Why Was There A Revolution In 1905 The Revolution in 1905 happened for many reasons, some reasons are long term and some short term. A long-term cause of the 1905 Revolution was the continuing dissatisfaction of both peasants and landowners to the Emancipation Edict of 1861. Although this piece of legislation had brought an end to serfdom, peasants still remained tied to the village commune called the mir and were angry at the redemption payments they were expected to pay in return for the land they had received. They believed more, and better quality, land should have been given to them at no cost. Their anger was made evident during the peasant disturbances of 1902.
Not only was it the population of the Russian empire that turned against the Tsars, but the Army too. They were many revolts in the countryside; of which were suppressed by the army. This caused problems as the army was mainly structured of peasants. This meant mutinies were to come into play – 200 from October to December. In addition to this, troops within the far-East wanted deployment as they disagreed with the rules after the Manifesto.
Not all peasants were loyal or religious as many supported the opposition, the Social Revolutionaries. Their main discontent was over land - they resented the amount of land owned by the aristocracy, the Church and the Tsar. They also hated the conditions they had to live in and work. An example of their horrible conditions was that the life expectancy for an average peasant farmer was only forty years old. Most of the peasants wanted change and the way they could do was to get the Tsar out and they could achieve that through the Social Revolutionaries and other opposition parties.
Chapter 6: “The Peasants Purges” This chapter is about how Joseph turns the country to collectivization system. A. Millions were kicked off their farms. B. His wife was angry with him because he was treating the peasant farmers wrong.
Agriculture in Russia was far behind other great powers and peasants were suffering greatly through the repeated famines in 1902 and 1905. Sergei Witte had done nothing to improve agriculture only focusing on the economy of Russia. This led to subsistence agriculture. Grain was being exported and there wasn’t enough for the peasants. This also meant that the land was not used to it full potential, all these factors lead to the famines and causing peasants to up rise using violence against government officials.
For example, they did not work to their full ability, and sabotaged themselves, by burning down their own crops and slaughtering livestock in acts of strong resistance to the collectivisation scheme. Peasants even went to the extremes of eating their own livestock. For example, as quoted from Sholokov's, 'Virgin Soil Upturned' book, peasants 'suffered from greasy mouths' and both the 'young and old suffered from indigestion'. Peasants did this with the hope it would prevent their livestock being handed over to the collective, but this was a short term thought, as it ultimately prevented reproduction. However, it is a good example in demonstrating the extremes
This was sometimes called ‘Revolution from above. During the years 1928 to 1941 Stalin decided to introduce a series of reforms in order to radically change Russia’s economy. This would not only create a more prosperous country, but as well would stand out the figure of Stalin and would make him a memorable leader for his acts, moving of the way the image people had of Lenin as the real and unique leader Russia once had. During these years, through collectivisation and industrialisation (Five Year Plans), Stalin was able o successfully improve Russia’s economy. This was mostly due to his policies of collectivisation which made economic sense and forced a lot of peasants to leave the land, which was a process needed in order to change an agricultural rural society to an urban and industrial one as well s the fact that his industrialisation plan increased massively the heavy industry in Russia; the production of raw materials such as iron, coal, steel and oil all increased successfully.
Alexander was hopelessly out of touch with the emerging realities of a modern Russia. For example, agriculture was exploited as a source of export earnings; this helped cause a series of famines, especially in 1891. This made him hugely unpopular as he took grain from the people in an attempt to make money and improve the economy. Due to his slow intelligence and lack of experience, Alexander forgot the fundamental rule of keeping his people happy and instead chose to supress them. He did not realise that, following Alexander II’s emancipation of the serfs in 1861, he could not return to a state of rigid autocracy when the serfs had already had some freedom.
How important was the role of Lenin compared to the failures of the Provisional Government in bringing about the October revolution? After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917, the Provisional Government (PG) took control of Petrograd, and led the country how they thought it should be led. Their main policy was to maintain Russia in fighting in the war; this was not a favoured idea with the PG followers. Although, they promised to stop the food shortage and to give peasants land which was what everyone wanted. This was one of the main reasons why they gained many followers during the period of the Tsars abdication.
As for the Dumas, they could not pass laws, could not appoint ministers and could not control finance. The first two Dumas were radical and demanded more power and rights for peasants, this may seem like a good thing but these Dumas were both dissolved by the Tsar for being too radical. Stolypin may have helped many peasants buy land and improve farming but he also had a reputation for being particularly tough. He set up many military courts where people could be sentenced and hung on the spot. In fact, the hangman’s noose became known as Stolypin’s necktie.