1905 russian revolution essay

8/16/2019 1905 Russian Revolution Essay

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Jan Tovaryš

Russia

Analyse the causes and consequences of the 1905 revolution in Russia?

Russian revolutions of 1905 were an escalation of long term socio-economic problems, which the

empire was unable to tackle and which were triggered by events such as Bloody unday and Russo-

!apanese war" #lthough the empire wasn$t in the best economic or political shape, the autocratic

regime was still under sovereign control of the state" %t was only due to the short term events and

economic downturn that created a possibility for opposition groups to e&ploit the situation for their

gain" But since the opposition was not united and also since it had no precise long term aim, it was

easier for the 'sar to deal with such movements and by combining repressive measures and

compromises from the government, the situation was stabilised" 'he revolutions of 1905 ended with

no vast success and although some more democratic measures such as (umas were introduced, they

had only very limited competences and could not severely limit powers of the 'sar" )n the other hand

the situation after the revolutions wasn$t e&actly same as some positive changes had been made and

especially the lives of peasants were improved by several reforms introduced by tolypin"

By 1905 Russia had already undergone a massive industriali*ation and economic development"

+roduction of raw materials such as oil and coal rose spectacularly, this development was further

supported by large railway e&pansions, which grew by more than 100 between the 10 and 1900"

)verall the economy was also supported by a large increase of foreign capital inflow from .ust 100

million roubles up to 900 million roubles by the end of century" But Russia was still far from complete

transformation into fully industriali*ed state, although the achievements were ma.or they must be

understood in the conte&t of very low starting position" #lso Russia was still suffering entrepreneurialclass which could drive the industriali*ation and probably most importantly it was still very backward

in social issues involving any appropriate representative government" (uring the turn of century the

poor internal situation was e&posed through the series of poor harvests and massive population

growth, which further escalated the attacks on the landlords and their property" /urthermore the

economic growth fell steeply from to only 1 after 199, thus replacing a time of prosperity with

huge unrest" 'he situation was becoming worse with rising interest rates and its impact could be

demonstrated by over 90,000 stoppages in production during 190 in comparison to 1,000 in 19"

#nother problem was a relatively larger literacy rate which further increased influences of opposition

groups especially in the rural areas where soldiers literate from army returned" 'he rural areas posed a

huge problem as they were distant and therefore 'sar relied mostly on the local officials and army, but

these often chosen the side of local peasant thus complicating the situation for the 'sar" )verall the

socio-economic issues were present for longer time and were an inevitable part of industriali*ation, yet

the short term crisis and economic downturn managed to destroy the fig leaf of prosperity and created

an environment of dissatisfied and unemployed people, which could be easily e&ploited by various

oppositions"

'he short term economic distress served as an opportunity for the ocial Revolutionaries 2Rs3 and

ocial (emocrats 2(s3, both groups gained massive support after 1900 and managed to create many

unrest in both rural and urban areas" 'he Rs very much appealed to the peasants and created an #ll-

Russian +easant 4nion" 'he word revolutionary in their name wasn$t un.ustly used as their common

practises included assassinations of officials, which included even tsar$s uncle" /urthermore the ocial(emocrats gained more support in the cities among the workers and with them they organi*ed strikes,


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on the other hand they begun to adopt revisionist policies, which could potentially made them a

traditional ar&ist party, similar to the 6erman ocial (emocrats" 7et this idea wasn$t approved by all

members and some regarded the ar&ist revolution as the only solution, this could be demonstrated in

8enin$s :hat has to be done;< Aven those t

+etersburg workers who believed in the 'sar started to call for immediate overthrow of the regime


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were very limited, because the 'sar was still in charge as he could veto all the (uma$s decisions as

well as completely dissolving it" /urthermore the change towards democracy was merely a dream as

the 'sar could act as an absolute ruler when the (uma was not in sessions and the freedom of speech

was also limited" #s ergei :itte recogni*ed>< too little, too late


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6oldfield assacre, which made the opposition movements weaker" But this doesn$t mean that the

trend of strikes ended, while in 191 there were over 1 million strikes, and although these were mainly

short term outbreaks a Bolshevik influence in the trade unions was rising as well as their propaganda"

'he stability during the following years after the revolutions was strictly dependent on short term

strikes and problems, but in general the autocratic regime could sufficiently destroy any potential

threat working towards destruction of the whole system, rather than some parts, which could be partially achieved through the strikes" )nly an e&ternality on a larger scale could now trigger another

uprising and it did in form of a /irst :orld :ar"

%n conclusion the revolutions were mainly caused by e&ternalities, which arise from many

governments mis.udgements on both internal and e&ternal affairs and e&posed how deeply flawed the

Russian system was and that there is also a price for industriali*ation, which can$t be undelivered" 'he

stability of Russia showed to be absolutely dependant on the economic cycles and the nature of

winters" 'he call for change was therefore mainly created by an incompetence of the government

rather than by the want of the people for representative government, although that was true in some

cases" ?onse@uently the regime proved to be strong and very able to destroy opposition movements,

this was made simpler by the fact that they were often divided and lacked precise plans" 'he

concession made by 'sar certainly had some effect, but were too little to affect the absolute rule of the

'sar or to calm down the revolutionaries, thus the effects were limited and the only considerable

conse@uence of the revolutions remained the tolypin changes" 'hese were the only ma.or changes

that concluded the times of the revolutions and that could bring a potential prosperity for Russia, at

least on the economic scale, as for now representative government was not in @uestion"

1905 russian revolution essay

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