What Were the Main Problems that the Tsar Faced up to 1905?

by maxponnampalam (student)

Russia was faced with a Revolution in 1905, through a chain of events leading up to it. With the economic instability, poor working conditions and the growing discontent of the people, the demand for reformation and revolution soon arose.. The ever rapidly increasing population of Russia outlined a new milestone for the empire. A population increase demands more from the economy and requires a higher effort to please the entire nation. However, Russia and the Tsar were definitely not ready for such expansion in population and backward views on society only provided another reason to further worsen the arising discontent. Village population had grown from 61to 78 million between 1877 and 1905 but the land owned by peasants only grew 24.2 per cent. There was a shortage of determination to improve the land by the Tsar. The view on autocracy was being undermined, even though there was trust in the Tsar by most people. The Tsar’s ignorance on issues such as the poor living conditions for the peasants, as well as aspects such as working hours, child labour and wages gave more for some to Russians to get annoyed about. Rising prices along with tremendous taxes influenced the peasants to revolt, hence playing a part in the Russian revolution .Russia was seen as a backward nation, in agriculture, technology and in rule of power. In many countries, especially in the United States, power had been redistributed to the people and technology along with industrialisation had allowed for better living conditions. Tsar Nicholas II was a conservative leader and was seen as unsuitable for a job demanding a lot to effectively rule the nation. His decision to prevent reform was sensible possibly in older times; however the decision to repress revolution and limit ideas of individuality backfired, only forming more demand for reform all across Russia. The Tsar had tried to modernize Russia through active developments while retaining the autocracy legacy while holding ignorant views on his people.Undoubtedly, the attitude of ruling the country without reform, expecting developments without any change was ignorant of Tsar Nicholas II, which drove the nation to a revolution like no other.

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Witte’s rapid industrialisation program heightened discontent within peasants and workers. From 1880 onwards, the Russian government had encouraged industrial growth. This encouraged the peasants to migrate to the city in hope of a better life. Witte’s vision was to shape Russia slowly to a more industrialised nation in which the economy grows and allows peasants to become workers with an accumulation of their own money independent to their communes. However, the outlined plan would require the Russian people to suffer hardships in the short term to receive the benefits. With this was the rapid development of new types of workers called urban workers who survived in awful conditions while having to put up with the high rates of food resulted by inflation .. This situation resulted in people following revolutionary parties which promised better conditions and raised dreams to a fairer and better system of work. Strikes occurred many times which showed the inability of the government to control this situation of people’s discontent. Illegal political parties were uprising to share their discontent with Russia and their Tsar and create a framework for ideas of revolution. The social revolutionaries and democrats had existed from 1901, yet public support was achieved in 1905 when living was hard, and the belief of the Tsar had been slowly lost.. The participation of these parties resulted in strikes and a build-up of the protests .Conclusively, the build of political parties and the failure to stop them allowed the citizens of Russia to demand and express themselves more, hence leading to the activity of revolution .Winning the war was perhaps the only thing that could bring Russia together however this was not the case as the Russian suffered humiliating defeats to Japan. This showed people of the further incompetence of the Tsar who’s most important and essential job is to show his command of his army. Enthusiasm was the first reaction to this war, giving the country something to take its mind off, stop the rioting and focus on the winning. However, as soon as it became clear that Russia was losing for the first time to an Asian power, the people declared unrest and resumed the strikes and demand for reform. The loss of the war, symbolising the only hope allowed the revolution of 1905 to take place, causing a number of strikes, constant pressure on the government and the demand for reform.

‘Bloody Sunday’ intensified the revolutionary movement and finally abolished the people’s view of the Tsar. On 9th

January 1905 workers came peacefully to address a petition, and expected the Tsar to ease their problems. However, the peaceful demonstration was stopped with bullets from the guns of the soldiers outside the Winter palace. By September there were massive strikes by factory workers and railway men. Soon the country was practically halted by a general strike, which stopped everything Russia relied on. Revolution was here, and the government prepared plans for their overthrow .While the county recovered, autocracy had only one thing it could do to survive. Tsar Nicholas II granted some of the rights the people wanted, civil rights, rights to vote and a Duma. This was the survival of the Tsar, perhaps for the last time .The outbreak of the revolution was caused by a number of events. It was the constant pressure building amongst the peasants and the workers. The poor thought and reluctance to change the country by the Tsar Nicholas II and the economic slumps, failure in war and ‘Bloody Sunday’ allowed Russia to outbreak its attitude towards its demand for changes in conditions often ignored over time.