Introduction (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Introduction
Russia's backwardness in the early twentieth century
By the early twentieth century, Western Europe had experienced dramatic industrial and political transformation. New energy sources, expanding railway networks and growing international trade had raised living standards for many. Medical advances and public health improvements extended life expectancy. These economic changes brought social and political progress: literacy rates climbed, rigid social hierarchies weakened, and increasing numbers gained voting rights in parliamentary systems.
Russia, despite its status as a great power due to its enormous size and structured society, had fallen behind in every aspect of these developments. The most glaring example of this backwardness was serfdom - a system under which peasants at the bottom of the social hierarchy were owned by their landlords. This practice had disappeared from Western and Central Europe following a wave of revolutions in 1848, yet persisted in Russia until 1861. Even after emancipation in 1861, the civil rights and social status of former serfs remained heavily constrained by their origins, and this continued right through to 1917.
Russia's Vast Territory
The Russian Empire covered roughly 8 million square miles - twice the size of Europe and a sixth of the globe's surface. This vast territory had been acquired through military conquest and colonisation, much of it during the nineteenth century. However, large portions proved inhospitable, with over two thirds lying north of the 50th parallel, comprising tundra, forests and vast barren areas.
Russia's backwardness stemmed from several interconnected factors. Both the immense size and harsh climate placed severe constraints on economic development. The empire's diversity created additional challenges - within this vast land mass lived many different ethnic groups, each with its own culture, customs, language and, in some cases, religion.
Population Diversity
Of the total population of just under 185 million people by 1917, less than half was ethnically Russian. Approximately three quarters of the population lived within European Russia, to the west of the Urals, reflecting the geographical concentration of habitable and economically productive areas.
Industrial growth and its limits
Despite remaining predominantly agricultural, Russia experienced rapid industrialisation from the 1890s onwards. The annual industrial growth rate exceeded 8 per cent between 1894 and 1904, and again between 1908 and 1913 following a European trade recession. By 1917, Russia had become the world's fifth largest industrial power, trailing only Britain, the USA, Germany and France. The empire possessed approximately 25,000 factories employing around 3 million workers.
Growth proved particularly strong in coal, pig iron and oil production. Some cities, especially around Moscow and St Petersburg and in the Baku area by the Caspian Sea, experienced phenomenal expansion. The empire's urban population quadrupled from 7 to 28 million between 1867 and 1917. St Petersburg, which comprised just over a million inhabitants in 1900, grew to 2.4 million by 1916. Communications infrastructure, including roads and railways, also improved substantially, though the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 exposed continuing transport deficiencies.
The Social Costs of Industrial Progress
This industrial progress came with substantial social costs. It created a growing and frustrated middle class whose economic gains were not matched by corresponding political advancement. The urban working class suffered particularly harsh conditions:
- Enduring long hours and low pay
- Limited machinery to lighten their physical labour
- Unsafe factories and mines
- Cramped and dirty living quarters
- Factory barracks and lodgings shared between families
Although some efforts were made in the pre-war years to improve conditions through insurance schemes for those injured by machinery, the workers' situation remained grim. Trade unions were permitted after 1905, though strikes were theoretically forbidden. Nonetheless, strikes occurred regularly.
The Lena Goldfield Massacre (1912)
When goldminers working on the Lena River in Siberia went on strike in 1912, the government deployed troops who fired on the workers, killing 200 of them. Over 2000 strikes took place in 1913. Although their number fell back with the outbreak of war, by 1917 strikes had increased again, reflecting persistent industrial unrest.
Rural tensions and agrarian reform
The countryside also experienced changes, particularly after 1905 when peasants were given more opportunities to leave the mirs (communes) in which they farmed. New schemes were launched to encourage them to buy their own land and develop larger farming units. This proved an ambitious project, cut short by the coming of war in 1914.
By 1915, hereditary peasant ownership of land had increased from 20 per cent in 1905 to nearly 50 per cent. Additionally, 3.5 million peasants had been encouraged to move away from the overpopulated rural districts of the south and west to Siberia, which consequently grew as a major agricultural region.
Slow Progress in Agricultural Reform
Despite these changes, reforms proceeded slowly. By 1914 only around 10 per cent of peasant holdings had moved beyond the traditional and inefficient strip-farming system.
These industrial and agricultural changes produced a growing class of alienated, poor and landless peasants. Whilst some peasants rose in rank and became kulaks (small peasant proprietors with sufficient wealth to employ others to help work their farms), for every family that improved its status, another 'sold out', descended into deeper hardship and joined the wandering bands of those who drifted to the towns in search of work.
Until 1916, Russia had no form of income tax, so the burden of taxation fell heavily on the peasantry, producing periodic riots.
The tsarist autocratic system
Politically, change had been slow in coming. Until 1905, Russia remained the only country in Europe (except Turkey and Montenegro) without a parliament. Even in 1917, the empire was, in essence, an autocracy headed by a tsar who still regarded himself as possessing divine right to rule.
Key Political Concepts
Autocracy refers to rule by one person who had no limits to his power, as opposed to democracy, which means rule by the people.
Divine right refers to a monarch appointed by God and answerable to God alone for actions.
The Tsar was also the titular head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church was the Eastern Orthodox Church, with Moscow as its spiritual capital. It had its own beliefs and rituals, following a split in the Christian Church in the eleventh century. The land of Russia was considered the Tsar's private property, and the Russian people were his children. Church and State structures were thus entwined, with archbishops and bishops at the head of the church hierarchy subject to tsarist control over appointments, religious education, most of the Church's finances and issues of administration.
The Tsar ruled through imperial edicts, or ukase, and was advised by ministers whom the Tsar himself chose and who were unable to act without his approval. He also depended on the provincial nobility and imperial bureaucracy (the state's administrative officials), a highly stratified and conservative group riddled with internal corruption and incompetence. Russia possessed the world's largest army, which consisted of 6 million in 1914 and rose to a force of 12 million during the First World War.
Russia as a Police State
To maintain the autocracy, Russia had developed into a police state with curbs on freedom of speech, of the press and of travel. Censorship existed at every level of government and was carried out by the State and the Church as well as by the police.
The Okhrana (the secret police force of the Russian Empire, whose name comes from the initial letters in Russian of its full title – the Department for Protecting Public Security and Order) maintained strict surveillance over the population, ensuring that any subversive activities were exposed. Political meetings were forbidden and the Okhrana had unlimited powers to carry out arrest and ensure the imprisonment or exile of anyone suspected of anti-tsarist behaviour, sometimes merely on the word of an informer.
Critics and opposition before 1905
This autocratic system had not been without critics. These ranged from moderate liberals (drawn mainly from the professional middle classes) who had gained some influence over local government since 1864 when the zemstva were created (elected town councils or dumas from 1870), to more extreme socialists, many influenced by Marxism.
Understanding Opposition Terminology
Zemstva were elected councils responsible for the local administration of provincial districts.
Socialist refers to supporting a political and economic theory of social organisation which believes that the means of production (e.g. factories), distribution (e.g. railways), and exchange (e.g. what people eat), should be controlled by the whole community.
In 1905, disparate opposition groups had combined to pressurise the tsarist autocracy following defeat in war with Japan. Riots and strikes caused an almost total breakdown of control, forcing the Tsar to concede his 'October Manifesto'. This promised an elected representative assembly or State Duma, appeasing the more moderate Kadets (in favour of a constitutional monarchy) and Octobrists (who saw the Manifesto as the first step towards responsible government).
Constitutional monarchy refers to a form of democratic government in which a monarch acts as the head of state within the boundaries of a constitution giving real power to a representative assembly.
The 1905 revolution
In 1904 Russia went to war with Japan as the result of imperial rivalry in the Far East. Russia's catastrophic defeat sparked the 1905 revolution. However, the revolution was not a coordinated attack on the regime but a series of dramatic events that took place over several months.
These included 'Bloody Sunday' in January, which saw the massacre of workers peacefully marching to the Tsar's Winter Palace in the capital, plus innumerable strikes and mutinies. In several cities, including the capital, workers set up elected 'soviets' (the Russian word for council) and tried to assume control.
Opposition groups in detail
The Liberals
This is a loose name for those groups who favoured moderate reform and constitutional monarchy. Included among these were:
- The Constitutional Democrats (Kadets)
- The Octobrists
- The Progressives – a loose grouping of businessmen
- The Trudoviks – a non-revolutionary breakaway from the Social Revolutionary Party of moderate liberal views
The Social Revolutionaries (SRs)
The Social Revolutionary Party was formed in 1901, and evolved from groups that had tried to organise and improve the position of the peasantry from the 1860s. The movement had also tried to attract workers as industrialisation grew in the 1890s.
Internal Divisions within the SRs
The Party suffered from internal divisions. Extreme terrorist elements believed in political assassination but, from 1905, the moderate elements within the Party became more influential and gained support from some trade unions and members of the middle class. The Party always suffered from a lack of discipline and coordination; this limited its chance of realising its ambitions, which included land reform.
The Social Democrats (SDs)
The All-Russian Social Democrat Labour Party was founded in 1898. Its programme was based on the theories of Karl Marx. Led mainly by educated intellectuals, the Party based its support on the rapidly expanding industrial working class, the proletariat.
The 1903 Split
In 1903 the Party split, when Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) won a vote in favour of a strong disciplined organisation of professional revolutionaries against Julius Martov, who wanted a broad party with mass working class membership and favoured working through the trade unions to destroy the tsarist government. Lenin's 'Bolsheviks' and Martov's 'Mensheviks' spent much of their time before 1917 arguing with one another.
Key figure: Karl Marx
Karl Marx (1818–83) was a German Jew who wrote The Communist Manifesto with his friend Friedrich Engels in 1848. The first volume of his mammoth work, Das Kapital, was published in 1867 and subsequent volumes in 1885 and 1894. (The Communist Manifesto was translated into Russian in 1869, and the first volume of Das Kapital was published in Russia in 1872.) At the time of his writing, he believed that Britain and Western Europe had reached stage 4 of his 'stage theory' of history. He suggested that stages 5 and 6 must inevitably follow.
Marx believed that history was composed of a series of class struggles, driven by economic conditions:
Marx's Six Stages of History
- Stage 1 (hunter-gatherers): No classes or private property
- Stage 2 (imperialism): A strong man rose to the top and a new land-owning aristocracy was created
- Stage 3 (feudalism): Land was owned by the aristocracy who exploited the peasantry
- Stage 4 (capitalism): Merchants and the 'bourgeoisie' obtained political control and exploited the workers (proletariat)
- Stage 5 (socialism): The workers took control in a 'dictatorship of the proletariat', sharing food, goods and services according to need
- Stage 6 (communism): All would join together for the common good and money and states would no longer be needed. Wars and competition would cease
Key figure: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) (1870–1924) came from a well-to-do professional family and trained as a lawyer. He was attracted by Marxism and his activities brought him to the attention of the secret police. He was in exile in Siberia when the new Social Democrat Party was launched in 1898, but he wrote a programme for it.
After his release, he went into exile in Switzerland. In 1902, he produced the pamphlet, 'What is to be done?', in which he argued that the Party needed to re-direct the workers away from trade unionism towards a revolution that would destroy the tsarist autocracy. He founded a new revolutionary newspaper Iskra (Spark) and helped develop a strong underground Party network.
His uncompromising attitude led the Social Democrats to split in 1903 into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Lenin remained in exile until 1917, except for a brief return to St Petersburg in October 1905.
Key figure: Julius Martov
Julius Martov (1873–1920) came from a Jewish middle class background. He helped found the Emancipation of Labour and the Social Democrat movement. He contributed to the Party journal Iskra and was editor from 1903 to 1905, after breaking with Lenin when he led the 'Mensheviks'.
He favoured working through trade unions, cooperatives and soviets (workers' councils) to destroy the government. He was not invited to join the Bolshevik government after October 1917 and the Mensheviks were banned in 1918. Martov was exiled in 1920.
The period 1906–1917: limited reform and continuing tension
However, in April 1906, before the First Duma met in May, the Tsar issued the 'Fundamental Laws', reaffirming his autocracy. He made it clear that the State Duma had no control over state ministers or parts of the state budget. Furthermore, the Tsar's power to dissolve the Duma and rule by decree when it was not sitting undermined what had at first appeared a substantial change.
The Limits of the Duma
The four State Dumas that met between 1906 and 1917 offered a forum for debate about politics and legislation but were constantly muzzled by tsarist interference. Furthermore, they became the preserve of the liberal moderates and well-to-do, driving the more radical opposition to acts of terrorism including frequent political assassinations and subversion.
Although the most prominent radical leaders were forced into exile, there was an underlying restlessness and discontent among peasants and industrial workers. This was easily exploited by the radical groups and would rise to the surface with the disruptions caused by the coming of the First World War in 1914.
The Struggle Between Progress and Control
In the 50 years up to 1917 there was constant struggle between progress and control. The gains of industrialisation were offset by an escalation of workers' discontent created by over-rapid urbanisation, and the transition to a modern society brought only prominence to revolutionary movements which went even further than the moderate liberals in their criticisms of autocracy.
Successive governments were forced to choose between modernisation and maintaining political control over society in order to protect themselves, and the greater the concessions, the louder became the voices demanding more. This conundrum would remain a constant force in the development of Russia even after 1917.
Key chronology
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1905 | Jan | 'Bloody Sunday' massacre leads to revolutionary upheavals |
| Oct | The St Petersburg Soviet is formed; the Tsar's October Manifesto authorises elections to a State Duma | |
| 1906 | Apr | The Fundamental Laws reaffirm the autocracy |
| 1906–11 | A programme of agrarian reform is attempted | |
| 1906–15 | Four State Dumas meet but their influence is controlled | |
| 1912 | Lena Gold Fields Massacre – renewed industrial unrest | |
| 1914 | First World War begins |
Note on the Russian calendar
Understanding Russian Dates
The Russians used the Julian calendar until 31 January 1918, rather than the Gregorian calendar adopted by the rest of Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Consequently, by 1918, Russia was 13 days behind Western Europe.
Some books (including this one) use the old-style calendar, so that the two revolutions of 1917 are given as 23 February and 25 October. However, others use the 'modern' dating so that the first revolution took place on 8 March and the second on 7 November. Russia finally adopted the Gregorian calendar in February 1918. Dates after this are therefore the same as Western dates.
Key Points to Remember:
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Russia remained economically and politically backward compared to Western Europe in the early twentieth century, with serfdom persisting until 1861 and autocratic rule continuing until 1917.
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Despite rapid industrialisation from the 1890s (over 8% annual growth), Russia was still predominantly agricultural, and modernisation created severe social tensions among workers, peasants and the middle class.
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The tsarist autocratic system relied on divine right, the Orthodox Church, an extensive bureaucracy, and the Okhrana secret police to maintain control through censorship and repression.
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The 1905 Revolution, sparked by defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, led to the October Manifesto and creation of the State Duma, but the Tsar's Fundamental Laws (1906) reasserted autocratic power.
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Opposition groups included:
- The Liberals (Kadets, Octobrists) - favoured moderate reform and constitutional monarchy
- The Social Revolutionaries - focused on peasant land reform but suffered from internal divisions
- The Social Democrats - split in 1903 into Lenin's Bolsheviks and Martov's Mensheviks based on different revolutionary strategies