A. Russian Marxism
The revival of opposition to the tsar came with the famine of
1891-1892. The Marxists, the populists and the liberals were the
main forces at work against the monarchy. Plekhanov, the grand
daddy of Russian Marxism, had founded the "Liberation of
Labor" back in 1883. Lenin and Martov organized the "Fighting
Union for the Liberation of the Working Class" in 1895. These
groups adopted new tactics: agitation among the ranks of the proletariat.
In part the result this agitation was a wave major strikes in
the late 1890s, like the St. Petersburg textile strike of 1896-1897.
A new coalition of Marxists took place in 1898 when the Russian
Social Democratic Party was founded in Minsk. Lenin had little
to do with this since he was in exile in Siberia between 1895
and 1900.
But Russian Marxism was still full of strife and as a result ineffectual.
Its newspaper, Iskra, founded in 1900, pushed for unity among
the various factions. At the famous Congress of the Russian Social
Democratic Party in 1903 there was a fight for control of the
newspaper and hence the main organ of propaganda and ideology.
Whoever controlled the newspaper could more or less determine
the ideological slant of the movement. At the 1903 Congress Lenin's
group for a short time managed to get a majority in the Central
Committee and on the board of directors of Iskra. They called
themselves Bolsheviks, which means majority. "In this inconspicuous
manner Bolshevism...slipped almost unnoticed into a hostile world."
A group led by Leon Trotsky had lost the fight in 1903 and thus
received the name of Mensheviks, meaning minority. But in 1904
the Mensheviks had captured control of the Central Committee and
hence Iskra. Lenin then resigned and began to publish his own
newspaper called Forward (1906). The conflict between these two
major marxist groups went on. A perfunctory reconciliation at
the 4th Congress in 1906 at Stockholm soon broke apart. At the
Prague Congress in 1912 the Bolsheviks expelled the Mensheviks
from the party. So the Mensheviks convened in Vienna under Trotsky's
leadership.
The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks disagreed on two main points:
1. the philosophy of history which involved the attitude toward
bourgeois liberalism;
2. the nature of party organization.
The Mensheviks believe there must be bourgeois democratic republic
as a necessary first stage toward revolution. So the party should
align itself with regular liberal parties to help destroy monarchy
and build a democratic republic. The Bolsheviks insisted that
they should set up a dictatorship of the proletariat immediately.
There could therefore be no alliance with the bourgeoisie. The
bourgeoisie could be used as a tool to help achieve this aim,
but never as an ally. The Mensheviks are in favor of democratic
administration of the party, while the Bolsheviks insist on authoritarian
centralism.
B. Social Revolutionaries
The populists transformed themselves into the Social Revolutionaries
during the 1890s. Formally the Social Revolutionary Party was
founded at Kharkov in 1900 with a program of social democracy.
Gershuni, Goetz, Breshko-Breshkovsky and Victor Chernov were its
leaders. At the first congress of the party in Finland in 1905-1906
the following program was announced:
The "Terrorist Organization" of the Social Revolutionaries
had been founded in 1901. It was purely an instrument of the leadership
since it took orders directly from the Central Committee of the
party. Between 1902 and 1907 this organization launched a virtual
wave of assassinations. While the Central Committee of the Social
Revolutionaries never fully accepted the idea, a series of "expropriations"
nevertheless supplied the funds to keep the terror campaign and
the party going. The organizers of the terror were Gershuni, Azef
and Savinkov. Azef interestingly enough was also an agent of the
tsarist secret police until he was discovered in 1908. After this
the terror campaign slowly subsided.
By comparison with the Social Revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks
appeared to be quite insignificant in 1905. The Bolsheviks were
not a closely knit party; nor had they worked out as yet what
their revolutionary tactics were to be. They only had about 8,000
members, although numbers and theory matter little in those days.
The country was seething with discontent and any unique form of
propaganda got a hearing--might even say eager hearing.
C. Liberalism
The third element in the anti-tsarist movement was the liberals.
Liberalism got invigorated by the relief work of 1891-1892. As
you would expect, the liberals rejected socialism, revolutionary
methods, and also bureaucratic arbitrariness practiced by the
tsar's government with abandon. The liberals longed for economic
and social reforms. The standard bearers of liberalism in the
1890s were the zemstvos. The liberals working within the zemstvo
institutions called for a representative assembly. The attempt
to form a central zemstvo organization was prohibited by government
minister Goremykin in 1896, but they keep pushing to have one.
A union of zemstvo employees was finally created, but the government
frequently refused to confirm elected zemstvo officials. So, the
government contributed to its problems by eliminating the very
groups on which it could have relied to reinvigorate its administration
and the people's loyalty.
In foreign policy the government also continued to make mistakes.
Many of the restrictive measures in Finland planned under Alexander
III were put into effect under Nicholas II. Pobedonestsev and
Goremykin were extremely hostile to the Finns. The issued a manifesto
in 1899 which turned the Finnish diet into a mere advisory body
and made the Russian state council responsible for legislation
in Finland. The Finnish army was abolished and Russian became
the official language in the government of Finland. This clumsy
policy of Russification smacked on 19th century reaction and was
strongly resisted and criticized by Russian liberals.
None of these things, however, created a revolutionary situation.
Actual events were to do that. There was a major famine in 1891
and a series crop failures in 1897, 1898 and 1901. This lead to
a breakdown of the land arrangement following the liberation of
the serfs, and created massive poverty among the peasants. On
top of this was the enormous financial yoke put upon the peasants
by the land arrangement. This led to the inevitable peasant uprisings
and this time also to the awakening of labor. So a "revolutionary
situation" finally existed in 1905.
A. Strikes
Strikes became a permanent feature of life. In 1894 some 17,000
workers were out on strike. Few of these strikes were very well
organized. They occurred largely in St. Petersburg and Moscow
in 1897 and 1898. They were led by unions but few of their demands
were revolutionary in nature. The demanded shorter work hours
and higher pay, like unions everywhere. The government followed
a policy of conciliation and reprisals. Count Witte told the manufacturers
that the chief cause of the strikes was mismanagement. A law was
passed in 1897 which elevated the situation by legislating an
eleven-and-a-half hour day. In 1903 factory workers were allowed
to elected so-called factory elders to represent their interests.
Yet no real improvement in working conditions came in the period
of 1894 to 1903. The law of 1897 merely wetted the appetite of
the workers.
The government then began a sort of crackdown. Professional agitators
and strike leaders were rounded up and sent home. Extra-judicial
powers were used to repress unhappy workers. The police decided
to coopt the workers by creating labor unions controlled by the
police. A network of spies and agents provocateurs were scattered
among the workers. Even though the police or "company unions"
were little more than mutual aid associations, Prime Minister
Witte protested against them sharply.
B. Students
No discussion of revolution would be complete if we did not mention
students. In the late 19th century students played a large political
role. Politics was much more fun than sports, even then. According
to the special university charter of 1884, students were denied
the right to organize their own corporate representation. Since
there was not formal means of expressing the radical and revolutionary
doctrines the young always find so appealing, they had no choice
but to get into the action directly. So the charter of 1884 which
was intended to suppress political radicalism actually gave a
monopoly to revolutionary organizations. The students were also
angered by the effort of the education ministers Tolstoy and Delianov
to make Russian educational institutions the special preserve
of the upper classes. The Russian student thus became a vigorous
advocate of an equitable social order.
The stormy phase of academic life in Russia came in the 1890s.
The schools were frequently closed to dampen down the revolts.
In 1899 there was a serious student strike at the St. Petersburg
University. Many students were expelled and some professors were
sacked. In 1898 a young member of the Social Revolutionary Party,
Karpovich, shot the minister of eduction, Bogolepov. The students
demonstrated for Karpovich, not the slain minister. This was the
first political murder of Nicholas II's reign. It ushered in a
whole era of terror by the Social Revolutionaries. Among the victims
were V. K. Plehve, the minister of the interior (1904), whose
murder had been planned by Azef and Savinkov personally.
C. Union of Liberation
When Sipiagin replaced Goremykin as minister of the interior in
1899 he launched a crackdown on zemstvo "autonomy" by
claiming that they could no longer provision the populace. The
zemstvos replied by demanding a constitutional monarchy. The zemstvo
liberals also began to hold conferences and publish newspapers
abroad. They created the so-called Union of Liberation in 1903
which called for a constitutional monarchy. Since this was the
underground organization of the zemstvos, they had no longer any
recognized political organization. When Plehve succeeded Sipiagin,
who had been murdered in 1902, he (Plehve) began very repressive
measures which angered the liberals, who must have been glad when
Plehve himself was assassinated.
Russia was at war with Japan at this time, yet many felt Russian
autocracy rather than Japan was the real enemy. The inevitable
political explosion was in fact precipitated by the assassination
of Plehve and the appointment of Sviatapolk-Mirsky as Plehve's
successor in August 1904. For while Mirsky introduced a kind of
"political spring." But it did not last long and merely
stimulated further revolutionary activity.
In September 1904 a conference of radicals and revolutionaries
(with the exception of the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks) convened
in Paris to form an alliance against autocracy and issued a call
for representative government and recognition of the rights of
national minorities. In October 1904 the Union of Liberation came
up with a plan of action:
A zemstvo conference was in fact held in November which launched
the nationwide campaign for a constitutional monarchy, despite
the fact that there was some disagreement about the exact role
of legislation and whether to have a consultative or a constituent
assembly.
Then the war and the domestic unrest came together. In December
1904 Port Arthur in Manchuria fell to the Japanese; In January
the sporadic strikes in St. Petersburg began to spread rapidly.
Strangely enough these strikes were sponsored by the police union
and one of them, the Assembly of Russian Workmen was led by an
Orthodox priest, Father Gapon. When these strikers tried to march
to the imperial palace to petition the tsar, the tsar sent out
the cossacks to cut them down. Famous "Bloody Sunday"
(January 1905) was the result. The petitioners actually only wanted
to protest minor abuses and call for a constituent assembly. Mirsky
and some police officials had to resign after "Bloody Sunday,"
but the zemstvos and municipal unions resumed their agitation.
Then grand duke Serge Alexandrovich was assassinated. This produced
another manifesto by the tsar (February 18) which merely condemned
political agitation and so doing it seemed to invite and even
legalize it in its effect.
To placate the populace the government handed out tidbits, like
the proclamation which promised religious toleration. The government,
however, was also sending signals which appeared to approve the
formation of a consultative assembly. This happened at a time
when what we might call the loyal opposition was also moving in
that direction. The Union of Unions, the Union of Liberation,
the Peasants Union, and the Zemstvo Conference all agreed to call
for a "fundamental law" based on the principles of western
political democracy. So the loyal opposition was slipping into
revolutionary action.
Then in February came the defeat at Mukden in Manchuria, after
a horrendous battle of attrition. And in May came the great naval
defeat at Tsushima Strait. President Theodore Roosevelt of the
United States soon made an offer of mediation which was accepted
by both sides. In June the sailors of the battleship Potemkin
mutinied in the Black Sea. You could not have had a more disastrous
series of calamities. It would have brought down any other government.
But not the Russian.
Meanwhile, the reactionary right was also organizing in Russia.
The "Russian Assembly," founded in 1901, was engaged
in nationalistic, monarchical counter-propaganda. The Union of
the Russian People," more recently established in 1905, was
promoting militant nationalism and hatred of Finns, Poles, and
Jews. This was approved by Nicholas II, Plehve and other government
officials. Most of the members of the Union of the Russian People
came from the middle class, were minor government officials or
members of the clergy. Ultra-nationalism became the order oft
he day and with it came pogroms. In 1903 there had been a wholesale
massacre of Jews in Kishenev, Bessarabia. It was soon followed
by a wave of pogroms throughout the south and southwest of Russia
between 1903 and 1905.
A. Creation of the Duma
When the tsar's government finally issued a law about the election
to a State Duma in August 1905 it was met by derision. The franchise
provision clearly favored the peasants and disenfranchised the
bulk of the urban population, especially the intellectuals and
the industrial workers. When the universities were granted autonomy
a flood of revolutionary oratory was emitted from the campuses.
A by-product of this oratory was the creation of the St. Petersburg
Soviet of Workers Deputies.
In September the bakers and printers called for a general strike
in St. Petersburg. In October the railway workers in Moscow start
a strike which soon spread to the entire network of the railroad.
The demands of the strikers are more radical now too. They call
for a democratic republic and are willing to do away with monarchy
entirely. They also want political amnesty and demand the workers
be armed. The professional unions, mainly liberals support these
new demands. The Banks, shops, hospitals and other institutions
closed their doors. The Russian economy came to a standstill.
B. The St. Petersburg Soviet
On October 13 the St. Petersburg Soviet convened with 30-40 delegates.
By the end of November it had 562 delegates. Since the Mensheviks
were the strongest group in the Soviet, their leader, Trotsky,
became the leader of the Soviet. Lenin is behind the scenes since
he did not return to St. Petersburg until November. On October
17 two important things happened: the first issue of a now famous
newspaper appeared, Isvestia; and Nicholas II issued his so-called
October Manifesto which turned Russia into a constitutional monarchy.
Count Witte was called back into the government to save the dynasty
with a liberal program. The Manifesto, as a matter of act was
written by him. It promised
The response to the October Manifesto was mixed. Trotsky said:
"Witte has come but Trepov remains." Trepov was the
chief of police. Nevertheless, there was a lot of excitement on
both the left and the right. The Hundreds, loosely organized groups
of thugs which perpetrated the pogroms, are especially on the
rampage in Kiev and Odessa which had large Jewish populations.
So increased racial persecution and terror was one of the first
consequences of the October Manifesto which granted civil liberties
to all Russian subjects!The flames of revolt were also stirred
in the borderlands. Finland had its liberties restored by Witte,
but in Poland he declared a "state of emergency." Russian
sailors at Kronstadt and Vladivostok mutinied but suppressed.
The center of revolutionary activity, however, was the St. Petersburg
Soviet and other soviets. But since there were no immediate economic
benefits, the Soviet was forced to call off a general strike by
a spontaneous back-to-work movement which began on October 21.
Yet, the St. Petersburg Soviet made an impact and became a model
for the soviet of 1917. The Soviet made some detailed plans for
an armed uprising should the occasion demand it. Since the government
was in a state of confusion, the Soviet achieved a kind of quasi-official
status by simply acting as if it knew what it was doing. The countryside
meanwhile was ablaze with disturbances and widespread looting
of manor houses. The Manifesto had opened the country to the agitation
and propaganda of the liberal zemstvos and the Social Revolutionaries.
But the tsarist government had not disappeared from the scene.
It declared a state of emergency in some areas and began to suppress
riots and arrest agitators. The Moscow Bureau of the Peasants
Union was arrested en masse on November 14.
Eventually the St. Petersburg Soviet lost its hold on the workers
and the call for a general strike issued in November was a complete
failure. Witte ordered the arrest of the president of the Soviet,
Nosar, a Menshevik. A new committee is quickly formed, including
Trotsky, which appeals to the armed forces and urges non-payment
of taxes. Witte's response is to arrest the committee. The Soviet
of Soldiers in Moscow does manage to start an uprising, but is
quickly crushed by government troops. Insubordination in the army
and the navy is also crushed. The strike on the Trans-Siberian
Railway is brought under control. So the economic and social order
remained unscathed. Trotsky cried:
"The revolution is dead, long live the revolution!"
There are people today everywhere in the world in whom this phrase still re-echoes.