Russian Revolution of 1905
The Russian Revolution of 1905 is also called the First Russian Revolution. It started on January 22, 1905, with many protests and unrest across the Russian Empire.[1] This unrest led to the creation of a constitutional monarchy with the Russian Constitution of 1906.
Many different groups were unhappy and took action, including workers on strike, peasants revolting, and soldiers mutinying. These actions were against Tsar Nicholas II, the nobility, and the ruling class. Because of the pressure, they had to make changes, such as creating the State Duma (a legislative body) and allowing a multi-party system.[2]
Reasons for the Revolution
- Unhappy Peasants: Poor peasants were angry because their landlords treated them badly and the old semi-feudal system continued.
- Russo-Japanese War: Russia lost the war against Japan, which made people more upset.
- Economic Problems: A recession starting in 1899 led to many people in cities losing their jobs.
Key Events
- Bloody Sunday (1905): On January 22, 1905, workers marched peacefully to the tsar's Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. The guards shot at them, causing many deaths and injuries.[3]
- Widespread Protests: Demonstrations and strikes spread across the empire, but the tsar's troops violently suppressed them.[4]
- Potemkin Mutiny: In June, sailors on the battleship Potemkin revolted.
- General Strike: In October, railway workers went on strike, which grew into a general strike in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The striking workers formed councils, like the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, to discuss their plans.
Russian Revolution Of 1905 Media
Subdivisions of the Russian Empire in 1897 (uyezd level)
French ethnic map of European Russia from 1898. In accordance with official "All-Russian" ideology of the time, the group labelled "Russians" includes not only what are considered Russians today (here called "Great Russians"), but also Belarusians ("White Russians") and Ukrainians ("Little Russians").
January 9, 1905. Cavalrymen at the Pevchesky Bridge block the march of the protesters to the Winter Palace
Artistic impression of Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg
Artistic impression of the mutiny by the crew of the battleship Potemkin against the ship's officers on 14 June 1905
A barricade erected by revolutionaries in Moscow during Moscow uprising of 1905
The Soviet of Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg in 1905, Trotsky in the center. The soviets were an early example of a workers council.
Barricades in Nizhny Novgorod, during the December uprising of 1905
A locomotive overturned by striking workers at the main railway depot in Tiflis in 1905
Ilya Repin, 17 October 1905. Russians celebrating the granting of the October Manifesto by Nicholas II, which led to the granting of the 1906 Constitution.
.svg)
.jpg)
References
- ↑ Ascher, Abraham. The Revolution of 1905: Russia in Disarray (in en) (1988)Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2327-5.
- ↑ O'Connor, Kevin. The history of the Baltic States. The Greenwood histories of the modern nations (2003). Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-32355-3.
- ↑ O'Connor, Kevin. The history of the Baltic States. The Greenwood histories of the modern nations (2003). Westport (Conn.): Greenwood press. ISBN 978-0-313-32355-3.
- ↑ Salisbury, Harrison E.. Black night, white snow: Russia's revolutions, 1905-1917. A Da Capo paperback (1981). New York, N.Y: Da Capo. ISBN 978-0-306-80154-9.