How did the tsar survive the 1905 revolution?

How did the Tsar overcome the opposition they faced in the 1905 revolution? Many things where going against the Tsar at that time but was the main factor? It is thought to be one of three, the failing of the opposition, and the use of force and the makings of concessions. I will investigate these factors then come to conclusion on which factor was actually most influential.

The reason this revolution came about was because in the lead up to the actual opposition to the government there was increasing social unrest caused by rapid industrialisation: There was no way of the lower classes expressing their political views, there was no parliament for them, there was a discontented and oppressed working class, and a desperate and poverty stricken peasantry. The middle classes were unhappy because of the absence of being able to have a say in what was happening in their country, this was a problem for the vast population. The peasants were poor because they owned no land for themselves and of poor harvests and heavy taxing by the Tsar to pay for industrialisation. The working classes had to cope with very poor working conditions, for very long hours and for very little pay. This meant many of the classes where wanting the Tsars regime to come to an end. Only the gentry, the people who supported industrialisation and the army supported the regime.

Another problem the tsar caused was that it and his ministers believed that a victorious war would increase his popularity at home because it would give confidence to the people and would prove they were a successful regime they could trust. Because he thought this would improve his popularity he provoked Japan and eventually the rivalry over the control of Manchuria and Korea had become so intense that a war was unavoidable. On February 8 the Japanese attacked Russia; the Russo-Japanese War had begun. A quick, easy victory for the Russians was expected. But the Japanese at Port Arthur smashed the Russians Pacific Fleet, and a poorly equipped and badly led Russian army was heavily defeated in the important town of Mukden. Then the Baltic Fleet sailed to rescue a defeat by the Japanese but it was also destroyed in the battle. The Tsars optimism of this having a positive impact on the public’s view of them had completely failed; this had the complete opposite effect. The Russian people had given up a lot for this war. The railway system was used to keep the army supplied in the Far East. So in the cities the lack of transport led to food shortages and price rises. Factories had no access to raw materials, so they had to lay off workers or shut down. At the beginning of the war people were willing to support the war effort, but when news of defeat arrived they became disgruntled and demanded higher wages, the formation of trade unions and the abolishment of certain laws and a change in many issues revolving around the Tsar. On October 22 1905 the movement culminated in a march of thousands of industrial workers, men, women and children led by a priest and a union leader in the name of Father Gapon. They marched towards the Tsar's palace in St. Petersburg, carrying to peacefully present to him a petition that requested from him the improvement of living conditions, freedom of speech. The crowds where then asked to leave to leave, they wanted to stay and make sure their demands where heard and refused, the guards fired upon the peaceful protesters, resulting in the death of hundreds, and the wounding and trampling of thousands of people. These, in turn, sparked an endless number of proletarian strikes, peasant uprisings and seizures of land, mutinies in the army and the navy as well as further opposition to the Tsar and everything it stood for, especially by the Union of Liberation and the national minorities. The peasants had had a great deal of respect for the Tsar. The Tsar was the leader of their church and he was a father like figure for them. After Bloody Sunday incident this image of him was shattered. Even though the Tsar was not present at the Winter Palace, the people believed he was and that he had given the order to fire upon them.

There was much opposition to Tsar, from all the classes but they where un-organised. Strikes and demonstrations towards the Tsar were spontaneous and not coordinated. Although a general strike did take place in St. Petersburg co-ordinated largely by the St. Petersburg Soviet under Trotsky, there was never any strong solidarity because of the small un-coordinated groups (Witte used divide and rule tactics that satisfied the middle classes enough to split them from the working class.)

And the motive behind the strikes was more economic than political.

To try and restore order in Russia the Tsar introduced the ...

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And the motive behind the strikes was more economic than political.

To try and restore order in Russia the Tsar introduced the Duma to try and ease peoples concerns by introducing new laws that met with many of their demands, it was announced on August 6, but the Tsar was not obliged to consult this. The federation of the Zemstvo council and the union of liberation resulted in the kadets becoming the council. The Kadets wanted a proper democratic constitution but still maintaining their support towards the Tsar. All parties were not against the Tsar though; in October the first right wing party was formed: the union of Russian people. The country came to a stand still and the Tsar was forced to make changes to survive. He had to declare Marshall Law or go along with the demands if he had chosen Marshall Law he would have to use the army to put down any opposition. However the army where still away fighting against Japan, so the Tsar had no choice to go along with the demands. He appointed Sergei Witte as chief minister to help him make the best decisions for himself. The Tsar had realised that his armies had been defeated; he needed to end the war in order to concentrate on his own problems in Russia. Witte negotiated the Treaty of Portsmouth in August 1905: Russia did not have to pay any reparations to Japan and very little land was lost to Japan. At home people would have been happier, thinking the defeat had not been so humiliating, since the peace treaty had not been that humiliating. This would have improved the Tsars image. Many of the peasantry were easily bought off by promises of civil rights and the legalisation of trade unions that would help them to improve their living and working conditions.

Nicholas had wanted to establish a military dictatorship in Russia but had been unable to do so as the governor of St. Petersburg could not guarantee to maintain order and most of the troops were thousands of miles away returning from the war against Japan. The appointment of Witte as chief minister early in October was always seen by Nicholas as a means to an end. Witte had the political skill that Nicholas lacked and the October Manifesto was virtually dictated to Nicholas by Witte after Witte had negotiated its terms with the Union of Unions. Witte guessed correctly that enough Liberals would accept the manifesto to cause a split in the party and weaken their resistance. He was right. Guchkov led the moderate Liberals to form the Octobrists, who accepted the manifesto while the more resolute Milyukov remained unconvinced and led the Kadets instead. The Tsars use of force had an important part to play in the Tsar surviving the 1905 revolution, despite the Duma being created there still was much opposition from the peasantry and workers, so the Tsar used his troops that had returned from war with Japan to put down their demonstrations with means of force. There was an alliance between the bourgeois and the working-class revolutionaries. Witte realised that this alliance needed to be broken and proposed the October Manifesto in which greater individual freedom, and a Duma, which would share power with the Tsar, was promised. At first the Tsar was unwilling to sign it, but he had no choice, and eventually signed it. For some like the Octobrists, the October Manifest was enough, and they were willing to work with it. Others saw what little was being offered to peasants and workers. So they decided to continue the revolution. But now they were considerably weaker because they had been split up, so it was much easier, for the Tsar, to suppress their disturbances. The use of force came to the for front though when Stolypin replaced Witte, he used police and law courts against agitators. The agitators were hung, or sent into exile in Siberia. Trotsky who had played a leading part in the St. Petersburg Soviet was arrested. Striking workers had to stop and start to work again or face starvation. Stolypin used hired thugs in the countryside, known as Black Hundreds, to kill suspected peasant troublemakers.

All the factors shown did make a significant difference in the Tsar maintaining its power despite the unrest during the 1905 revolution, The failings of the opposition made a significant difference as it was thought that if the oppositions protests had been more organised and co-ordinated (the protests and disturbances were not so random) and the groups had come together then the Tsar would un-doubt ably would have been under greater pressure, the Tsar relived some of the pressure they were under by making concessions in the October Manifesto and the Duma without these being created, the lower classes would always be un-happy, The main reason the Tsar survived in my opinion was the Tsars use of force (Mainly administered through Stolypin) as no matter what the peasants thought they would have to regain order whether or not they where pleased with the concessions that where forced to regain order and the Tsar was still supreme ruler of Russia.

By Oliver Crampton