Russia
Pre-1917- Revolution
History 12
Ms Leslie
Very very beginning
 Russia has been around since the 10th
century
 Mostly made up of Ethnic Slavs who
went north escaping the Turkish empire
 These migrating Slavs clashed with
Mongolians and Tartars
 15th century - Grand Duchy
of Moscow established =
creation of a strong
Tsardom or Czardom
 The first Tsars were the
likes of Ivan the terrible and
Ivan the Great
 Took a lot of territory from
the Tartars, Kazans and
Crimeans
Imperial Russia
17-19th Century
 A great time for
Russia
 Grew culturally
and territorially
 Rulers = Peter the
great and
Catherine the
Great
 The people were mostly illiterate
farmers
 Feudal system
 Czar Alexander II abolished slavery in
1861
 Factories had horrid working conditions
 Alex II assassinated in 1881 and
replaced by this son
Alexander III 1881-1894
 Authorities shifted attention from the
failings of the government by creating
scapegoats and encouraging pogroms
 Pogroms -
 Was physically
intimidating - a
body builder to
make up for his 5’6”
height
 Died of kidney
failure from trauma
from a train
accident
Nicolas II
 Started his reign in 1894
 Autocratic and ineffective
 Romanov family very wealthy
 Population of 165 million
 Secret police (OKHRANA)
 Censorship of the press
 Czar’s word was law
 Despite this, the
people loved
Nicolas II
 Believed he was
appointed by God
 Kept pictures of him
in their homes and
worshipped him
 Related to heads of
Greece, UK,
Denmark, Germany
What was Nicholas II like?
 Not very smart
 Easily manipulated by his
advisors
 Relied on
 His son,
 His allowed Rasputin to gain
dangerous control of the
government.
Population of the 1910’s
 1910 1914  Only 40%
 80%
 Life expectancy = 40 years
 Well educated middle class - had the
most books per capital in 1913
 Most lived on communal farms called
Obschina or Mir.
 The Obschina organized taxes and
allotted land to households
 Peasants could not
 Punishment =
 Agricultural reforms had not caught on
eg crop rotation
famine
 Lots of famines
 1891 - famine +cholera
+ typhus = 400,000
dead
 1890 - 64% of
conscripts declared
unfit to serve
Revolutionary movement
1. Nihilists –
2. Populists –
3. Marxists 4. Liberals -
Problems with Industrialization
 Far behind rest of Europe
 Because of late start industry was modern
and they lacked skilled workers
 Relied heavily of foreign loans and taxes for
growth
 France owned 2/3rd
 Germany owned
 Britain owned
 Biggest problem - massive, abused
proletariat
Industry
 5th
 Average hard labour work day
 Child labour common. Start age 4
 Kids worked in cotton mills. Injuries
common, rickets, cotton lung
 Unions Banned
Labour Problems
 Industrial workers small in number
 Exploited
 Demanded
 Started to demand
Peasant Problem
 3/4 of the population
 Although no longer serfs, still had a
separate administration and courts
 Illiterate and superstitious
 Excessively taxed - main source of
tsarist revenue.
 1896 the people had enough and rioted
in St Petersburg
 1902 street demonstrations
 1901-1907 arson in rural areas
common
 1904 a social revolutionary
assassinated the minister of the interior
1905 Revolution causes
1. -
2. 3. 4. -
5.
6. Liberals organized the Constitutional
Democratic Party (Cadet). Wanted
democratic reform
7.
 Bolsheviks (Majority) –
 Mensheviks (minority) -
1905 Rebellion/Revolution
 Jan 22/Jan 9
 Workers under the
leadership of Father
Gapon marched on
the Winter Palace
 Wanted:
Bloody Sunday
Result
 Showed tsar’s incompetence
 Tsarist supporters changed their minds
 creation of the ‘Shildlovski
Commission’
Oct 1905
 Oct 20-30 –
 First soviet formed in St Petersburg
 Soviet (council) =
 The Tsar responded with the October
Manifesto promising:
 Extremists not appeased, but
moderates happy and a full revolution
didn’t happen
The Duma
 Russian Parliament
Long term impact 1905
 Tsar used him powers to arrest and
harrass opposition
 1906-07, 4,400 deaths due to terrorism
 Catch 22 -
Marxism
 Came to Russia in the
1880s
 Lenin knew revolution
would happen in Russia
first as it was the weakest
capitalist state (contrary to
Marxism)
 1903 the Russian Marxist
movement split in two
Bolsheviks
 Professional
revolutionaries
 Majority
Mensheviks
 Moderate
 Feared Lenin would
become a dictator
 Minority
WWI and the revolutionary
movement
 Bolsheviks
opposed the war
from the start
 Lenin exiled in
Zurich, Switz.
 Most Bolsheviks
banished to
Siberia
Home front
 War meant more food shortages
 1914
 1915
 This left the Tsarina in charge - she let
Rasputin make decisions…
War stats
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15.5 million man army
1.65 million died
3.85 million wounded
2.41 million POWs
1917 1.5 million deserted
Lack of medical attention
Not enough equipment for soldiers. 1 in 3
didn’t have a gun
Beginning of the collapse
 1917 Little transportation
 February  Police joined rioters and a general
strike formed
 Army called in and they shot the rioters
 Fear of civil war causes Czar to resign
and the provisional government is
formed
 But more on all that later
 The end