The areas to investigate include political, economic, social and military reforms from the Russian government in order to see if they are ‘reluctant reformers’ or not. Socially, Alexander II introduced arguably the most radical reform in 1861 by emancipating the serfs and granting peasants freedom. This is by far the reform that affected the population most widely in the period – by granting this, peasants were allowed to own themselves in body and soul and could dictate their own lives as far as they could. Class bias was reduced and education was given more widely across Russia, regardless of social standing. This certainly fights against the view that Alexander II was reluctant in his reforms on the surface – however, once investigated, the limits of emancipation are clear.
* Lost terriorty in Poland & Western Russia – PG were blamed for losses just like the Tsar was when took charge. * War made finical problems – Inflation still a problem and food shortages were high. * Russia expected these things to be stored out – PG short-lived because they were full of empty promises. Promised land reform to the peasants ( made up a large amount of the population , Bolshevik priority was to keep them on their side) no action was taken * Couldn’t guarantee food supplies as because soviet controlled the railways. * Political reform also promised political reform in an attempt to stop the revolutionaries but no action was taken.
The fact that peasantry took part in the 1905 revolution (also known as Bloody Sunday)shows that the suspicions of the peasants changing were true and to the Tsar and his government this could have appeared to be a threat because they always feared peasantry development, the Tsar and the Empress especially. However the peasants had not planned to overthrow the Tsar as they supported Tsardom, they only demanded for some changes that would reduce the working hours to 8 hours per day, allow workers to earn minimum wage of a rouble a day and to abolish overtime. From a point of view these demands would seem to be reasonable but to the soldiers these were perverse. When the 200,000 petitioners were instructed to retreat but didn’t because of the amount of people, the soldiers took it as if they were not cooperating and decided to open fire at the peaceful demonstrators. The reason why the soldiers were at liberty to shoot the demonstrators was because the Tsar was not present at the mass demonstration because after he was informed about the potential revolution the Tsar quickly decided to leave St Petersburg with his family to avoid trouble 15 miles away in Tsarkoe Selo.
How successfully did Alexander II deal with the opposition he faced, 1855-1881? Alexander II had opposition during the years 1855-1881 as his reforms had raised hope of the intelligentsia, who wanted further modernisation specifically a constitution and as he failed to deliver they were all disillusioned and angry. Secondly he abandoned his reforms in 1866 which led to more extreme opposition. I feel Alexander II was successful in dealing with opposition as he had support from the serfs which I feel was the most successful way to deal with opposition. The emancipation of the serfs appeared to have strengthened the loyalty of most peasants to the tsarist regime leading the peasants to greet the Populists with hostility due to their loyalty to the tsar.
This clash of aims created trouble for the government, as in April 1917 demonstrations in Petrograd began to stop the war. The Provisional Government had unknowingly placed themselves as the nations target, not giving in to Russia’s most crucial demand, to get out of the war. This made it easier for political opposition, such as the Bolsheviks, who told the people they would give them what they wanted, ‘peace, bread and land’, to rise
For example this caused divide within the populists leading to the formation of the Land and Liberty (1876) and the Black Repartition and the radical terrorist group People’s Will (1879). Eventually the Social Revolutionaries formed (1901) they believed that Russia’s future lay with the peasantry and so they wanted to give peasants their own land and improve living conditions for working classes. They used tactics such as terrorism and assassinations. However, the Liberals (Octobrists and Kadets- 1905), who also wanted to establish some sort of democracy did not
This would lead to the army losing their faith in the Tsar which was extremely vital, for as long as the army remained loyal to the him, they were able to put down any threat of revolution however, the poor conditions eventually led to them refusing to fire upon rioters. For these reasons, the First World War contributed majorly to the downfall of Imperial Russia. After his downfall, the War became increasingly unpopular. Popular demands for peace were growing intense, especially within the army. The Provisional Government attempted to regain the support of both the Russian
The November Revolution 1917 G.C.S.E Sources 1. The three points made by Lenin in April 1917 were attractive to many Russian people because the first point was that, the people wanted the war to end, as clearly Russia was losing, there was plenty of shortages, also shortages of land, and all of the disadvantages were already proven by the March Revolution so, the people and the government knew what was going to happen, so they should have ended it early. The second point was that, the land should be given to the peasants; the people were attracted to this point because, the main population of Russia was the peasants, the peasants were demanding for land in the March revolution, but they weren’t heard. As a result of this, the Peasants were grabbing land because the government didn’t give them the land they requested. The third was that the soviets should take power; the people were attracted to this point because, Lenin was a member of the soviet party, the Russian people were attracted to the soviets as they liked the points they made and also the Soviets were already popular so this means that the people were already supporting the Soviets.
There were many short and long term effects of the Russian revolution. Firstly the short term effects following the Russian revolution were that Lenin hoped the constituent assembly (parliament) would show the rest of Russia how good the Bolsheviks could be for the Russian nation and how popular their leadership was. However they only gained 161 seats, compared to the social revolutionaries who won 267 seats. Obviously the Bolsheviks had become popular in Petrograd, but beyond the capital the population hadn’t been more in favour of the social revolutionaries and hadn’t been convinced by Lenin’s promise yet. In reaction to this, he shut down the assembly in order to keep power for himself.
However, Lenin had accepted that this was due to the slogan which he had adopted which was ‘Land to the Peasants.’ The ‘Decree on Workers’ Control’:- During 1917, there were a large number of factories which had been taken over by the workers. The decree accepted the takeover of the workers but did also instruct the workers committees to maintain ‘the strictest order and discipline’ within the workplace. Vesenkha:- Body to oversee economic development Creation of the Cheka, 1917:- Lenin was determined to impose absolute Bolshevik rule by suppressing of all political opposition. The October coup of the Cheka enables the Bolsheviks to deal with their opponents. Attitudes amongst Bolsheviks towards the war:- Some wanted the continuation of a revolutionary war against Germany whereas on the other hand, other people wanted an immediate peace to lessen the strains that were upon Russia.