The Russian Revolutions

Background to Revolution &

Competing Ideologies,

1895-1917

Generalizations about Tsarist Rule

• Autocratic• Repress lower classes

and minorities• Sporadic attempts to

modernize• Change only with

backs to the wall

Road to Revolution: 1890-1905• Russia was going through a period

of rapid change at the turn of the century—industrialization

• Industrialization = low wages/ dangerous/ overcrowded cities

• Growth of political activism—workers & peasants press for rights– Illegal political parties—

Liberals, Social Revolutionaries,

& Social Democratic Party

Revolution of 1905 Military defeats in Russo-Japanese War & worker/peasant unrest• Bloody Sunday (9 Jan 1905)

•Tsar passes October Manifesto->Duma + placates middle class unrest

Peace and Quiet 1906

Ilya Repin – Demonstration on 17 October 1905

Battleship Potemkin Mutiny (June 1905)

•Sailors mutiny from their oppressive officers

Quote about Tsar Nicholas from historian Graham Darby,

“Historians seeking to say something nice about him usually point out that he was devoutly religious, a family man, and reasonable at organizing picnics.”

Reforms and War: 1906-1917• 4 Dumas between 1906-1917

– limited powers– Tsar could rule by decree when

not in session– People were disappointed

• Stolypin’s reforms– PM from 1906-1911– Tried to placate peasants

w/land reforms—mirs and kulaks

• Start of WWI—economy collapses

Competing Ideologies in Russian Revolution• Kadets—Conservatives and some

liberals from nobility, civil service, land owners, military, & professionals

• Social Revolutionaries—Largest revolutionary grouping, made up of soldiers and peasants

• Mensheviks—Largest of the Social Democratic factions, made up of industrial workers

• Bolsheviks—Smallest of the Social Democratic factions, made up of workers

Lenin’s Background• Born V. I. Ulyanov—1870 • Middle class family• Dad minor noble & school

inspector• Brother executed in 1887• Lawyer—part time• Revolutionary—full-time • Exile in Siberia 1895-1900,

then to Switzerland• Returned to Russia in April

1917—German help• Marxist and Bolshevik

Ideological Debate• Debate was over what kind of

revolution should take place, who should rule, and how to rule

• SRs and Mensheviks felt Russia needed a liberal gov’t to modernize Russia then the socialist society could be created—Marx

• Lenin and the Bolsheviks felt that there needed to be a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’

• Kadets were diverse in their views —most wanted to keep Tsar