Bolshevik Revolution

Russia under Nicholas II

Emperor Nicholas Aleksandrovich Romanov was the last monarch in Russia, anointed with holy myrrh before stepping on the throne. The Czar = Tsar – Emperor of Russia, was the anointed of God, a holy person, carrier of the special grace of the Holy Spirit. He was crowned at age 26, in 1894 and he wanted to make Russia a respected world power, as his ancestors had done in the past.

Nicholas’s father, Czar/Tsar Alexander, died during his engagement with Alexandra and they married less than a month after when the court was still in mourning (luto). They didn’t have a lot of the fuss and ceremonials that most Imperial weddings could be expected to involve and this included a great lack of photographs. The dresses and other elements lay nowadays in museums (http://madameguillotine.org.uk/category/empress-alexandra/) and we can enjoy of the movies that remind us from the past like “NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA” .

Nicholas was a devoted family man who lived a simple and very pious life; he was a very Christian person. The thing was that Nicholas believed that the absolute power of the czars should be preserved: “I shall maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as did my unforgettable father.” Conditions were changing, however, and Nicholas was emperor in the correct country but in the wrong moment and unless he changed his point of view as people had done, he would not survive his era.

Industrialization began late in Russia but progressed rapidly after 1890. By 1900, Sergei Witte, the ablest minister of the Czar/Tsar, began a program to move the country forward. Under the direction of Witte, higher taxes and money borrowed from abroad was used to build up the Russian industries. To make industrialization even faster he hired foreign experts to run the Russian factories; after a while many Russians were sent abroad to study and bring knowledge for the rest. Russia had become the fourth largest producer of steel behind the United States, Germany, and Great Britain.

Witte pushed for the completion of the Trans-Siberian railroad and the building of other railway lines. There was a big growth of the heavy industry (look image in the left), particularly IRON and STEEL. It was a big change; farming had been the base of the economy in Russia.

Signs of unrest and discontent

With industrialization came factories, an industrial working class = the Proletariat, and pitiful working and living conditions (pitiful = lamentable). The workers were unhappy with their low standard of living and the lack of political power. On the other side, the upper class, the Nobles were resented by the presence of the foreign companies in the country.

Nicholas had enemies, too; some people wanted to bring a democratic Republic like the one in France, others were moderate autocratic who wanted a constitutional monarchy, and finally a growing number of people wanted to bring socialism to Russia . Socialist parties developed, including the Marxist Social Democratic Party and the Social Revolutionaries, but government repression forced both parties to go underground.

The revolution of 1905.

Growing discontent and opposition to the czarist regime finally exploded into the Revolution of 1905. There were two events that revealed some weakness of the czarist government:

1. Russia was badly beaten in the war with Japan. Czar/Tsar Nicholas had troops in Manchuria, so the Japanese tried to negotiate with the Russians. Nicholas was convinced that Japan was still a weak country and delayed the discussions; it was a fatal mistake. On February 8, 1904, without any warning, the Japanese navy attacked the Russian fleet that was anchored at Port Arthur, in Liaodong peninsula. Russia sent the Baltic fleet to Japan, but the English did not allow the Russians to pass through the Suez Canal, so the Russian ships were forced to sail all around Africa and got to Japan 7 months later. The Russians were beaten and humiliated by Japanese.

So, peasants, sailors, workers, non-Russians and intellectuals formed groups to revolt and each group had its own demands for a change.

2. On January 22, 1905, a massive procession of unarmed workers who started from different gathering points of the city and all went to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg city to present a petition of grievances to the czar. Troops foolishly opened fire on the peaceful demonstration, killing hundreds. That day was called “Bloody Sunday” because it was considered a massacre, and it caused workers throughout Russia to call strikes.

Workers in St. Petersburg formed a SOVIET – representative council of the workers, like a Syndicate – and the Soviet would be the leader of the strikers (manifestantes). Nicholas II was eventually forced to allow civil liberties and create a legislative assembly, called the Duma (meaning Imperial Parliament in Russian language). These reforms, however, lived for a short time because people felt that autocracy remained. Many people felt satisfied with the reforms and the Revolution of 1905 just ran out of steam (it was left without strength or without combustible). The Czar/Tsar had the power to VETO the decisions of the Duma, also, dismiss its members as he wished. So, the Liberals and the Moderates that had great hopes for the parliament to work just got angry at the Tsar and his actions. By 1907, the czar had already curtailed the power of the Duma, and again used the army and bureaucracy to rule Russia.

Wartime problems

When the WWI started, the imperial regime of Russia had more internal enemies than ever before in its history.

In 1914, Russia was not ready for battle, but they had to protect their “Slav brothers” in the Balkan Peninsula. Soldiers were being sent to battle with very poor equipment and organization; they trained with broom sticks (broom = escoba). Some of them did not even have a rifle; they were told to pick up the weapons of their dead friends. So, in the summer of 1915, Nicholas went to the front to give courage to his troops. But, when Nicholas got there, he realized that his soldiers had little respect left for their officers and the Tsar, maybe because of two and half years of defeat by Germans.

He left Tsarina Alexandra – his wife – to run the government. Alexandra had no experience and she decided not to listen to the advisors of the Royal Court; she trusted only in a self-described “holy man” called Rasputin, because Rasputin was the only one that could control the terrible disease of the little prince Alexei. He had hemophilia and the best doctors of Europe had not been able to help at least by easing the boy’s suffer.

People warned Alexandra that Rasputin was a greedy and corrupt man, but she refused to believe and allowed Rasputin to continue making government decisions. His enemies tried to kill him in many different ways, but Rasputin was incredibly strong. There were stories about him drinking a little bit of poison every day, so that when somebody tried to poison him, he would eat the food and nothing happened. Finally, in December of 1916, a group of nobles murdered Rasputin; they shot him three times and then tied him and threw his body to a river. People say that he had managed to untie the knots, but he could not survive without breathing underwater.

The March Revolution

In March, 1917, there started a strike of 10.000 women textile workers in the city of Petrograd, their slogans were “Peace and Bread” and “Down with Autocracy”, meaning that they wanted the war to finish and the king to stop ruling. After the rest of the citizens saw the strike, they supported it and soon all the city paralyzed, almost no one was working. During this march the people demanded for the food shortages and fuel shortages. People were tired of the new policy of the government because the bread’s price had increased a lot and it was rationed a few weeks before; so, many women that worked 12-hours in a factory, after leaving work, exhausted, had to go to the bread shop and stay in line in order to receive the bread. Czar/Tsar Nicholas was not in Russia, he was in the battlefront and when his wife, Tsarina Alexandra, wrote a letter to him telling about the situation, he was afraid for his family and gave the order to the troops to break up the crowds.

The tragic thing about this march was that the soldiers were given the order to shoot the people, but, this time the soldiers did not follow the orders; instead, they shot the officers and joined the people in the protest. Nobody had planned this revolution, it just happened, just like in 1905.

A week after this, the Czar/Tsar abdicated (= left the throne) and accepted the proposal of the Duma to leave a Provisional government in his place. The czar had no more the support of the army or the nobles, so he was left “alone”. In March 15, 1917, the Romanov dynasty ended after ruling Russia for 300 years.

****UNIT 1 **** Self-evaluation questions.

1) What were the effects of industrialization on the Czarist rule?

2) What were the causes of the revolution of 1905?

3) What was the outcome of the revolution of 1905?

4) What were the causes of the March Revolution?

5) What was the outcome of the March Revolution?

6) In what ways did WW1 help to almost bring the end of the Czarist regime?

7) What steps could Nicholas II have taken to prevent the March Revolution?

Russia under the Provisional government.

One of the biggest competitions that this government had was the Petrograd Soviet, a group of almost 3000 soldiers,

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