The Comparison and Contrast of The 1905 and February Revolution There is a substantial difference between the 1905 Russian Revolution and the February Russian Revolution. To begin with, a revolution is defined as a major, sudden and therefore usually violent alteration in government and in related associations and structures. The nature and origin of these two revolutions were somewhat similar, but there were still many differences that outweighed the similarities. The origins of the two revolutions differ. The 1905 revolution happened due to long term discontent such as the dissatisfaction of peasants of workers following Witte’s economic policies of squeezing the peasants out of more money than anyone could afford, or the oppression of intelligentsia that occured to stop the ideals of modernisation- something the Tsar was not able to adapt to. Also, the nationalism of minority groups submitted to Russification was growing. While the dissatisfaction remained intact when …show more content…
During the 1905 revolution, 400,000 peasants went on strike. The February revolution also had the soldiers on its side- one of the main reasons why the 1905 revolution was not a success, was that soldiers were ordered to shoot at the civilians (such as during Bloody Sunday, the spark of the 1905 revolution, during which shots were fired at peaceful protesters) while during the February Revolution the soldiers refused to shoot at the protesting crowds and eventually joined in the protests against the Tsar, whose support was fastly eroding. Officers were beaten up and even killed and therefore Nicholas II lost control of the army. This is extremely significant as with the soldiers battling against oppressive autocracy, there was a small line of defense for the Tsar and opposition to the Revolution could be taken out easily (such as police). With the majority of people against the Tsar, united in their battle, their chances of success
About 300 people were killed, and hundreds more were wounded. As the news of "Bloody Sunday" spread, the Russian people were horrified. They responded by striking, mutinying, and fighting in peasant uprisings. The Russian Revolution of 1905 had begun” (Passage 1). He took no action when all of this was happening, but he did “after several months of chaos” (Passage 1). Czar Nicholas came up with a policy that did in fact end the Russian Revolution. He came up with the “October Manifesto,” which said that they were granted “individual right and created a Duma, or Parliament” (Passage 1). This was convincing to the Russian people and it ended the 1905 Russian Revolution. Czar Nicholas was still the absolute leader of Russia. Many people were not excited to hear this news, because he was not a great leader. He listened to the advice of his German wife that no one trusted. He also had another close companion “the
The same conditions did not exist in 1917. The people were under no illusion as to how the Tsar felt about them. During the February Revolution, strikers carried slogans such as "Down with the autocracy" written on them. With no support from the masses, Nicholas II had lost a key ally in his battle to remain in power.
The February Revolution began with spontaneous rioting through Petrograd and led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. Many historians disagree as to whether the February Revolution had one true cause or was caused by an accumulating amount of events. In answering this question, one will consider WW1 and the Russo-Japanese war, the autocratic policies Tsar Nicholas II enforced, the peasant revolt and the influence of Rasputin on Tsarina Alexandra.
J. Class notes on the 1905 Revolution. Last accessed 16th September 2015. ] This was important as it would have encouraged many Russians who were dissatisfied with the previous regime to revolt as they felt as though they were being let down and attacked by the "Little Father" who they were sure would have sympathised with them. By the end of January 400,000 people were on strike in response of the murder [Dawson.
The 1905 revolution can be considered as the pinnacle event that accelerated the downward spiral of Tsar Nicholas’s rule and Russia’s adherence to their “little father”. From this point onwards Nicholas was referred to by the people as not their “little father” but “Nicholas the Bloody”. "The present ruler has lost absolutely the affection of the Russian people, and whatever the future may have in store for the dynasty, the present tsar will never again be safe in the midst of his people." (The American consul in Odessa). This revolution was an uprising of people from all levels of society and was not an uprising organised by any group in particular. The Bolsheviks played a minimal role in the 1905 revolution as most of their leaders were living in exile and their impact and influence on the workers in that year was weak as well as having no Duma faction. This demonstrates that the Bolsheviks had a minor role in the pinnacle events that led to the downfall of the Romanov dynasty but rather gained support after Nicholas’ abdication.
The Russian and Chinese revolution both may perhaps have been no more different, each both with the establishment of two different concepts that lead to the shifting of their countries. These both experienced encounters with foreign influences and connections. The ways of the both were oddly different due to one wanting the end of interactions with the West and China who actually wanted to adopt more to their ways of the West. The Russian revolution was essentially led with two different revolutions, the February and the October Revolution. The Chinese was experiencing many revolts throughout the revolution. In the effort for the 1911 revolution of
The workers began rioting for better conditions and the police could not contain the chaos. At this stage it seemed patent that the Tsar and his government would be overthrown by the revolutionary forces unless serious changes were made. Hence, the 1905 revolution may not have achieved its objective of other throwing the Tsar however did contribute as an affect of what later brought the Tsarist regime to a collapse.
The First World War became the Tsars worst nightmare. Russia joined the war in many ways to keep peoples minds of Russia’s backwardness and badly run government, and onto the war effort itself. But within the first year of the war people’s minds began to wander away from troop moral and toward the Tsar and his control.
to spend time in the army. In a bid to divert the blame, the Tsar and
Most scholors view the first event that eventually led to the 1905 revolution was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 by Czar Alexander II. This caused the Russian economy to accelerate the development of industry and farming it failed to resolve the disparity . However, with these changes the Russian society continued to be split between the Autocrats and the peasants. This split only increased in the following years and prior to 1905. Another of the preceeding events that set the stage for the 1905 revolution was the famine of
The difference between the February and 1917 October Revolution is that Russian revolution is brought communism to Russia and Revolution and its empire in 1917 actually accord in two stages . October in that year that government was over thrown by an extreme socialist party that later became the communist party . In document 1 there is a long term cause and a short term cause and also a medium term cause in the case . The most important thing you need to know about Russia is that it was overwhelming and agricultural country with a overwhelming peasant population for all it's century way before the 19th century . All political power was
As the became more revolutionary the became more educated and low wages, long hours and the fact they could not voice their opinions about their grievances made them seethe with discontent. The dissatisfaction of the urban working class was definitely an instability however the power of the strikes were weak and the Tsar, who still had military support was able to crush them with little difficulty. The 1905 uprising relied on the support of the educated, liberal middle-classes in 1914 the liberal was losing support in the Duma therefore the chance of unrest, rapidly, was minimal. That is not to say there was not dissent; middle-class were unorganised and refused to join with other parties.
The Russian Revolutions of 1917 There were two revolutions that occurred in Russia in 1917. The first one, in February, overthrew the Russian monarchy. The second one, in October, created the world’s first Communist state. The Russian revolutions of 1917 involved a series of uprisings by workers and peasants throughout the country and by soldiers, who were predominantly of peasant origin, in the Russian army.
However, Bloody Sunday which saw soldiers shooting as many as a thousand protesters in a panic, was a short term effect. It was just after a strike involving 111,000 workers and was responded by large numbers of troops to guard public works. Although Nicholas was at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, he was still heavily blamed for the deaths, perhaps unfairly as he of course did not directly order the soldiers to fire upon the protesters. It was most likely due to the soldiers’ inexperience when handling protests so they handled it as if it were a riot. Nicholas in fairness expressed his sorrow and grievances for those that died and was persuaded to appease the workers but failed to realise the seriousness of the situation as it led to the revolution.
“The power still has to be snatched from the hands of the old rulers and handed over to the revolution. That is the fundamental task. A general strike only creates the necessary preconditions; it is quite inadequate for achieving the task itself”(Trotsky). The ineffectiveness of the strikes can be found in the fact that in nearly every occasion the soldiers were ordered to shoot on the crowd, stopping the revolts and leaving the tsar as obnoxious to the situation as before. Also the peasants in the countryside suffered land-hunger due to the growth of population caused by the decreased of mortality rates. Backwardness was also caused by the “open field system”, which didn’t motivate the peasants to improve their machinery or seeding methods since their land would be taken away from them and redistributed when a member of the community died. Nicholas II was a weak, indecisive and obstinate ruler who, being very conservative and reactionary, used extensively the secret police (“Third Section”) and the army to suppress uprisings and political enemies. He alienated the intelligentsia and angered the liberals with his lack of political participation and exaggerated reliance on the Fundamental laws, which said that the tsar was appointed by god and was rightfully in charge of the country. As a response, the liberals initiated a banquet campaign that started in November 1904, and ended in January 1905 with the aim of making the tsar give