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And what wonderful people lived and worked in that country.
What can I say, if even the fragments from the ruined country are beautiful..."
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1905 - The First Russian Revolution
The revolution of 1905-1907 was the apogee of the struggle between new and old, obsolete social relations under the sharply aggravated social processes in Russia at the beginning of the XX century.
The reason for the revolution was the growing contradictions in Russian society, expressed in the influence of internal (the unresolved agrarian issue, the deterioration of the position of the proletariat, the crisis in the relations between the center and the province, the crisis of the form of government (the"crisis of the top") and external factors.
Internal factors
The unresolved agrarian issue
The agrarian question is a complex of socio economic and political problems related to the prospects for the development of the agricultural sector of the country's economy, one of the most pressing issues of public life in Russia.
Its unresolved nature, combined with other internal and external problems, eventually led to the revolution of 1905-1907..
The origins of the agrarian question lay in the nature of the Agrarian Reform of 1861, which was clearly incomplete.
By giving personal freedom to the peasants, it did not solve the problem of peasant land shortage, did not eliminate the negative features of communal land ownership and mutual responsibility.
The ransom payments were a heavy burden on the peasant class.
Arrears in the payment of taxes grew catastrophically, since under S. Yu.
Witt, the taxation of the rural population became one of the sources of ensuring the ongoing industrialization.
The peasant shortage of land was becoming more and more clearly revealed, which was aggravated in connection with the demographic explosion in the country: during the 1870s and 1890s, the peasant population of the Volga and some chernozem provinces doubled, which led to the fragmentation of allotments.
In the southern provinces (Poltava and Kharkiv), the problem of land shortage led to mass peasant demonstrations in 1902.
The local nobility also slowly adapted to the new conditions.
Most small and medium sized owners were rapidly losing land, remortgaging their possessions.
The economy was conducted in the old fashioned way, the land was simply leased to peasants for working out, which could not bring high profits.
The income received by the landlords from the state when the peasants left serfdom was "eaten up" and did not contribute to the development of landlords ' farms on capitalist principles.
The nobility bombarded Emperor Nicholas II with requests for state support in connection with the unprofitability of the estates and the high cost of credit.
At the same time, new phenomena were observed in the agricultural sector.
Agriculture increasingly assumed a commercial, entrepreneurial character.
The production of products for sale developed, the number of hired workers increased, the technique of agriculture was improved.
Large capitalist economies with an area of hundreds and thousands of dessiatines, with the involvement of hired labor and a large number of agricultural machines, are increasingly beginning to dominate among the landowners ' farms.
Such landowners ' possessions were the main suppliers of grain and industrial crops.
Peasant farms had much less marketability (production of products for sale).
They were the supplier of only half of the market volume of bread.
The main producer of marketable bread in the peasant environment were wealthy families, who, according to various sources, made up from 3 to 15% of the peasant population.
In fact, only they managed to adapt to the conditions of capitalist production, rent or buy land from the landlords and keep a few hired workers.
Only well – to do owners specially produced products for the market, for the vast majority of peasants, the sale of bread was forced to pay taxes and redemption payments.
However, the development of strong peasant farms also rested on the shortage of allotments.
The underdevelopment of the agricultural sector, the low purchasing power of the vast majority of the country's population hindered the development of the entire economy (the narrowness of the domestic market already made itself felt by the end of the XIX century with sales crises).
The government was well aware of the causes of the agrarian crisis, and sought to find ways out of it.
Even under Emperor Alexander III, a commission was formed under the Ministry of Internal Affairs to consider "the ordering of peasant social life and management".
Among the urgent issues, the commission recognized the migration and passport legislation.
As for the fate of the community and mutual responsibility, there were disagreements in the Government on this issue.
There are three fundamental positions:
1) The official point of view was expressed by V. K. Plehve and K. P. Pobedonostsev, who considered them "the main and most important means of collecting all arrears".
The supporters of the preservation of the community also saw in this a means to save the Russian peasantry from proletarization, and Russia from revolution.
2) The opposite point of view on the community was expressed by the Minister of Finance N. H. Bunge and the Minister of the Imperial Court and Estates Count I. I. Vorontsov Dashkov.
They stood for the introduction of household land ownership in Russia with the establishment of a land minimum and the organization of the resettlement of peasants to new lands.
3) S. Y. Witte, who assumed the post of Finance Minister in 1892, advocated passport reform and the abolition of mutual responsibility, but for the preservation of the community.
Subsequently, on the threshold of the revolution, he changed his point of view, actually agreeing with Bunge.
Peasant uprisings of 1902 in the Poltava and Kharkiv provinces, the rise of peasant protests of 1903-04.
work in this direction was accelerated: in April 1902, the mutual responsibility was canceled, and with the appointment of V. K. Plehve as Minister of Internal Affairs, Nicholas II transferred to his department the right to develop peasant legislation.
The reform of V. K. Plehve, pursuing different goals, affected the same directions as the later Agrarian reform of P. A. Stolypin:
- it was planned to expand the activities of the Peasant Bank for the purchase and resale of landowners ' lands.
- to establish a resettlement policy.
The fundamental difference from the Stolypin reforms is that the reform was based on the principles of class isolation of the peasantry, the inalienable nature of allotment lands and the preservation of existing forms of peasant land ownership.
They were an attempt to bring the legislation developed after the reform of 1861 into line with the social evolution of the village.
Attempts to preserve the basic principles of the agar policy of the 1880s 1890s gave the Plehve project a deeply contradictory character.
This was also reflected in the assessment of communal land ownership.
It was the community that was considered as an institution capable of protecting the interests of the poorest peasantry.
The bet on the wealthiest members of the community (kulaks) was not yet made at that time.
But the farm was recognized as a more perfect form of farming, which had a great future.
In accordance with this, the project provided for the removal of some restrictions that prevented leaving the community.
However, in reality, this was extremely difficult to implement.
The work of the Plehve Commission became an expression of the official point of view on the peasant question.
It can be stated that the proposed transformations did not depart from the traditional policy, which was based on three principles: the class system, the inalienable nature of allotments, the inviolability of the community.
These measures were fixed by the tsarist Manifesto "On the Immutability of Communal Land ownership" in 1903.
This policy did not suit the peasants, because it did not solve any of the pressing problems.
Changes in the agrarian legislation during the 1890s did not change much in the situation of the peasants.
Units were allocated from the community.
The resettlement Department, established in 1896, practically did not work.
The crop failures of the beginning of the XX century only increased the tension that reigned in the village.
The result was an increase in peasant demonstrations in 1903-1904.
The main problems to be solved immediately were the question of the existence of a peasant land community, the liquidation of the cross strip and peasant small land, as well as the question of the social status of the peasants.
Deterioration of the situation of the proletariat
The "workers' question " - in the classical sense – is a conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie caused by various economic demands on the part of the working class in the sphere of improving their socio economic situation.
In Russia, the labor issue was particularly acute, since it was complicated by a special government policy aimed at state regulation of relations between workers and entrepreneurs.
The bourgeois reforms of the 1860s and 70s did not affect the working class much.
This was a consequence of the fact that the formation of capitalist relations was still taking place in the country, the formation of the main capitalist classes had not yet been completed.
The government also, until the beginning of the XX century, refused to recognize the existence of a "special class of workers" in Russia, and even more so the "working question" in its Western European understanding.
This point of view found its justification back in the 80s of the XIX century in the articles of M. N. Katkov on the pages of the Moscow Vedomosti, and since then it has become an integral part of the general political doctrine.
However, the large scale strikes of the 1880s, especially the "Morozov strike", showed that simply ignoring the labor movement will not fix the situation.
The situation was aggravated by the different points of view of the heads of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the government line in resolving the "working issue".
By the end of the 1890s, Finance Minister S. Y. Witte was moving away from the idea of the government's trusteeship policy as part of the government doctrine based on the principle of a special, original evolution of Russia.
With Witte's direct participation, laws were developed and adopted: on the regulation of the working day (June 1897, according to it, the maximum working day was 11.5 hours), on the payment of remuneration to workers in accidents (June 1903, but the law did not affect the issues of pension provision and compensation for dismissals).
The institute of factory heads, whose competence included participation in the proceedings of labor conflicts, is also being introduced).
At the same time, the policy aimed at strengthening the religious monarchical sentiments among the working environment became more active.
The Ministry of Finance did not even want to think about creating trade unions or other workers ' associations.
On the contrary, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is starting a risky experiment to create workers ' organizations controlled by the government.
The spontaneous desire of the workers to unite, the increasingly broad response to the activities of the revolutionaries, and, finally, the increasing frequency of open political speeches forced the authorities to switch to a new tactic: "police socialism".
The essence of this policy, which was also carried out in a number of countries for in the 1890s, it was reduced to attempts to create, with the knowledge and under the control of the government, legal workers ' organizations of a pro government orientation.
The initiator of the Russian "police socialism" was the head of the Moscow security department, S. V. Zubatov.
Zubatov's idea was to force the government to pay attention to the" working question " and the situation of the working class.
He did not support the proposal of the Minister of Internal Affairs D. S. Sipyagin to "turn factories into barracks" and thereby restore order.
It was necessary to become the head of the labor movement and thus determine its forms, character and orientation.
However, in fact, the implementation of the Zubatov plan encountered active resistance from entrepreneurs who did not want to obey the demands of any workers ' associations, even those controlled by the government.
The new Minister of Internal Affairs, V. K. Plehve, who held this post in 1902-1904, stopped the Zubatov experiment.
As an exception, the activities of the "Society of Factory Workers" of the priest G. Gapon, who had minimal dependence on the authorities and was an example of "Christian" rather than "police" socialism, were allowed.
As a result, the traditional repressive measures turned out to be more familiar for the authorities in their fight against the labor movement.
All factory laws adopted in the late XIX early XX centuries provided for criminal liability for participation in strikes, threats against the factory administration and even for unauthorized refusal to work.
In 1899, a special factory police was established.
More and more often, combat units and Cossacks were called to suppress workers ' demonstrations.
In May 1899, even artillery was used to suppress the 10 thousandth strike of workers of the largest enterprises in Riga.
The regime's attempts to slow down the natural course of development of new beginnings in the economy and society in this way did not lead to significant results.
The authorities did not see the increase in workers ' demonstrations as an impending explosion.
Even on the eve of the revolution, paying attention to the changes taking place in the working environment, the ruling circles did not count on the "collapse" that could undermine the established foundations.
In 1901, the chief of the gendarmes, the future Minister of Internal Affairs, P. D. Svyatopolk Mirsky, wrote about the St. Petersburg workers that " in the last three or four years, a good natured Russian guy has developed a type of semi literate intellectual who considers it his duty to deny religion... to disregard the law, disobey the authorities and mock her."
At the same time, he noted that "there are not many rebels in the factories," and it will not be difficult to cope with them.
As a result, by the beginning of the XX century, the" working question "in Russia had not lost its sharpness at all: no law on workers' insurance was adopted, the working day was also reduced to only 11.5 hours, the activities of trade unions were banned.
Most importantly, after the failure of the Zubatov initiative, the government did not have any acceptable program for organizing workers 'legislation, and the armed suppression of workers' demonstrations threatened to turn into mass disobedience.
The economic crisis of 1900-1903 had a noticeable impact on the aggravation of the situation, when the situation of workers deteriorated sharply (a decrease in earnings, the closure of enterprises).
The decisive blow, the "last straw" was the shooting of a workers 'demonstration organized by the" Society of Factory Workers "on January 9, 1905, which was called "Bloody Sunday".
The crisis in the relations between the center and the province
The national question is one of the main socio political contradictions in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the XX century.
The rule of the Russian nationality and the Orthodox faith in the Russian Empire was legally fixed, which greatly infringed on the rights of other peoples inhabiting the country.
Small concessions in this matter were made only for the population of Finland and Poland, but they were significantly reduced during the reactionary Russification policy of Emperor Alexander III.
At the turn of the XIX - XX centuries in Russia, the general requirements of the nationalities inhabiting it are the equality of all nationalities in rights, education in their native language, freedom of religion.
For some peoples, the land issue turned out to be extremely relevant, while it was either about protecting their lands from "Russian" colonization (Volga and Siberian, Central Asian, Caucasian provinces), or about the struggle against landowners, which acquired an interethnic character (Baltic and western provinces).
In Finland and Poland, the slogan of territorial autonomy was widely supported, which was often supported by the idea of full state independence.
The growth of discontent in the suburbs was fueled both by the tough national policy of the government, in particular, restrictions on Poles, Finns, Armenians and some other peoples, and by the economic troubles that Russia experienced in the first years of the XX century.
All this contributed to the awakening and affirmation of national consciousness.
By the beginning of the XX century, Russian ethnic groups were an extremely heterogeneous mass.
Ethnic communities with tribal organizations (the peoples of Central Asia and the Far East) and peoples with modern experience of state political consolidation coexisted in it.
The level of ethnic consciousness of the majority of the peoples of the empire at the beginning of the XX century was very low, almost all of them were self determined on religious, clan or local grounds.
All this together led to the emergence of movements for national autonomy and even state independence.
S. Y. Witte, analyzing the "revolutionary flood" in Russia in 1905-07, wrote: Russian Russian Empire, such a flood is the most possible, since more than 35% of the population is not Russian, but conquered by Russians.
Anyone who knows history knows how difficult it is to fuse heterogeneous populations into one whole, especially with the strong development of national principles and feelings in the XX century."
In the pre revolutionary years, ethnic and national conflicts made themselves felt more and more often.
So, in the Arkhangelsk and Pskov provinces, skirmishes between peasants over land became more frequent.
In the Baltic States, tense relations were created between the local peasants and the barony.
In Lithuania, the confrontation between Lithuanians, Poles and Russians was growing.
Conflicts between Armenians and Azerbaijanis constantly broke out in multinational Baku.
These tendencies, which the authorities were increasingly unable to cope with administratively by police and political methods, became a threat to the integrity of the country.
Some concessions of the authorities (such as the decree of December 12, 1904, which lifted some restrictions that existed for the peoples in the field of language, school, religion) did not achieve the goal.
With the deepening of the political crisis and the weakening of the government, all the processes of formation and development of ethnic consciousness received a powerful impetus and came into a chaotic movement.
The national parties that emerged in the last third of the XIX – early XX centuries became the political representatives of ethnic and national movements on the outskirts of the empire.
These political organizations were based on the ideas of national and cultural revival and the development of their own peoples as a necessary condition for the future state reconstruction of Russia.
Under the influence of the ideas of Marxism and liberalism, two ideologically different streams began to gain strength here: the socialist and the national liberal.
Almost all liberal leaning parties were formed from cultural and educational societies, most of the socialist oriented parties were formed from previously carefully concealed illegal circles and groups.
If the socialist movement developed most often under the slogans of internationalism, the class struggle that united representatives of all the peoples of the empire, then for each of the national liberal movements, the issues of national self affirmation of their own people became a priority.
The largest national parties were formed at the end of the XIX century in Poland, Finland, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Transcaucasia.
At the beginning of the XX century, the most influential were the social democratic organizations "Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania", the Social Democratic Party of Finland, the General Jewish Workers ' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (Bund), established in Vilna.
Among the nationalist parties, it is necessary to distinguish first of all the Polish National Democratic Party, the "Party of Active Resistance of Finland", the Ukrainian People's Party and the Armenian "Dashnaktsutyun" - the most significant national party that has developed in Transcaucasia.
All these parties, to varying degrees, took part in the revolution of 1905-1907, and then in the activities of the State Duma.
Thus, members of the Polish National Democratic Party actually formed their own faction in the Duma – the Polish Kolo.
The Duma was also attended by national groups of Muslim deputies from Lithuania, Latvia,Ukraine, etc .
Deputies from these groups were called "autonomists", and their number in the Duma of the first convocation was 63 people, and the second – even 76.
The crisis of the form of government ("crisis of the top")
The "Crisis of the upper classes" at the beginning of the XX century is the crisis of the autocratic form of government in Russia.
In the middle of the XIX century, the process of approving a constitutional monarchical form of government was actually completed in Western European countries.
The Russian autocracy categorically rejected any attempts to introduce public representation in the highest state structures.
All projects, including those drawn up in government circles, involving the introduction of such representation, were eventually rejected.
During the reign of Emperor Alexander III, any attempts to somehow Europeanize the autocratic regime were decisively suppressed, the activities of narodnik terrorists played a significant role here.
The middle of the 1890s was marked by the revival and consolidation of both the liberal Zemstvo and the radical left movement.
However, the new emperor immediately made it clear that he was not going to change anything.
Therefore, when he ascended the throne, speaking to a deputation from the nobility, zemstvos and cities on January 17, 1895, Nicholas II called the hopes of zemstvo figures for participation in internal administration affairs" meaningless dreams", making a heavy impression on the audience.
The authorities also showed firmness in relation to the oppositionists from the upper classes: resignations and administrative expulsions began.
And yet, the position of the liberals could not be ignored by the ruling structures.
Some researchers believe that Nicholas II himself already at the beginning of his reign understood the need for some political reform of the country, but not by introducing parliamentarism, but by expanding the competence of the zemstvos.
The ruling circles themselves revealed different points of view on the situation of the country and the tasks of state policy: Finance Minister S. Y. Witte believed that the social movement in Russia had reached a level at which it could no longer be stopped by repressive methods.
He saw the roots of this in the incompleteness of the liberal democratic reforms of the 1860s and 70s.
It was possible to avoid a revolution by introducing a number of democratic freedoms, allowing participation in government "legally".
At the same time, the government needed to rely on the "educated" classes.
Interior Minister V. K. Plehve, who took up his post at the beginning of the terrorist activities of the pariah social Revolutionaries, saw the source of the revolution precisely in the "educated" classes – in the intelligentsia, and believed that "any game in the constitution should be stopped, and reforms designed to update Russia can only be carried out by the autocracy that has historically developed in our country."
This official position of Plehve was very impressed by Nicholas II, as a result of which in August 1903 the all powerful finance Minister Witte was removed from his post and received the less significant position of chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers (in fact, an honorary resignation).
The emperor made a choice in favor of conservative tendencies, and tried to overcome the socio political crisis with the help of a successful foreign policy by unleashing a "small victorious war".
The Russian Japanese war of 1904-1905 finally pointed to the need for change.
According to P. B. Struve, " it was the military helplessness of the autocracy that most clearly confirmed its uselessness and harmfulness."
External factors
Russian Russian War of 1904-1905 - the war between Russia and Japan for supremacy in Northeastern China and Korea (see the scheme "Russian Japanese War of 1904-1905" and the historical map "Russian Japanese War").
In the late XIX early XX century.
the contradictions between the leading powers, which by this time had mostly completed the territorial division of the world, escalated.
The presence of "new", rapidly developing countries in the international arena - Germany, Japan, the United States, which purposefully sought the redistribution of colonies and spheres of influence, became more and more noticeable.
The autocracy took an active part in the struggle of the great powers for colonies and spheres of influence.
In the Middle East, in Turkey, he increasingly had to face Germany, which chose this region as a zone of its economic expansion.
In Persia, the interests of Russia clashed with the interests of England.
The most important object of the struggle for the final division of the world at the end of the XIX century was economically backward and militarily weak China.
It is to the Far East that the center of gravity of the autocracy's foreign policy activity has been transferred since the mid 90s.
The close interest of the tsarist government in the affairs of this region was largely due to the "appearance" of a strong and very aggressive neighbor here by the end of the XIX century in the person of Japan, which had embarked on the path of expansion.
After the victory in the war with China in 1894-1895.
Japan acquired the Liaodong Peninsula under a peace treaty, Russia, acting as a united front with France and Germany, forced Japan to give up this part of Chinese territory.
In 1896, the Russian Chinese treaty on a defensive alliance against Japan was concluded.
China has granted Russia a concession for the construction of a railway from Chita to Vladivostok through Manchuria (Northeast China).
The right to build and operate the road was granted to the Russian Chinese Bank.
The course for the "peaceful" economic conquest of Manchuria was carried out in accordance with the line of S. Y. Witte (it was he who largely determined the policy of the autocracy in the Far East at that time) to seize foreign markets for the developing domestic industry.
Russian diplomacy has also achieved great success in Korea.
Japan, which had established its influence in this country after the war with China, was forced in 1896 to agree to the establishment of a joint Russian Japanese protectorate over Korea with the actual predominance of Russia.
The victories of Russian diplomacy in the Far East caused growing irritation of Japan, England and the United States.
Soon, however, the situation in this region began to change.
Pushed by Germany and following its example, Russia seized the Port of Arthur and in 1898 received it from China as a lease along with some parts of the Liaodong Peninsula for the construction of a naval base.
S. Y. Witte's attempts to prevent this action, which he considered as contrary to the spirit of the Russian Chinese treaty of 1896, were not crowned with success.
The capture of Port Arthur undermined the influence of Russian diplomacy in Beijing and weakened Russia's position in the Far East, forcing, in particular, the tsarist government to make concessions to Japan on the Korean issue.
The Russian Japanese Agreement of 1898 actually authorized the seizure of Korea by Japanese capital.
In 1899, a powerful popular uprising (the"Boxer Uprising") began in China, directed against foreigners who shamelessly ruled the state, Russia, together with other powers, took part in suppressing this movement and occupied Manchuria during military operations.
The Russian Japanese contradictions have escalated again.
Supported by Britain and the United States, Japan sought to oust Russia from Manchuria.
In 1902, the Anglo Japanese alliance was concluded.
Under these conditions, Russia agreed to an agreement with China and pledged to withdraw troops from Manchuria within a year and a half.
Meanwhile, Japan, which is very belligerent, has led the matter to an aggravation of the conflict with Russia.
There was no unity in the ruling circles of Russia on issues of Far Eastern policy.
S. Yu.
Witte with his program of economic expansion (which, however, still brought Russia into conflict with Japan) was opposed by the "Bezobrazovsky gang" led by A.M. Bezobrazov, who advocated direct military seizures.
The views of this group were shared by Nicholas II, who dismissed S. Y. Witte from the post of finance minister.
The "Bezobrazovtsy" underestimated the strength of Japan.
Some of the ruling circles considered success in the war with their Far Eastern neighbor as the most important means of overcoming the internal political crisis.
Japan, for its part, was actively preparing for an armed clash with Russia.
True, in the summer of 1903, the Russian Japanese negotiations on Manchuria and Korea began, but the Japanese military machine, which had enlisted the direct support of the United States and Britain, was already launched.
The situation was complicated by the fact that the ruling circles in Russia expected a successful military campaign to eliminate the growing internal political crisis.
Interior Minister Plehve, in response to the statement of the commander in chief, General Kuropatkin, that "we are not ready for war," replied: "You donot know the internal situation in Russia.
To prevent a revolution, we need a small victorious war."
On January 24, 1904, the Japanese ambassador handed the Russian Foreign Minister V. N. Lamsdorf a note on the severance of diplomatic relations, and on the evening of January 26, the Japanese fleet attacked the Port Arthur squadron without declaring war.
So the Russian Japanese war began.
Table.
Russian Japanese War of 1904-1905
Date
Event
January 26-27, 1904
Attack by Japanese ships of the Russian Pacific Squadron in Port Arthur and Chemulpo Bay.
February 2, 1904
Japanese troops begin landing in Korea, preparing to conduct an operation against the Russian Manchurian army.
February 24, 1904
Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov was appointed commander of the Pacific Squadron instead of Vice Admiral O. V. Stark, under whom the combat activities of the Russian fleet are activated.
March 31, 1904
During the combat operation, the flagship of the Russian squadron, the battleship Petropavlovsk, is blown up on a mine and dies, among the dead is commander S. O. Makarov.
April 18, 1904
The battle on the Yalu River (Korea), during which Russian troops failed to stop the Japanese advance into Manchuria.
June 1, 1904
The Battle of Wafangou (Liaodong Peninsula).
General Stackelberg's corps, which was trying to break through to Port Arthur, retreated under the onslaught of superior Japanese units.
This allowed the 2nd Japanese Army of General Oku to begin the siege of Port Arthur.
July 28, 1904
An attempt by a Russian squadron to break through from the besieged Port Arthur to Vladivostok.
After the fight with the Japanese with these ships, most of the ships returned, several ships went to neutral ports.
August 6, 1904
The first assault on Port Arthur (unsuccessful).
The losses of the Japanese amounted to up to 20 thousand people.
In September and October, Japanese troops launched two more assaults, but they also ended without significant results.
august 1904
The formation of the 2nd Pacific Squadron begins in the Baltic, whose task was to unblock the Port of Arthur from the sea.
The squadron set out on a campaign only in October 1904.
August 13, 1904
The Battle of Liaoyang (Manchuria).
Russian troops retreated to Mukden after several days of fighting.
September 22, 1904
The battle on the Shahe River (Manchuria).
During the unsuccessful offensive, the Russian army lost up to 50% of its personnel and went on the defensive along the entire front.
November 13, 1904
The fourth assault on Port Arthur; the Japanese managed to wedge themselves deeply into the fortress defense line and gradually suppress the fortress structures with fire from the commanding heights.
December 20, 1904
The act of surrender of Port Arthur is signed.
February 5-25, 1905
The Battle of Mukden (Korea).
The largest combat operation in the entire war, in which up to 500 thousand people participated on both sides.
After three weeks of fighting, the Russian troops were under the threat of encirclement and were forced to leave their positions.
Manchuria almost completely came under the control of the Japanese army.
May 14-15, 1905
The Battle of Tsushima.
The 2nd Pacific Squadron was partially destroyed and partially captured during the battle with the Japanese fleet (Admiral Nebogatov's detachment).
The battle summed up the military actions in the Russian Japanese war.
August 23, 1905
The Portsmouth Peace has been signed.
The balance of forces in the theatre of war was not in Russia's favor, as that was caused by difficulties of the concentration of troops on the Distant edge of the Empire, and clumsiness of the military and naval departments, gross errors in assessing the capabilities of the enemy. (See historical map "Russo Japanese war 1904-1905")
From the beginning of the war the Russian Pacific squadron suffered heavy losses.
Having attacked the ships in Port Arthur, the Japanese attacked the cruiser "Varyag" and the gunboat "Koreets"located in the Korean port of Chemulpo.
After an unequal battle with 6 cruisers and 8 destroyers of the enemy, the Russian sailors destroyed their ships so that they would not get to the enemy.
The death of the commander of the Pacific Squadron, an outstanding naval commander S. O. Makarov, was a heavy blow for Russia.
The Japanese managed to gain dominance at sea and, having landed large forces on the continent, launched an offensive against Russian troops in Manchuria and Port Arthur.
The commander of the Manchurian Army, General A. N. Kuropatkin, acted extremely indecisively.
The bloody battle of Liaoyang, during which the Japanese suffered huge losses, was not used by them to go on the offensive (which the enemy was extremely afraid of) and ended with the withdrawal of Russian troops.
In July 1904, the Japanese laid siege to Port Arthur (see the historical map "The Assault of Port Arthur 1904").
The defense of the fortress, which lasted five months, became one of the brightest pages of Russian military history.
Defense of Port Arthur
The hero of the Port Arthur epic was General R. I. Kondratenko, who died at the end of the siege.
The capture of Port Arthur cost the Japanese dearly, who lost more than 100 thousand people under its walls.
At the same time, having taken the fortress, the enemy was able to strengthen his troops operating in Manchuria.
The squadron stationed in Port Arthur was actually destroyed in the summer of 1904 during unsuccessful attempts to break through to Vladivostok.
In February 1905, the Battle of Mukden took place, which took place on a more than 100 kilometer front and lasted for three weeks.
On both sides, more than 550 thousand people participated in it with 2500 guns.
In the battles near Mukden, the Russian army suffered a heavy defeat.
After that, the war on land began to subside.
The number of Russian troops in Manchuria was constantly increasing, but the morale of the army was undermined, which was greatly facilitated by the revolution that began in the country.
The Japanese, who suffered huge losses, also did not show activity.
On May 14-15, 1905, in the Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese fleet destroyed a Russian squadron that had been transferred to the Far East from the Baltic.
The Battle of Tsushima decided the outcome of the war.
The autocracy, busy suppressing the revolutionary movement, could no longer continue the struggle.
Japan was also extremely exhausted by the war.
On July 27, 1905, peace negotiations began in Portsmouth (USA) with the mediation of the Americans.
The Russian delegation, headed by S. Y. Witte, managed to achieve relatively "decent" peace conditions.
Under the terms of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Russia ceded to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin, its lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula and the South Manchurian Railway connecting Port Arthur with the China Eastern Railway.
The Russian Japanese war ended with the defeat of the autocracy.
Patriotic sentiments at the beginning of the war overwhelmed all categories of the population, but soon the situation in the country began to change as reports of Russia's military failures were received.
Each defeat turned into a new and new round of political crisis.
Confidence in the government was rapidly falling.
After each lost battle, rumors about the lack of professionalism and even betrayal of the top command staff, about the unpreparedness for war, grew more and more in society.
By the summer of 1904, the fervor of patriotic fever had already been replaced by a deep disappointment, a growing conviction of the failure of the authorities.
According to P. B. Struve, " it was the military helplessness of the autocracy that most clearly confirmed its uselessness and harmfulness."
If at the beginning of the war there was a noticeable reduction in peasant demonstrations and workers ' strikes, then by the autumn of 1904 they are gaining momentum again.
The "little victorious war" turned into a shameful Portsmouth peace, a significant deterioration in the economic situation in the country, as well as a catalyst for the revolution of 1905-1907.
During 1905-1907, several major anti government demonstrations took place in the army and navy, largely predetermined by the unsuccessful military campaign.
By its nature, the revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia was bourgeois democratic, because it set the tasks of the bourgeois democratic transformation of the country: the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic, the elimination of the class system and landowners 'land ownership, the introduction of basic democratic freedoms - primarily freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, equality of all before the law, the establishment of an 8 hour working day for employees, the removal of national restrictions (see the scheme" Revolution of 1905-1907 Character and goals").
The main issue of the revolution was the agrarian and peasant one.
The peasantry made up more than 4/5 of the population of Russia, and the agrarian question in connection with the deepening of the peasant land shortage acquired by the beginning of the XX century.
a special sharpness.
The national question also occupied an important place in the revolution.
57% of the country's population were non Russian peoples.
However, in essence, the national question was part of the agrarian peasant question, because the peasantry made up the overwhelming mass of the non Russian population in the country.
The agrarian and peasant question was the focus of attention of all political parties and groups.
The driving forces of the revolution were the petty bourgeois strata of the city and the countryside, as well as the political parties representing them.
It was a popular revolution.
The peasants, the workers, the petty bourgeoisie of the city and the countryside formed a single revolutionary camp.
The opposing camp was represented by the landowners and the large bourgeoisie associated with the autocratic monarchy, the highest bureaucracy, the military and clerics from among the upper clergy.
The liberal opposition camp was represented mainly by the middle bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intelligentsia, who advocated the bourgeois transformation of the country by peaceful means, mainly by methods of parliamentary struggle.
There are several stages in the revolution of 1905-1907.
Table.
Chronology of the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907.
Date
Event
January 3, 1905
The beginning of the strike of the workers of the Putilov plant in St. Petersburg.
In order to calm the strikers, the Factory Workers ' Society is preparing a peaceful march to the tsar to submit a petition about the needs of the workers.
January 9, 1905
"Bloody Sunday" – the shooting of a workers ' demonstration in St. Petersburg.
The beginning of the revolution.
January April 1905
The increase in the strike movement, the number of strikers in Russia has reached 800 thousand people.
February 18, 1905
There is a rescript of Nicholas II addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs A. G. Bulygin with an order to develop a law on the creation of an elected representative institution (Duma).
May 12, 1905
The beginning of the general strike in Ivanovo Voznesensk, during which the first council of workers ' commissioners was created.
May 1905
Formation of the All Russian Peasant Union.
The first congress was held on July 31 August 1.
June 14, 1905
The uprising on the battleship "Potemkin" and the beginning of a general strike in Odessa.
October 1905
The beginning of the All Russian political strike, within a month the strike movement covered Moscow, St. Petersburg and other industrial centers of the empire.
October 17, 1905
Nicholas II signed a Manifesto on granting the population "the unshakable foundations of civil freedom".
The manifesto served as an impetus for the formation of two influential bourgeois parties – the Cadets and the Octobrists.
November 3, 1905
Under the influence of peasant demonstrations, a manifesto was signed on reducing redemption payments and their complete abolition from 1.01.1907
November 11-16, 1905
The uprising in the Black Sea Fleet under the leadership of Lieutenant P. P. Schmidt
December 2, 1905
The beginning of the armed uprising in Moscow – the performance of the 2nd Grenadier regiment.
The uprising was supported by a general strike of workers.
The most fierce fighting took place in the Presnya area, where the resistance of armed workers ' vigilantes to government troops continued until December 19.
December 11, 1905
A new electoral law for the State Duma, developed by S. Y. Witte, has been issued
February 20, 1906
The "Establishment of the State Duma" was published, which determined the rules of its work.
April 1906
In Sweden, the IV (Unification) Congress of the RSDLP began its work, in which representatives of 62 organizations of the RSDLP participate; 46 of them are Bolsheviks, 62 are Mensheviks (23.04-8.05.1906).
April 1906
Elections to the First State Duma were held
April 23, 1906
Emperor Nicholas II approved the Basic State Law of the Russian Empire
April 27, 1906
The beginning of the work of the State Duma of the first convocation
July 9, 1906
Dissolution of the State Duma
July 1906
The uprising in the fortress of Sveaborg, supported by the fleet.
It was suppressed by government troops three days later.
The organizers were shot.
August 12, 1906
The explosion by the srs of the dacha of Prime Minister P. Stolypin on Aptekarsky Island; 30 people were killed, 40 people were injured, including Stolypin's daughter.
August 19, 1906
Nicholas II signed a decree developed by Prime Minister P. Stolypin on the introduction of military field courts on the territory of Russia (abolished in March 1907)
November 9, 1906
On the initiative of P. Stolypin, Nicholas II issued a decree regulating the procedure for the peasants to leave the community and the consolidation of allotment land into personal ownership.
January 1907
Strikes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Rostov and other cities in connection with the 2nd anniversary of "Bloody Sunday"
May 1, 1907
May Day strikes in Kiev, Poltava, Kharkiv.
Shooting of a workers ' demonstration in Yuzovka
May 10, 1907
Speech of Prime Minister P. Stolypin at the meeting of the II State Duma " Give Russia peace!"
June 2, 1907
The police have arrested members of the social Democratic faction in the State Duma on charges of preparing a military conspiracy.
June 3, 1907
The manifesto of Nicholas II on the dissolution of the Second State Duma, elected at the end of 1906, was published.
The new electoral law, published simultaneously with the manifesto, gave an advantage in new elections to representatives of the nobility and the big bourgeoisie
The first is the mass movement in the spring and summer of 1905 (see the scheme "Revolution of 1905-1907. 1st stage").
The revolutionary movement during this period manifested itself in an unprecedented growth of the strike movement of workers with a predominance of political demands and assumed an increasingly organized character (see the article "The 1905 Revolution in Russia"in the anthology).
By the summer of 1905, the social base of the revolution had also expanded: the broad masses of the peasantry, as well as the army and navy, joined it.
In January April 1905, the strike movement covered 810 thousand workers.
Up to 75% of the strikes were of a political nature.
Under the pressure of this movement, the Government was forced to make some political concessions.
On February 18, the tsar's rescript addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs A. G. Bulygin ordered to start drafting a law on the creation of an elected representative institution.
A draft of the creation of the State Duma was prepared.
This "Bulygin Duma", as it was called, caused an active boycott by the workers, peasants, intellectuals, all left wing parties and associations.
The boycott thwarted the government's attempt to convene it.
Revolutionary demonstrations were growing.
In connection with the celebration of May 1, a new wave of the strike movement swept, in which up to 200 thousand workers participated.
In the large textile center of Poland, Lodz, a workers ' uprising broke out, and the city was covered with barricades.
On May 1, a demonstration in Warsaw was shot: dozens of demonstrators were killed and injured.
Clashes between workers and troops during the demonstrations on May 1 occurred in Riga and Revel.
An important event was the general strike of workers that began on May 12 in the major textile center of the country — Ivanovo Voznesensk, which lasted 72 days.
Under its influence, the workers of the nearest textile cities and towns rose up.
During the Ivanovo Voznesenskaya strike, a Council of Workers ' Commissioners was elected.
Under the influence of the growth of the strike struggle of the workers, the village also began to move.
Already in February and March, peasant riots covered 1/6 of the country's counties — in the provinces of the Black Earth Center, Poland, the Baltic States and Georgia.
In the summer, they spread to the Middle Volga region, Ukraine and Belarus.
In May 1905, the All Russian Peasant Union was formed, the leading role in which was played by right wing social revolutionaries led by V. M. Chernov.
On June 14, an uprising broke out on the battleship Prince Potemkin Tavrichesky.
The sailors took possession of the ship, chose a new command staff and a ship's commission — the body of political leadership of the uprising
On the same day, the rebel battleship and the destroyer accompanying it approached Odessa, where a general strike of workers began at that time.
But the ship's commission did not dare to land troops in the city, waiting for the other ships of the Black Sea squadron to join the uprising.
However, only one battleship "George the Victorious" joined.
After 11 days of the raid, having exhausted fuel and food supplies, the Potemkin arrived at the Romanian port of Constanta and surrendered to the local authorities.
Subsequently, the Potemkin, along with its crew, was handed over to the Russian authorities.
The second stage is October December 1905 (see the scheme " The Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia. stage 2").
In the autumn of 1905, the center of the revolution moved to Moscow.
The All Russian October political strike that began in Moscow, and then the armed uprising in December 1905, were the highest rise of the revolution.
On October 7, the railway workers of Moscow (with the exception of the Nikolaev Railway) went on strike, and after them — the workers of most of the country's railways.
On October 10, a citywide strike of workers began in Moscow.
On October 12, the strike movement also swept St. Petersburg.
Under the influence of the October strike, the autocracy was forced to make new concessions.
On October 17, Nicholas II signed the Manifesto "on improving the state order" on the basis of the actual inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly, unions, on granting the new State Duma legislative rights, and it was indicated that no law can be enforced without the approval of its Duma.
The publication of the Manifesto on October 17, 1905 caused rejoicing in the liberal bourgeois circles, who believed that all the conditions for legal political activity had been created.
The manifesto of October 17 served as an impetus for the formation of two influential bourgeois parties — the Cadets and the Octobrists.
The autumn of 1905 was marked by an increase in peasant riots and revolutionary demonstrations in the army and navy.
In November and December, the peasant movement reached its climax.
During this time, 1,590 peasant demonstrations were registered — about half of their total number (3,230) for the whole of 1905.
They covered half (240) counties of the European part of Russia, were accompanied by the destruction of landowners 'estates and the seizure of landowners' lands.
Up to 2 thousand landowners 'estates were destroyed (and in total over 6 thousand landowners' estates were destroyed in 1905-1907).
Peasant riots took on a particularly wide scale in the Simbirsk, Saratov, Kursk and Chernihiv provinces.
Punitive troops were sent to suppress peasant uprisings, and a state of emergency was imposed in a number of places.
On November 3, 1905, under the influence of a broad peasant movement that unfolded with particular force in the autumn of that year, the tsarist manifesto was issued, announcing the reduction of redemption payments from peasants for allotment land by half and the complete cessation of their collection from January 1, 1907.
In October—December 1905, there were 89 performances in the army and Navy.
The largest of them was the uprising of sailors and soldiers of the Black Sea Fleet under the leadership of Lieutenant L. L. Schmidt on November 11-16.
On December 2, 1905, the 2nd Grenadier Rostov Regiment rose up in Moscow and appealed to all the troops of the Moscow garrison to support its demands.
It found a response in other shelves.
A Council of Soldiers ' deputies was created from representatives of the Rostov, Yekaterinoslav and some other regiments of the Moscow garrison.
But the garrison command managed to suppress the soldiers ' movement at its very beginning and isolate unreliable military units in the barracks.
The December events ended with an armed uprising and barricade battles in Moscow (December 10-19).
On December 11, 1905, a new electoral law was issued to the State Duma, developed by the government of S. Y. Witte.
He retained the main provisions of the electoral law of August 6, 1905, with the only difference that now workers were also allowed to participate in the elections, for which a fourth, workers', curia was introduced and the number of seats for the peasant curia increased.
The multi stage nature of the elections was preserved: first electors were elected, and from them deputies to the Duma were already elected, while one elector accounted for 90 thousand workers, 30 thousand peasants, 7 thousand representatives of the urban bourgeoisie and 2 thousand landowners.
Thus, one vote of the landowner was equal to 3 votes of the bourgeoisie, 15 peasants and 45 workers.
This created a significant advantage for the landlords and the bourgeoisie to be represented in the Duma.
In connection with the creation of the legislative State Duma, the State Council was transformed.
On February 20, 1906, a decree was issued "On the reorganization of the State Council institution".
From a legislative body, all members of which were previously appointed by the tsar, it became the upper legislative chamber, which received the right to approve or reject laws adopted by the State Duma.
All these changes were included in the main "Basic State Laws", issued on April 23, 1906.
On November 24, 1905, a decree was issued on the new "Temporary rules on time based publications", which abolished preliminary censorship for periodicals.
The decree of April 26, 1906 on "Temporary rules for non temporary printing" abolished preliminary censorship for non periodic publications (books and brochures).
However, this did not mean the final abolition of censorship.
Various penalties (fines, suspension of publication, warnings, etc.) were maintained against publishers who published articles in periodicals or books that were "objectionable" from the point of view of the authorities.
The retreat of the revolution: 1906 spring summer 1907 (see the diagram " The Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia. stage 3").
After the December events of 1905, the retreat of the revolution begins.
First of all, it was expressed in the gradual decline of the strike movement of workers.
If during 1905 2.8 million participants of strikes were registered, then in 1906 — 1.1 million, and in 1907 — 740 thousand.
However, the intensity of the struggle was still high.
In the spring and summer of 1906, a new wave of the agrarian peasant movement rose, which acquired an even wider scope than in 1905.
It covered more than half of the counties of the country.
But despite its scale and mass character, the peasant movement of 1906, as in 1905, was a series of scattered, local riots that had practically no connection with each other.
The All Russian Peasant Union could not become the organizing center of the movement.
The dissolution of the State Duma of the first convocation in July 1906 and the "Vyborg Appeal" (see the article "Vyborg Appeal"in the anthology) they did not lead to a sharp aggravation of the revolutionary situation.
There were uprisings in the army and in the navy, which, like the peasant demonstrations, took on a more threatening character than in 1905.
The most significant of them were the uprisings in July and August 1906 of sailors in Sveaborg, Kronstadt and Revel.
They were prepared and led by the SRS: they developed a plan to surround the capital with a ring of military uprisings and force the government to surrender.
The uprisings were quickly suppressed by troops loyal to the government, and their participants were put on trial by military court, 43 of them were executed.
After the failure of the uprisings, the Social Revolutionaries switched to the tried and tested tactics of individual terror.
In 1906, the national liberation movement in Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, the Ukraine, and the Transcaucasia under the leadership of local nationalist parties took on an impressive size.
On August 19, 1906, Nicholas II signed a decree developed by Prime Minister P. A. Stolypin on the introduction of military field courts on the territory of Russia (abolished in April 1907).
This measure made it possible to reduce the number of terrorist acts and "expropriations"in a short time.
The year 1907 was not marked by any serious unrest in the village or in the army – the activity of the military field courts and the beginning of the agrarian reform affected.
The coup d'etat of June 3, 1907 marked the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907.
The historical significance of the revolution of 1905-1907 was enormous.
It seriously shook the foundations of the Russian autocracy, which was forced to make a number of significant self restrictions.
The convocation of the legislative State Duma, the creation of a bicameral parliament, the proclamation of civil liberties, the abolition of censorship, the legalization of trade unions, the beginning of the agrarian reform – all this indicated that the foundations of a constitutional monarchy were being formed in Russia.
The revolution also received a great international response.
It contributed to the rise of the workers ' strike struggle in Germany, France, England, and Italy.
(see the diagram " The Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia. Results")
"The history of Russia from ancient times to 1917".
The staff of the Department of National History and Culture of the Ivanovo State Energy University consists of: Doctor of Philology S. P. Bobrova (topics 6,7); Associate Professor of the Department of the OIC O. E. Bogorodskaya (topic. 5); Doctor of I. N. Budnik G. A. (topics 2,4,8); Doctor of I. N. Kotlova T. B., Candidate of I. N. Koroleva T. V. (topic 1); Candidate of I. N. Koroleva T. V. (topic 3), Candidate of I. N. Sirotkin A. S. (topics 9,10).
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