First of all, the peasants were highly taxed in order to be able to pay for the industrialization. Peasants being already poor and being unable to see the immediate importance of the industrialization were confronted with debt and starvation. Even what was meant to be an improvement turned against them as they had to pay for the land they acquired once they had been emancipated in 1861. All of this was made even worse if possible by the bad harvest of the late 1890s. The peasantry being a large part of the population was able to assert itself when their literacy grew having a greater impact during uprisings.
Secondly having had a fast growing industry involving a lot of labour force, Russia’s unemployment rose hugely when the growth ended suddenly because of the international financial crisis that occurred in 1899. Not only did the domestic industry create unemployment, the end of foreign investments also meant redundancy for a large part of the workers. Of course the bad harvest did nothing to help improve those conditions. Workers being uneducated and living in poor condition were easily convinced to strike by Marxist revolutionaries. The government being under pressure tried to drive away the workers discontent by introducing trade unions which were used against the government to organize large-scale strikes.
Finally concerning the population’s unrest, the non-Russian peoples suffered from the nationalistic policies that Alexander III and Nicholas II introduced. These policies obliged everyone to be able to understand Russian as it became the imposed language in the whole of Russia. Religion was also included, Orthodox became the only religion which caused the assassination of Finland’s governor Bobrikov in 1904.
All of these resentful groups led to the creation of several political parties which represented their opinion. Three new parties were created, the Social Democratic Party, the Social Revolutionary Party and the Union of Liberals. The first one being a Marxist organization, the second one representing the peasant unrest and planning revolution. The Union of Liberals was less radical, but was also less effective having no real objective but only vague promises from the Tzar. They were angered by military failures.
This event which drove the Russian troops out of Russia might be the cause which enabled the 1905 revolution. Russia still seeking foreign commerce payed attention to the Far East encourage by the weakness of the Chinese Empire. China allowed Russia to build a railway across Manchuria and a 25 year lease on the Liaotung Peninsula. Relations with China going well, Russia wanted to expand its influence in Korea too. This created a conflict between Japan and Russia, Japan envisaging the possible zone of influence Korea could be. Therefore they attacked Russia’s naval base in Manchuria, Port Arthur, in 1904. After a series of events Japan eventually won and forced Russia to withdraw from Manchuria.
In 1905 a group led by Father Gapon marched on the Winter Palace with a petition in their hand. About a thousand people were killed by the troops, this provoked a chain reaction of strikes across Russia. By July 1905 the Union of Liberals wanted an elected parliament, meanwhile strikes continue augmenting to the point were there was a general strike, peasant rebellions and rising among the non-Russian populations. In october the monarchy was dangerously threatened to disappear because of the creation of the St Petersburg Soviet which represented the interests of the workers.
As stated in the introduction the outbreak of the revolution was only made possible by disastrous defeat in the Russo-Japanese war. However, the growing revolutionary sentiment would have finally peaked in revolution, as too many parts of society were agitated by the nobility's suppression upon the people as well as the strong political opposition.
