It could be said that the supposed revolution was a serious threat to Tsardom. This is because the outrage shown towards the government came from a broad spectrum of society, occupying the three main classes of Russia; the peasantry, the proletariat and the middle class. The motives behind the uprising would certainly warrant a revolution. Fear of eviction and anger at redemption payments (the peasantry), the desire to have political representation, a constituent assembly and civil rights (the middle class) and the condition in which the proletariat had to live. These, along with the demolition of the army in 1905 and the massacre of Bloody Sunday, portraying the Tsar’s incompetence, would be perfectly viable reasons for a revolution to take place.
‘The peoples of Russia were consistently repressed by their rulers.’ How far do you agree with this view of the period from 1855 to 1964? The act of subduing someone by force was present consistently throughout the Tsarist regime and the Communist regime. However, the level of which it was implored fluctuated with clear differences between the attitude of Alexander II and the attitude of Stalin. On the contrary some leaders took less effect on repressing the people of Russia such as Nikita Khrushchev. The most prominent form of repression would be towards the Peasants for they were targeted throughout the period.
Russia was still an autocratic state (the Tsar held completed political power). The reformist groups wanted to amend this so the Tsar had less power. The reformist groups also known as the radical parties all had various different ideas as to how they were going to go about reforming the country. They grew in numbers from 1881 and gained a lot of support from various different social groups. The Socialist Revolutionary Party wanted to completely abolish the Tsar’s power and give the peasants power to advance Russia.
He also introduced a system where there were quick military trials for suspected terrorists and if they were part of a group that were planning a rebellion. If found guilty, they were often publically hung, sentenced to death or sent to Siberia. A thousand newspapers ceased publication and six hundred trade unions were forced to close. But, he did improve the civil and human rights of the citizens which brought stability to the tsarist regime in the short term but not in the long term as the people of Russia will want more. Overall, there was some stability before 1914, but stability will decrease as the time goes closer to 1914.
Whereas the Bolsheviks rejected cooperation with other parties, and aimed to turn workers into revolutionaries as soon as possible. Populism started off with peaceful propaganda as its methods, however when this made little progress, they took on more violent means. The Social Revolutionaries used agitation and terrorism such as assassinations of government officials. The Black partition tried to create a movement amongst peasants. With so many different methods, it was easier for the Tsar to repress small scale revolutions and uprisings, than if they all got together.
This, along with collectivisation, was a turning point that made Russian economy one of the largest and fastest growing in the world at the time. As the abolition of the NEP meant a move towards Socialism, it would make sense that the agricultural policy would also change. Collectivisation was therefore pursued; it was the combining of all the farms in a region into one, state-controlled farm. This had the effect of pushing Russia forward in the ‘Communist’ direction as well as the more important consequence of increasing agricultural output in order to support the industrial growth. Generally, the agriculture production in this period saw a rise from the 74.5 million tonnes of grain harvested in 1913 (while Russia still operated under the Tsarist regime) to 97.1 million in 1940 [8] .
There were many factors in the survival of Tsarist rule from 1881 – 1905. The divisions among it's opponents played a part, as it meant that Tsarist opposition had no common goals, and couldn't work together to achieve it. The October Manifesto is another factor, it split up Nicholas' opposition even further by dividing the Liberals into two groups. Pobedonostsev & his repressive policies played a large part in the Survival of Tsarist autocracy, as he was able to keep the people down, not giving them enough ground to start a successful revolution. Lastly, Russia's backward society is one of the main reasons Nicholas II survived after 1905.
Many Russian intellectuals were rising up against the Tsar; they believed that the regime was oppressive and that European countries had more freedom and felt that many Russians lacked basic freedoms seen in other European nations. Even though the formation of political parties was illegal in Russia, these intellectuals started to form groups of people who shared a similar opinion. Some felt that change in Russia could only be achieved through revolution and the overthrowing of the Tsarist regime while others believed that changes needed to be made through reform and a gradual revolution. These opposition groups were known as the Liberals, the Populists and the Marxists. Firstly, the Liberals were made up of middle class Russians such as lawyers, doctors, and teachers and so on.
How far were divisions among its opponents responsible for the survival of the Tsarist rule in the years 1881-1905? The Labour movement essentially began in 1883 when it was emancipated by the established order; small political groups were tolerated. The Labour Party ,or ‘Social Democrats’ often used violent tactics, including the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, to revolt. The Social Democrat Party also opposed the autocratic system and wanted change but did not use as much violence as opposed to propaganda and campaigns. However, opposition to the Tsar became even more divided when Lenin and Martov split the Social Democrats party as Martov accused Lenin of becoming a dictator.
Tsar Nicholas II has faced a revolution in 1905 due to social discontent, however Tsarist rule has managed to survive because of several factors such as disunity of opponents, loyalty of troops and Tsar's concessions. Disunity of opponents against Tsar has played a significant role in the survival of Tsarist rule during 1905 revolution because it was easy for the government to divide the opposing groups and crush them one by one. The lack of coordination between the opposing groups meant that the strike involving 2.7 million strikers was not as effective as it could be when working together and being able to prevent transportation of troops. Therefore the strikes without leaders of Social Revolutionaries or Social Democrats, created chaos which added worry for the government but wasn't regarded as a major threat to the government as the groups did not fight effectively. This meant that the lack of leadership of the groups reduced effectiveness of the opponents as a whole enabling the government to be able to crush them one by one and so therefore survive.