The Russian Revolution - Concepts - Chapter 2 Class 9 History - Socialism in Europe & Russian Revolution - History

• In one of the least industrialised European states , this situation was reversed .
• Socialists took over the government in Russia through the October Revolution of 1917 . The fall of the monarchy in February 1917 and the events of October are normally called the Russian Revolution .

The Russian Empire in 1914

• The above map shows Europe and the Russian empire in 1914 and how the powers and alliances were divided among the empires .

• Tsar Nicholas II governed Russia and its empire in 1914 .
• The Russian Empire also covered portions of modern-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and sections of Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus in addition to the region surrounding Moscow.
• It extended to the Pacific and included the modern-day nations of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan , as well as the Central Asian states.
• Russian Orthodox Christianity , which originated in the Greek Orthodox Church, predominated in the empire, although there were also Muslims , Buddhists , Protestants , and Catholics living there.

Economy and Society

• At the beginning of the twentieth century, the vast majority of Russia’s population were agriculturists . 
• Russia was a major exporter of grain because about 85 per cent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from agriculture.
• This ratio was higher than in the majority of European nations.
• For instance, the percentage ranged from 40% to 50% in France and Germany .
• In the empire, cultivators produced for the market as well as for their own needs .
• The industry was found in pockets .
• Prominent industrial areas were St Petersburg and Moscow .
• There were large factories alongside craft workshops , but most of the production was performed by craftsmen.
• When Russia's railway system was expanded and foreign investment in industry rose in the 1890s, many factories were built.
• Production of iron and steel quadrupled while coal production doubled .
• In some places, factory workers and artisans were nearly equal in number by the 1900s .

• Most industries were the private property of industrialists . 
• In order to assure minimum pay and set workday restrictions , the government oversaw huge factories .
• But factory inspectors could not prevent rules from being broken . 
• The average workday in craft units and small workshops was 15 hours , as opposed to 10 or 12 hours in factories.
• Accommodation varied from rooms to dormitories .
• Workers were a divided social group. 
• Some have close ties to the villages they came from.
• Workers were divided by skill . A metalworker of St. Petersburg recalled, ‘ Metalworkers considered themselves aristocrats among other workers. Their occupations demanded more training and skill . . . ’ 
• By 1914 , women made up 31% of the workforce in factories , although they were paid less than men (between 50% and 75% of a man's income).
• Workplace divisions were also evident in how people behaved and dressed .
• Some workers formed associations to help members in times of unemployment or financial hardship but such associations were few.
• Workers did come together to strike (stop work) when they disagreed with bosses about layoffs or working conditions , despite their differences .
• These strikes were widespread in the metal sector in 1902 and the textile industry from 1896–1997 .

• In the countryside, peasants cultivated most of the land but the nobility , the crown and the Orthodox Church owned large properties.
• Like workers , peasants too were divided . They were also deeply religious . 
• However, except for a few instances, they showed no respect for the nobles .
• In contrast to France , where peasants revered nobles and fought for them throughout the French Revolution , in Brittany , peasants did not.
• In the Russian empire, nobles got their power and position through their services to the Tsar and not through local popularity .
• Peasants in Russia demanded that the land of the nobles be given to them .
• They frequently eschewed paying rent and even killed landlords .
• This happened extensively in south Russia in 1902 , and similar instances happened all over Russia in 1905 .
• Russian peasants were different from European peasants in another way.
• Periodically, they combined their land , and their commune (mir) divided it up according to the requirements of various households .

Socialism in Russia

• Before 1914 , all political parties were illegal in Russia . 
• Socialists who valued Marx's ideas created the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party in 1898 .
• It had to operate as an illegal organisation because of government policing . It established a newspaper , organised strikes, and rallied the workforce .

• Some Russian socialists felt that the Russian peasant custom of dividing land periodically made them natural socialists .
• Russia could transition to socialism more swiftly than other nations because peasants, not workers , would be the driving force behind the revolution .
• In the late nineteenth century, socialists were active in rural areas .
• They formed the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1900 .
• This party struggled for peasants’ rights and demanded that land belonging to nobles be transferred to peasants .
• Social Democrats disagreed with Socialist Revolutionaries about peasants . 
• Lenin believed that the peasantry was not a cohesive entity .
• Some were poor and others rich , some worked as labourers while others were capitalists who employed workers . 
• Given their internal " differentiation ," they could not all be associated with a socialist movement .
• Over the organization's strategy , the party was split .
• The leader of the Bolshevik movement , Vladimir Lenin , believed that in a society as oppressive as Tsarist Russia , the party needed to maintain discipline and keep tabs on the calibre and quantity of its members .
• Others ( Mensheviks ) thought that the party should be open to all (as in Germany )

A Turbulent Time: The 1905 Revolution

• Russia was an autocracy .
• Even at the beginning of the twentieth century unlike other European rulers, the Tsar was not subject to parliament .
• In Russia, liberals conducted campaigns to change the situation.
• During the revolution of 1905 , they collaborated with workers and peasants to push for a constitution alongside the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries .
• They were supported in the empire by nationalists (in Poland ) and in Muslim-dominated areas by jadidists who wanted modernised Islam to lead their societies .
• The year 1904 was a particularly bad one for Russian workers because the prices of essential goods rose so quickly that real wages declined by 20 per cent .  
• The membership of workers’ associations rose dramatically.
• There was a call for industrial action after the Putilov Iron Works fired four members of the Assembly of Russian Workers , which was established in 1904 .
• Over the next few days, over 110,000 workers in St Petersburg went on strike demanding a reduction in the working day to eight hours , an increase in wages and an improvement in working conditions . 
• The police and the Cossacks attacked the workers' procession that was being led by Father Gapon as it approached the Winter Palace .
• Bloody Sunday , the incident, was the beginning of a chain of occasions that became known as the 1905 Revolution .
• Universities closed down as a result of nationwide strikes and student walkouts protesting the erosion of civil liberties .
• Union of Unions were established by lawyers , doctors , engineers and other middle-class workers and demanded a constituent assembly .
• During the 1905 Revolution , the Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma .
• For a brief while during the revolution , there existed a large number of trade unions and factory committees made up of factory workers . 
• Since they were deemed unlawful after 1905 , the majority of committees and unions operated in an unofficial capacity .
• Severe restrictions were placed on political activity . 
• The first Duma was dismissed by The Tsar within 75 days and the second Duma was re-elected within three months .
• The Tsar did not want his authority to be questioned or his power to be diminished .
• He changed the voting laws and packed the third Duma with conservative politicians .
• Liberals and revolutionaries were kept out.

The First World War and the Russian Empire

• Two European alliances, France, Britain, and Russia (later Italy and Romania ) , and Germany, Austria, and Turkey ( the Central powers ), went to war in 1914 .
• Each country had a global empire and the war was fought outside Europe as well as in Europe . 
• This was the First World War .
• At first, the war in Russia was well-liked , and the populace supported Tsar Nicholas II .
• As the war continued, though, the Tsar refused to consult the main parties in the Duma . Support wore thin.
• The renaming of St. Petersburg , which had a German name , as Petrograd demonstrates how strongly anti-German feelings were prevalent.
• Tsarina Alexandra’s German origins and poor advisers , especially a monk called Rasputin , made the autocracy unpopular. 
• The First World War on the ‘eastern front’ differed from that on the ‘western front’.  
• Armies battled in trenches that ran the length of eastern France in the west .
• Armies engaged in heavy casualty fighting and movement in the east .
• Defeats were shocking and demoralising . 
• From 1914 through 1916 , Russia's soldiers suffered heavy defeats in Germany and Austria.
• There were over 7 million casualties by 1917 . 
• To stop the enemy from subsisting off the land, the Russian army burned dwellings and fields as they withdrew .
• The destruction of crops and buildings led to over 3 million refugees in Russia. 
• The situation discredited the government and the Tsar. 
• Such a war was not what the soldiers wanted .
• The industry was severely impacted by the war as well.
• Russia’s industries were already few and the country was cut off from other suppliers of industrial goods by German control of the Baltic Sea . 
• Russia experienced a faster rate of industrial equipment decay than the rest of Europe.
• By 1916 , railway lines began to break down . Able-bodied men were called up to the war.  
• As a result, there were labour shortages and small workshops producing essentials were shut down . 
• Grain in large quantities was sent to feed the army .
• For the people in the cities, bread and flour became scarce . 
• Winter of 1916 saw a rise in the frequency of disturbances at bakeries.