Russo Japanese War

How far was the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 revolution?
This essay will be arguing the impact of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 on the outbreak of the 1905 revolution. I believe that other factors were more significant in the start of revolution which will be outlined throughout the essay.
On one hand the Russo-Japanese war did contribute to the outbreak of revolution to a large extent. Russia was an expansionist power and wanted to increase their control over the Far East, in doing so they became in direct conflict with another expansionist power, Japan. Both wanted control over northern China and Korea, this led to a yearlong war. This war resulted in a humiliating surrender on behalf of the Russians. One consequence of this was that the Russian people lost trust in the Tsar after the national humiliation of having a country as small as Japan beat a country that takes up 1/6 of the world’s surface. This lead to the support of the Tsar being undermined and a public unrest. As the people cannot trust the Tsar, why would the need him in power any longer. They were no longer able to trust his decisions especially as he was the only one in power and had ultimate control of the country; this means that the Tsar would have to be replaced with a more stable and more suitable form of control. Therefore being responsible for the outbreak of revolution due to this new need for a stronger government, with the Tsar having complete power the only way to achieve this was through uprisings and revolution.
However I believe that other factors were more significant to the eruption of revolution, but these causes were the direct consequence of long term resentment and discontent. Previous and during 1905 Russia had both social and economic issues which built up large amounts of bitterness and doubt towards the Tsar and his way of ruling the country. Firstly, peasants made up 80% of the Russian population, most of which were living in poverty especially because of the rapid increase in population (increased by 27 million in 20 years). Peasant landholdings fell and there were many harvest failures so the whole population couldn’t be fed, leading to famines which were becoming extremely common. This led to Jacqueries which were attacks on government officials, possibly the beginnings of revolution. In addition, agricultural problems were not the only concern economically. Despite the growth of the economy due to Wittes economic plan and the increase in industrialisation, this seemed to produce more problems rather than reduce the current issues. These new issues were based around the poor living and working conditions of the factory workers (dirty, cramped and full of disease) and also the long hours with little pay to show for it. With both the agriculture and industrial work forces collapsing, Russia was becoming weaker and poorer. Furthermore, these problems (famine) were continuous and happened over several years yet the Tsar had done nothing to prove to the people that he was capable of stopping the discontent and helping his people. Consequently , the Tsar was useless to the people and he needed to be replaced by a political solution that would benefit all.
Secondly there were long term political causes that would influence the later revolution. This was mainly due to the Autocratic rule. There was no democracy and no national parliament was elected, most were appointed by the Tsar himself. All that was elected was the Zemstva. After influences from western culture and their democratic rulers, the people of Russia began to see how this was unfair and decided in order to achieve their goals they would need a better government in place.
Both of these long term issues led to consequences that directly influence the 1905 revolution. Peasant uprisings and strikes became extremely common and disrupted everyday life in Russia. Most strikes were peaceful, including the 9th of January, when 150,000 workers demonstrated outside the Tsar’s winter palace. The aims was to present a petition which wanted reforms. However as the Tsar was not there the military took control of the situation and open fired on the protestors killing and injuring the protestors. This is referred to “Bloody Sunday” which I would argue was the spark that ignited the revolution. This was a result of years of repression and resentment on behalf of the people.
In conclusion I would argue that the influence of the Russo-Japanese war was limited and the majority of responsibility fell with previous difficulties in Russia, such as years of famines and repression. The people had built up this anger and hatred and “Bloody Sunday” was just the trigger that released it all in the form of the 1905 revolution.