POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND GOVERNMENT UNDER NICHOLAS II, 1894-1904
NICHOLAS II – resolved ‘to maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as it was preserved by my unforgettable dead father’
- Commitment to Orthodoxy ensured that the Church maintained influenced
- Continued russification & support for the ‘Black Hundreds’ organisations (right wing & anti-Semitic policies’ ensured that Nicholas was no more popular w/ethnic minorities than father was
DEMANDS FOR CHANGE AND THE GOVERNMENT
POST 1894: time of serious unrest in Russia
Society had more politicised post Great Famine of 1891-92
- Failure to cope w/crisis – zemstva & voluntary organisations had to provide relief work bred scorn and despair
- Greater public mistrust of govt competence & firmer belief in power of ordinary people in society to play a role in national affairs
- Reformist groups developed stronger support by base by 1900
New outbursts of trouble in Russia Uni’s ∴ increased use of the okhrana – expelled, exiled or drafted rebels/submitted to military force
1901: mounted Cossacks stormed students in St. Petersburg killing thirteen arrested 1500 students
1902-1907 widespread disturbances in town & countryside
Many instances of arson in the rural committees – nicknamed ‘the years of the red cockerel’
- Unrest the worst in central Russian provinces where landlord/peasant relationship remained
- Spread to Georgia, Ukraine & Poland
- Peasants set fire to their landlord’ barns destroying grain/ physically attacked
STOLYPIN: dealt w/disturbances by flogging, arresting, exiling, or shooting (in the thousands’
- Gallows became in frequent use (STOLYPIN’S NECKTIE)
Indst. Strikes escalated in the towns – 17,000 in 1894 – ≈ 90,000 in 1904 – violent attacks between police and strikers became commonplace
1900: introduction of police-sponsored trade unions – provide official channels for complaints to be heard, in attempt to prevent workers joining the radical socialists
- Lasted to 1903 when chief of Okhrana Zubatov was exiled after one of his union’s became involved in a strike in Odessa.
1904: Father Gregorii Gapon created the Assembly of St Petersburg Factory Workers, modelled on Zubatov version
- Was approved by minister of IA (Plehve) & had the support of the Orthodox Church
- Soon had 12 branches & 8000 members
THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
Plehve encouraged the Tsar to respond to Japanese assault on the base
- JANUARY 1904: proceeded with a ‘short swift victorious war’ – would detract from unrest at home
Russians had no idea of enemy/inadequacies of their own forces
- War 6000 miles from capital was not easy & series of defeats turned initial surge of anti-Japanese patriotism into opposition for Govt
When Plehve was assassinated in JULY 1904 crowds turned out on the streets to celebrate in Warsaw
- Renewed cries for a representative National Assembly & in NOVEMBER 1904 Mirsky (Plehve replacement agreed to invite zemstvo reps to come to St Petersburg for discussions
- N II – ‘ I will never agree to the representative form of government because I consider it harmful to the people whom God entrusted to me’ – concede to expansion of the zemstva
THE EVENTS AND OUTCOME OF THE 1905 REVOLUTION
BLOODY SUNDAY, 9 JANUARY 1905
20TH DECEMBER – Russian forces surrendered to Japanese
- Humiliation added to growing discontent 1904 2 October – whole Baltic fleet lost to 3 Japanese torpedo boats
3 JANUARY 1905 – Strike at Putilov Iron Works in St. Petersburg involved ≈ 150,000 workers
- Economic & political grievances & father Gapon (the union many of the striker belonged to) decided to conduct a peace march to Winter Palace on SUNDAY 9 JANUARY
- Gapon wished to present a petition to N II demonstrating the workers’ loyalty but also requesting reform
- N II was at summer palace away from palace & 12,000 troops were issued to break up the demonstration
- Came to be known as Bloody Sunday – sparked an outbreak of rebellion which spread throughout Empire
4 FEBRUARY, Tsar decide to meet workers’ representatives after Grand Duke Sergei (uncle) was shot
- Inflamed sentiment by upsetting marchers that they were badly advised & should return to work
- Dismissed Mirsky & brought in Buygin as Minister of IA & major-General Trepov Military Governor of St Petersburg to follow a hard-line policy
MUTINY ON THE SHIP
- Began due to mould meat ration & lead to a full-scale mutiny in which seven officers were killed
- Soldiers hoisted revolutionary flag & sailed to Odessa where they placed a dead soldier’s’ body at the steps between the city & the harbour
- When townsfolk arrived to pay respects troops fired on them
- More than 2000 killed & 3000 wounded
OCTOBER MANIFESTO
1905: Russian Empire near to total collapse
Strikes & demonstrations in all maj. Cities, peasant uprisings throughout country & demands for independence from Poles latvians and finns
PS set up & directed general strike in Oct 1905
WITTE – Country as on verge of a revolution that would ‘sweep away a thousand years of history’
17th October – Oct Manifesto signed
- Grant civic freedoms (speech, personal rights)
- a state duma for all classes
- Give duma powers of legislation
Workers celebrated in crows and sang La Marseillaise – radicals defied this ‘we have been granted a constitution, but autocracy remains’ – N II did not want constitutional Monarch & few of ministers had a real commitment to manifest promises
COUNTER REVOLUTION
Trepov ordered troops to fire in forcing striking workers back to their factories
Jews suffered in terrible pogroms – gangs sent to round up and flop peasants to restore order
3 DEC – leaders of PS surrounded & arrested & exiled to siberia
- Weakened movement and restored control to authorities
- Another month of warfare in moscow
- Countryside outbreaks for another two years
THE ERA OF THE DUMAS
LOWER CHAMBER – STATE DUMA
Members elected through indirect voting (peasants & nobles) but was weighted in favour of the nobility (Tsar’s natural allies)
UPPER CHAMBER – STATE COUNCIL
Half zemstva elected, half Tsar appointments – nobles from maj. Social, religious, educational and financial institutions
Both houses had equal legislative power & all legislation needed Tsar approval & any three bodies could veto legislation
GOVERNMENT (COUNCIL OF MINISTER SUNDER THE PRIME MINISTER)
Appointed exclusively by Tsar, loyal to tsar not duma
FUNDAMENTAL LAWS
23 APRIL 1906: REASSESSMENT OF AUTOCRATIC POWER
- ‘God himself ordains that all must bow to his supreme power, not only out of fear but also out of conscience’
Tsar claimed the right to
- Veto legislation
- Rule by decree in an emergency/ when duma was not in session
- appoint/dismiss govt ministers
- Dissolve duma when wished
- Command russia’s land and sea forces
- Declare war, conclude peace/ control all foreign relations
- Overturn verdicts & sentences in a court of law
- Control the orthodox church
Political Groups in Russia 1900 – 1917
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks were the more hard-line wing of the Social Democratic party. They believed in fast change, and disliked the idea of working together with other parties or more centrist organisations. They split from the Mensheviks in 1903, and were led by Vladimir Lenin. They kept a much lower profile than the Mensheviks and SRs until 1917, when Lenin’s personal charisma and the ruthless Bolshevik leadership managed to turn the situation to their advantage and gain military power. They managed to re-split the Mensheviks, gaining members such as Alexandra Kollontai and Leon Trotsky, and later took control of the government, becoming the core of the governance of Communist Russia under Lenin as (essentially) a dictator.
Kadets
The Constitutional Democratic Party, or Kadets, were a moderate liberal party. They were more radical than the octobrists and tended to ally with the socialists, believing in a socially progressive manifesto for Russia, which would not necessarily include the Tsar keeping power. They formed the largest factions in the first and second Dumas (although were able to do very little due to vetoes being used by Tsar Nicholas and Peter Stolypin) but were restricted in numbers over time as the government sought to remove left-wingers from the Duma. Even after their losses due to voting regulations rigged against left-wingers, they attempted to push through reforms against the larger right-wing factions; this they sometimes managed with Octobrist help. These would usually then be vetoed by Nicholas, however. In 1917 the Kadets were the only functioning non-socialist party after the February revolution, suddenly going from being radicals to finding themselves on the right of the political spectrum. After their leader, Lvov, fell from power in favour of Kerensky the party mostly ceased to have any real power, with its members mostly tending to make up the left wing of the whites in the civil war.
Mensheviks
The Mensheviks were the slightly less hardline of the Social Democrat factions. They believed in a gradual transition towards a socialist state, and were more positive about democracy and working with the Kadets and SRs than Lenin’s Bolshevik faction. Led by Julius Martov, they played a major role in the transitional governments of 1917, supporting Kerensky. Later that year they split again with some members returning to join the Bolshevik faction. The Mensheviks were split between the red and white factions in the civil war, although several prominent members such as Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks. Trotsky re-organised the Red Army and was instrumental in winning the civil war for the Red faction. The party became illegal in 1921 after the Kronstadt uprising. Martov then left for Paris, where he died in 1923.
Octobrists
The Octobrists were, after the 1905 revolution, the centrist party in the Duma. They believed in a constitutional monarchy, where the Tsar would listen to and accept rule by the Duma without actually being removed from power. Unlike the left-wing and liberal Kadets, the Octobrists supported most of Stolypin’s reforms and after the left-wingers were suppressed formed the main faction in the third Duma and most between then and 1917. The party mostly ceased to exist after the February revolution, though many of its members were instrumental in persuading the Tsar to abdicate rather than fight (and die).
Socialist Revolutionaries
The Socialist Revolutionaries were the main socialist faction in Russia from 1900 to 1917. Their radical stance on reform, redistributing land to the peasants and removing the Tsar, made them very popular with the peasantry. The SRs were also violent at times, sometimes killing 500 or so people in a year for being opposed to their cause. The SRs were a major faction in the transitional government and won the elections of 1917 with huge peasant support. The Bolsheviks, who had taken power from the transitional government a few days earlier, shut the SRs out and dissolved the assembly. The right of the SRs supported the whites in the civil war, the left supported the reds; others supported neither side. SRs included Alexander Kerensky and Victor Chernov. The First duma:
The liberals hoped for more power in the first duma but these hopes were dashed even before the duma was presented because of the fundamental laws, and the tsarist regime recovering slightly from the 1905 revolution. Early in the year Russia negotiated a loan from France meaning the government had tremendous financial independence. And the monarchies power was enforced by the fundamental laws meaning left-wing groups decided to boycott the first set of elections, meaning the first duma was dominated by liberals and reformist parties. (BOYCOTTED BY BOLSHEVIKS, SRS)
Nicholas closed the duma down after two months ( it demanded further political reform, including land reform and the release of political prisoners.) and a group of Kadets and Trudoviks set up an unofficial meeting in Finland and wanted the Russian people to stop paying taxes in an effort to make the Tsar keep his original promises. The Tsar appointed Peter Stolypin as chief minister to sort out the trouble that followed
The second Duma February – June 1907
The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries all abandoned their policies of boycotting elections to the Duma, and consequently won a number of seats. The Kadets found themselves outnumbered two-to-one by their more radical counterparts.
On June 1, 1907, Prime Minister Stolypin accused social-democrats in preparation of armed uprising and demanded to exclude 55 social-democrats from Duma sessions and strip 16 of them from parliamentary immunity. When this ultimatum was rejected by the Duma, it was dissolved on 3 June by an imperial decree
The Tsar was unwilling to be rid of the system of the State Duma, despite the problems. Instead, using emergency powers, Stolypin and the Tsar changed the electoral law and gave greater electoral value to the votes of landowners and owners of city properties, and less value to the votes of the peasantry, whom he accused of being “misled” and in the process breaking his own Fundamental Laws
The third Duma November 1907 – June 1912
Stolypin changed the electoral laws so that only one in six men had the right the vote, and peasants and industrial workers were virtually forbidden to vote. The result was that the third and fourth Dumas were dominated by right wing supporters of the regime.
The Duma lasted a full five years and succeeded in 200 pieces of legislation and voting on 2500 bills. Due to its more noble, and Great Russian composition, the third Duma, like the first, was also given a nickname, “The Duma of the Lords and Lackeys” or “The Master’s Duma”. The Octobrist party were the largest, with around one-third of all the deputies
Fourth Duma:
The Fourth Duma was written under the same terms as the Third Duma. The reactionaries and the nationalists were still in the majority but there had been an increase in the number of radicals (Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks) elected.
Soon after the outbreak of the First World War the Duma voted to support Nicholas II and his government. When the Bolshevik deputies voted against the government on this issue, they were arrested, had their property confiscated and sent to Siberia.
Members of the Duma, including its leader, Michael Rodzianko, became increasingly critical of the way Nicholas II was managing the war. In 1916 Rodzianko tried to persuade the government to introduce reforms and to appoint a Duma government. In February, 1917, he sent a series of telegrams explaining the dangers of revolution.
After the Tsar’s abdication in March, 1917, Michael Rodzianko, helped form the Provisional Government led by George Lvov. The Duma was closed down after the Bolshevik Revolution in October, 1917
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS TO 1914
- Stolypin had restored order in the countryside
- court martials to dealw /political crimes (cases had to finish in 2 days & accused was not allowed defence – deaths sentence carried out in a day) – 3000 convicted and arrest 1906-9
- Agrarian situation improving
- Dumas weakened to point of meaninglessness
- Opposition was weakened (police & IA)
- Only party favoured was UofRP – reinforced mystical bond between tsar and people
- Rasputin debuted/ nicholas’ failure to take action, damaged tsars’ reputation w/nobility & civil servants and army officers & orthodox bishops
SUMMARY:
As a result of the events of Bloody Sunday, it would be fair to say that the tsarist regime had, in some respects, modernised along Western Lines by 1914. The introduction of the Dumas, together with the economic policies of Witte and Stolypin, all marked major advances. However, Nicholas II had never fully appreciated the Social and political consequences of economic modernisation. while he wanted Russia to be a 20th century power that could compete with the west, he himself disliked Western civilization and preferred to look back to the old Muscovite traditions. His autocracy was reactionary, oppressive and hats were still, inefficient. the people of Russia became more and more urban, more educated and more politicised, he strives to maintain 17th century autocracy of the dynasty’s founder Romanov.