Russian society was 80% peasantry, and its agricultural system was backwards and inefficient. The peasants were dissatisfied with the government because they strongly resented land repayments, and they wanted more land. The consequence of this was that, although many peasants still loved the Tsar, they opposed his government. At the end of the 19th Century, over 36 million Russians were threatened with starvation due to the famine of this time, and the government appeared to be doing nothing to rectify the situation. Due to the Tsars lack of understanding for the peasants and want to help them this led to rural unrest. Rural unrest spread across the villages and this made up 80% of the population, so the Tsar had two thirds of his country opposing his Tsarist regime. Village councils, Zemstvas, were set up, and these were very successful; they organized transport of food etc. The Zemstvas success offered an alternative to the Tsarist regime, which was previously unthought-of of concept. The people discovered an alternative to the Tsar and had gained power to help themselves out of poverty.
On the 9th of September 1905, workers in St. Petersburg, led by
Father Gapon went on a peaceful march to hand over a petition to the Tsar. This petition requested that the Tsar overrule his, "corrupt," government officials, and call for better conditions for the workers. The protesters were not opposing the Tsar they just wanted the opinion heard by a high power. Although they were warned not to continue by the surrounding soldiers, the people had ultimate faith in the Tsar, their, "Little Father of Russia," and were convinced he would protect them. The protesters held crucifixes and pictures of the Tsar, proving their peaceful nature and demonstrating their adoration of Nicholas. However, the Tsar had ignored the rise of tension in St. Petersburg, and was enjoying a weekend in the countryside. Confusion broke out, and the soldiers fired on the peaceful protesters, killing many. At that moment, the protesters absolute loyalty disappeared, and faith was replaced by anger and hatred. Nicholas had failed to protect his people, and this was the point where Russia realized that he did not care about his people.
The Tsar made concessions to gain back support, however this made the Tsar look weak and that the tsarist regime was under threat. The October Manifesto, the Tsar allowed the formation of an elected legislative assembly, the Duma. Technically, this would mean that the Tsar had to share his autocratic power with his people by inviting opposition into the government; this meant he was endangering his power and authority. However, this was not the case. It helped strengthened the Tsar's power. The forming of the Duma appeased the liberals and satisfied their appetite for reforms, hence they are willing to cooperate with the Tsar rather than oppose Tsarism completely. In addition, the Duma did not reduce the Tsar's power. The Duma had limited powers to begin with, it could only pass laws. The Tsar could dissolve the Duma should he not like their proposals and they could only give suggestions to the Tsar. The Fundamental Laws passed in April 1906 decreed theta the Tsar had absolute power and the last say in all matters, hence, the Tsar had not lose any of his power and with his absolute authority, he could do all that he can to secure his rule.
The Tsar bought over the peasants by the November Manifesto in which he pledged to progressively reduce and then abolish the mortgage repayments of their lands. This was another of the tsar’s concessions, which was seen as weakness by his fellow supporters. The Tsar was supposed to rule by his authority but now he had to cater for everyone else to be able to keep his tsarist regime.
The army was very loyal to the Tsar because the Tsar had promised to reform them. The Tsar said he would pay them all the money he owed the gained their trust and loyalty back. With them under command of the Tsar large crowds were easy to deal with as people were afraid to stand up to the Army in fear of being killed.
In December 1906, an insurrection in Moscow was crushed by
the army, taking about 1200 rebel life’s. Veterans were
suppressed along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Field
court-martial was used to deal with terrorists and rural
troublemakers. Pressure was added upon the unions to attack the bases of radical politics, this showed the loyalty been given back to tsar securing his control and power of Russia. In 1908, the number of political assassinations had dropped to 365, showing the Tsar had effectively curbed his opponents and in doing so, securing his power.
Despite its unpopularity, the Tsarist regime had managed to survive the 1905 Revolution. The liberals and peasants were willing to cooperate with government while other opponents were suppressed. The Tsar had his power back but mainly because he still commanded the loyalty of the army which formed a main source of his power. However it is fair to say that without the Tsar having to make concessions and having the armies loyalty, he may no have been successful is upholding the Tsarist regime.
