Causes of 1905 revolution:
Short term –
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Defeat in the russo-japanese war- blamed for its failure, heightened tension of the
people against its government and questioned tsar’s rule even more
Bloody Sunday - 5 workers are dismissed from putilov iron works plant so father gapon
organized a petition to improve working conditions which leads to worker strikes that
are peaceful.
He leads a march to deliver the petition to the tsar, they weren’t trying to overthrow
the tsar just wanted to highlight their plight.
 However, the Russian soldiers mistook their cause and killed 200 people, led to it being
one of the key causes of the 1905 revolution
Long term –
Peasants;
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Economic hardship – peasants and workers both suffered horrendous living and
working conditions, stirring discontent which posed as a threat to the tsar
 Extreme taxation – peasants had their produce taxed to go towards the regime of the
tsar which was a heavy burden + the peasants although free from serfdom had to pay
back ‘loans’ for their freedom aka REDEMPTION PAYMENTS
 Lack of land – also known as land hunger, only rich peasants (kulaks) owned land often
at the expense of poorer peasants, and majority of peasants were landless having no
means to grow crops or housing then
 Also passing down of slices of land within the family got less and less throughout the
years
Workers;
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Working conditions were terrible – due to the policies of witte and vyshnegradsky
which led to industrialization + urbanization, this meant more people moved to the city
x4
This led to exploitation of health and safety laws as well as trade unions being banned
before 1905, not even allowed to protest an improvement .
Living conditions were cramped – High influx of migration meant not enough housing
to accommodate for all
Political problems – ethnic minorities were oppressed due to russification, strong antisemitic attitude towards jews
any influencing powers to the tsar such as zemstvos (local governments) were reduced
and also officials criticizing the government were rid of
middle class industrialists, workers and peasants were unhappy in their living condtions
and their lack of say in how the country should be governed
duma is a parliament