InNo+annielo822+10.12.10

= The Russian Revolution - Part One = October 17, 2010

**The Awesome Part**

__** ﻿The Russian Empire in 1900 **__

 * - Russia is big, fits all of British Isles 90 times over **
 * - Takes over a week in express train to travel from east to west **
 * - Sun rises in east when it sets in west **

**The land and the climate**

 * - a lot of land is useless **
 * - high mountains are good defense against foreign invaders, but keeps out warm air spreading to south **
 * - leaves Russia open to cold air from Arctic Ocean **
 * - Russia is mostly useless for farming **
 * - In Arctic Circle, the land is ‘tundra’: only moss and small shrubs grow **
 * - More than 1000 km south of tundra is ‘taiga’: covered with pine trees **
 * -Only soil in warmer land can be used for farming **
 *  - 1900, only 5% of Russia land used for farming, rest is waste **
 *  - cold climate affects Russia’s industry, commerce, and farming **
 *  - most is in Arctic circle, so frozen over with thick ice for most of the year **
 *  - Rivers of Siberia – Ob, Yenisey, Lena – freeze **
 *  - Ice-breaking ships smash channels through ice for other ships to use **
 *  - 1900, ice-breakers weren’t powerful **
 *  - Coast and rivers were locked in ice throughout winter **
 *  - Sea and river trade was impossible until spring **
 *  - New railway, the Trans-Siberian, was built for trade from east and west all year round **
 *  - 1900, railway only half-built **

**An empire of many peoples**

 * - 1900, Russia was rules by a **Tsar**/Emperor: Nicholas II**
 * - about 125 million people lived in his empire **
 * - less then half were Russians **
 * - Majority of people had been conquered by ancestors of Tsar Nicholas II (Poles, Ukrainians) **
 * - They had their own language, customs, and way of live **
 * - 6 out of 10 Tsar’s subjects, Russians were foreigners **
 * - People were not spread evenly throughout the country **
 * - Most lived on 5% land that usable for farming **
 * - Cold lands (Siberia), east mountains (Ural), were thinly populated **
 * - Fertile land of south-west and cities were overcrowded **

** The autocracy **

 * - ­Tsar Nicholas II, emperor, was an autocrat – monarch who doesn’t have to share power**
 * - could make new laws, increase taxes, do whatever he wanted, without consulting anyone **
 * - no parliament limited his power, could sack any minister or adviser who disagreed with him **
 * - Nicholas couldn’t govern 125 million people by himself **
 * - To run affairs he employed thousands of civil servants **
 * - They were organized into 14 ranks like an army **
 * - At top of ‘Table of Ranks’ were ministers in charge of gov’t departments **
 * - At bottom were minor officials, like post office and customs inspectors **
 * - Civil service collected taxes from Russians **
 * - Made sure Tsar’s decisions were carried out **
 * - Underpaid for work, so many civil servants took bribes **
 * - Tsar didn’t allow people to question his authority or challenge power **
 * - Had a secret police force, the **Okhrana**, or ‘Protective Section’ so make sure no on opposed him**
 * - They censored books and newspapers **
 * - Agents spied on political groups **
 * - People who criticized the gov’t was arrested **
 * - Political prisoners were tried by special courts without juries **
 * - Usually ended up in exile **
 * - They were sent to live in cold lands of Siberia as punishment **
 * - Okhrana couldn’t cope with opponents of Tsar, especially during famines **
 * - Riots broke out **
 * - Workers went on strike, peasants in countries attacked landlords and tax collectors **
 * - Cossacks** came to Tsar’s rescue, mounted soldiers armed with sabres, specializing in breaking mobs by butchering anyone who didn’t run away fast enough
 * - Church in Russia also helped maintain authority of Tsar **
 * - Priests of Russian Orthodox Church taught respect of autocracy and loyalty to Tsar **
 * - Head of church was gov’t minister **
 * - Bishops took order from him and priests took orders from bishops **
 * - Through this, gov’t controlled minds and souls of many Russian churchgoers **

**Nicholas and Alexandra**

 * - 1894 Oct, Nicholas II said he wasn’t ready to become a Tsar on the day of his father’s death **
 * - 1895 Jan, He wanted to preserve principles of autocracy as his father did **
 * - 1906, Russia’s first Prime Minister (Count Witte) was sacked by Nicholas, because he wished Nicholas luck, and he found a written order for his dismissal on his desk later **
 * - 1906, the British Ambassador in Russia (Arthur Nicholson) said Nicholas was gentle but uneducated, and weak on everything but his own autocracy **
 * - Alexander Kerensky, Russian politician and Prime Minister in 1917, said a day of a rule was very boring **
 * - Alexandra, Nicholas’ wife, was German, and confident and strong willed **
 * - She encouraged Nicholas to rule as autocrat and ignore new ideas of sharing power **
 * - Nicholas and Alexandra were happily married, with 5 children in first 10 years of marriage **
 * - First 4 were girls, and 5th was boy, Alexis, the heir to the throne **
 * - But the happiness was ruined when after born, Alexis was found with a blood disease (haemophilia) **
 * - It prevented his blood from clotting **
 * - There was no cure, and even a small cut could cause him to bleed to death **
 * - A slight bump lead to massive internal swellings and pain **
 * - Nicholas and Alexandra were very religious **
 * - Alexandra built a chapel in royal palace grounds **
 * - She went there every day and prayed for hours of recovery of hers on **
 * - Ordered daughters to never talk about Alexis’ illness and everyone who knew of it was sworn to secrecy **

**The peasants**
- 1900, 4/5 citizens were peasants - country people made living by farming - 1861, peasants had been **serfs**, slaves of landlords - had no rights, freedom, or land of own - 1861, Tsar Alexander II, Nicholas II’s grandfather, freed peasants from serfdom - Allowed them to own land where they grew their food, but with strings attached - Land which peasants grew food was not given to individuals, but to the village commune, or **mir**, where they lived - Peasants paid for land given to commune in yearly installments, called redemption payments, over next 49 years - After 49 installments, the land was their personal property - Being freed from serfdom didn’t improve lives of peasants - Each year, mir divided land in communes and gave it to each family according to its needs - Bigger family = bigger land given - As population grew, plots of land grew smaller - 1861-1900, avg size of land halved - meant it was harder for peasants to support their families each year - still had to keep up with yearly redemption payments for land - life for peasants was hard - nearly half of new-born children died before age of 5 - avg life expectancy that reached age 5 was only 50 years - disease and malnutrition were common - peasants could only hope for a good harvest - then they had enough to eat and had extra to sell to market, to pay for taxes and redemption payments

**The town workers**

 * - ­peasants tried to work in towns/cities for better life **
 * - work in factories/mines until harvest time, and return to commune **
 * - largest city in 1900 was capital, St Petersburg **
 * - nearly 1 million people came looking for work, & still growing **
 * - overcrowded city, common for 10+ people living in one room, 4 sleeping in a bed **
 * - normal work day is 11 & half hours **
 * - people must work overtime since they are paid so little **
 * - workers unable to improve their lives **
 * - trade unions and going on strike were illegal **
 * - employers could easily replace workers **

**The rich**

 * - ­Russian nobles were very rich **
 * - Tsar Nicholas, head of nobility, owned 8 palaces and 15,000 servants **
 * - Needed up to 20 railway carriages for luggage when royal family moved **
 * - Nobles were 1% of population **
 * - Owned 25% of the land **
 * - Made many profits if farmed land efficiently **
 * - Others sold off little land to pay **
 * - 1900, capitalists were also becoming rich **
 * - made money from banking, industry and trade **
 * - Minister of France, Sergei Witte, made making money for capitalists easy **
 * - Gave gov’t contracts, especially building railways **
 * - Gave loans to build new factories & cut taxes **
 * - Easy profits, so did little to improve lives of workers **
 * - Hatred of capitalists grew in slums & boarding houses **

__**Opponents of the Tsar**__

 * - most didn’t question Tsar’s autocratic system of gov’t **
 * - believed he was appointed by God to rule them and everyone had their rightful place in society **
 * - some people didn’t accept it **
 * - wanted change in gov’t and society, and didn’t want Tsar **

**Terrorism**

 * - March 1881, snowy Sunday afternoon, bomb exploded near Tsar Alexander II’s carriage **
 * - Was unhurt, but came out to inspect damage **
 * - Young man threw something that looked like a snowball at his feet **
 * - Exploded, and tore off one of Alexanders’s legs and ripped his belly open **
 * - His son Alexander and grandson Nicholas watched him bleed to death **
 * - Assassination of Alexander II was by terrorist group called the ‘People’s Will’ **
 * - One of the terrorist groups that want to destroy autocracy **
 * - Assassination didn’t destroy autocracy **
 * - Alexander III and grandson Nicholas II wasn’t going to let the same happen to them **
 * - Both had critics and opponents arrested by Okhrana **
 * - Thousands were put in prison or exile in Siberia **
 * - However, neither succeeded in destroying all opponents **
 * - 1900, still three important opponent groups existed **

**The Socialist Revolutionary Party**

 * - ­one of the opponent groups **
 * - members known as SRs **
 * - wanted all land in Russia to be given to mirs, so peasants had larger share **
 * - meant taking land away from Tsar, nobles, and church, who owned most of Russia **
 * - to achieve aims, SRs had ‘Fighting Organization’, to organize terrorist campaigns **
 * - 1900-1905, killed 3 gov’t ministers and many gov’t officials **
 * - SRs gained support from peasants who wanted land, but lagged in yearly redemption payments **

**The Social Democratic Party**
- In socialist society, people work together for good of everyone, stop being selfish, and only took what they needed - A system of **communism** existed at this stage, where people work according to their abilities and paid according to their needs - Set up in 1898 - Leaders began to argue the best way to start socialist revolution - 1903, split into two groups, **Bolsheviks** and **Mensheviks** ** - Bolsheviks believed revolution should be organized by small group dedicated to skilled revolutionaries ** ** - They would lead the party and make decisions ** ** - Mensheviks believed the Party should be with as many workers as possible ** ** - It would be run democratically, elected leaders and policies ** ** - Leader of Bolsheviks was Vladmir Ilyich Lenin**, argued it would take years for Mensheviks to start revolution ** - They would waste time on discussion and arguing ** ** - Julius Martov, leader of Mensheviks, said revolution would fail without support of whole working class ** ** - Lenin and Martov didn’t reach agreement ** ** - From 1903 on, 3 important revolutionary groups were the Social Revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks, and the Mensheviks **
 * - important revolutionary group **
 * - followed ideas of Karl Marx, German writer in 1848, wrote a book called the Communist Manifesto **
 * - Marx predicted there would be violent revolution where the working class overthrew capitalists who owned wealth of the country **
 * - Workers took away factories, mines, machinery, & raw materials from capitalists, and shared them equally **
 * - This sharing of wealth was called **socialism

**Liberals**

 * - some opponents weren’t violent revolutionaries **
 * - many law-abiding people were liberals **
 * - supported Tsar but wanted him to share power **
 * - wanted democratic system of gov’t, like Britain where elected parliament shared power with monarch **
 * - Alexander II had made plans for Russian parliament the day he was blown up, but Alexander III tore up those plans the first day he became Tsar **

**War against Japan**
** - 1904, Russia went to war with Japan ** ** - fighting for control of Korea and Manchuria in Far East ** ** - Tsar Nicholas wanted war ** ** - A quick victory would stop criticism of his gov’t and he would be popular ** ** - From the start, Russia’s suffered terrible defeat ** ** - Nicholas sent Russian Baltic fleet on 7 month voyage to Manchuria to help army ** ** - As soon as fleet arrived in Japanese waters, they were destroyed except for 3 Russian ships in the **battle of Tsushima - War with Japan weakened Nicholas’ position - War made conditions for working people even worse - Food supplies to cities broke down, raw materials ran short so factories closed

**Bloody Sunday**

 * - Sunday 22 Jan 1905, crowd of 200,000 workers and families marched the streets of St Petersburg to Tsar’s Winter Palace **
 * - Aim was to present a petition for better working and living conditions, end of the war with Japan, shorter working day, and others **
 * - Father Gapon** led the marchers, priest who sympathized the workers
 * - Soldiers & police tried to stop marchers at the center of St Petersburg **
 * - Scuffles broke out and soldiers opened fire **
 * - 500 marchers died and thousands wounded **
 * - dreadful massacre was known as Bloody Sunday **
 * - news of massacre spread through Russia **
 * - riots in countryside and strikes in towns **
 * - hundreds of gov’t officials were murdered **
 * - Grand Duke Serge, Nicholas’ uncle, was blown up by terrorist bomb **
 * - Bloody Sunday started a revolution against Tar **

**The 1905 revolution**
- Said Russia could have **Duma**, elected parliament, to help run country - Allowed people to have basic rights (form political parties, free speech, etc.) - Liberals were happy with October Manifesto - Revolutionary parties didn’t trust Nicholas to keep his word - December, they were right when police arrested members of St Petersburg Soviet and sent 15 to exile in Siberia - Army in Moscow was sent to crush the Soviet - More than 1000 people died in fighting between revolutionaries and soldiers - Early months of 1906, Tsar crushed all areas of revolution - Bands of thugs known as Black Hundreds decided to organize massacres of revolutionares - Over 100 cities, people who joined revolution were put to death and police & army didn’t stop them - March 1906, revolution was over - At last Russia got a parliament- March 1906, elections for Duma were held and majority of anti-gov’t candidates gained office - May, when Duma met thefirst time, Nicholas issued a set of **Fundamental Laws** ** - First one was ‘To the Emperor of all the Russias belongs supreme and autocratic power’ ** ** - i.e. nothing much changed, Russia was still an autocracy **
 * - June 1905, crew of battleship Potemkin**, pride of Black Sea fleet, threw the officers overboard and took over
 * - Mutineers had no plan and surrendered few weeks later **
 * - Mutiny was threatening to Tsar Nicholas **
 * - Showed he couldn’t trust his armed forces **
 * - Behavior of peasants in countryside worried him too **
 * - Peasants rebelled in many areas **
 * - Butchered landlords, burned farms **
 * - Many non-Russians took opportunity to declare independence from Russian rule **
 * - September 1905, general strike began **
 * - Factories, offices, shops, railways, hospitals, and schools closed **
 * - Strikers set up councils called Soviets** to run the towns
 * - Soviets became alternative form of gov’t **
 * - Striking workers obeyed orders of Soviets, and not the Tsar’s gov’t **
 * - October 1905, Nicholas issued document called **October Manifesto

**The Dumas**
** - Tsar Nicholas made it clear he wouldn’t allow Duma to have any real power ** ** - When a share in gov’t was demanded, Nicholas surrounded the meeting place with troops and broke it up ** ** - First Duma lasted 75 days ** ** - 1907, second Duma was elected, Nicholas disliked even more ** ** - included liberals, as well as Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats who aimed to destroy autocracy ** ** - Second Duma was broken up after 3 months ** ** - 1907, third Duma met, did better than before, lasting 5 years ** ** - Nicholas changed voting laws so revolutionaries weren’t elected ** ** - Third Duma mostly of conservative politicians who did what Nicholas wanted ** ** - Powerless third Duma was to provide a show of democracy ** ** - Nicholas could continue business of autocracy ** ** - 1906, appointed new, tough Prime Minister, **Peter Stolypin - made sure there were no outbreaks of revolution

**The Stolypin reforms**

 * - Stolypin believed strict gov’t **
 * - First act was clamp down terrorism **
 * - 1906, 1008 terrorists arrested, tried by special military courts, and executed **
 * - 21,000 people exiled to Siberia **
 * - terrorism ceased to be serious threat to autocracy **
 * - realized brute force wouldn’t solve problems **
 * - feared outbreaks of violence in countryside would happen if peasants remained poor **
 * - Stolypin helped peasants become owners of their own land **
 * - Redemption payments were abolished, as well as laws that mirs controlled the land **
 * - Hoped hard-working peasants would leave communes and set up own farms, more productive **
 * - Thought peasants would grow rich and would want peace, so would help to prevent revolution **
 * - Conditions started to improve **
 * - Industry and wages grew, harvests were good **
 * - Peasants bought own land and started creating new, efficient farms **
 * - 1911, one of Stolypins police agents who was investigating terrorist groups was a terrorist himself, and shot Stolypin dead **

**Rasputin**
- He drank heavily and had many affairs with local women - At court he proved more than ‘disreputable’ - Took part in wild orgies, spend most of his time drunk, once raped a nun - Nicholas and Alexandra refused to listen when told of the wild behavior and continued to trust him - Rasputin’s influence of royal family increased after death of Stolypin in 1911 - Gave political advice to Alexandra, who told Nicholas - It was easier to gain promotion for politicians if they were friendly with Rasputin - Businessmen got gov’t contracts more easily when they entertained him - Rasputin’s influence increased, hatred for him increased - Rumors of an affair with Alexandra began - Discussed by the Duma, newspapers full of gossip no him - All of Russia knew of Rasputin’s corruption, except Nicholas and Alexandra
 * - Nicholas and wife Alexandra was involved in a Siberian peasant who claimed to be a //Starets//, a holy man of God **
 * - 1905, seemed as if Alexandra’s prayers for her son were answered **
 * - two ladies of court introduced them to the man who they said had special powers of prophecy and healing **
 * - name was Gregory Efimovitch **
 * - Alexis fell and started internal bleeding **
 * - Gregory prayed at his bedside and he fully recovered the next morning **
 * - They were amazed by the miracle **
 * - //Starets// became one of the most trusted members of their **
 * - He was not always regarded with such favor **
 * - Before, in Siberia they gave him nickname of **Rasput **in**, the disreputable one

** Summary **
Part One introduces the Russian Empire in 1900, it’s government, and the society at the time. It explains why the people wanted a revolution, the important revolutionary parties, Bloody Sunday, and the 1905 revolution, as well as the aftermath.

**Questions**

 * 1) In 1900, why was only 5% of Russian land put to use?
 * 2) What is an autocrat?
 * 3) Why did Alexandra order everyone who knew about Alexis' illness never tell anyone and swear an oath of secrecy?
 * 4) Tsar Alexander II had made plans for a parliament the day he was blown up. What do you think would have happened if he was no assassinated, and carried out his plans?
 * 5) Who was Rasputin, and why did Nicholas and Alexandra trust him so much, ignoring his wild behaviors and unaware of his corruption?