not improve living conditions

** The Rich **

 * **Nobles**
 * Rich
 * Very little of the population
 * Owned most of the land
 * **Capitalists**
 * Made money from banking, industry and trade
 * Sergei Witte (Minister of France)
 * Made it easy for Capitalists to earn money
 * Gave government contracts (building railways)
 * Gave loans to build new factories
 * Cut taxes
 * Did not improve living conditions of workers
 * Hatred of Capitalists grew

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**Chapter 4 - Opponents of the Tsar** =====
 * Most Russians did not question Tsar's autocratic system of government
 * Believed God appointed Tsar
 * Believed everyone had their rightful place in society
 * Some people, wanted to get rid of Tsar

Terrorism
 * March 1881, Bomb exploded beneath carriage of Tsar Alexander II
 * Wasn't injured
 * Later: young man threw a bomb at his feet
 * Tsar Alexander II died
 * Did not destroy autocracy
 * **People's Will**
 * Small terrorist group determined to destroy autocracy
 * After assassination of Tsar Alexander II
 * Did not destroy autocracy
 * His successors, used Okrana to arrest critics and opponents
 * Did not succeed in wiping out all opponents
 * Three important groups of opponents exist

** The Socialist Revolutionary Party **
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 * Group that opposed Tsar
 * Wanted all land in Russia to be given to the mirs (village communes) --> Peasants bigger land
 * **Fighting Organization**
 * Used by SR (Socialist Revolutionary) to organize terrorist campaigns
 * 1900-1905, they killed three government ministers, dozens of government officials
 * Support from peasants, wanted their own land or fallen behind with yearly redemptions

** The Social Democratic Party **
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 * Important Revolutionary group
 * Followed idea of **Karl Marx**
 * German writer
 * Wrote book: Communist Manifesto (1848)
 * Predicted violent revolution, working class overthrew capitalists
 * **Socialism**
 * Workers take factories, mines, machinery, and raw material from Capitalists, share them among themselves
 * **Communism**
 * Society, people worked according to abilities, paid according to needs
 * At first one group, split into two, argue about best way to start socialist revolution
 * **Bolsheviks**
 * Believed revolution organized by small group of dedicated and skilled revolutionaries
 * This group, lead party make all decisions
 * Vladir Ilyich Lenin
 * Leader of Bolsheviks
 * If Mensheviks had their way, years to start revolution
 * Mensheviks argued, requires all of working class support for revolution to succeed
 * **Mensheviks**
 * Believed there should be mass party, as many working class as possible
 * Run democratically
 * Members electing leaders and deciding policies

** Liberals **
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 * Supported Tsar but wanted him to share his power
 * Not violent revolutionaries
 * Wanted democratic system of government
 * Alexander II made plans for a Russian parliament
 * Next day, he get killed by People's Will
 * Alexander III stops plans

** War against Japan **
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 * **1904, Russia war Japan**
 * Fighting for control of Korea and Manchuria in Far East
 * Tsar thought, quick victory --> him popular --> people stop criticising government
 * Instead weakened him
 * Russian army suffered defeat
 * Sent Russian Baltic Fleet half way round world to help, took 7 months
 * Too late, battle of Tsushima happened
 * **Battle of Tsushima**
 * Japanese fleet destroyed Russian ships
 * Weakened Tsar Nicholas position
 * Made working people living condition worse
 * Food supplies to cities broke down
 * Factories closed because shortage of raw materials

** Bloody Sunday **
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 * **Bloody Sunday**
 * Sunday, 22th January, 1905
 * 200,000 people marched through St Petersburg to Tsar's winter palace
 * **Aim:**
 * Ask Nicholas for better working and living conditions
 * End war with Japan
 * Shorter working day
 * **Father Gapon**
 * Lead Bloody Sunday
 * Priest who sympathized with poor workers
 * Police and soldiers massacred marchers to stop them
 * Lead to riots country sides, strikes in towns
 * **Started Revolution against Tsar**

** The 1905 Revolution **

 * **Potemkin**
 * Crew of the battle ships, Pride of the Black Sea Fleet
 * June 1905, threw officers overboard and took control of ship
 * Tsar Nicholas could not trust his armed forces
 * Rebellion in the countryside
 * Peasants rebelled, killed landlords, burned farms
 * People such as Georgians and the Poles declare independence from Russian rule
 * September 1995, **General Strike began**
 * Factories, offices, shops, etc closed down
 * **Soviets**
 * Councils to run the town during strikes
 * Became alternative form of government
 * Workers obey Soviets, not Tsar
 * **October Manifesto** (1905)
 * Russia could have a **Duma**
 * An elected parliament to help run country
 * Allowed Russian people basic rights
 * Right to form political parties
 * Right of free speech
 * Revolutionary parties did not trust Nicholas to keep word
 * December, police arrested members of Soviet
 * Army crushed Soviet, many people died
 * Tsar crushed all areas of revolution
 * **Black Hundreds**
 * Band of thugs
 * Organized massacres of revolutionaries
 * Police and army did not stop them
 * **March 1906, Revolution over**
 * Duma elections held in 1906, majority anti-government gained office
 * Nicholas issued Fundamental Laws
 * "To the Emperor of all the Russians belongs supreme autocratic power"
 * Duma or no Duma, russia still autocracy

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**Chapter 6 - The Aftermath of the 1905 Revolution** ===== = =

** The Dumas **
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 * 1st Duma
 * Lasted for 75 days
 * Demanded share in government, broken up by force
 * 2nd Duma
 * Elected in 1907
 * Less to Nicholas liking
 * Contained Liberals, Socialist Revolutionaries, Social Democrats
 * Aimed to destroy autocracy
 * Broke up by force after 3 months
 * 3rd Duma
 * Met in 1907
 * Lasted 5 years
 * Nicholas changed voting laws
 * Make sure revolutionaries were not elected
 * Mostly made up of conservative politicians who did what Nicholas wanted
 * **Peter Stolypin**
 * New Prime Minister
 * Make sure no more outbreaks of revolution

 The Stolypin Reforms

 * **Peter Stolypin**
 * Believed in strict government
 * First action, clamp down terrorism
 * 1906, arrested 1008 terrorist
 * **Stolypin's Necktie**
 * New nickname given to the gallows
 * Terrorism not serious threat to autocracy
 * Feared peasants would rebel if they remained poor
 * Abolished redemption payments
 * Abolished law which said that village communes, the mirs, controlled the land
 * Hope peasants leave communes --> set up own farms --> Bigger and more productive farms --> Peasants grow rich, want peace in countryside --> Help prevent revolution
 * **Living Condition improved**
 * 1911, Stolypin's police agent, investigating terrorist groups, turns out to be terrorist, shot **Stolypin dead**

Rasputin **--** = =
 * **Starets**
 * **A holy man of God**
 * **While Stolypin was prime minister**
 * **Nicholas and Alexandra (Wife) involved with him**
 * **Wanted to cure their son, Alexis, of hemophilia (incurable disease)**
 * Gregory Efimovitch
 * A Staret
 * Prayed for Alexis (Nicholas's son), he recovered
 * Became trusted member of their court
 * Nickname: Rasputin - the disreputable one
 * He drank heavily and had many affairs
 * In St Petersburg he was also 'disreputable'
 * Nicholas and Alexandra were told these stories, ignored them, continued trusting him
 * After Stolypin died, Rasputin influence increased
 * Gave political advice to Alexandra --> Passed to Nicholas
 * Hatred of him grew
 * Rumors he affair with Alexandra

Summary: Russia is very cold which makes it almost impossible to farm, also in 1900s Russia was ruled by Tsar and the population of the Russia empire, half were Russians. Russia was ruled by autocracy, Tsar, he ruled the country with unlimited power, he used the Church to teach people to obey him, he also had Okrana and Cossacks to prevent rebellion. Living conditions in Russia is very bad, this resulted in terrorism, there were three major groups, Socialist Revolutionary Party, the Social democratic party which eventually split into the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, and the Liberals. In 1905, there was a war against Japan, this resulted in worse living conditions for the people which lead to the bloody Sunday, in the end there was revolution in 1905 which was brought down by Tsar. Stolypin becomes new prime minister employed by Nicholas to prevent outbreaks of revolutions, Rasputin also comes into the picture where he healed Alexis of a incurable disease, he gains a lot of influence.

Questions: Who were the Okrana? - Secret police that ensured no one opposed Nicholas Who were the Cossacks - Army that would break up rebellions by force What were the three major revolutionary parties? - Socialist Revolutionary Party, the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were once part of the Social Democratic Party, but they broke into two groups because they believed in different ways for the revolution to be organized. The Bolsheviks believed the revolution should be organized by a small group of revolutionaries who makes all decisions. the Mensheviks believed that there should be a mass party that has as many working class people as possible, they believe they need support from the working class in order for this revolution to be successful. The Socialism Revolution Party is responsible for many of the deaths of government officials. They believed all of Russia's land should be given to communes to give to peasants, the peasants would then be able to live better lives. How did Alexis diseases have an effect on the family - Because Rasputin cured his son of the disease, they trusted him a lot even thought he was a bad person. This gave him high influence in the government. Describe Nicholas II, basic idea of his character. - He was uneducated and have very little idea of how to rule Russia. He hired many civil servants to rule the country for him. Disliked talking about daily work and reports, preferred ministers that could entertain him.