Prior to the “five year plans”, Russia had mostly a peasant farming economy. The 1750 to 1914 period in Russia was met by a large increase in the available labor force. Coupled with an increase in population, Russia's emancipation of the serfs freed many of Russia's serfdom from perpetual slavery. However, the emancipation process was planned so as to put the freed serfs deeply in debt to the original owners of the land. In fact, many of the serfs were so deeply indebted that they relocated to Russia's cities in search of better work opportunities.
It is also suggested that the Russian society in the beginning of the 20th century provided the working class people yet another reason for revolution as the gap between the aristocracy and the peasants was vast in terms of wealth. By 1905 there was a considerable amount of public anger against the war and arguably led to revolution, however the Tsars response to the revolution of 1905 showed weakness and provided more motivation to the revolutionaries. An overall significant factor to Russia being ripe for revolution was that the Tsarist regime between 1906- 14 showed the stresses and strains and provided mixed feelings towards revolution. The weakness of Tsar Nicholas II was an important factor in the Russian desire for revolution. When Nicholas’ father, Alexander III died unexpectedly, Nicholas was ill prepared for the role of Tsar as Alexander was a domineering man making Nicholas a shy and withdrawn man.
1/3 of all Russian babies died before their first birthday. Russia was flailing WWI, unemployment was high – a classic formula for dissent. The partial industrialization of Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which created an urban working class in places like St. Petersburg and Moscow that could organize against its exploitation through unions and workers councils (known as 'the soviets'). This enabled the workers to work together much more effectively against their bosses than the scattered, isolated, and thus largely de-politicized peasantry. The cities were also connected via trade and communication to the outside world, where intellectuals and workers alike had access to revolutionary ideas from Western Europe such as Marxism.
Strikes by workers crippled some parts of the nation when the grain and livestock couldn’t reach the market place. Factories shut down due to lack of coal to power them. Unions that went on strike used violence as their way of protest, and federal troops had to be called in to quite the violence. At this time in history, the citizens were supporting the unions even if they were young in their infancy. However with all the riots and violence, they lost the support of the public In 1890, law after law was passed in the Republican Congress, massive spending towards grants and appropriations.
Therefore this large influence was causing the SPD’s to grow considerably in the Reichstag, consuming the majority of seats in the parliament. Therefore the Reichstag was in left-wing position. This posed a threat to the right-wing position that the government was currently in. Therefore this implies political parties were becoming more influential in the parliament as the Kaiser could not overlook such a dominant party in the Reichstag. However it could be argued that Wilhelm II’s aims to crush socialism in response to Caprivi’s tolerance for Socialism in his years as chancellor disagree with this view as it suggests he is aiming for more of an autocratic state where he holds state control.
Since the serf population had gotten ridiculously low, plantation owners were forced to start paying workers to tend the farms. (Gottfreid, pg. 55) The same effect was applied to factories, and the wages rose in attempt to get more workers. The poor were moving into deserted houses, and many began to live better. On farms that had become vacant, peasants took ownership and started making more money.
Following the Auxiliary Service Law in December 1919, which required all able-bodied Germans to work for the war effort, there was a sharp increase of social unrest as Germans felt their rights being curtailed. The winter of 1916-17 was the peak of discontent as the severe food and fuel shortages were at their worst. Civilian deaths from starvation and hypothermia increased from 121,000 in 1916 to 293,000 in 1918 and infant mortality increased by over 50% over the duration of the war. This led to huge resentment among Germans as they questioned the injustice of the loss of lives. 16% of the 1.8million who died at war were conscripted and all families were somehow impacted by the war, which consequently led to a decline in the popularity of the Royal Family.
Extended Response 1 At the turn of the year 1905 Russia was in a state of social, political and economic turmoil. The entire system, political, social and economic was manufactured by the ruling classes to support their own privileges. Russia’s economy was imbalanced to the extent that the majority of the country lived in poverty while the Romanov’s and the Orthodox church controlled a vast fortune. In Russian society, human rights and personal freedoms for citizens didn’t exist. Instead, the Romanov’s had created a police state where capital punishment and discrimination were tolerated and even encouraged by the government so, not surprisingly, many Russians feared the absolute power of the Romanov dynasty.
The Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution Why did it happen? The Russian Revolution was due to the culmination of repression and unrest over a great period of time. In the late 19th/ early 20th century Russia was an enormous empire home to over 170 million people of many different cultures, languages and religions, stretching from the Pacific to Poland. It was difficult ruling such a massive state and the complications within Russia caused a revolution which swept the old system away. A variety of long term and short term factors caused this revolution.
“BLOODY SUNDAY WAS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CAUSES OF THE 1905 REVOLUTION” To what extent do you agree? Although Bloody Sunday marked the breakdown of the Tsar and autocratic government, there were many other long and short term causes that provided the build up of tension and ultimately led to the revolution of 1905; Bloody Sunday was the final straw for the peasants and the other groups in Russian life, rather than a key cause. The most significant causes were mostly long term. Firstly, there was the terrible work and living conditions of the peasants, alongside the low wages they received. The lack of usable land in Russia and the subdivison of land between families both resulted in an incredibly low income, especially for larger families.