| 1905? Essay, Research Paper
Bloody Sunday was the day when all the tensions that led to and began the 1905 revolution came together. By 1903 the activities of the parties that were opposing the government combined with the appalling conditions in which the working class people lived led to demonstrations, strikes and protests. The ministers of the Tsar warned him that Russia was on the verge of a revolution. The government attempted to deal with the problem were not very effective. It relaxed its repressive and censorship measures in 1903 which just resulted in a bombardment of anti-monarchist pamphlets and books. Government approved trade unions were set up but this led to demands for free unions. In 1904 the Tsar hoped to get the country behind him by winning spectacular victories at war so he engaged in a rather pointless war with Japan suffering a series of humiliating defeats. The people had had enough and a protest was organized outside the winter palace. Two hundred thousand people congregated outside the palace led by Father Gapon. Unarmed the people wished to appeal to the Tsar for better working conditions and to end the war with Japan. Their main plea was for elections based upon universal suffrage. Father Gapon held a petition for the Tsar. “We are treated as slaves who must bare their fate and be silent<sum>We ask but little: to reduce the working day to eight hours and to provide a minimum wage of one rouble a day.” The Tsar had left the city and was not present in the palace. The people who had come in peace carrying icons and pictures of their Tsar were fired upon by the Semenovsky regiment and collided with mounted Cossacks. Over 500 people were killed and 3000 or more were wounded. It was a day when the Tsars grip over Russia slipped even more. Why did Nicholas survive the 1905 revolution? It took the Tsar some time to respond to the many events that were going on in and around 1905 such as the national uprisings in Poland, Finland and Georgia, the assassination of the Tsars uncle, the industrial unrest that every town had suffered from by the end of 1905 and the naval mutinies that occurred in ports especially in Odessa where the battleship Potemkin was taken control of by the sailors. In his October Manifesto the Tsar offered the people a Duma which was an elected parliament. This would give the people the right to free speech and the right to form political parties. This calmed the people down into believing that they had received their rights and it also divided the Tsars opponents. While this was happening, the middle class liberals were happy but the revolutionary groups were suspicious. Because of the Tsars actions in keeping the people calm after the events of 1905 he had time to make peace with Japan and bring also his best troops back into Western Russia to crush the revolution. By the beginning of 1906 the revolution was crushed and all the revolutionary leaders were dead or exiled. In my opinion the Tsar survived the revolution because despite a few naval incidents the army remained loyal enough to support him throughout and to crush his opposition. The Following are Reasons why Tsarist Rule Ended in Russia in 1917 ·The influence of Rasputin ·The collapse of the Army ·Strikes and Food Shortages What in your opinion is the most important reason that led to the downfall of the Tsars? After the 1905 revolution the Tsar needed to re-establish control of Russia. He appointed a tough prime minister called Stolypin. Stolypin came down hard on strikers and revolutionaries yet he gave the peasants what they wanted: land. Peasants who started to own land were called kulaks and because of Stolypins methods farms began to prosper and conditions became more favourable for the industry to grow as shown by the increase in grain, coal and oil production between 1910 and 1913.Stolypins reforms however, did not improve conditions for the workers in the cities because the money still went to the factory owners therefore in 1911 he was assassinated. Stolypins place was filled by a mysterious figure called Gregory Efimovich (Rasputin). Rasputin played a significant part in the life of the Tsar (because of his ability to suppress the Tsars sons haemophilia) and the ruling of Russia (because the Tsar took personal command of the countries army and had less time for domestic affairs). People in Russia were suspicious of Rasputin even if he didn‚t make that many important decisions. The Tsars opponents seized Rasputin as a sign of the Tsars weakness and unfitness to rule Russia. With the First World War going very badly for Russia with the army in full retreat by December 1914 the peoples reasons for opposition to the Tsar began to build up yet again. Because of the inefficiency of the war effort there was chaos on the home front. The loss of so many lives had left the industrial and agricultural economy in ruins. Coal shortages and collapsed infrastructure disabled supplies from being transported around Russia. As the winter of 1916 approached the people of Petrograd froze and starved saving their bitterness towards the Tsar for better days. To this point everything had gone wrong but the army had remained loyal yet after the murder of the Tsar and the time when March came, things would be different. In January 1917 strikes broke out which were supported by the members of the army themselves. In March the number of striking workers rose to 250,000 and the Tsar ordered the Duma to disband and they refused. The Tsar ordered his army to put down the revolt by force but they refused. On the 15th of March 3000 years of monarchy ended and the Tsar issued a statement from his personal railway carriage stating his abdication. In my opinion all of the above factors contributed to the Tsars downfall and were as significant as each other yet the collapse of the army was the most important factor. If the army had remained loyal to the Tsar when he ordered them to put down the revolt then they probably would have succeeded but this does not mean that he would have ruled for much longer because when it comes down to it there are more peasants than soldiers and eventually if they persevered they would win. The monarchy was bound to collapse sooner or later and all that the disloyalty of the army proved was that it happened sooner and with less lives being lost. The Tsar had failed in every aspect of ruling his country, even to the extent that he let Rasputin stay in the palace when he knew what effect the rumours about him where having on the peoples loyalty to him.|
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