Imperial Russia, 1881 1914

The Russian Revolution
1815-1924
Session IV
Imperial Russia, 1881-1914

Sunday, October 11, 2009

• Economic Conditions
• The Agrarian Problem

• Industry & Labor

• Foreign Trade

• Domestic Political Developments
• Full Reaction, 1881-1905

• Reformers & Revolutionaries

• The Revolution of 1905

• The Constitutional Experiment

• Foreign Policy
• Expansion

• The Train Wreck


Economic Conditions


Economic Conditions
Deryevna
lit., the village
ﬁg., the
countryside,
rural Russia


Agriculture provided the economic and social basis of late-tsarist
Russia. Approximately four-fifths of her population consisted of
peasants who tilled the land and, in the northern provinces, also
pursued industrial side occupations. A balloonist flying over Central
Russia would have seen an endless landscape of cultivated fields,
divided into narrow strips, interspersed with forests and meadows,
scattered among which, every five to ten kilometers, lay villages of
wooden huts. Cities were small and far between.

Richard Pipes, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution, p. 4


Imperative for Change


Imperative for Change
We are at least two hundred years behind, we
have really gained nothing yet, we have no
definite attitude to the past, we do nothing but
theorize or complain of depression or drink
vodka. It is clear that to begin to live in the present
we must first expiate our past, we must break with
it; and we can expiate it only by suffering, by
extraordinary unceasing labor.

the “perpetual student” Trofimov
in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, 1904


19th Century Russian Inte!igentsia


19th Century Russian Inte!igentsia

Slavophils Westernizers
Vladimir Solovyov

Aleksandr Herzen

Vissarion Belinsky

Aleksey Khomyakov

Advocates of Reform:Three Main Groups



1. economic and social change granted from above



by imperial ukase or administrative action without alteration of the
political or social system



examples--Alexander II, in his early years, bureaucrat reformers, Miliutin, Stolypin




2. emulate the liberal countries of western Europe




gradual reforms by the progressive extension of political rights




Westernizers, university professors, civil servants, professionals, capitalists





3. revolutionaries of various types





least homogeneous of the three groups





Narodniki, People’s Will, Land and Freedom, Social Democrats, Bolsheviks. SRs





Narodniki, People’s Will, Land and Freedom, Social Democrats, Bolsheviks. SRs

only agreed on the need for violence


Opponents of Reform


Opponents of Reform

most members of the governing classes


Opponents of Reform

at the court,


Opponents of Reform

at the court,
in the higher civil service and the ofﬁcers of the military,


Opponents of Reform

at the court,
the church, the Slavophil intelligentsia


Opponents of Reform

at the court,
the landed gentry, who opposed change for ideological or material
reasons


Opponents of Reform

at the court,
the landed gentry, who opposed change for ideological or material
reasons

the Muzhiki, the peasantry “the inert mass of the
population”


The Agrarian Problem


The Agrarian Problem

Deryevna in Tambov Gubernia,
1891-92
photo by Maxim Dimitreyev,
father of Russian photo journalism


The Mir System

S. Korovin, “На Миру (Na Miru)
On the Mir”

The Mir System

mir-Slavic term=village collective, world, &
peace; cf., Mir Miru

On the Mir”

The Mir System


1861-the emancipation edict took the mir out
from under the local noble and made it a self-
governing body, collectively responsible for
paying the redemption dues

On the Mir”

The Mir System



peasants couldn’t leave without the
permission of the mir

On the Mir”

The Mir System




land was alloted by the mir to each household

On the Mir”

The Mir System




land was alloted by the mir to each household

the medieval “three ﬁeld system” and similar
backward practices kept yields low

On the Mir”

Primitive Transportation Hindered Productivity

Ilya Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. 1870-1873. Oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia


… the great mass of the peasantry continued to live in the
communes [miri] in conditions of deepening poverty. It is
not surprising that the memory of the exciting promise of
the days of emancipation should gradually have been
transformed into a legend that the tsar’s wishes … had been
betrayed by evil forces, and that some day justice would be
done….

Craig, p.383


Industry & Labor


Industry & Labor

THE PUTILOV COMPANY IN LATE IMPERIAL
RUSSIA, 1868-1917


19th Century Russian Industry



in contrast to agriculture, there was decided growth and modernization
here



here
the Putilov Locomotive Works of St. Petersburg was “the Russian
Krupp”



here
Krupp”
the rapid railway building of the 1870s slowed in the next decade



here
Krupp”

but between 1892 and 1902 total rail mileage grew by 46%



here
Krupp”


1890-1900-Putilov’s work force quadrupled to 12,400



here
Krupp”



rail demand spurred the new coal and iron industry in the Donetz basin



here
Krupp”



Baku and the Caucasus oil ﬁelds were another new development at the
turn of the century



here
Krupp”



Baku and the Caucasus oil ﬁelds were another new development at the
turn of the century
Rostow’s Take-off Stage was 1885-1900, so Russia had begun the Drive
to Maturity (Stage 4) well before the 1917 Revolution


Peter the Great’s Navy Shipyard, Skt-Peterburg

The Admiralty Dockyard. Lithograph by C.P.Beggrow . 1820s.


Russia’s “Military-Industrial Complex”--80 years later

The ﬁrst steamboat in Russia, Elizabeth, was built at the plant of K. N. Bird in 1815, and in 1834, the
submarine of A. A. Schilder was built at Alexandrovsky Plant. It was the ﬁrst solid-metal vessel constructed in
Russia. To defend the sea approaches to the capital in 1854-55 a total of 89 propeller gunboats and corvettes
were built; some battleships were equipped with propeller engines on the initiative of General-Admiral Grand
Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich with participation of N. I. Putilov in St. Petersburg. From the middle of the
19th century and up to 1904, the New Admiralty alone built 36 military ships, and Borodino battleship is
considered to be the best of those. Nevsky Plant established in 1857 specialized in construction of torpedo
boats as did Metal Plant founded at the same time. In 1912, the joint-stock company of Putilov Plants created
Putilov Ship Building Plant and purchased Nevsky Plant. In 1914-17 some 10,000 workers were employed at
these enterprises, building destroyers. By the end of 1914, the Baltic Plant and the Admiralty Plant completed
4 dreadnought battleships (Sevastopol, Poltava, Petropavlovsk and Gangut), and the serial construction of
turbine destroyers of Novik type started at Putilov Plant. All in all in 1908-17, Petrograd shipbuilders built 37
turbine ships for the Baltic Fleet.


State Sponsorship of Industry

father, Dutch Lutheran; mother, Russian
nobility

college in Odessa, mathematics degree

1870s & ‘80s-railroad administration

1889-1892-Director of Railway Affairs--
began the Trans-Siberian Railway

1892-1903-Finance Minister

encouraged foreign investment, 1897-put
Russia on the gold standard

1903-1905-Chairman, Council of Ministers

Sergei Yulevich Witte
1849-1915

VOLZHSKO-KAMSKY BANK, a joint-stock commercial bank founded by a group of manufacturers and
merchants. The share capital amounted to 6 million roubles and increased up to 18 million roubles by
1914. The bank developed a network of 60 branches that in 1914 covered commercial centers of the
Volga Region and the Urals, as well as Kiev, Kharkov, and Ekaterinburg. The leader among Russian
commercial banks in 1890s, the bank dealt with financing domestic production, as well as issuing and
distributing bonds of Russian rail carriers from the late 1890s on. The bank also took part in
establishing Produgol Syndicate [to develop oil resources-JBP] in 1906. The volume of transactions was
high enough for the bank to rank 6th among all Russian banks by 1914. The building of Volzhsko-Kamsky
Bank was built by architect L. N. Benois at 38 Nevsky Prospect in the first third of the 19th century and
partly re-built in 1898.


(KRASNY) TREUGOLNIK (138 Obvodny Canal Embankment), an open joint-stock company, an
enterprise making footwear from polymer materials. It was founded in 1860 by Hamburg merchant
F. Krauskopf and his companions as the Russian-American Rubber Manufacture Association
(since 1908 it was called Treugolnik). The main products of the plant were rubber overshoes (in the
period from 1900 to 1912 its production increased from 10 million to 20 million pairs; up to 25%
of the products were exported). The plant also produced machine belts, pipes for pipelines,
discharge valves and faucets, isolation, medical instruments, etc. Up to the late 19th century the
plant was country monopolist in this sector of the market, in the 20th century it was the largest
enterprise of rubber goods production in Russia and Europe.


19th Century St. Petersburg Plants


19th Century St. Petersburg Plants
After the 1917 revolution the Putilov works were
renamed “Red Putilov.” In 1934, Stalin secretly
had Sergei Kirov assassinated and named them for him


Development of a Proletariat


Development of a Proletariat
With the growth of industry in the 1890s...changes became
noticeable: the number to take permanent empoyment in the
fatories increased; thousands loosened their last ties with their
villages; and many began to break away from old beliefs and to
reject the restrictions imposed on their behavior by the Church
and the patriarchal family. In addition, the ﬁerce struggles in the
factories had led at least a small core of the workers to see the
relation between their economic problems and larger political
problems; the fact that the state protected their employers--often
foreign capitalists--impressed upon them the need for changing
the political situation in order to improve the economic.

Sidney Harcave, Russia; A History, p. 381


The Human Costs
The Lena Goldﬁelds Massacre


MEMORIAL AT THE PLACE OF THE WORKER MASSACRE 4/17 APRIL 1912 YEAR


SLUICE AT THE SITE OF THE ANNUNCIATION GOLD MINE

From material in the book “Harbinger of Revolutionary Events”


The Lena Miners Organize
President of the Central Strike Committee
Pavel Nikolaevich Batashev

From a Russian internet site


Merciless exploitation of the workforce provided enormous
proﬁts for the British and Russian shareholders, such as
A.I.Vyshnegradsky, Alexei Putilov (both on the board of
directors), Count Sergei Witte, Empress Maria Fyodorovna,
and others.



and others.

The working conditions at the goldﬁelds were extremely
harsh. The miners had to work 15 to 16 hours a day. For
every thousand workers, there were more than 700
traumatic accidents. One part of the low salary often had to
be used to pay ﬁnes. The other part of it was given in the
form of coupons to be used in stores at the mine itself.



and others.


February 29 (March 13) 1912-All this led a spontaneous
strike at the Andreyevsky goldﬁeld. An immediate cause for
the strike was distribution of rotten meat at one of the stores.



and others.



4 March-the workers established their demands: an 8-hour
workday, 30% raise in wages, the elimination of ﬁnes, and
the improvement of food delivery, among others. However,
none of these demands were satisﬁed by the administration



and others.



4 March-the workers established their demands: an 8-hour
workday, 30% raise in wages, the elimination of fines, and
the improvement of food delivery, among others. However,
none of these demands were satisfied by the administration

mid-March- the strike had extended to all the goldfields, and
included over 6000 workers


the climax


the climax

4 April 1912 a thin line of Russian
soldiers, confronted by a large crowd of
gold miners on strike for several weeks,
reacted with fear and anger. At their
officers' orders, they opened fire,
shooting five hundred unarmed protestors
[150-270 killed, 100-250 wounded]. The
event reverberated across Russia.


the climax


It has been suggested that Vladimir
Ulyanov adopted his more popular alias
after the river Lena — Lenin — after this
event, although he had in fact started
using it years earlier[1901]. He had
served time in Shushenskoe (in Siberia,
but not on the Lena River), 1897-1900


the climax


It has been suggested that Vladimir
Ulyanov adopted his more popular alias
after the river Lena — Lenin — after this
event, although he had in fact started
using it years earlier[1901]. He had
served time in Shushenskoe (in Siberia,
but not on the Lena River), 1897-1900

22 April 1912 Pravda sold 60,000 copies
of its ﬁrst issue describing the massacre


Lena. 1912 year. Picture by the artist U.N. Tulin


ETERNAL MEMORIAL FOR THE LENA WORKERS SLAIN IN THE BEASTLY MASSACRE
4/17 APRIL 1912 WITNESSING THE STRUGGLE OF THE WORKING CLASS
1912 - 1967


Foreign Trade


Foreign Trade

The grain ship 'L'Avenir' (1908) moored in
the Millwall Docks, with McDougall's
Wheatsheaf Mill in the background.
A French ship carrying Russian grain to
Britain


Russia’s Share of World Trade=4%

not markedly higher than in the first half of the century
most striking development--steady growth of grain
exports
1860-1,120,000 tons to 1897-6,945,000 tons
1836-1840-grain = 15% of total value of Russian exports
after 1871-grain = about 50%

effects outside the purely economic sphere
1902-under pressure from the junkers, Germany passed a tariff
that severely hurt Russian grain exports
this pushed Russia even farther into the anti-German French
alliance


Domestic Political Developments


Domestic Political Developments

Ilya Repin. The Revolutionary Meeting. 1883. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.


Full Reaction, 1881-1905


Full Reaction, 1881-1905
Первомартовцы
(Pyervomartovtsi
The First of Marchers)
(Those who did something
[assassinate Alexander II]
on the ﬁrst of March) by
Nicolai Kibalchick


The Tsar Liberator


March 1, 1881--Both the thirty-five year old
tsarevich, about to become tsar Alexander III and
his twelve year old son, Nicolasha, one day to
become the last tsar were present at the death bed
of tsar Alexander II. As he lay there, both legs
shattered by the assassin’s bomb, dying in great
pain, beyond the physicians’ ability to save; is it too
much to assume that the hope for further liberal
reforms was dying as well?


Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev (1827-1907)
son of a literature professor,
becomes a law professor

1866-tutor to the future
Alexander III

1880- Procurator of the Holy
Synod (controls state church)

1881-becomes the “eminence
grise,” bane of liberals

1894-less inﬂuence under
Nicholas whom he also tutored,
still Russiﬁcation maintained


Pobiedonostsev’s Reaction

opposed the liberal Interior Minister,
Count Loris-Melikov

said political reforms cause “drift
toward constitutionalism”

“Russiﬁcation” of Poles and Finns,
pogroms against the Jews

replaced Zemstvo schools with
parochial schools under his control

reversed liberal judicial reforms of
Valentin Serov. Portrait of K. Pobedonostsev. 1902.
Alexander II
Charcoal, color pencils on paper. The Russian
Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Russia’s Jews

1791-the Pale of Settlement was begun by
Catherine the Great

At its heyday, the Pale, which included the
new Polish and Lithuanian territories, had a
Jewish population of over 5 million, which
represented the largest concentration (40
percent) of world Jewry at that time.

Jews who wouldn’t convert were expelled
from cities to the Pale, unless they had
special skills or economic qualiﬁcations

pogroms (pa•GROMs) were especially ﬁerce
1881-1883 and 1903-1906

1881-1914-some 2 million emigrated, mostly
to the United States


Tsar Alexander III
“unsophisticated, conscientious ruler with a
ﬁrm will and unrelievedly conservative
views”

1881-Education Minister Count Dimitry
Tolstoy added Interior (MVD, i.e., police) to
his portfolio

the secret, counter-terrorist police, the
Okhrana, is created

famous for the technique of agents
provocateurs and forging The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion

1882-”temporary”laws further muzzled the
universities and the press. “May Laws”
tightened restrictions on the Jews 1845-1881-1894


The Okhrana Leadership at Fontanka 16

Photograph, 1905

a fateful execution?

Aleksandr Ulyanov
1866-1887



• gold medalist at Simbirsk & Skt-Peterburg
Universities (natural sciences, zoology)

Aleksandr Ulyanov
1866-1887




• 1886-became a member of the terrorist wing of
the Narodnaya Volya

Aleksandr Ulyanov
1866-1887




the Narodnaya Volya

• March 1, 1887-arrested as part of an
assassination plot against Alexander III (hence
called piervomartovtsi, like the earlier successful
assassins of his father)

Aleksandr Ulyanov
1866-1887




the Narodnaya Volya


• 8 March-tried and hanged at Schisselburg

Aleksandr Ulyanov
1866-1887




the Narodnaya Volya



• legend has it that his younger brother, V.I.
Ulyanov, was radicalized by this event

Aleksandr Ulyanov
1866-1887




the Narodnaya Volya



• legend has it that his younger brother, V.I.
Ulyanov, was radicalized by this event

• this is doubtful, he had a cold response,”There
is another way;” Lenin never favored Aleksandr Ulyanov
“propaganda of the deed” 1866-1887


Soviet monument at Schisselburg commemorating the
political prisoners executed there


Reformers and Revolutionaries


Reformers and Revolutionaries

Арест пропагандиста
Arrest of a propagandist
by Ilya Repin


Coronation of the last tsar; 26/14 May 1896

Valentin Serov. Anointing of the Emperor Nicholas II in The Uspensky Cathedral. 1896. Oil on canvas.
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.


An Ill Omen? the Khodynka Stampede

18 [O.S.] May 1896

An Ill Omen? the Khodynka Stampede

Of the approximate half
million in attendance, it
is estimated that 1,429
individuals died and
another 9,000 to 20,000
were injured.
Very much like our Who
Concert tragedy, the
crowds trampled one
another; here, to get to
the free beer and
trinkets celebrating the
coronation

18 [O.S.] May 1896

Nicholas II 1868-1894-1917-1918


Nicholas II 1868-1894-1917-1918
“a political philosophy...not markedly
different from that of his father…”


Nicholas II 1868-1894-1917-1918

but”not accompanied by [Alexander
III’s]steadfastness and resolution…”


Nicholas II 1868-1894-1917-1918


always a tool in the hands of stronger
individuals:


Nicholas II 1868-1894-1917-1918


individuals:

for the ﬁrst ten years, Pobiedenostsev and
his military advisors


Nicholas II 1868-1894-1917-1918


individuals:


later, his wife and her favorites, especially
Rasputin


Nicholas II 1868-1894-1917-1918


individuals:


later, his wife and her favorites, especially
Rasputin

his best ministers, Witte & Stolypin, were
done in by court intrigues


Still, Hopes for Reform

liberal reformers (type 2) had been relatively quiet since
the death of Alexander II
now the zemstvo ofﬁcials pressed for expanded powers in
local government and a central institution that might
develop into a national parliament
Nicholas turned a deaf ear
when they didn’t take the hint, police broke up their
meetings


Nicholas

Ilya Repin, Russian State Council commemorating its 100th anniversary, May 5, 1901.


The Radical Alternative; The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party

founder of the SD movement in
Russia and the ﬁrst Russian
Marxist

1876-organized the Kazan
Cathedral demonstration, St
Petersburg

1880-after two arrests in as many
years, emigrated to Switzerland

1883-founded the RSDLP

“He introduced a generation of
Russians to Marx”--Lenin
Georgi Plekhanov
1856-1918

“...resembled a Protestant pastor…”


“...resembled a Protestant pastor…”
[Plekhanov] had mastered the analytical instruments of
Marxism and had learned to exploit its stinging wit at the
same time that he had carried to chilling lengths the
Marxist intellectual superciliousness. Gorky says that
Plehkanov resembled a Protestant pastor, buttoned up
tight in his frock-coat and ‘conﬁdent that his ideas were
incontrovertible, every word and every pause of great
value.’ When workers would come to see him from Russia,
he would receive them with folded arms and lecture them
so magisterially that they found that they were unable to
talk to him about the things that were on their minds.

Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station, p. 393


Plekhanov’s Greatest Disciple
born in Simbirsk on the Volga to a 4th
rank (chin)civil service nobleman

1887-

father, a Westernizer school oﬃcial, died

older brother, Alexander, hanged for
conspiring to assassinate the tsar

entered Kazan University

expe!ed for dangerous political views

1892-law degree %om St Petersburg
University

honors in Latin, Greek, English, French
Vladimir Illych Ulyanov and German
1870-1924 (photo, 1887)

"Lenin's Room in Simbirsk 1878 to 1887"
by Wladimir Krikhatzkij (1877-1942)


Ulyanov to Lenin

joined one of 20 Marxist
reading circles in St Petersburg

1895-arrested and conﬁned 14
months before trial

1897-1900-Siberian exile,[not
katorga]“graduate studies” in
revolution with wife, Krupskaya

1900-1917-lived as an émigré
throughout Europe, primarily in
Geneva and Zurich
Police mug shot
1895


2007 pic of one of Lenin’s rented houses
Spiegelgasse 16, Zürich


Pictures from 1920 of same apartment


“Iskra” (The Spark)

First issue, 1 December 1900, Stuttgart

Initial staff: Vladimir Lenin, Georgi Plekhanov, Vera Zasulich, Pavel
Axelrod (Pinchas Borutsch), Julius Martov (Ilija Cederbaum), Aleksandr
Potresov

Later: Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein)

“What is to be Done?” (Что Делатъ?)

1. saw the party as consisting mainly of
“intellectuals,” on the basis of a theory
according to which workers cannot
themselves develop to socialist
consciousness; rather, the socialist idea is
always and inevitably imported into the
movement by bourgeois intellectuals
2. posited that the party is simply a band of
“professional revolutionaries” as distinct
from a broad working-class party
3. repudiated any element of spontaneity or
spontaneous movement, in favor of
engineered revolution only
4. required that the party be organized not
democratically but as a bureaucratic or
semi-military hierarchy


RSDLP (РСДРП) Congresses

1898-First Party Congress, Minsk. Since the party was
illegal, all nine delegates were arrested. Hereafter the
party met abroad
1903-Second Party Congress, Brussels/London.
17 November-the famous irreconcilable split
Bolsheviks (Majoritists)-due to a temporary majority vote, Lenin
seized the propaganda advantage of this name (also means
“greater, stronger” in Russian)
Mensheviks (Minoritists)-Martov and the actual majority of the
RSDLP were stuck with this less appealing label


The “Es•ers” (С•Р-SRs)- Socialist Revolutionaries

Lenin’s Bolsheviks’ day will come, but for now they are
less signiﬁcant than their rivals on the left, the SRs
differed from the RSDLP, both Bolshevik and Menshevik
not Marxist, believed in the peasantry, not the proletariat
emphasized “propaganda of the deed” terrorism, assassination

1904- SR Boris Savinkov kills Interior Minister von Plehve
1905-active in the revolution, represented in both St
Petersburg and Moscow Soviets


The Revolution of 1905


The Revolution of 1905

Кровавое Воскресенье
(krovavoye voskresen’ye)
Bloody Sunday by Ivan
Vladimirov


Economic and Diplomatic Causes

1899-1903-the last stage of the Long Depression
produced a lagging slump of Russian industry
1902-the German tariff hit Russian grain exports
1904-Russia’s reckless Far Eastern policy triggered war
with Japan
the military call up disrupted agricultural production and
distribution-->serious food shortages
industrial production was also disrupted, strikes increased

a series of military setbacks contributed to popular
frustration with the government


Bloody Sunday -- 22/9 January 1905
December, 1904-strike at the
Putilov plant led to others, some
80,000 out

Father Georgi Gapon, who had
collaborated with the Okhrana, led
a peaceful procession to the Winter
Palace with a petition for the tsar

in a series of confrontations
protesters were shot or trampled

tsarist estimate: 96 dead, 333 injured
anti-government: > 4,000 dead
moderate estimates ave. 1,000 KIA & WIA
Still from 1925 Soviet ﬁlm
disorder and looting spread across
“devyatoe yanvarya-9th of January”
the city. Nicholas never recovered

January-June; disorders spread

following Bloody Sunday a general strike begins in St
Petersburg and spreads rapidly to Moscow, Saratov,
Ekaterinoslav, and the principal cities of Poland and the
Baltics
17 February-the tsar’s uncle, Grand Duke Sergei is
assassinated by Savinkov’s SR Combat Organization


I threw the bomb from less than four steps. I was taken by the explosions,
I saw the carriage ﬂew to pieces...My overcoat was strewn with splinters of wood
all around, it was torn and burnt, there was blood on my face...

Ivan Kalayev
mug shot just
after the assassination


January-June; disorders spread

a general strike begins in St Petersburg and spreads
rapidly to Moscow, Saratov, Ekaterinoslav, and the
principal cities of Poland and the Baltics
17 February-the tsar’s uncle, Grand Duke Sergei is
assassinated by Savinkov’s SR Combat Organization
February-peasant uprisings in Kursk Gubernia and they
spread rapidly to other provinces
June-a Peasant Union is formed
27/14 June-the Battleship Potyomkin mutinies


Soviet poster portraying the 1905 revolution. The caption reads
"Glory to the People's Heroes of the Potëmkin!"


“...our demand: freedom for the whole nation.”

Soviet poster portraying the 1905 revolution. The caption reads
"Glory to the People's Heroes of the Potëmkin!"


clips from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potyomkin, 1925

the Odessa steps sequence


Nicholas temporizes, the crisis mounts

after the mutiny, the tsar appears willing to make political
concessions
August-he announces that the franchise would be a narrow
one, “excluding most workers and intellectuals”
this leads to further demonstrations, strikes in universities
and the railroads, and a second general strike in the capital
October-the ﬁrst Soviet [council] of Workers Delegates is
formed in St Petersburg. Leon Trotsky becomes its leader
the tsar considered using military force but is convinced by
Witte to grant the so-called October Manifesto instead


The Revolution’s Last Gasp

with what appeared to be the granting of constitutional
monarchy from above, the unity of the revolutionary
movement dissolved
public opinion began to swing against the few remaining
radical “dead enders”
the “black hundreds” (chyornie soti-черние соти), gangs
of hooligans organized by reactionary elites, were
supported by the public when they attacked critics of the
government
December, 1905-the police dared break up the St
Petersburg Soviet--the revolution was over


The Constitutional Experiment


The Constitutional Experiment

Манифестация 17 октября 1905 года
The Manifesto of 17 October 1905
by Ilya Repin


The Experiment’s Three Stages

1) 6 August 1905-the initial proclamation which proved
insufficient to quell the revolution
2) 17 October 1905-the “October Manifesto” which took
the wind out of the revolution’s sails
3) 23 April 1906-the “Fundamental Laws” decreed in the
midst of the elections for the first Duma, Russia’s elected
lower house. This was Imperial Russia’s first and last
constitution.


Russian Constitution of 1906

Chapter I--declared and defined the autocracy of the Russian Empire, including
the Emperor's supremacy over the Law, the Church, and the Duma
Article 4 states: "The supreme autocratic power is vested in the Emperor of all the Russias. It is God's
command that his authority should be obeyed not only through fear but for conscience's sake."

Article 9 provides that: "The Sovereign Emperor approves the laws, and without his approval no law can
come into existence."

Chapter II--defined the rights and the obligations of the citizens of the Russian
Empire. It defined the scope and supremacy of the law over Russian subjects. It
confirmed the basic human rights granted by the October Manifesto, but made them
subordinate to the law.

Chapter III--is the regulation about laws.
Chapter IV--defined the composition and the scope of the activities of the State
Council and the State Duma.


State Council--The Upper House

Marie Palace
St Petersburg
Meeting Place of
the State Council


State Council--The Upper House

Marie Palace
St Petersburg
Meeting Place of
the State Council

Unlike the House of Lords or the Herren Haus, the positions were not hereditary.
Half were appointed by the tsar, half were elected by various groups; the zemstvos,
the assemblies of nobility, the orthodox church, stock exchange committees &
business organizations, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Finnish
Parliament


State Duma--The Lower House

Tauride Palace
St Petersburg
Meeting place
of
the Duma



Tauride Palace
St Petersburg
Meeting place
of
the Duma

• the franchise, although broad, was divided into three tiers, like Prussia’s, according to
wealth



Tauride Palace
St Petersburg
Meeting place
of
the Duma

wealth
• ministers were not responsible to the Duma, appointed by and responsible to the tsar



Tauride Palace
St Petersburg
Meeting place
of
the Duma

wealth
• the tsar could dismiss the Duma at will and govern by emergency decree



Tauride Palace
St Petersburg
Meeting place
of
the Duma

wealth
• the tsar could dismiss the Duma at will and govern by emergency decree
• laws passed by the Duma required both the approval of the State Council and the tsar


The Political Forces in 1906

Reformers
hopelessly divided between the Kadets (Constitutional Democrats)
who wanted more progress and the Octobrists who were satisﬁed
with “half a loaf

Revolutionaries
the SRs were convulsed over the Azef affair, the RSDLP divided or
in exile

Reactionaries
the nobility, the landlords, the church, the bureaucrats, the ofﬁcers,
and the Pan-Slav patriots organized a “Union of the Russian
People” to encourage the tsar to roll back the concessions of 1905


SR bloodbath--The Azef Affair
1890s-from a poor Jewish family, became a
revolutionary

1892-fearing arrest, embezzled 800 rubles, ﬂed to
Germany, studied electrical engineering

recruited by Okhrana, returned and joined SRs

betrayed the head of the Combat Organization. After
his capture, he replaced him!

masterminded von Plehve’s (1904) and Grand Duke
Sergei’s (1905) assassination; had Gapon murdered

in spite of tips from sympathetic police, the SRs
refused to believe he was a double agent

1909-on the verge of discovery, escaped once again
1869-1918
to Germany


Increasing Impotence of the Duma

First Duma, April-June, 1906
dissolved within 10 weeks. The tsar was “cruelly disappointed”
that they had “strayed into spheres beyond their competence”

Second Duma, February-June, 1907
actually arrested 16 members for revolutionary activity
franchise drastically (and illegally) reduced

Third Duma, full term, 1907-1912
Fourth Duma, 1912-1917


“Our Friend” Grigori Rasputin
born in Siberia, early evidence of mystical
powers, pilgrim to Greece and Jerusalem

1903-arrived St Petersburg, developed
reputation as staryets (holy healer and
prophet)

1905-Alexandra sought him for Tsarevich
Alexei’s haemophilia

his continuing ability to bring relief to the
family

gave him inordinate influence over them
made him fierce enemies at court and countrywide
he began to pull a “Blagoevich” (sell offices)
1869-1916


Vladimir Sukhomlinov--War Minister

long held up as an example of poor
leadership and blamed for Russia’s
initial weak showing in 1914

currently enjoying a rehabilitation

1908-head of the General Staff

1909-1915-Minister of War

increased the army size and added some
modern elements, i.e., military aircraft

involved in intrigues
1848-1926


Unarguably Nicholas’ Ablest Minister
1905-as governor of Saratov, put down
the peasant uprisings

1906-ﬁrst Interior, then Prime Minister,
hunted down revolutionaries, “Stolypin’s
neckties”

agricultural reforms: from mir to
individual family farms with government
credit and modern techniques

encouraged Siberian homesteading

1911-inevitably he became the SR’s #1
priority and a police spy/assassin shot
him in the Kiev Opera House Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin
1862-1911

Olga Tatiana Maria Anastasia


The Imperial Family, 1911

Lt to Rt: Grand Duchess Olga, Maria, Nicholas, Alexandra, Anastasia, Tsarevich Alexei, Tatiana

Foreign Policy


Expansion


Expansion

Svobodna Bulgariya

Liberated
Bulgaria


A Three-Pronged Policy

1.Russiﬁcation towards non-Russian minorities within the Empire:
Poles,Finns, Georgians,Armenians, the muslim peoples of Central Asia.
Only the Jews were “spared” since they were scapegoated as pariahs

2.Panslavism towards the fellow slavs outside the Empire: the Balkan
peoples, Rumanians, Bulgarians, and especially Serbs. Protecting the
Orthodox Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire

3.Traditional search for the warm water port This translated into
pressuring Turkey over the Straits and China over the Liaotung
Peninsula and Port Arthur


The Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78



Bulgaria



Bulgaria
“the sick
man”



Bulgaria
Bosnia &
Herzegovina “the sick
man”


Bulgaria


Bosnia
&
Herzegovina

Bulgaria


Origins of the Russo-Turk War

the Tsar Liberator Alexander had to make the humiliating
Peace of Paris, 1856, just after coming to the throne

Russia didn’t want to give up the role of protecting brother
slavs the way they had been forced to give up “protector of
Christians in the Holy Land”

August, 1875, BOS•ni•a & Her•ze•GO•vi•na began an
insurrection against Turkish rule

To everyone’s surprise, Osman Pasha put down the revolt
handily but with “Balkan atrocities”


The Congress of Berlin, 1878 by Anton von Werner
In the left foreground, Count Karolyi (Austria-Hungary), Prince Gorchakov, seated
(Russia), and the Earl of Beaconsﬁeld (Disraeli). In the center foreground, Count
Andrassy (A-H), Bismarck, and Count Shuvalov (Russia). In the right rear, with the
bald head, Lord Salisbury, (Great Britain)

Adjustments
under the
Berlin Treaty


Adjustments
under the
Berlin Treaty

1


Adjustments
under the
Berlin Treaty

1

2


Adjustments
under the
Berlin Treaty

1
3

2


Bismarck offers to be “an honest broker”

Russia accepts:

exhausted by the unexpected rigors of the Turkish war

worried by the thought of war with Britain and Austria-Hungary

most distinguished diplomatic gathering between 1815 & 1919

Balkan peoples had unrealistic expectations--> disappointment
Serbs expected Bosnia & Herzegovina, instead A-H gets them

Romania has to surrender Bessarabia to Russia

Bulgaria greatly reduced in size

Greece furious that Britain gains Cyprus & Turkey keeps Crete & Epirus

seeds sown for future Balkan revisionism & wars


Russia and Turkey the most aggrieved

Turkey lost half its European territory and population

Russia’s Pan-Slavs had little to show for their country’s
heavy expenditures in men and money
Bulgaria, the proposed springboard for future expansion, “a
mere shadow of its former self”

Britain, without the loss of a man, gained Cyprus and
strengthened its position over the Straits Question

Austria gained Bosnia and France was given a free hand in
Tunis

Russia, mortiﬁed, blamed Bismarck

Turning East--Push to the Paciﬁc

• 1889-Count Witte appointed Director of Railway Aﬀairs. His #1 task--
the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway (Transsib)

• 1881-1913-1.455 billion rubles, an expenditure record, surpassed only by
the military budget of World War I, the last Imperial Budget item

• the push to connect Vladivostok and the Maritime Province led
logically to Russian interest to participate in the dismemberment of
China, already begun by the imperialist powers, especially Britain,
Germany and Japan

• Russia clashed with the latter over Korea, Manchuria, and the Liaotung
Peninsula and its warm water port, Port Arthur

• 1904-the Russo-Japanese War showed Russia’s military weakness and
contributed to the Revolution of 1905


The Train Wreck, 1914


1914-1918 “The Butcher’s Bill”


The Alliance Systems
part public--part secret



• 1873-1887 Three Emperors’ League--Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia



• 1882-1914Triple Alliance--Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy



• 1884-1890 Reinsurance Treaty--Germany, Russia



• 1894-1914 Franco-Russian Alliance



• 1904-1914 Entente Cordiale France and Britain



• 1904-1914 Entente Cordiale France and Britain
• 1907-1914 Anglo-Russian Entente creates the Triple Entente


Feinde ringsum-ringed by
enemies

Bismarck’s fear of encirclement



• after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)
he knew France wanted revenge




• so the focus of his diplomacy was
keeping Russia bound to neutrality





• Dreikaiserbund-1873-75, 1881-84, 1884-87





• Dreikaiserbund-1873-75, 1881-84, 1884-87

• Reinsurance Treaty-1887-90-secret but
suspected





• Dreikaiserbund-1873-75, 1881-84, 1884-87

suspected

1. Germany and Russia both agreed to observe neutrality should the
other be involved in a war with a third country. Neutrality would
not apply should Germany attack France or Russia attack Austria





• Dreikaiserbund-1873-75, 1881-84, 1884-87

suspected

1. Germany and Russia both agreed to observe neutrality should the
other be involved in a war with a third country. Neutrality would
not apply should Germany attack France or Russia attack Austria
2. In the most secret completion protocol Germany declared herself
neutral in the event of a Russian intervention in the Bosporus and
the Dardane!es.


A fatal mistake


A fatal mistake

• 1890-the callow young kaiser put Bismarck
aside


A fatal mistake

aside

• the Foreign oﬃce refused Russia’s repeated
requests to renew the Reinsurance Treaty


A fatal mistake

aside


• this opened the door to the impossible--an
alliance between republican France and
autocratic Russia


A fatal mistake

aside


autocratic Russia

• the ﬁrst move of the diplomatic revolution,
1890-1907 was made possible


A fatal mistake

aside


autocratic Russia

• the ﬁrst move of the diplomatic revolution,
1890-1907 was made possible

• again, the initiative was taken by France,
not Russia


View across the Pont Alexandre III down the Avenue Nicholas II
towards the Invalides during the 1900 Universal Exposition


Tsar Alexander III noted in 1892 that it was imperative for
Russia to come to terms with France “and, in the event of a
war between France and Germany, at once attack the
Germans so as not to give them the time ﬁrst to beat
France and then to turn against us.”

Pipes, p.57


The “Irreconcilables” Reconcile -- 1891-1894

1891-both dread isolation, exchange notes to consult if
peace is threatened
1892-at French insistence, proposal of military talks to
give positive shape to such “peacekeeping” measures
delayed for a year by the Panama Crisis which strengthened anti-
French forces in Russia
1893-exchange of naval visits to Toulon and Kronstadt

4 January 1894-negotiations completed, Franco-Russian
Alliance


A Permanent Realignment?



there were parties in both Russia and Germany who hoped
not



not
later events hardened the Russo-German division:
the anti-Russian grain tariﬀs which the Agrarian League and the
Ha-Ka-Tisten demanded and got in 1902
German aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East
1909-v. Bülow’s ultimatum to Izvolsky during the Bosnian Crisis



not
later events hardened the Russo-German division:
the anti-Russian grain tariffs which the Agrarian League and the
Ha-Ka-Tisten demanded and got in 1902
German aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East
1909-v. Bülow’s ultimatum to Izvolsky during the Bosnian Crisis

1892-however, there was one part of the German
government who took this “worst case” seriously--the
Great General Staff
Count Alfred v. Schlieffen makes France the first object of
Germany’s war plans

1907-The Circle around the Central Powers is
Completed

Germany Austria-Hungary


1907-The Circle around the Central Powers is
Completed

1894 1904

Germany Austria-Hungary

1907


Imperial Russia, 1881 1914

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