Bloody Sunday’s repercussions accidentally coincided with the naval defeat of Russia by Japan in 1905. Peasants feared there property would be taken away so they stopped paying their mortgages. Georgia declared independence, Poland wanted independence and the Jews began to complain that they deserved equal rights with everybody else. There were mutinies in the army and the navy. By autumn there was a general strike in the towns. In a number of the major cities, especially Moscow and St. Petersburg, the workers formed ‘elected Soviets’. There was also a huge population explosion at around this time so there was less land for everyone and this caused more rural discontent.
The Tsar, Nicholas II was only able to survive the 1905 revolution because he retained the support of the higher classes and the allegiance of most of the army, which helped him to quell any discontent that may arise in the urban areas. He also made some concessions to the peasants.
Russia did not want war against Germany after the defeat at the hands of Japan, and their foreign policy was defensive. But after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Russia had to come to the defence of the Serbs, and the Slavs in the Balkans. The Tsar went full out in a general European offensive and gave himself the title of Commander in chief of the army, which was a bad choice in the long run, because as Russia slowly began to lose the war all of the failures were blamed on him. Germany declared war on Russia. If the war had gone well for Russia, the Bolsheviks popularity would have died out, but the war had bad consequences for Russia. The Russian economy could not bear the strain of the cost of the war. The war cost Russia 1500 million roubles in 1914, 4500 million roubles in 1916, and led the government to print more money. There was inflation in Russia between 1914 and 1916. This inflation was exacerbated by the Russia industry producing 4.5 million shells a month. Average earnings in the urban areas doubled, but food and fuel prices tripled and quadrupled in some areas, and taxes were also raised. This caused urban unrest, which now joined the intellectual discontent of Liberal politicians on the Home Front, but the peasantry benefited from the inflation as food was crucial to the rest of the country and it was expensive. 15 million men were taken from the countryside to go to war, so production was lowered. Women and children were left to work the fields. Defeat, bad conditions and news of home problems made conscript soldiers question Russia’s war aims. As a result, socialist ideas spread through the army. It can be argued that the Tsar cut his own throat during the war as he was refusing to co-operate with non-governmental organisations, such as town councils and Zemstvo unions, who wanted to help with the war effort. These unions and groups would work together to help the war casualties, independently of the Tsar. This was a clear indication that there could be a democratic alternative to the overruling Tsardom.
In 1916 grain was not reaching the towns. The railways were either in disrepair, commandeered by the army or captured by the enemy. As the stocks of grain got ominously low and the prices rose, peasants hoarded the grain they produced as they had very little to buy or eat anyway. This caused a larger amount of urban unrest, and starvation was common.
During the period between 1915 and 1916, the Duma began to appeal to the Tsar to replace incompetent ministers. The Tsar refused, which irritated the Duma. Now the Tsar had little support and the rise and influence of Rasputin (especially on the Tsarina) didn’t help his relations with the higher classes. Even with all these warnings from his advisors and appeals from the Duma the Tsar made do with minister after minister, making sure that the minister, which he chose was worse than the previous one. Throughout this phase there were four prime ministers, three foreign secretaries, three ministers of defence and six ministers of the interior.
In the later war years the influence of Rasputin was grinding away at the popularity of the Tsar and especially the Tsarina. Since the Tsarina was half German anyway, her popularity declined immediately when the war broke out against Germany and she was accused of being a German spy, but there were also rumours that the Tsarina was having a sexual relationship with the ‘Mad Monk from Georgia’. This influence that Rasputin had over the Tsar and Tsarina made the upper and middle classes feel uneasy about the instability bestowed upon the royal couple. When the Tsar was away from the home front conducting the war effort, the already unpopular Tsarina, under the influence of Rasputin would interfere with the government.
By 1917, Radzyanko (or Rodzianko) the President of the Duma began warning the Tsar that if he did not appease the Russian people (of all classes) then there could be outbreaks of unrest. The Tsar ignored him. This foolish act would lead to widespread strikes in the towns and countryside. From the 18th of February to the 4th of March there was a strike at the Putilov steel factory in St. Petersburg because of a rumour of a bread shortage. On 23rd of February was National Woman’s Day. Thousands of women came on to the streets to demand an end to war and more food for everybody. This event came at the perfect time in order to give the strikes and protests more momentum. By the 25th of February there was a general strike, which paralysed St.Petersburg. There were sit-ins at most factories. The Cossacks and police that were supposed to be the protectors of St.Petersburg did not fully support the Tsars decision to attack the protestors, as some were sympathetic. There was mutinying and troops began to fight each other. As a result of this bourgeois revolution, the monarchy collapsed very quickly, and the support for the Tsar disappeared immediately.
There was another uprising in July, which the Bolsheviks were accused for starting, but they were not the culprits as they weren’t even there. This was known as the ‘July Days’.
In September 1917, Kornilov, a right wing army commander tried to overthrow Alexander Kerensky’s liberal and social government and capture Petrograd. Kerensky was helpless, so he decided to release and arm the Bolsheviks that he had imprisoned after the ‘July Days’. They defeated Kornilov, who fled. The Bolsheviks were now seen as the saviours of St.Petersburg, which strengthened their popularity. On the 23rd of October 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin returned to St.Petersburg, from exile in Finland to persuade the doubters that the time to seize power from the Provisional Government was now. Lenin announced as he was preparing to leave Finland, “History will not forgive us if we do not assume power”. On this same day Leon Trotsky won over troops at the Peter-Paul Fortress, making 100,000 rifles available.
On November 6th the revolution was finally carried out after being planned for months by Lenin and Trotsky. The Bolsheviks took the Post Offices, Telephone exchanges, Electronic light plant, Railway stations, the bank, the arsenal at the Peter-Paul Fortress and the bridges over the River Neva. The Provisional Government offices in the Winter Palace fell as a result and the planned Bolshevik revolution was accomplished.
