Russian Revolution 1905

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The Russian Revolution of 1905 ( Russian Революция 1905 года в России , Revoljuzija 1905 goda w Rossii ) comprises a series of revolutionary unrest in the Russian Empire that lasted from 1905 to 1907 , triggered primarily by the Russo-Japanese War and the St. Petersburg Bloody Sunday of 1905 The measures with which the government of Tsar Nicholas II appeased the revolutionaries were soon withdrawn, which is why the revolution is considered to have failed. It represents the prehistory of the February Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent October Revolution .

causes

The conservative and repressive form of government of the tsarist autocracy , which had existed for centuries, was repeatedly accompanied by movements and revolts in the history of Russia as early as the 19th century. As the introduction of a constitutional monarchy aimed, notably the 1825 failed uprising of the Decembrists against Tsar Nicholas I. The serious political and social ills in the agrarian Russia concerned the by large estates and especially serfdom life marked in rural areas. In addition, there was pronounced corruption in state administration and the judiciary.

As a result of the defeat in the Crimean War and the end of the Holy Alliance system, Russia had lost its dominant position in Europe. Now Russia's socio-structural, economic and technological backwardness has become evident everywhere. Under Tsar Alexander II , liberalization efforts and reforms followed, in particular the abolition of serfdom , albeit against great opposition from the Russian aristocracy . In the course of industrialization , the country's problems worsened due to poor social legislation to protect workers (11.5-hour day, trade union ban). As a result, dissatisfaction grew among all strata of the population, now also in the cities, and above all among the educated circles. In Russia the term intelligentsia arose for this , meaning liberal or left-wing professors, students and academics who mostly came from the nobility and business class. In Moscow and Saint Petersburg , but also in other Russian cities, various critical and partly revolutionary or terrorist-minded circles of intellectuals, social revolutionaries (former Narodniki ), anarchists and later communists emerged. Tsar Alexander III , the son of the murdered Tsar Alexander II , had them brutally persecuted.

Under Tsar Nicholas II , who had ruled since 1894 and who firmly adhered to his father's autocratic principles, repression and police surveillance increased. A series of reforms that the Tsar approved in 1904 did not result in any decisive changes. There was no social equilibrium in the Russian population, nor did Russia become a constitutional state.

The Russian government intensified the simmering conflict with Japan, primarily to distract attention from serious domestic political problems . The island kingdom reacted unexpectedly violently by raiding the Russian base of Port Arthur in February 1904 . The Russo-Japanese War turned out to be a debacle for Russia. Russia suffered several heavy defeats in the defense of Port Arthur and subsequent skirmishes. This was also the case in the Battle of Mukden , today's Shenyang , in March 1905. The sea ​​battle of Tsushima in early May 1905 sealed the Russian defeat, as it led to the almost complete loss of the Russian fleet . Thus Russia now also lost its dominance in the Far East. In addition to the loss of prestige for the Russian tsarist empire externally, the defeat also resulted in a loss of authority internally. The economic situation in the country deteriorated noticeably due to a recession . Unemployment in the industrial centers rose rapidly due to the lack of government contracts, and there were difficulties in agriculture as export markets collapsed. The social grievances that became more apparent as a result of the war and the economic crisis led to growing dissatisfaction in large circles. Individual revolutionary groups such as the Social Revolutionaries or the Polish Socialist Party Józef Piłsudskis received aid through the Japanese embassy in Stockholm .

The bloody suppression of a peaceful demonstration on the so-called Bloody Sunday of January 9th jul. / January 22, 1905 greg. was in this situation the trigger for nationwide unrest, which u. a. also encroached on the Baltic provinces . The opposition to the unconditionally ruling tsarist regime united very different opposition groups in the following months: bourgeois and noble liberals, peasants and servants without land, social revolutionaries and the already well organized socialist workers' movement were involved in the revolution.

course

Protesters on St. Petersburg Bloody Sunday

Since the government needed public approval to wage war with Japan, it allowed a congress in St. Petersburg in November 1904. The demands for reforms made at this congress, however, were ignored by the government. Workers in the companies where they were employed had to queue for a small piece of bread for several nights and were dissatisfied. In the beginning, only women from St. Petersburg companies went on strike. But when it was learned that the bread had been deliberately hoarded and was only given to them in small pieces, the men joined in and went on strike. The priest Georgi Apollonowitsch Gapon called for demonstrations. On January 9th, July / January 22, 1905 greg. , which would go down in history as Petersburg's Bloody Sunday , about 150,000 workers marched peacefully and unarmed to the Winter Palace to proclaim their demands for human rights , an electoral law and a legislative parliament , economic relief and the eight-hour day . The crowd in front of the palace was unexpectedly shot down by the Russian army . The at least 130 fatalities and around 1,000 injured, as well as the outrage over the violent suppression of the peaceful workers' demonstrations, led to the solidarity of many workers and to a radicalization and mobilization of the population.

On February 4th jul. / February 17,  1905 greg. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov , the Tsar's brother and Governor General of Moscow, was assassinated. A flood of input from all walks of life followed. Students, partly supported by the teaching staff of their universities, protested against the government at banquets. Angry peasants refused to pay rents and taxes or appropriated the farmland of the landlords, and in the cities the workers went on strike . Mutinies in the fleet followed, for example the mutiny on the liner Potemkin on June 14th July. / June 27th greg. . After the ship entered Odessa , where a general strike took place, tsarist troops wreaked havoc in the days that followed to suppress the unrest. Furthermore, there were anti-Jewish pogroms . These events were discussed in the 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin .

The liberal-democratic movement, referring to the 1864 introduced zemstvo supported and elected representatives of cities, demanded in several conferences from hitherto autocratic ruling Tsar the introduction of a Parliament with the power to legislate. A concept by Aleksander Grigorievich Bulygin , who was appointed Minister of the Interior on January 20, only provided for the convening of a Duma with an advisory vote. This draft was rejected in September 1905 by another Zemstvo conference as a " reactionary freak".

The disappointment with the Tsar's reluctance to concession and with the Portsmouth Peace , which was shameful for Russia and ended the war with Japan, caused the situation to escalate again. A railway strike called in October 1905 blocked long-distance traffic throughout the Russian Empire. A general strike was called in Petersburg, which hit the whole country by mid-October. On October 13th, Jul. / October 26th,  1905 greg. the first Soviet met on the initiative of the printers , in which the deputy chairman Leon Trotsky played a leading role. The leader of the Bolsheviks , Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , returned from exile and, mistakenly assuming that the tsarist regime had already been defeated, called on workers and peasants to revolutionize the liberal bourgeoisie . A first forerunner had already emerged in May 1905 in the Ivanowo textile industry .

The government and bureaucracy lost control of the ban on gatherings and press censorship, so that for the first time a kind of public political life emerged in Russia. In this situation, the government gave in: In the October Manifesto of October 17, Jul. / October 30, 1905 greg. , which had been drafted by Sergei Yulievich Witte , Nicholas II promised civil liberties and a legislative assembly of elected representatives. The farmers' wish for land reform was not approved, which is why further peasant uprisings followed, which were bloodily suppressed in the following months.

Results

The largely unsuccessful revolution showed the tsar the discontent in the country. The tsar attempted a tactical retreat through the October Manifesto. With the dissolution of the second State Duma and the introduction of a new electoral law by Nicholas II in June 1907, which ensured the predominance of conservative forces in parliament, the reforms were largely weakened again.

As early as the dissolution of the first Duma in the summer of 1906, some members of the Vyborg Manifesto had unsuccessfully called for the tsarist government to refuse taxes and military service. The weak support of the liberal elite among the common people, which this showed, encouraged the autocratic regime to withdraw the constitutional concessions as soon as it was sure of its military means of power. The October Manifesto split the opposition groups and the revolution ebbed in anticipation of the State Duma fulfilling the reform wishes. As a result, the military restored the old order. The Duma ( people's assembly ) should give the appearance of a constitutional government. In reality, however, the tsar was still ruling autocratically, as the Duma had no right to make decisions in key areas such as the military and court budgets. In addition, the tsar had the right to veto all decisions and votes made in the Duma , as in a house of lords occupied by nobles .

The revolution of 1905 strengthened the desire for national self-determination in the outskirts of the Russian empire - this was an important demand in the Kingdom of Poland, which was then part of Russia, in which strikes and unrest broke out in 1905. Both socialist and national demands were made there, but the defeat of the revolution weakened the socialist labor movement and strengthened nationalist and conservative forces.

Movie

literature

  • Wiktor Marzec: The revolution 1905 to 1907 in the Kingdom of Poland - from the workers' revolt to the national reaction. In: Work - Movement - History . Issue III / 2016, pp. 27–46.
  • David King : Blood & laughter. Caricatures from the 1905 revolution. 1983, ISBN 0-224-02155-9 .

Web links

Commons : Russian Revolution 1905  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Gerd Koenen : The color red. Origins and history of communism. Beck, Munich 2017, p. 613.
  2. Manfred Hildermeier : The Russian Revolution 1905-1921. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 51.
  3. ^ A b Georg von Rauch : Russia from the Crimean War to the October Revolution 1856-1917 . In: Theodor Schieder (Ed.): Handbook of European History, Volume 6: Europe in the Age of Nation-States and European World Politics up to the First World War . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1968, p. 335.
  4. Gerd Koenen: The color red. Origins and history of communism. Beck, Munich 2017, p. 608 ff.
  5. Georg von Rauch: Russia from the Crimean War to the October Revolution 1856-1917 . In: Theodor Schieder (Ed.): Handbook of European History, Volume 6: Europe in the Age of Nation-States and European World Politics up to the First World War . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1968, p. 336.
  6. Christoph Schmidt : Russian history 1547-1917 (= Oldenbourg floor plan of history , vol. 33). Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58721-0 , p. 99 (accessed from De Gruyter Online).
  7. Christoph Schmidt: Russian history 1547-1917 (= Oldenbourg floor plan of history , vol. 33). Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58721-0 , p. 100 f. (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  8. ^ Wiktor Marzec: The Revolution 1905 to 1907 in the Kingdom of Poland - from the workers' revolt to the national reaction. In: Work - Movement - History . Issue III / 2016, pp. 27–46.