The January 22nd 1905 revolution, or “Bloody Sunday”, was mainly a protest aimed at enforcing change. The Russian population was fed up with the Tsar and the way he ruled his country, added to the unrest in the main urban centers, there was also unrest in the countryside. The peasantry went on strike which aggravated the already existing food shortage; peasants overthrew their landlords, as they did not accept the harsh conditions they endured on the fields. They regularly suffered famines. Also the Russian population rose by nearly 50% in the previous 60 years which meant that the peasant population was also increasing which was putting more pressure on the land. Workers wanted more political power, they did not want to continue living and working under poor conditions, earn low pays and work for long hours. The many minorities in Russia wanted more autonomy from the autocracy. The Socialist Revolutionaries wanted a socialist state by creating a peasant revolution and the Social Democrats wanted a revolution led by the workers to create a communist state. The middle-class wanted to be more involved in the government and they wanted some form of an elected assembly. All of this created a massive, popular discontent towards the Tsar and his regime. The factor which sparked the revolution of 1905 was the 1904/1905 Russo-Japanese war. This was greatly humiliating for the Russian people; it was the first time in history that a European country lost against an Asian country. The war further worsened the food shortage, oil prices went up and unemployment rose even more. The Russian army was terribly under-equipped and was led by foolish generals, the historian Norman Stone commented on the Russian war minister: “he did not see that horses had become far too vulnerable against modern rifles; instead, he thought that the Cossacks lacked ‘martial dash’, and to make them charge more effectively with their sabers, he proposed to remove their rifles.” This clearly outlines Russian incompetence, it also took a year for “Russians in Manchuria to attain the same strength as the Japanese” due to a hole in the middle of the Trans-Siberian railway. The Tsar also lost his whole Baltic fleet which consisted of 25-30 ships. On Sunday the 22nd of January 1905 the Tsar ordered his troops to fire on peaceful demonstrators, this is known as the Bloody Sunday, between 200 and 1000 people were killed by the army including women and children on that day. In the next months, civil unrest spread through Russia and the situation was getting out of hand for the Tsar, he had two choices; either put down the uprising with force which would therefore created a massive bloodshed or he could give in and make concessions. The Tsar decided to give in. Count Sergei Witte encouraged the Tsar to create the October Manifesto; the manifesto was issued on the 30th of October 1905.
The October manifesto basically pledged to grant civil liberties and promised the Duma where people could be elected and represent their groups and interests, much like a parliament. The Tsar also promised to put an end to press censorship and gave people the right to form political parties. This was the start of the Downfall of the Tsar, now that he created the Duma, it gave his opponents a chance to meet and share their views about the Tsar and communicate between each other much better, one of the reasons why he wasn’t overthrown in 1905 was due to the fact that his different opponents were not organized and could not cooperate properly, for example, in1905 the railway workers did not go on strike which meant that troops could be brought in to control the situation. With the Duma, although the Tsar did not grant it much power, his opponents now had a place to meet and exchange views and opinions. Also the end of press censorship meant that newspapers could now release anything they wanted, when this was added to formation of political parties and to the fact that people were now able to say what they wanted to say, resulted in the Tsar and his autocracy being greatly harmed by the manifesto and opposition grew stronger and more organized. Land reforms brought economic and social change to Russia. The chief minister, Stolypin, aimed at increasing food production and put an end to the food shortage. He encouraged rich peasants, also known as Kulaks, to buy up land from poorer peasants and to put an end to strip farming. This greatly increased food production, a good agriculture was needed for Russia to industrialize and modernize. But these new land reforms had a “serious downside: they produced a growing class of alienated poor peasants. Many drifted into the cities to work in the factories while others became disgruntled farm laborers.” A class awareness or class consciousness was building up, workers started to create committees, they began to identify themselves from others, and they began to form a strong movement. They were starting to unite and the freedom of speech and thought furthermore helped the low-class to unite and to see itself as one. The Tsar refused to abandon his current autocratic system and had to close the Duma on many occasions as he had the power to do so.
People were also very unhappy about Russian losses in World War One, Nicholas II was directly blamed for this as he decided to take control of the army and he let his wife lead the autocracy while he was on the front, he lost what little support he had left and this developed further hate towards him. Russia lost millions of soldiers and mutinies occurred, this made Nicholas II lose control over the army and the army was no longer loyal to him. The war had furthermore hindered food production, peasants were taken off the fields to go fight in the war which meant that there was less labor available and animal such as horses and mules were sent to front to help the army, the food production was failing. The middle classes, due to the war, saw the government as incompetent and wanted a more representative government. A big blow to the Tsar was in 1916, when the Russian army generals announced the Tsar that he no longer had their support. The Russian population definitely wanted the Tsar and his regime to be ousted, the move towards the February 1917 revolution gained momentum at a fast rate.
On the 18th of February 1917, the workers of the Putilov Plant announced a strike, they were all fired, and this created unrest at other plants. On the 23rd, workers joined a women’s rally which was an International Women’s Day rally. The rally turned into an economic and social demonstration. This continued for days, soldiers were sent to stop the demonstrations and meetings, they shot at the crowds and killed many demonstrators, this created a hostile crowd and soldiers had to decide on what side they were on, most soldiers shot their officers and joined the demonstrators. They helped the demonstrators fight against the Russian police as the police had the habit of placing snipers on roof tops to shoot down the demonstrators, “soldiers rooted them down out, throwing them off the roof tops on to the streets to the cheers of the crowds below.” On the 2nd of March 1917, Tsar Nicholas II “abdicated for himself and his sick son in favour of his brothers Michael; but Michael, realizing the extent of the antimonarchical feeling, refused and the Romanov dynasty came to a swift end. The Duma committee set about forming a new Government.” This was the definite end of the Russian Autocracy and of the Tsar.
In the 1905 revolution, the urban population was still “young”, there was no class-awareness and there were no organized groups and committees. The 1905 revolution could be seen as a rehearsal for the February 1917 revolution. After being pressured in 1905, the Tsar was making mistakes upon mistakes, one of which was his decision to lead the army in World War One and to put his wife, Alexandra, in charge of the autocracy, this tarnished the image of the Tsar and created an even bigger feel that the government was incompetent. Russia, however, had made some progress in modernization and in agriculture and industrialization; but these 3 factors did not rhyme with autocracy, at least not with the Tsar’s autocracy. It brought low-class people closer together from the countryside and created this “class-awareness”. The Tsar did not want to make sacrifices for a large gain so he could safely stay in power; instead he continued to impose his crude autocratic regime on the people of Russia which resulted in the end of him and of the Romanov dynasty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Communist Russia under Stalin and Lenin. Chris Corin and Terry Fiehn 2002
Europe in the Twentieth Century. Robert O. Paxton
Communist Russia under Stalin and Lenin. Chris Corin and Terry Fiehn 2002 page 9
Communist Russia under Stalin and Lenin. Chris Corin and Terry Fiehn 2002 page 13
Communist Russia under Stalin and Lenin. Chris Corin and Terry Fiehn 2002 page 27
