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.
This made the government not original so the country could not benefit from it. Also political parties were banned so the government had little incentive to work to their potential as there is no competition. This relatively useless government made Russia unproductive and inefficient as there was little reform from their government. Following this most important point is the second most important factor of the 1905 Revolution which is the depression between 1899 and1903. The depression damaged Russia’s economy quite badly.
The effectiveness of these groups can be judged in terms of the outcomes of their actions. The first type of opposition to consider is opposition from groups within Russia. In the earlier years of Alexander II’s reign opposition to the Russian government existed within the peasantry. In between 1800-1861 there had been 1467 uprisings and in 1861 alone there were 400 instances of revolt amongst the peasantry. This basic form of opposition was never truly effective as their actions were simply put down by the government partly due to their failure to unite and lack of ideology and political demands.
There are many cases in which the Tsar’s position and the government’s position are genuinely threatened such as the mass demonstrations leading to many strikes which had the potential of economic failure. On the other hand there are also cases where they are not seriously threatened the mutinies of the armed services for example did not carry on after the war. The revolutionary’s aims had no intentions to threaten the position of the Tsar or his government however some people could argue that it did because of the misinterpretations of their demands. The Tsar and his government faced three main opponents the industrial workers, peasants and the reformist middle class. 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.
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.
To what extent was the lack of political representation the most significant cause of the 1905 revolution? There were a number of different causes that contributed to the start of the 1905 Russian revolution however some were more significant than others. One of the contributing factors was the lack of political representation due to the existence of an autocratic regime. Whilst this was an important factor, the most significant factors were the social and economical issues that caused unrest amongst the Russian population. The long-term policies of Russification imposed by the Tsar in the 1880s, caused a lot of political unrest within Russia and these contributed to the 1905 revolution.
After the 1905 revolution Russia was in need of reforms both economically and politically to allow it to maintain its role of a great power and to prevent another revolution occurring. The answer to this was the October Manifesto. However, due to the stubbornness of the Tsar, who was determined not to relinquish his autocratic powers, what may have appeared as reforms were largely superficial, making little change in particular to the Russian political system. Any law that the Lower House (the elected body) wanted to pass had to be agreed by the Upper House and then the Tsar, this meant that although it is giving the illusion that the people are picking their way of life and the rules in which they abide by, the Tsar still has complete control over them and therefore the extent to which they had undergone reforms was less than what it seemed to the naked eye. While the peasants began to see higher wages in the cities seeming positive it meant that many people moved causing an over-crowding in cities and 4/5 people were still peasants despite the wage increase.
Wilson fought very hard to ratify these points into the treaty of Versailles, but in the end, he could not do so. One main reason for this was the forces attacking him. However, some would argue that Wilson was the reason for this failure. He made a big mistake by not including any republican senators in the peace conference. He was not able to convince the republicans to accept this treaty because he did not include them in on it.
It was often the cases of self interest that these two nations resorted too. In Manchuria, Britain and France were unwilling to send their armies nor fleets, in Abyssinia, they did not close the Suez Canal , which could have stopped Mussolini's invasion and they did not ban important war materials such as coal, oil and steel. The USSR was the only country powerful enough to send troops to force the aggressors into accepting the League's wishes, but they weren't in the League. Without the USA, the League was permanently weakened. Had the USA been in the league, Japan wouldn't have conquered Manchuria and Mussolini would have backed off Abyssinia.
During this revolution, Lenin didn’t play any important role, however, just as well as the 1905 Revolution, he was using this experiences to make something more carefully planned. In the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin wrote and announced what is known as the April Thesis, in which he attacked Bolsheviks for supporting the Provisional Government. Lenin accused those Bolsheviks who were still supporting the Provisional Government of betraying socialism and suggested that they should leave the party. Some people took Lenin`s advice, arguing that any attempt at revolution was certainly going to fail and would lead to another repressive, authoritarian Russian government. Because of his April Theses, the October Revolution and the July Days would have never sparked up.