What were the causes of the 1905 Revolution in Russia?

What were the causes of the 1905 Revolution in Russia

The causes of the Russian revolution of 1905 can be divided into three areas: Long term causes, short term causes and immediate causes.

The problems that caused the revolution began years before it actually happened. Many of the national groups that lived within Russia resented the government's policy of 'Russification' as they saw it was trying to attack their way of life. Most children were forced to learn Russian in school and many Russian officials were chosen to fill non-Russian positions in local government. Most of the traditional customs were banned and the people had to obey Russian customs.

The peasants also had been caused much suffering by the government. They had been released from Serfdom in 1861 and had been allocated land with which to farm and earn money. They could get loans from the government. However most of the peasants had to pay these loans off over a long period of time. As a result most of the peasants got into heavy debt. This was made worse by the fact that after 1861 the landowners had large estates. Many of the peasants were forced to work on the estates of nobles so they could earn extra money.

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However more and more people were becoming peasants as the population of Russia increased by 50% between 1860 and 1897 with more and more peasants competing with each other for the little amount of land available making lots of the peasants dissatisfied with the government.

The short-term causes of the revolution were a mixture of things that the government could have stopped and some things that they could have done nothing about.

Disaster struck in the countryside when conditions for the peasants for the peasants were made even worse as there were two very poor harvests in 1900 and 1902. They could now barely survive. Noble landlords did nothing to help and this caused sporadic outbreaks of violence among villagers. There was also heavy taxes put onto the peasants. They were taxed for grain and everyday items like alcohol and salt. This happened because the government had to pay for all the industry that it was investing in and the main source was from the people of Russia.

The biggest mistake was to get involved in a war with the powerful rising empire of Japan. According to the Tsar's Interior Minister V.K Von Plehve it was to be a "small victorious war", which was aiming to get the people of Russia back to supporting the government and avoid revolution. Unfortunately the Russian army sustained a series of devastating defeats. Even worse for the government was that the war meant that inflation rose rapidly causing the prices to rise. The war was also causing food shortages and the lack of materials meant that many factories had to close making lots of workers unemployed. The situation in the war itself wasn't much better. Japan which was much smaller than Russia inflicted defeat after defeat on the Russian army. In 1905 Port Arthur fell to the Japanese, further proving the incompetence of the Tsar and his government. People demanded that there should be an elected assembly to assist in running the empire. The Campaign culminated in a series of public meetings. All these met with rejection from the Tsarist authorities.

Russia's industry had grown at an enormous rate since 1890 but in 1899 Russia was hit with a huge depression which produced widespread unemployment and urban discontent. Towards the end of 1902 and through early 1903 there were widespread mass strikes throughout the major cities in the country.

The immediate cause of the revolution was 'Bloody Sunday'. It started as a peaceful march led by Father George Gapon who was a secret officer for the police and a priest in the orthydox church. The march was supposed to end with Father Gapon handing a petition to the Tsar at his Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. To make sure people knew it was a peaceful march the marchers carried posters and banners of religious leaders and also of the Tsar but at the Narva Gate they met mounted Cossacks and also armed infantry. The troops opened fire on the marchers and killed around a thousand peaceful, innocent people. The government's official death toll was 96.

The other cause was the fact that the Socialist Revolutionaries and the liberals for the first time worked together and caused a big stir within the Monarchy. For the only time two of the revolutionary groups were able to combine their efforts and start a revolution.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

islander15

9th of Feb 2012

Quality of writing

The grammar and spelling in this essay was in general good, however there were a few spelling errors, which to be fair could be seen as typos. If this was the case then, re-reading your essay before handing it in is most advisable, as you avoid these silly errors. It is important to note that this author uses good vocabulary, which did help improve the overall standard of this essay. I feel it is worth three stars, would have been four if there had been a conclusion/analysis.

Level of analysis

There is a distinct lack of analysis in this answer, however the question does not ask for it, so is unlikely to get marked down. That said, if you can put any analysis in it, it should raise your grade, as it shows understanding as well as regurgitation. The essay lacked a conclusion, which is detrimental to the grade as any conclusion (can be a sentence just summing up the causes and perhaps saying one causes was more important than another) helps round the essay off.

Response to question

This essay stays strictly to the question. The introduction sets out an immediate plan of the essay, which for an examiner is very useful to know, however f there had been an argument/line they would have received a better mark. Although the question does explicitly ask for it, an answer which weighted the causes is likely to have received better marks, as it shows that not only can give a narrative but that you can also evaluate the importance of each cause. The author should have got a fair mark, as he clearly had good knowledge. Kudos, for the quote about the Russo-Japanese War, as quotes allow you to show off your knowledge.

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