was bloody sunday the prime reason for the 1905 revolution

The people of Russia had endured oppression through serfdom, the Okhrana and Russification. Serfdom was a barbaric system that kept peasants as slaves to the land, this form of slavery caused outrage amongst the people and was rapidly abolished as the threat of peasant rebellion had long since posed a threat to the Russian monarchy, ‘it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to let it begin to abolish itself from below’ (Alexander II).  The abolition of serfdom created more problems for the monarchy as redemption dues were introduced which ensured peasants would stay in poverty. Peasants also had to buy their own land since they were not provided with any.  The emancipation of the serfs and the introduction of redemption dues lead to peasants travelling to the cities to find work where they ended up living in squalid conditions. These living and working conditions caused the bloody Sunday march. So to say that bloody Sunday was the main reason for the 1905 would be a mistake as many factors which could be seen as individual causes for the 1905 revolution lead up to the bloody Sunday march. This would however show the significance of the events of bloody Sunday in leading to the revolution, as people had not yet revolted because they still felt it was not the tsars fault for their suffering moreover he was still viewed as their ‘little father’. The protest was merely to present a petition but the events that occurred may have triggered revolution as the results of bloody Sunday involved widespread disorder and strikes in the cities and eventually spread to the countryside. Consequently bloody Sunday may have not been a prime reason for revolution but one of many triggers of the revolution.  

Oppression in Tsarist Russia which was a key component of the 1905 revolution had been common place through out the reign of the tsars, and this was not helped by the limited nature of the reforms. The tsars also ruled with more reactionary reforms that further oppressed the people, special government courts that operated out of the existing legal system; the powers of the Ohkrana were tightened and censorship increased. Anti- Semitism was also encouraged. The Russification of Russia was another form of oppressive reform. I feel these reforms caused more problems for the government as revolutionary groups became more organised as the power of the police grew. Russification was met by passive opposition, for example, schools would be boycotted by parents and further more united political and national groups against the tsar. These more oppressive reactionary reforms could possibly have set off a sequence of events leading up to the 1905 revolution. The increase of censorship and police power led resistance underground and made it more organised and persecution of Jews only removed their from the tsar and during this era Jews had a total population of five million in Russia which resulted in a large influx of Jews into anti tsarist movements.

The Potemkin mutiny may have not played a major role in the 1905 revolution but however it publicised the overall poor living conditions in Russia at the time as the sailors were forced to eat scraps of meat infested with maggots. The mutiny did however pose a threat to the tsarist government as during a crisis such as this the government would need the loyalty of its soldiers and without this the government would easily collapse. Yet still the importance of the mutiny could possibly stem from the fact that the government took it so seriously as the mutineers and strikers in the port of Odessa finding a common cause which could have resulted in mass rebellion, the massacre in which civilians were killed again tarred the tsars reputation thus painting a poor portrait of the tsar in the eyes of his people.  

The events of Bloody Sunday undoubtedly played a major role in the 1905 revolution. I still can not see it as being the prime reason for the revolution as events leading to the revolution were occurring decades before the 1905 revolution. I can understand why it would be perceived as a prime reason for the revolution because it happened so close to the actual revolution. I however believe it was a trigger for the 1905 revolution but not the main cause for the revolution as I believe the revolution occurred because of the lack of reforms. This is because when reforms were made the revolution ended; this would suggest that the revolution purely took place purely because of the people’s want of reforms.  The events of Bloody was a cause for the 1905 revolution but not the prime cause, however the importance of the events in relation to the revolution are key as I feel the revolution would have not taken place with innocent people being killed on the ‘orders’ of the tsar thus inciting aggression and resistance thus leading to eventual revolution.