3a. The October Manifesto was significant in that it gave the “Octobrists” justification for their beliefs. They said it was “the right degree of democracy.” It ensured individual freedoms and the establishment of a State Duma, which would make decrees, decide on laws, and participate in a Committee of Ministers.
3b. Stolypin attempted to restore order and reform in Russia by abolishing land captains and ending the peasant passport system, releasing the peasants from their “obligations to the mir”, and encouraging resettlement.
3c. The assertion that “down to 1914, Nicholas II learned nothing from the threat to his regime evident in 1905” is accurate. He consistently and repeatedly made dumb mistakes. One example is the killing of Stolypin, Russia’s hope for the future. Another is the repeated entry into unnecessary wars that led to economic crises. Tsar Nicholas II was an incompetent man who did not know how to rule a country effectively.
4a. There were several forms of opposition to the tsarist regime, including groups such as the Westernizers, the Zemstvos, the populists, the Marxists, the Social Revolutionaries, the Black Partition, the Bolsheviks, and the Mensheviks.
4b. The opposition was unable to overthrow the regime before 1914 because it was treated with such hostility by the regime. The tsarist police arrested and exiled all revolutionaries, and did a pretty good job of it. Also, there were so many groups with slightly different beliefs that there was discontent within the parties.
5a. Russia had ambitions in Manchuria in the late 19th century because it wanted an “ice-free port.” Trade is extremely difficult when your country is landlocked, as the majority of trade took place by sea merchants. The Tsar also hoped to exploit Manchuria’s resources, and to create an extended railway through Manchuria and China.
5b. Russia’s ambitions in Manchuria greatly affected its relations with Japan. The two powers argued about rights in both Manchuria and Korea, and were constantly renegotiating. This led to the Russo-Japanese war and Russian humiliation, which amused the rest of the powers greatly and brought Japan a step higher on the social ladder.
6. Russia was a modern industrial power in that it had ambitions in Manchuria, was producing and trading a large amount of iron, coal, cotton, and oil, had a railway system, had connections with its surrounding powers (railway rights in China). It had relations with a number of nations and was exporting a large number of goods.
DBQ’s
- Source A talks about how the citizens of St. Petersburg “have become beggars,” “have been oppressed,” and are “not recognized as human beings.” Things have gotten so bad for them that they prefer death to the tortures they are enduring. It speaks of strikes, enslavement, and begs for a change. It is different from Source D in that Source D demands a change, rather than asks for one. Source D speaks poorly of the government in saying that it “continues to stride over corpses.”
- The hopes of the petitioners in Source A were realized by the events of 1905 and later to the extent that a soviet was set up to organize supplies and emergency measures. The tsarist regime (kind of) made an attempt to better the people of St. Petersburg’s lives.
- The Tsar mentions in Source C that the problems Russia’s people are facing fill “Our” heart with great sorrow. This is in response to the “Our’s” in Source B, being a symbol of the people’s unification. Source C shows that the Tsar is taking the claims in Source B seriously, in that he is making concessions and is attempting to make things right. He declares that taxes shall be halved, and the bank will receive more resources and offer better loan terms so that peasants with little land can obtain more. These concessions are rather large in that the Tsar seems to be working to better the lives of the peasants, showing just how seriously the Tsar is regarding the events of 1905.
- Source D exhibits a number of techniques used in cases of persuasion, including the inducement of guilt through shock-value, – “The Government continues to stride over corpses” is a very powerful phrase used with the intent of shocking others – the mention of soldiers, and the oppression of Poland. The Council of Workmen’s Delegates intends to excite revolutionaries through the concept of unity through “a general political strike,” calling it a power to be feared.
- Sources E and F demonstrate the validity of the argument that the Tsar learned nothing from the events of 1905 to the extent that Source E is basically a demonstration of the Tsar’s power and authority. It presents a select few laws that give the Tsar even more power over the branches, and the people. Source F goes on to induce guilt – it speaks of the troubles the regime has gone to in attempting to better the peasants’ conditions, and goes on to speak poorly of the First Duma in saying the government has been disappointed. The government is being rather condescending in saying that the Duma has gone out-of-bounds into “spheres beyond [its] competence.” This is an insult to the Duma’s intelligence.
The fact that the regime only speaks of the Tsar’s power and the peasants’ incompetence shows that the Tsar learned next-to-nothing from the events of 1905.
- i. The message of the three posters is that the Tsar is a dangerous, pitiless, soulless man who reigns with absolute power over his empire.
ii. In Pictures 11 and 12, the Tsar is either depicted as a monster or a symbol of death. He is stomping on/killing his subjects, a symbol of inconsideration for others, and of having gone mad with power. Picture 13 shows a man on the left being stolen from, a bear being tempted by a small portion of food, and an emperor acting benevolent through the gift of said small portion. The bear is shackled and is being led somewhere. Considering the caption is “The voter,” it seems the techniques used are attempting to show the voter being led like an animal to believe the Tsar is benevolent. The thievery shown through the cutting of the man on the left’s sack of grain shows that the government is taking from the peasants, despite the façade of graciousness it works so hard to maintain.
iii. The uses and limitations of Source G as evidence of the aftermath of the 1905 revolution are that: the posters share a common theme, the posters depict the Tsar as having made things worse for the people, and that none of the posters were done by the government – this means we only have one side of the story.
- “1905 was not a revolution at all” is a statement that is both true and false. While people revolted, and reforms were made, the end-result was that things were almost worse than when they’d started. People were even angrier with the Tsar, and resented him immensely, the Tsar began criticizing the people for being ungrateful, and nationwide discontent was prominent. The goal of a revolution is to change the way things are being done – while this was the case for a period of time, as said before, things sort of reverted to the way they were before.