The Reign of Nicholas II, the 1905 'Revolution' and 'Counter-Revolution'

Character and coronation

Nicholas II (1894-1917), who was twenty-six when he became Tsar, is said to have lacked the clarity of purpose of his father and to have been ill-prepared for his role. He decided to defend autocracy, and when he was petitioned by moderate zemstvo deputies for constitutional change, he told a deputation form the Tver zemstvo that he was determined to “safeguard the principles of autocracy as firmly and unswervingly as did my late, unforgettable father,” and he dismissed “the senseless dream of participation by zemstvos representatives in affairs of internal administration”. There was an illegal gathering of zemstvo deputies at Nizhniy Novgorod in 1896.

Nicholas II acceded to the throne in 1894 but the coronation was held in May 1896 in Moscow. Celebrations continued for a period afterwards. There was a tragedy at one celebration, when a crowd of nearly half a million assembled in Khodynka Field to receive presents distributed by the Tsar. When the gifts were handed out the crowd pushed forward and a stampede ensued in which between one to five thousand people were crushed or trampled to death. Afterwards there was a feud between Count Vorontsov-Dashkov, head of the ministry of the imperial court, and Grand Duke Serge (Nicholas's uncle), and governor-general of Moscow, as to who was to blame for the inadequate organisation. The enquiry conducted by Count Pahlen apportioned blame to Serge; however, Pahlen was never given an important post as a result, and junior officials were mostly scapegoated; Colonel Vlasonvsky, chief of the Moscow police, was dismissed.

Political Agitation

The actions of the People's Will in 1881 in assassinating Alexander II discredited revolutionary terrorism. However, some were still committed to direct action.

The “father of Russian Marxism” was G.V. Plekhanov, who was in exile in Geneva. He lead one faction of the Marxist movement and was opposed to the use of terrorism. He and his supporters, notably, P.B. Axelrod and Vera Zasulich, wrote polemics against the Populist theories, denouncing them as utopian and unscientific. Plekhanov did not think the Russian peasant was capable of being the means of revolution; the peasant was inherently conservative. Marxists should, according to his views, work for the development of 'class consciousness'. They should not seek to seize power since this would result either in defeat or the creation of a new dictatorship.

During the 1890s Marxism gained ground in the cities, especially St. Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa. Sympathisers started to develop into agitators, for example, they sought to provide leadership during the 1896-7 textile workers strike in St. Petersburg. Both Lenin and the future Menshevik leader, Martov, were arrested as a result of such activity and exiled to Siberia.

During the late 1890s there was a relaxation of censorship and Marxist periodicals started to appear legally. Struve and Bulgakov, the leaders of the 'legal Marxists' rejected some assumptions of Marxism, stressing the importance of the individual. They were opposed by Plekhanov.

There was the problem of bringing all Marxists into a single party. The General Jewish Workers' League ('Bund'), which was founded in 1897, had the strongest local party structure, and it was Jewish activists that brought delegates to the first congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour party (RSDRP) in Minsk in March 1898. However, all but one of the delegates was arrested, which assisted Lenin and Martov, once they returned from Siberia. They jointly commenced publication of the Iskra (The Spark) in December 1900. Lenin created a network of 'agents', who were full-time professional revolutionaries who toured local committees. The RSDRP was centralised and autocratic. His ideas were resisted by some local activists and also by members of the Bund, which wanted the organisation to speak exclusively for the Jewish proletariat. There was a second RSDRP congress in 1903, when the Bund's demands were rejected and members of the Bund walked out. The withdrawal of the Bund gave Lenin a majority in the party. There was a split in the party. The Iskra was controlled by the Mensheviks, but the Central Committee was controlled by the Bolsheviks. At grass roots level there was often cooperation between the two factions, but the split was never healed.

The agrarian socialists and liberals were supported by the sociologist N.K. Mikhaylovsky, editor of the Russkoye bogatstvo (Russia's Wealth). He was opposed to Marxist determinism. The theories of the Legal Populists were adopted by the new Socialist Revolutionary (SR) party, which was formed in 1891 through the amalgamation of several Popularist groups. They advocated expropriation of noble and state lands without compensation. The land would be transferred to village communes and administered by the communes in the traditional way. The SRs were opposed to a dictatorship of the proletariat, and were the only party to represent peasants.

The SRs used terror. Their 'Combat Group', set up by G.A. Gershuni, was responsible for the assassinations of two successive ministers of the interior, D.S. Sipyagin (1902) and V.K. Plehve (1904). They also assassinated the education minister, N.P. Bogolepov (1901) and the governor of the Ufa province. Protection for government officials was not complete, and the campaign of terror did weaken the regime.

There was also liberal opposition to tsarism. In the late 1890s liberal zemstvo deputies were led by D.N. Shipov. Their main demand was a consultative assembly. But other liberals demanded more. They published an underground newspaper called the Osvobozhdenie.

The government benefited from the divides between the different opposition groups and also from the divides between the groups representing different nationalities and ethic minorities.

The Russo-Japanese War 1904/5

Up to 1905 Russia had an aggressive policy in the Far East. She sought an ice-free port and to divert attention within Russia from domestic problems. Witte blamed Plehve, the Minister of the Interior, for the war, but modern research shows that it was Witte who favoured the war and Plehve who opposed it.

In 1895 the Japanese occupied territories in China, taking over several ports, including the winter port, Port Arthur. In 1900 the Boxer rebellion gave Russia a pretext to send Russian troops into Manchuria. Japan and Britain allied as a consequence and forced Russia to agree to withdraw the troops.

There was conflict with Japan over control of Korea. A retired Russian cavalry officer, Bezobrazov, concocted a plan to set up a private Russian company there, supported by armed men, and so take over the country. The Japanese were aware of this and requested clarification from St. Petersburg; their emissaries and ambassador were denied an audience with the Tsar, who in fact was the financial backer of Bezobrazov's scheme. Nicholas also appointed Admiral Eugene Alexiev as Viceroy of the Far East, and Alexiev boasted that Japan would get a thrashing. Thus the Russians provoked war in 1904 by rejecting Japanese proposals to settle the Korean question. The Japanese proposed a treaty to determine their separate spheres of influence, but this was turned down by the Russians.

The war between Japan and Russia commenced on 8 February, 1904 when Japanese ships launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur. There was initially patriotic fervour in Russia, but this soon died away. Although the Russian army was larger than the Japanese, it was poorly equipped, and the lines of communication were inadequate. The military leadership was also poor. General A.N. Kuropatkin assumed overall command, but he lacked the ability to bring about a coordinated effort. The Japanese attacked Port Arthur and in January 1905 it fell. They also drove the Russians out of Mukden in February 1905.

The Russian Pacific fleet was soon defeated, and Grand Duke Alexis ordered reconditioned ships from the Baltic fleet to sail to the Far East as a second Pacific Squadron. The Russian Baltic fleet took eight months to sail to the Far East but this Second Pacific Squadron was defeated at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 Grand Duke Alexis was blamed for the defeat, and forced to resign.

Russia was forced to sue for peace, which was brokered by the US. The peace treaty was signed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in September 1905. Witte represented Russia at the negotiations. Russia withdrew from Manchuria and the Japanese gained Korea and Port Arthur. The Russian defeat exposed inadequacies in her military and the incompleteness of the trans-Siberian railway. Russia was not the great imperial power it was cracked up to be.

The 1905 'Revolution'

In July 1904, Vyacheslav Plehve, the minister of internal affairs was assassinated, to be succeed by Prince Peter Svyatopolk-Mirsky. Mirsky was a liberal, and he produced a ten-point programme of reforms; however, he was warned by members of the Imperial family, Grand Duke Serge in particular, that the Tsar would not approve them.

As the war progressed badly for the Russians, domestic unrest increased, particularly in Moscow, where Grand Duke Serge was still governor-general. However, Serge resigned as governor-general, though remaining commander of the city's military forces. In January 1905 there were widespread strikes in St. Petersburg, commencing in engineering factories, but soon spreading to other sectors.

Grand Duke Serge was assassinated by Ivan Kalyaev using a grenade in February 1905. Security was increased, but none of the Imperial family attended the funeral, on the advice of the police, for fear of further assassination attempts.

During 1904 Father George Gapon set up, with police toleration, a benevolent association for workers in St. Petersburg. They wrote a 'most humble and loyal address' complaining about their conditions of existence. They requested an eight-hour working day, higher wages, grievance committees in factories, equality before the law and freedom of speech, press, association and worship. There were some concessions made to this movement. For example, there were elections of representatives to a government commission on industrial unrest.

On Sunday 9th January, 1905 Father Gapon led a demonstration of 100,000 working men, which marched towards the Winter Palace. They were fired upon by soldiers, causing many casualties, including over 100 dead and up to 2000 wouned. This event has come to be known as 'Bloody Sunday'. This action was followed by a wave of protests throughout the empire.

The Tsar blamed Gapon as the “socialist priest” and Syvatopolk-Mirsky for his ten-point proposals that had created false expectations. Syvatopolk-Mirsky was forced to resign, and was replaced by Alexander Bulygin. The Tsar agreed to the establishment of a consultative assembly (a Duma), and that the people would be granted the right of petition.

It is arguable whether the protests were or were not the product of a developing 'class consciousness'. Employers resisted workers' demands and there was also the threat of increasing unemployment. Workers started to organise themselves, developing workers' councils (soviets) during 1905. There were 23.5 million working days lost in 1905 owing to strike action.

Protests were particularly violent in Russian Poland, which was badly hit by the recession following the Russo-Japanese war. In the five days following the Bloody Sunday events 64 protestors were killed by Russian troops. Troops were called to assist at 2,700 police actions between January and October 1905.

There was strong protest also in the Baltic region as was the Transcaucasian region, where there was a serious strike of railwaymen. In Baku there was a pogrom by Azerbaijani mobs against Armenian residents, who retaliated. There was an anti-Semitic pogrom in Odessa in October, resulting in 7,000 — 8,000 casualties.

During May to July 1905 the unrest spread to rural Russia — there were 300 incidents on average each month. There was another peak of unrest in November, and yet another in the early summer of 1906. A secret meeting of the Peasant Union held near Moscow in July 1905 called for the abolition of all private property.

The war with Japan was concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth (USA) on 29th August. This enabled the government to recall troops. However, there was a lot of discontent among the troops, but no open mutiny. On the other hand, in the Black Sea fleet there was discontent, and a dispute over the inedibility of rations led to a successful mutiny on the Battleship Prince Potemkin on 14th June, 1905. The battleship sailed to Odessa.

Zemstvo and municipal deputies met in several congresses. Academics and professionals formed associations that combined to create the League of Unions. Their leader was historian Milyukov.

Witte was asked for advice. He told the Tsar either to install a dictator or to accede to the protestors demands. The Tsar asked Grand Duke Nicholas to take on the role of henchman, but the Grand Duke persuaded the Tsar to follow the other path. Thus the Tsar published his 'October manifesto' on 17th October. The Tsar sought to restore order, and thereafter dispense with the services of Witte. The liberals wanted Witte to remove all reactionaries from government, but Witte was obliged to keep a number of them in office, including P.N. Durnovo as interior minister. Real power still lay with Tsar and his advisers, chief of who was Trepov. Nonetheless, there was a relaxation of the censorship laws. On the other hand, repressive measures followed. The St. Petersburg soviet had 500 members and was controlled by Mensheviks. Lev Trotsky, also a Menshevik at that time, was important in this soviet. This soviet called for a political strike in November, whereat its nominal head was arrested. On the 3rd December, all the members of the soviet were arrested. A poorly prepared attempt at an armed uprising was attempted, and in Moscow there were 1,000 or so barricades erected. However, these were shelled by loyal troops with the loss of 1,000 lives. A reprisal ensued and about 20,000 people were either jailed or exiled.

'Constitutional' Politics

Between 1905 and 1914 there were two main liberal parties prior to 1914 - Octobrists and Kadets. The Octobrists are called after Nicholas II's October 1905 Manifesto. They were supporters of tsarism that wanted reform. Members were mainly industrialists and landowners. Guchkov, who owned factories and Rodzianko, a landowner, were leaders of this group and became members of the Provisional government in 1917.

The term Kadets derives from “Constitutional Democrats”. They wanted a constitutional monarchy in Russia with democratic institutions. They supported citizen rights, freedom of speech, land reform, trade union recognition and universal, free education. Their supporters were progressive landlords, small industrial leaders and academics. Their leader was Paul Milyukov, who was a professor of history.

A decree of 20 February, 1906 made the State Council the 'upper house' of the legislature, and the agreement of both chambers was required for a bill to be submitted to the Tsar for approval. Furthermore, this decree was issued on the Tsar's 'supreme Autocratic authority' thus signalling that Nicholas did not regard himself as bound by the October manifesto. The legislature was also not permitted to control expenditure on the court or armed forces.

The socialists in the main refused to participate in the elections for the First Duma, which lasted from 27th April to 9th July 1906. The Duma was dominated by Kadets. Witte obtained a massive loan from foreign banks that enabled the regime to remain solvent for a year, so it was not dependent on the Duma. However, Witte resigned. Neither the conservatives nor the socialists wanted a parliamentary Kadet government. The Tsar dissolved the Duma, but 200 deputies went to Vyborg in Finland, from where they called for a nationwide campaign of passive resistance, but without result.

There was an upswing in terror. Hundreds of officials, including ordinary policemen and bank clerks, were killed. The two daughters of the new chief minister, P.A. Stolypin, were injured in a bomb blast in August at his St. Petersburg home; all in all there 68 people injured, 27 of whom were killed. Stolypin responded with extraordinary calm. He sought to make the new constitutional system work. However, he was also prepared to use non-legal methods to restore law and order, and agreed to the summary trial and execution of suspects, not following the usual procedures. Within eight months 1,144 people had been executed, and 779 had been sentenced to exile. Ascher, in his work The Revolution of 1905, argues that the measures taken to restore law and order were excessive, and widened the gap between the state and society.

Thus it was not possible for the government to work with the Second Duma either (20 February — 3 June 1907). There were more conservatives and right-wingers in this Duma than before, and the influence of the Kadets was reduced. The Duma was dissolved after an incident in which a Social Democrat member, Zurabov, made a verbal attack on the army. The government investigated whether they could charge the parliamentary SD party with treason, but without success. The liberals refused to support a suspension of parliamentary immunity from prosecution, and the Duma was dissolved. The government made fundamental changes to the franchise, and significantly reduced the representation of the lower classes, thus completing the 'counter-Revolution'.

There was the problem of agrarian reform. The system of communal ownership in fact fostered egalitarian and revolutionary sentiment among the peasants. The peasants wanted redistribution of state and nobles' land to themselves, and the SRs successfully campaigned on this ticket. In response Stolypin undertook a policy of agrarian reform — he aimed to create a class of property-owning yeomen farmers to act as the basis of stability in the countryside. He introduced it by decree using Article 87 of the 'constitution', thus dispensing with the Duma. It was introduced while the Duma was in recess; on 9 November, 1906 a decree was passed giving every head of family the right to claim his own property; furthermore, this land could be consolidated into a single plot if that head of family was successful in gaining a 2/3rds vote in the commune. Whilst the redistribution was supposed to be voluntary, from 1910 onwards force was used to bring it into effect. Stolypin stated that this policy would require 20 years of peace to succeed, and the First World war intervened, so it is not possible to evaluate its effect. Stolypin was assassinated in 1911. It was least successful where there was overpopulation — that is, in the centre of Russia. All in all about 2.5 million householders were granted title to their property accounting for 9% of all peasant land; but of these only 1/4 were enclosed. So the policy had hardly taken root by the onset of the First World war. One problem was the cost of enclosure, since farmers who enclosed land would have to provide their own drains and the like.

The Third Duma lasted its full term from 1907 to 1912. It was tailored to suit the needs of the government, but relations between it and the government were strained nonetheless. At first the Octobrists, those committed to cooperation with the government on the basis of the October manifesto, lead the Duma, and they agreed to cooperate with the policy of agrarian and local government reform. However, they objected to the regime's use of illegal methods. The Octobrists advocated reform of the army and navy, but this infringed on the tsar's prerogative. In 1909 the Tsar refused to ratify a bill increasing naval expenditure because he deemed that the Duma did not have the right to debate this matter. Conflict of this kind undermined the support Stolypin had in the Duma. In 1910 he sought to govern in alliance with the right-wing Russian Nationalist party, created in 1909. But he lost the support of this group as well, when, in March 1911 he introduced a bill to establish zemstvos in the western provinces, but this was rejected by the aristocrats in the State Council. The Tsar agreed to suspend the council for three days, and make the policy law under article 87. As a result Stolypin lost all support in the Duma. When he was assassinated a number of months later, the Tsar expressed his relief.

Stolypin was followed by Kokovtsov as premier. There followed a period of scandal. One was a charge of ritual murder against a Jewish clerk in Kiev, M. Beilis. Beilis was tried and acquitted in 1913, which discredited the government. Another scandal concerned the conduct of Rasputin.

There was also right-wing terror. Conservative monarchists in 1905 created organisations to fight 'anarchy'; the most important of these was the Union of Russian People, led by A.I. Dubrovin, which won support among lower-class tradesmen. Such groups were responsible for instigating pogroms and the assassination of Jewish politicians.

The left-wing parties were in retreat following the 'counter-revolution'. The SRs were discredited when it emerged in 1909 that one of the terrorist organisers, Yevno Azef, had been a police spy. The Bolsheviks were split when a group under A.A. Bogdanov and A.V. Lunacharsky developed a religious version of communism with the concept of a collective self-sacrifice. Lenin used bandit raids to raise funds, but this was publicly exposed by Martov in 1911. However, the Bolsheviks were successful in replacing the Mensheviks in trade unions and other working-class organisations. In 1912 there was a massacre of striking workers at the Lena goldfields, which marked an upswing in activity, which Lenin was best placed to exploit.

The Bolshevik/Menshevik Split

Within the Social Democratic party, Vladimir Ulynov, known as Lenin, was active in advocating direct action. His brother had been executed in 1887 for involvement in an attempted assassination of Alexander III. Lenin was politically active from 20 and in exile in Siberia when the SD Party was formed. He returned to Western Russia in 1900 and founded with Julius Martov the party paper, Iskra (The Spark), advocating direct action. He hoped that worsening industrial conditions would make the industrial proletariat more revolutionary. Lenin acknowledged that the leaders of the revolution would have to be drawn from the intelligentsia. He rejected the idea of trade union leadership and wrote in What is to be Done? - a 1902 pamphlet - that “trade unionism signifies the mental enslavement of the workers to the bourgeoisie.”

Martov opposed Lenin because he believed that Lenin was seeking to become party dictator. The SD congress was evenly divided between the two men. Lenin claimed that he represented the majority and his group became known as the Bolsheviks. (Bolshevik = majority.) They split and by 1912 they were separate Marxist parties. Martov started his own paper (Vyperod = Forward.) The Bolshevik daily paper (Pravda = The Truth) was published from 1912 onwards. The Mensheviks believed that Russia was not yet ready for the Revolution. It was a mass party with democratic procedures and prepared to ally with other revolutionary parties. The Bolsheviks believed that a revolution could be achieved without the bourgeois stage; they restricted membership of the party, in which authority was vested in a Central Committee. They would not cooperate with other parties.

The success of Bolshevism has made Lenin and the Bolsheviks seem more important up to 1917 than they were. In fact, Lenin and his party were marginal prior to 1917 - they were surprised by the events of 1905 and had only 5,000 - 10,000 members up to 1914 and only 25,000 members in February 1917.