History Before WWI

Main causes of the 1905 Revolution

• For most of 1905, the Tsar was at war with his own ppl
• Liberals, the most powerful political opposition force, demanded reforms; demanded representative gov’t and elections
• National minorities, demanded independence
• Soviets- workers’ councils, co-ordinated strikes; St Petersburg Soviet became an influential and powerful body which threatened the government

• Leon Trotsky

• In October, a general strike spread throughout major cities in Russia, bringing the country to a standstill
• Faced with opposition and a lack of control, the Tsar had a choice: to put down the uprisings with bloodshed OR to make a concession 
• October Manifesto on 30 October 1905, promising:

• A duma or parliament that would be elected by the ppl and represent their views and interests
• Civil rights- freedom of speech and conscience
• The right to form political parties
• An end to press censorship

• After this, the middle class went back to the Tsars’ side; October Manifesto had given them what they wanted and wanted to see the restoration of law and order
• Tsar made sure that the soldiers returning from the Russo-Japanese War (ended in September) received all their back pay and improved their conditions of service
• Used force to crush the St Petersburg Soviet and the soviet mvmt

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Long-Term Discontent

1906-14→ Fundamental changes made by the Tsar

1. Political Change

• Set up the Duma (parliament) but curtailed its power dramatically
• Could not pass laws or control finance
• Ministers were still responsible to the Tsar and not to the Duma
• The electoral system was weighted in favor of the well-off and against the working classes and peasants
• The revolutionary parties decided to boycott the Duma when no changes were made
• Clear that the Tsar was not prepared to make the jump to constitutional gov’t

2. Economic and social change

1. The peasants

• In the countryside, Stolypin, the chief minister brought in land reforms to encourage higher production
• Aimed to encourage the KULAKS (rich peasant who owned animals and hired labour)  to become efficient producers for the market
• Allowed them to consolidate their land into one holding and to buy up the land of poorer, less efficient peasants
• The reforms had not gone far enough by 1914 to judge whether they were a permanent solution to Russia’s agricultural problems, which were very complex
• The reforms certainly had a serious downside: they produced a growing class of alienated poor peasants

2. The workers

• Between 1906 and 1914, there was an industrial boom
• Workers did not, on the whole, benefit from the increasing prosperity

The downfall of the Tsar

• Russia was beginning to make the changes required, that agriculture and industry were making real progress, and that there was some political progress which suggested the Tsar would make some concessions to parliamentary gov’t in the not-so-distant future
• First World War: main reason for the downfall of the Tsar; acted as a catalyst for the revolution and accelerated events
• Progress had been made on the industrial front, but the benefits had not filtered down to the working class who remained discontented and strike-prone in 1914

Grigory Rasputin

• Gained reputation as a holy man
• Seemed to have an ability to control the hemophilia which afflicted the Tsars’ son
• This convinced Tsarina that he had been sent by God to save her son and this brought him an elevated position at the Russian court
• His influence at court and his growing reputation for degeneracy caused Nicholas political problems (sexual activity)

How the First World War contributed to the Tsar’s downfall

•  Military failures

• Heavy defeats and the huge numbers of Russians killed in 1914 and 1915 led to disillusionment and anger about the way the Tsar and the gov’t were conducting the war. Losing a war is always bad for a gov’t
• In Sept. 1915, the Tsar went to the Front to take personal charge; from then on he was held personally responsible for defeats

•  Difficult living conditions

• The war caused acute distress in large cities, especially Petrograd and Moscow. Disruption of supplies meant that food, goods and raw materials were in short supply; hundreds of factories closed and thousands were put out of work; prices rocketed and inflation was rampant; lack of fuel meant that people were cold and hungry. Urban workers became very hostile towards the tsarist gov’t. In the countryside,the peasants became increasingly angry about the conscription of all the young men who seldom returned from the Front

•  Role of the Tsarina and Rasputin

• The Tsar made the mistake of leaving his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, and the monk Rasputin in charge of the gov’t while he was at the Front. They made a terrible mess of running the country, dismissing able ministers in favor of friends or toadies who performed poorly. Ministers were changed frequently. As a result, the situation in the cities deteriorated rapidly with food and fuel in very short supply
• The Tsarina and Rasputin became totally discredited. The odium and ridicule they generated also tainted the Tsar; who was blamed for putting them in charge. The higher echelons of society and army generals became disenchanted with the Tsar’s leadership and support for him hemorrhaged away. By the beginning of 1917, few were prepared to defend him

•  Failure to make political reforms

• During the war the Tsar had the chance to make some concessions to political reform that might have saved him. Russia could have slipped into a constitutional monarchy and the pressure would have been taken off him personally. Et Duma was fully behind the Tsar in fighting the war. A group called the ‘Progressive Bloc’ emerged who suggested that the Tsar establish a ‘gov’t of public confidence,’ which really meant letting them run the country. However, the Tsar rejected their approach. He had opted to retain autocracy and was to pay the price for it

• Winter of 1916 was particularly harsh; Rasputin was murdered; workers in Petrograd were on the verge of despair, with the cost of living having risen by 300%, food virtually unobtainable and long queues outside most shops
• In 1917, things seemed to be getting worse and a serious mood of discontent was taking hold of the population in the cities

The causes and build-up to the February Revolution

[E] Who were the key players?

Key players after February 1917

The Liberals - Kadets, Octobrists and Progressive Bloc

• Major political opposition up to, during and after the 1905 Revolution
• Before 1905 they had called for a national zemstvo elected by universal suffrage
• In the 1905 Revolution, the Tsar had been forced to make concessions in the form of the Duma (parliament) and civil rights
• Kadets (Constitutional Democrats; main liberal party) and the Octobrists (more conservative liberals who wanted to stick to the agreement in the October Manifesto) had played an important part in the Duma before the First World War
• Progressive Bloc pushed the Tsar towards constitutional monarchy, but he rejected their advances
• Idea of “liberalism” was not very Russian

Main beliefs: Parliamentary democracy, civil rights, free elections in which all men could vote

Methods: Non-violent political channels: the zemstva (seedbeds of liberalism), the Duma, articles in the press, meetings, etc.

Support: They did not have a large popular base, with few active supporters outside Moscow, petrograd and a few other large cities, although the Kadets id try to establish local provincial party bases. The Kadets were mainly supported by the middle-class intelligentsia. Octobrists found support amongst industrialists, businessmen and larger landowners

The Socialist Revolutionaries - emerged from the ruins of the populist mvmt of 1870s, most particularly the People’s Will

• Loose organization accommodating groups with a wide variety of views and did to hold its first congress until 1906
• Never well co-ordinated or centrally controlled
• Initially took part in the Duma but later boycotted it
• Peasants were represented in the Duma by the Trudoviki labour group, of which Alexander Kerensky was a member
• Loosely knit group whose main policy line involved redistributing land to the peasants

Main beliefs: SRs placed their main hope for revolution in the peasants, who would provide the main support for a popular rising in which the tsarist gov’t would be overthrown and replaced by a democratic republic. Land would be taken from landlords and divided up amongst the peasants. The SRs accepted the development of capitalism as a fact. The leading exponent of their views was Victor Chernov. He accepted that the growth of capitalism would promote the growth of a proletariat who would rise against their masters. Saw SRs as representing ‘all laboring people’

Methods: Agitation and terrorism, including assassination of government officials

Support: Peasants provided the party with a large popular base but industrial workers formed perhaps 50% of the membership by 1905. The SRs also attracted intellectuals who wanted to make contact with the mass of the population

The Social Democrats

• In the 1880s, it seemed to some Russian intellectuals that there was no hope of a revolutionary mvmt developing amongst the peasantry. Instead they turned to the latest theories of a German philosopher, Karl Marx. Marxism, an optimistic theory in which there was progress through the development of industry and the working class to the ultimate triumph of socialism
• In 1898, Marxists formed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party but it split into two factions at the Second Party Congress in 1903- the Bolsheviks (Majoritarians) and the Mensheviks (Minoritarians); the split was caused by the abrasive personality of Lenin, who was determined to see his notion of the revolutionary party triumph.

Main beliefs: Both factions accepted the main tenets of Marxism, but they split over the role of the party

Support: Came mainly from the working class. The Bolsheviks tended to attract younger, more militant peasant workers who liked the discipline, firm leadership and simple slogans. The Mensheviks tended to attract different types of workers and members, especially Jews and Georgians

Karl Marx & Marxism

• Encouraged workers to unite to seize power by revolution

Marxism

• History was evolving in a series of stages towards a perfect state - Communism
• Each stage was characterized by the struggle btw/ different classes
• This was a struggle over who owned the ‘means of production’ and so controlled society
• In each stage, Marx identified a ruling class of ‘haves’ who owned the means of production and exploited an oppressed class of ‘have-nots’ who sweated for them for little reward
• He saw change as being brought about by a revolutionary class who would develop and contest power with the existing ruling class
• Economic change and development would bring this new class to the fore and eventually allow it to overthrow the ruling class in a revolution

The route to Communism

FEUDALISM

Government: Absolute monarchy

Means of production: Land; land ownership gives power

Social organization: Aristocracy is the dominant group controlling the mass of the population - peasants - who work on their estates

Revolutionary changes: The revolutionary class is the middle class. As this group gets wealthier, it begins to break down the rules of feudal society which hinder its development <e.g> wants an economy based on money and laborers free to work in towns

COMMUNISM

Government: There is no state, just people who are interested in managing the day-to-day business of keeping society going

Social organization: Everybody is equal. There is an abundance of goods produced by machinery rather than by workers’ labour, so everyone has much more leisure time.

THE TRANSITION TO COMMUNISM

The need for gov’t declines b/c there are no competing classes

BOURGEOIS (MIDDLE-CLASS) REVOLUTION

• The middle classes are becoming larger and more powerful; take power from the monarch and aristocracy
• Eventually, they want to reshape society and gov’t to suit their interests
• They want to have a say in how the country is run and do not want landed aristocrats determining national policy

CAPITALISM

Government: Parliamentary democracy with civil rights, elections, freedom of the press, etc., but largely run by the middle classes

Means of production: Industrial premises, factories, capital goods like machinery, banks owned by capitalists. Land becomes less important as industry and trade create greater share of national wealth

Social organization: Bourgeoisie are the dominant class although the aristocracy may still hold on to some positions of power and prestige. The mass of the population move from being peasants to being industrial workers- proletariat, who are forced to work long hours in poor conditions for little reward

Revolutionary change: As capitalism grows so does the proletariat, since more workers are needed to work in factories and commercial premises. Great wealth and material good are produced, but these are not shared out fairly. A small bourgeoisie gets increasingly wealthy while the proletariat remains poor. Gradually, the proletariat develops a class consciousness and realizes that it is being oppressed as a class

SOCIALISM

Government: Workers control the state. At first, gov’t is exercised through the dictatorship of the proletariat, a period of strict control necessary to deal with counter-revolution (old capitalist enemies trying to recover power) and to root out non-socialist attitudes

Means of production: Factories, machines, etc., owned collectively by everybody

Social organization: Everybody is equal, the class system is brought to an end.

SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

The proletariat moves from class consciousness to a revolutionary consciousness aided by revolutionary leaders. They now form the great bulk of the pop. Whilst the bourgeoisie are a tiny minority. They rise up and seize power, ousting their class enemies - the bourgeoisie. The socialist revolution starts in a highly industrialized country

LENIN’S CHANGES TO MARXIST THEORY (MARXISM-LENINISM)

1. Revolution would be accomplished by a small group of highly pro., dedicated revolutionaries. They were needed to develop the revolutionary consciousness of workers and focus their actions
2. Lenin believed that the revolution would occur during a period of conflict btw/ capitalist powers. He accepted Trotsky’s ‘weakest link’ theory - revolution would start in an underdeveloped country (just like Russia) where the struggle and conflict btw/ proletariat and bourgeoisie was very great, then spread to more advanced industrial countries
3. He did not think that the middle classes in Russia were strong enough to carry through a bourgeois-democratic revolution. He believed that the working class could develop a revolutionary gov’t of its own in alliance w/ poor peasants who had a history of mass action in Russia - the bourgeois and socialist revolution could be rolled into one

Lenin

• First political leader to attempt to put Marxist principles into practice. In 1917, he established Bolshevik control after the overthrow of the tsar and in 1918 became head of state
• His older brother was executed for being involved in a plot to assassinate Tsar Alexander III
• He became more interested in revolutionary ideas and after flirting with populism, was drawn to the scientific logic of Marxism

Ideas his book contained:

• He encouraged the individual revolutionary to be hard with himself and others to achieve his aims; there was no room for sentiment
• Capitalism was a bankrupt system and would collapse in a series of wars between capitalist countries over resources and territory, leading to civil war and class fancily w/in countries, which would facilitate the socialist revolution

Trotsky

• Dissatisfied with the society he lived in, particularly its treatment of Jews
• Drawn to Marxism in his teens
• At the 1903 Social Democratic conference he would not side with Lenin, prophesying that Lenin’s concept of a revolutionary party would lead inevitably to dictatorship
• He remained in the Social Democratic party somewhere between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks but not in either camp
• With the Bolshevik Party
• Anxious for a workers’ gov’t to be put in place at the earliest possible opportunity
• Russian revolutionary who helped to organize the October Revolution with Lenin and built up the Red Army. Exiled from the party by Stalin in 1927

WHAT LED UP TO THE DOWNFALL OF THE TSAR ?

1. Tsarist Russia was a huge country with a diverse population, making it a very difficult country to govern
2. In 1900, an overwhelming majority of the population were peasants
3. Russia was an autocracy, ruled by a tsar who was at the head of a vast, unresponsive and inefficient bureaucracy
4. The tsars used repressive measures to keep control but despite this a number of opposition parties developed
5. The last tsar, Nicholas II, was an ineffective and weak leader, unable to cope with the pressures of modernizing Russia whilst trying to retain autocratic institutions
6. The task of modernizing Russia was one that even the most able leader would have found difficult
7. Nicholas received a warning in 1905 when revolution broke out all over Russia. He survived the 1905 Revolution by making concessions but was unwilling to make the move to a more democratic, representative form of gov’t
8. WW I put the Tsar and his regime under tremendous pressure and in February 1917 it collapsed

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2 WHO TOOK CONTROL OF RUSSIA AFTER THE FEB. REVOLUTION?

[A] How popular was the February Revolution?

• main push came from the workers in the cities whose pent-up frustration exploded after the hard, cold winter of 1916. Shortages of food, fuel and other materials - caused by the war - had driven up prices
• Anti-gov’t feelings in Petrograd were running high
• On Thursday 23 February, International Women’s Day, the discontent became more focused
• Women took the lead in politicizing the March; took the initiative while men were more cautious; persuaded men from the highly politicized Putilov engineering works and other factories to join them
• Bolshevik leaders told the women to go home b/c they were planning a big demonstration for May Day

The protest grows

• Demands for food were accompanied by demands for an end to the war and an end to the Tsar
• No political party in charge
• Socialist cells, particularly from the Bolshevik revolutionary party, were active in spreading protest and getting the workers out on the streets
• 25 and 26 February was the testing time: soldiers joined the demonstrators
• The NGOs in the army played a key role in this; decided they would no longer fire on the crowds

Revolution

• Tsar Nicholas initiated the mutiny of his own soldiers: Sunday 26 Feb., regiments opened fire on the crowds. The crowds became hostile and the soldiers now had to decide which side they were on
• Main struggle: soldiers vs police - Police attacked demonstrators; soldiers attacked police
• Somebody had to take control of the situation: people looked to the Duma, the Russian parliament, although the socialists were already forming their own organization to represent the interests of the workers - the Soviet

The end of the Romanovs

• When Tsar Nicholas realized the situation in Petrograd was uncontrollable, he ordered troops to march on the capital to restore order; suspended the Duma when its chairman had suggested that he give more power to the people’s representatives (i.e. Make the first moves towards a constitutional monarchy)
• On 27 Feb., the Duma formed a special committee made up of representatives of the main political parties. It soon became clear to the committee that the revolution in Petrograd had gone too far for the Tsar to be involved in any form of gov’t.
• The Tsar abdicated and passed the throne to his brother, but Michael realizing the extent of anti-monarchial feeling refused and the Romanov dynasty came to a swift end. The Duma committee set about forming a new gov’t.

Duma and soviets

• The Duma had been established after the 1905 Revolution in Russia
• It was an elected parliament but had little real power and was not truly representative of the mass of the people - the workers and the peasants; weighted heavily in favor of the upper and middle classes
• Represented the first move towards some form of constitutional monarchy and played a more important role during WWI
• Soviet means ‘council’; appeared as a form of working-class organization during the 1905 Revolution; rival power center to the Provisional Gov’t
• Not controlled by one party and were often led by non-party men of local repute
• The Petrograd Soviet played a very significant role under Leon Trotsky

[B] Which was more powerful: the Provisional Government or the Soviet?

• On March 2, a Provisional Gov’t was declared
• Dominated by Kadets and their leader, Milyukov, who become Foreign Minister
• It was to run Russia until elections to a Constituent Assembly could take place

• Constituent Assembly: When an old system of gov’t collapses (tsarist autocracy), a new system of gov’t has to be set up

• The Petrograd was formed on Feb. 27
• Idea came from Mensheviks intellectuals; became the focus of working-class aspirations
• An Executive Committee was chosen; dominated by Mensheviks and non-party socialist intellectuals
• Soldiers anxious to protect their own interests went to the Soviet and demanded representation- gained the famous Order No.1
• Each regiment was to elect committees that would send representatives to the Soviet; now called the ‘Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies’.

The membership and role of the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government

Soviets:

• Dominated by socialist intellectuals

Petrograd Soviet:

Made up of: workers’ and soldiers’ representatives; socialist intellectuals, mainly Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries

Chairman of executive committee: Chkheidze

Role: to protect the interests of the working classes and soldiers

NB Socialist intellectuals formed the leadership of the Soviet

Alexander Karensky:

• member of both bodies and provided the main line of communication between the two

Provisional Government:

Made up of: leading figures from the Kadets and other liberal parties

Leader: Prince Lvov

Role: to run the country until a Constituent Assembly had been elected

NB The Provisional Gov’t had been chosen by a committee of the Duma; it had not been elected by the ppl

The power of the Petrograd Soviet

• Order No.1 gave soldiers representation but also gave their committees control of all weapons
• Stated that soldiers would only obey the orders of the Prov. Gov’t if the Soviet agreed → ‘dual power’ was created
• Policy of the Soviet: to keep its distance from the middle-class Prov. Gov’t; to act a as a watchdog to make sure it did nothing to damage the interests of the working class; decided not to participate directly in the gov’t
• Alexander Kerensky made sure there were no misunderstandings

Why did the Soviet not take power?

1. The leaders of the Soviet did not think the time was right for the workers to form the gov’t. The Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries believed that Russia had to go through a ‘bourgeois revolution’ before the workers could assume power; Followed the classical Marxist line and believed that there had to be a long period in which capitalism developed more fully, society became more industrialized and the proletariat became much larger. During this time, Russia would be run by a democratically elected gov’t; believed the workers needed a period of education before running a country
2. Wanted to avoid a civil war and counter-revolution (supporters of the old system of gov’t trying to take back power and re-establish the old system); needed to keep the middle classes and the army commanders on their side
3. Leaders of the Soviet, mainly intellectual socialists, were scared; were not sure if they could control the masses

[C] The honeymoon of the revolution

• Tsarist ministers and officials were arrested and imprisoned
• The secret police were disbanded
• The first decree of the Prov. Gov’t granted an amnesty for political and religious prisoners and established freedom of the press and freedom of speech
• Discrimination on social, religious or national grounds were made illegal
• Prov. Gov’t promised it would arrange for elections for a Constituent Assembly that would determine the future gov’t of Russia

[D] What was happening in the rest of Russia?

• The tsarist administrative order was being dismantled
• The Prov. Gov’t dismissed the old tsarist governors and replaced them with commissars, usually the old zemstvo (town council) chairmen who were ignored
• Committees of Public Organizations (multi- or non-party bodies run by middle-class zemstvo members) were set up, but membership rapidly expanded to take in representatives of various workers’, soldiers’, trade union and other popular committees
• As news of the revolution spread, peasants also started to set up committees and give voice to their opinions and demands
• The PM, lvov, more radical and populist, encouraged localities to run their own affairs
• The main issue causing problems was war

WHO TOOK CONTROL OF RUSSIA AFTER THE FEB. REVOLUTION?

1. The downfall of the Tsar had been swift b/c there was very little support left for him in any section of society
2. The Feb. Rev. Seems to have been a spontaneous and popular rev. With little involvement from revolutionary leaders
3. A prov. Gov’t was formed by liberal politicians to rule Russia during a transition period until a Constituent Assembly could set up a new system of gov’t
4. The Prov. Gov’t had little power in Petrograd
5. The power lay with a rival body - the Soviet - formed at the same time
6. The Soviet, led by socialist intellectuals, represented workers and soldiers. It controlled the armed forces, industries and services in the capital
7. The Soviet could have taken control but had several reasons for not doing so and for co-operating with the Prov. Gov’t. In particular, the Soviet leaders did not want a civil war to break out
8. Things seemed to start well, as the Prov. Gov’t announced elections and civil rights for the Russian ppl
9. In the rest of Russia, all sorts of bodies were set up to run local gov’t. The soviets were the most important of these bodies. They were simply councils or committees run by local ppl, non-party socialists. Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, pretty much outside of anybody else’s control
10. Things did not immediately get better after the revolution. The war was still going on and food and fuel were still in short supply