Preview

Why did the 1905 Russian Revolution break out, and how significant was the 1905 Revolution in bringing about political change by 1912?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
844 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why did the 1905 Russian Revolution break out, and how significant was the 1905 Revolution in bringing about political change by 1912?
The 1905 Russian Revolution was the first of the revolutions that took place in attempt to overthrow Russia 's Tsarist (or Imperial Autocracy) regime. The revolution broke out in 1905 because of the public unrest and economic depression caused by the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-5; and because of the "Bloody Sunday" of January 9th, 1905. The significance of the 1905 Revolution was determined by the October Manifesto, which was the Tsar 's response to the revolution, and by the Tsarist-opposing parties realisation after the Tsar 's issuing of the Fundamental Laws.

In 1904 the Tsar Nicholas II 's Minister of the Interior, Plehve, recommended to him that Russia expanded its Empire in the Far East and in doing so create "a small victorious war to stop the revolutionary tide". The resulting Russo-Japanese war was a failure for the Russians, as the Japanese seized Port Arthur and destroyed most of the Russian fleet. The war ended in 1905 with Russia defeated by Japan. Although the resulting peace treaty (the Treaty of Portsmouth) was relatively easy on the Russians, the defeat was humiliating as Japan was only a second-rate power and should have been easily defeated by Russia, one of the five great powers of the time. The war itself caused significant economic strife in Russia, creating food shortages and mass unemployment. This, added to the public opinion that the war with Japan had been completely unnecessary, created unrest among the Russian population, and many of those who were upset blamed the Tsar.

On January 9th 1905 the Leader of the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers, Father Gapon, led 150,000 workers to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to hand the Tsar (also known to the people as the "Little Father" of Russia) a petition asking for the release of political prisoners; freedom of speech, press, meetings and conscience in religion; universal and compulsory education; responsibility of the ministers before the people; and equality before the law of all. The



Bibliography: "Lenin and the Russian Revolution" by Steve Phillips, published 2000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_1905 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/1905_russian_revolution.htm

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Chapter 27 Review

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    7: In 1905 a revolt was caused by the loss of the Russo-Japanese war. The Tsar tried to calm the people by reforming but eventually took away rights and the reforms fell apart.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1985, Russia had persuaded Japan to give up Port Arthur and the Liaotung Peninsula to her. There were agreements that followed with China which helped furthermore influence these Russian decisions. However the Japanese opposed this expansion. Although the Japanese had countered the Russian proposals, a peaceful solution was still certainly possible. Although without the restraining influence of Witte, the Russian ministers advised the Tsar to ignore it. One of the Russian ministers even said that `a short victorious war would stem the tide of revolution`, it was this type of attitude which would lead the Tsar to the end of his reign as the Japanese were angered by this. The Japanese’s requests for negotiations were ignored. This then prompted the Japanese to attack and in February 1904 they attacked the Russian fleet stationed in Port Arthur while the Japanese army cleared the Korean peninsula of Russian troops.…

    • 578 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The February Revolution of 1917 brought the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty to an end. I believe that the immediate cause of the February Revolution of 1917 was the collapse of the Tsarist regime under the gigantic strain of World War I. The underlying cause was the backward economic condition of the country, which made it unable to sustain the war effort against powerful, industrialized Germany. All the other contributing factors only had a slight impact, I believe that they were not as important as the Great War.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chemical Changes Lab

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One way to test a material for the presence of sodium bicarbonate is to take a sample and add HCl (Hydrochloric Acid) and see if a chemical reaction (bubbling, releasing Carbon Dioxide) occurs. If this chemical reaction does occur, then the material does in fact contain Sodium Bicarbonate.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 1905 Revolution was brought about by Bloody Sunday, this attack from the Tsar’s army on innocent peaceful protestors was the trigger for the revolution. Many other reasons throughout the years leading up to 1905 lead to the revolution. To understand fully why the revolution took place you need to understand all of the political reforms or the fact that there were not enough.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Russian revolution which began in 1905 was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian empire.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Russia was a huge country with millions of extremely poor farming peasants. These peasants lived horrible lives, many were starting to wonder why the tsar had all the wealth and they had none. In 1905 Russian Revolution was sparked off by a peaceful protest held on January 22nd. Thousands of demonstrators such as students, factory workers, revolutionaries, doctors and teachers marched through the cold and snow covered streets of St Petersburg to Winter Palace to protest about their lifestyle, led by a Russian Orthodox priest, Father Gapon. When the peaceful protestors arrived they were confronted by troops, which they fired on the crowd. After the firing had finished several hundred protestors lay dead, this event was called ‘Bloody Sunday’.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Furthermore he decided to take matters into his own hands by becoming Commander in Chief . He thought that his tactics,maneouvering and royal presence would win Russia the war . Unfortunately this did not go as planned, and Russia was defeated. Although they had lost the war , Nicholas as a leader had stepped up and tried to make his country victorious . It was his lack of military experience that had devasted the Russian army , not a weakness in his character .Nevertheless, Russian citizens seen this as another failure in their leader, as they suffered more losses than any other country.This damaged Russias morale.The people had ,had…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As unrest intensified, so did the number of protests where held. Angry workers where trying to improve there working conditions and to start with these protests where very peaceful. On the 9th of January 1905, a peaceful demonstration marched the streets of St Petersburg, asking for improved pay and working conditions. The Tsar then ordered the Imperial Guard to ensure the procession went no further. The Imperial Guard had had very little crowd control…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Middle class- There was a lack of common purpose between Russia’s different social classes. They organised themselves by autumn of 1905 into soviets but spent most of the year protesting in spontaneous strikes/ marches. The peasants were too widely distributed and isolated to have a common organised leadership. Their protests were traditional peasant ones of burning manor records and rioting against redemption dues. In other words they were limited to self-interested economic motives rather than any hopes for revolutionary change in the system of government. The middle class were feeling they were unrepresented as little change occurred, and very little change affected them.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The point of view used in a novel plays a vital role in a reader’s experience. When an author chooses to use a first-person point of view, the audience is limited to the experiences and thoughts of the narrator. This results in a one-sided view of the plot. Using a first-person narrator also controls how much knowledge the reader is granted. When the narrator is detached from the conflict in the story, the reader’s information is limited. In contrast, when the narrator is more involved, so is the reader. “The Corn Planting” and “In Another County” both utilize first-person narrators to reveal important information about the hardships and grief of the other characters.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nationalism is defined as follows: patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts. The definition suites the aspect of the Russian people of the time, however they felt patriotic towards many separatists, not the Tsar. Nicholas II failed to unit his people under one patriotic belt. After riots of Bloody Sunday, many citizens became loyal to a man named Gapon. Gapon was a “socialist priest” (Warth 88). Gapon further led to the dis-functionality of Nicholas II in WWI by forcing him to focus on riots at home rather than his armies, along with putting workers out of the factories protesting for better conditions. On January 6, 1905, Gapon wrote a petition to Nicholas II that addressed the fact he was unaware of his people’s needs. “The Tsar does not know of our needs, and we will tell him,” (Warth 90) is what Gapon preached to his followers as they roared in confidence for change, further blowing the bubble of Nicholas II’s control closer to the bursting point. On January 19, 1905 after riots got increasingly bloodier and he further dug his whole among his people, Nicholas II proposed a manifesto for workers to “air their complaints” (Warth 99.) As a result, he retracted his idea for a more “monarchy friendly” approach as to receive a deputation of “reliable workers.” This however, led to verbal and physical abuse of the deputies and engulfed mistrust further among the working-class citizens towards the monarchy. With failing to unite his people under the wing of the monarchy, Nicholas II’s armies were feeling the hurt from home. Work related crisis along with food shortages affected not only the production of Russia’s citizens but the might of Nicholas II’s armies. At Tannenberg…

    • 1728 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The war was centered around Russia and Japan’s dispute over control of Manchuria and Korea. When Japan inquired about taking control over Manchuria and keeping their current control of Korea since it was apprehensive of Russia’s growing power in the region. Russia declined this offer, and after several negotiation attempts, Japan decided it was time to go to war. The Tzar of Russia at the time, Nicholas II, was convinced by his advisors that Japan would never attempt a military assault, so they were completely blindsided by Japan’s surprise attack on Port Arthur in February of 1904. This attack was quite successful for the Japanese, as only two Japanese ships were damaged while nearly all of the Russian ships were destroyed, with only one making it to another port.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Nationwide Revolution

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In 1905 the massacre of innocent people during a peaceful protest outside the winter palace in St Petersburg sparked the start of a nationwide revolution. This mass murder of the innocent protestors became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’. During the revolution strikes occurred across the nation involving more than 400,000 people, peasants attacked and raided the homes of their landlords and the Tsar’s uncle, the Grand Duke Sergei, was assassinated. Although Bloody Sunday was the immediate reason for the revolution, there were several causes which had caused long term grievances towards the Tsarist regime among the population of Russia leading up to 1905. These include the developments in the countryside and the lives of the peasants, the treatment of the inner-city working class and ethnic minorities, the repression and growth of the political opposition and the impact of the Russo Japanese war. Although all these factors contributed to the initiation of a revolution in Russia, I believe that the attitudes towards and treatment of the working class and the peasants was the most prominent reason for the uprising in 1905.…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Russian revolution of 1917 saw the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy in February and the seizure of power by the Bolshevik party in October.The Bolsheviks proceeded to establish the world’s first Communist state on a territory covering one-sixth of the globe. A series of events and ideas led to the October revolution, each significant in its own capacity.…

    • 3563 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics