How far was the Russo-Japanese war responsible for the 1905 revolution?

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Kieran Corbitt

How far was the Russo-Japanese war responsible for the 1905 revolution?

There are many reasons for the start of the 1905 revolution even dating back from Alexander II’s reign.

Tsar Alexander began his reign in 1855 when Russia was defeated by Britain and France in the Crimean war. He thought that the main reason for the Russian defeat was the backwards economic and social system; most of the labour forces were serfs who were ignorant. In order to strengthen the dynasty, he decided to carry out a number of reforms to modernise the archaic institutions of Russia.

These were the emancipation of the serfs, the creation of the Zemstva and others such as the abolition of military colonies, relaxation of the censorship of books and the widened basis of entry to secondary schools. According to the emancipation of the Serfs, the serfs were not only freed but granted a certain portion of noble’s estates. The Nobles that lost their states were then compensated by the government. The peasants were made to pay an annual sum for 49 years, at the end of which time the land was to be their property. These arrangements proved very unsatisfactory for the peasants. After the emancipation, peasant discontent increased and peasant riots continued up to 1917.

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The Zemstva was a reform that created district and provincial assemblies. The members of district assemblies were elected by the inhabitants of each rural district, peasants and nobles alike.

The intellectual classes thought that reform thought that the reforms were not radical enough. The emancipation of the serfs did not solve the land problem of the peasants. The creation of the zemstva system did not lead to the formation of a national parliament in Russia. As a result of their disappointment with the reforms, the intellectual classes formed secret revolutionary societies, aiming to overthrow Tsardom.

 

The revolutionary societies were ...

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