Preview

How Is the Outbreak of the 1905 Revolution Best Explained?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1173 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Is the Outbreak of the 1905 Revolution Best Explained?
How is the outbreak of the 1905 revolution best explained?
There are many ways to explain the outbreak of the 1905 revolution, as many factors contributed towards it. The most important and significant factor was the different attitudes towards the government at the time. Attitudes varied from moderate to ones of a violent and extreme nature. Without the range of varying attitudes towards the tsarist system, there would have been no opposition facing the state.
The 1905 revolution was very significant. Opposition towards the tsarist system dated back decades; however people in Russia were getting noticeably more and more dissatisfied with their lives and the way their country was run, as Russia started to modernise. The 1905 revolution was the first time that tsar faced a direct challenge from all three major classes, the peasants, the proletariat and the intelligentsia and bourgeois, at once.
The peasants made up the bulk of Russia’s population, of whom Tsar Nicholas II had little understanding of. The peasants were severely poor and in debt from the mortgages they were forced to take out after their emancipation in 1861. One of the peasant’s main motives behind their involvement in the 1905 revolution was fear that the government would repossess their homes, as they had fallen behind on their mortgage repayments during economic decline. The peasants wanted reform, and were fed up with paying fees to their landlords etc. These circumstances shaped the majority’s opinions of the tsar and his government, who believed that the tsar was incompetent. However, these views had been held for a long time. The peasants became more dissatisfied with the state as policies were set up in order to speed up Russia’s modernisation.
Sergei Witte’s industrialisation policies played a big role in increasing opposition towards the government, mainly within the peasants and the proletariat. Witte’s intentions were to raise the capital needed to fund industry and the building of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Witte’s aim was to make the Russian economy strong enough to maintain Russia’s position as a Great Power. However, Russia did not possess several of the essential factors required to be able to rapidly industrialise like countries such as Germany and Britain were. Firstly, the majority of Russian peasant did not have complete freedom, which meant that the migration of workers to towns and cities in search of work was limited. Also, the Russian economy didn’t have sufficient funds to invest in industrial development, because it could not produce enough surplus grain to raise funding to support industrial development. To combat this, Witte encouraged other countries such as Belgium, France and…

    • 1583 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another factor that was responsible for the survival of the Tsarist rule was the reluctance of the Peasantry to support opposition. The Peasants were extremely uneducated and they didn’t understand how these policies could change their lives. The Tsar had been the political power since the 13th century so it was all that they knew. They believed that the Tsar was appointed by god so whatever he did, they believed it was for the best. They were fearful that if they joined an opposition group the Tsar would be able to ‘see’ them and…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout this time period the ruling elite, who made up 1.1% of the population despite owning 25% of the land, maintained constant support of the Tsar. This support was based on reliance in the Tsars rule in order to ensure their own aristocracy. The nobles controlled the land Therefore through the nobility’s control of land and as a result the means of production, the Tsar had autocratic power over the majority who worked this land; the peasants, both of state (32.7%) and through the nobility 50.7% as despite the emancipation of serfs in 1861 the lives of these peasants were heavily restricted and reliant on the land owners through the Mir, censorship, tax and redemption payments, of which many could not pay for and so were forced into debt. the peasants themselves, being both restricted in the Mir and due to their traditional attitudes and acceptance of social situation, what Marx would call a lack of revolutionary consciousness, can be attributed to the Tsarist survival.…

    • 2563 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Witte made it easier for foreigners to invest in Russian Industrial Ventures; he also borrowed to fund public works and infrastructures such as new railways, telegraph lines and electrical plants. Witte's help helped the Russians improve really quickly, in just a span of twenty years (1880-1900) he made half of Russia's heavy industry to be owned. With the railway's system, he made they were able to transport into remote parts of the empire, which helped with the construction and operation of factories, mines, dams and other projects. The development was so rapid that the historian Alexander Gerschenkron nicknamed it "the great…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the years 1906 – 1914, Peter Stolypin was pushing to de – revolutionise the peasantry and put into place economic reform, and there is evidence of this working. During these years large amounts of agricultural reform were set in motion. In 1906 45.9 million tonnes of agricultural production was produced, by 1913 this had grown significantly to 61.7 million tonnes. The massive change in the amount of product shows that agricultural and therefore economic reform had taken place. Farmers, at this time, had also started paying higher taxes, which is sign of higher income, again strengthening this idea of economic reform occurring. Stolypin, however successful he was in his endeavours, was pushing fiercely for a more independent and de-revolutionised peasantry. During November 1906, huge action was taken to change the way the peasants lived. They were freed from the constraints of commune control and land banks were set up to give money to those peasants who chose to leave. Many were also encouraged to move to Siberia, all of these reforms were starting to lay a foundation for a more independent peasantry. Economic reform was being pursued desperately by members of the government such as Stolypin, this can been seen by the copious amount of law, for example peasants leaving commune control, being put into place. The fact these laws were coming about shows that Russia was undergoing economic reform to some extent during this period, whether it was successful or not.…

    • 1040 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Witte becoming finance minister towards the end of his reign the industrial revolution in Russia far from modernised it. The workers suffered appallingly with poor working conditions, therefore it made them very discontented, and were easily converted to socialism. The growth of extremist middle class and the discontented peasants which became more and more inclined to the preaching of the intellectuals for rebellion. With his repressive policies and actions, and lack of modernisation he ultimately paved his own way to the grave of his own regime…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    What was the centerpiece of Sergei Witte’s Russian industrial policy? AND which of the following statements is true about the working conditions of the growing Russian industrial class in St. Petersburg and Moscow? (p. 889, 890)…

    • 3293 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were a number of reformist groups from 1881. Key examples of these were groups such as the Kadets, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. All three of these groups had slightly different aims. But all of them wanted something in common and that was change in Russia. Therefore as we clearly see reformist parties did put a large amount of pressure on Russia and on the Tsarist government. But on the other hand there were a number of other important factors that I believe where largely involved in causing the 1905 revolution. The factors I intend to include are: The large amount of social and economic problems, the Russo- Japanese war and bloody Sunday as I believe these were also key causes of the 1905 revolutions.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Under many aspects it is arguable that the 1905 Revolution and the March 1917 Revolution in Russia were very similar. Both years found the country still struggling from a war (one bringing humiliation and the other incomprehension and outrage); both found hostility from the streets directed against perceived governmental incompetence. Yet something had changed from 1905 to 1917 for Tsarism not to be able to survive the second revolution like it did the first. The reasons are to be researched in the impact that World War 1 had on the country, the October Manifesto issued by Nicholas II on 1905, and the loyalty that the population and the Armed Forces were not willing to give the Tsar anymore.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Tsarist Autocracy

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Due to Nicholas II’s failure to accomplish the citizen’s goals and to negotiate with them, the Russian Revolution began. Peasants struggled…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    With many social and political changes occurring during the 1800's, the Russian Intelligentsia's view on the peasantry also saw a shift. Recent emancipations in the country saw millions of former serfs and farmers with newfound rights and statuses but also saw exposed many faults in current labor practices and corruption within the bureaucratic levels of the Russian state. The current nobility took it upon themselves to decide how they handle the new working class problems and restructuring of the social hierarchy among themselves and the peasants without putting too much harm on their own social standings. While many of the nobility held the staunch belief that peasantry was incapable of life beyond simple farming, some believed to be rational…

    • 1452 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Peasants in Russia

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the time of Alexander II, the urban working classes hardly existed so there could not be poor conditions for peasantry generally. In freeing the serfs, however, there was a side effect. Serfs fled to the towns and cities looking for work in factories, leading to urbanisation which caused public health problems such as the spread of cholera. In this way, Alexander II carried out a reform that did not help the working class and in turn created poor living conditions for the peasantry. His father, however, showed more interest in developing Russia’s industry which created jobs. He employed Witte to push industrialisation forwards including the expansion of the Trans-Siberian railway. However, like the other tsars, he used the police and army to eliminate any opposition when workers complained about conditions, showing how the peasantry endured great hardship through repression.…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The revolution of 1917 was the culmination of a number of factors coming together and causing the volatile mix of reasons to come together and boil over. The people of Russia where fed up with the horrible conditions they had to put up with and decided to do something about it. Some factor I will discuss include the industrialization,…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Nationwide Revolution

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The first reason for the revolution in 1905 was the developments in the Russian countryside and how they produced a general unhappiness among the landowners and even the peasants. A long-term social and economic cause was the continuing dissatisfaction of both these groups to the Emancipation reform of Alexander II in 1861. The Landowners did not approve of the act because it denied them the free labour they had access to before the emancipation of the serfs. They had lost their free labour and large amounts of their land. By 1905 many of the Landowners were facing large debts. Although the act did end serfdom in Russia, the peasants were still angry due to the redemption payments they were expected to pay and the poor quality of land they received. They also disliked the fact that they were still tied to the…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Russian Revolution Causes

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Though it happened in parts, the Revolution was incredibly important to the world’s course. There were many key events in the Russian Revolution, the ones that most stood out, were the “Bloody Sunday”, the “February Revolution” and the “October Revolution” also known as “October Manifesto” or “Bolshevik Revolution”. All those events led to Russia being a communist country. Some of the main historical figures in this battle being Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, and Nicholas II, the last Russian Czar. The Russian Revolution was an irreplaceable event in history, that serves as an example to many world…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics