Russia, 1905 to 1914

In the Modern World History book, read pages 339 to 342 (stop at d).

1. How did Tsar Nicholas II survive the 1905 Revolution?
He survived because his opponents were not unified. There was no central leadership, he had been willing to compromise at the critical moment by issuing the October Manifesto, promising concessions, and most of the army remained loyal.

2. What was the Tsar's general attitude about the Dumas?
The Tsar did not like the Dumas. He had the first Duma dispersed by troops after ten weeks. He did the same thing with the second Duma. The third Duma lasted longer because it was much more conservative.

3. What specifics improvements occcured following the 1905 Revolution?
There were improvements in industrial working conditions and pay. There were cancellation of redemption payments, which were annual payments to the government of serfdom in 1861, although peasants had received their legal freedom, these payments had reduced over half the rural population to dire poverty. There was more freedom of the press. Also there was genuine democracy in which the Duma would play an important part in running the country.

4. Summarize the 5 major weaknesses of the Tsar's regime.
1) Failure of the land reforms-growing peasant population who were forced to buy land, and inefficient farming methods couldn't support the growing populations

2) Industrial unrest-a wave of industrial strikes, the previous improvements didn't fully remove pre-1905 problems

3) Government repression-the secret police rooted out revolutionaries, the government made the mistake of alienating the three most important sections in society (peasants, industrial workers, and the educated class).

4) Revival of the revolutionary parties-separated into Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and the Mensheviks. Bolsheviks wanted a small disciplined party of professional revolutionaries who would work full time to bring about a revolution and include peasants. The Mensheviks had little faith in the cooperation of the peasants and wanted to wait until the country was fully industrialized to revolt.

5) The royal family discredited-there were many scandals about murders and Rasputin (who had affairs with court ladies and did hypnosis on Alexie to help his hemophelia).