RUSSIA

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RUSSIA A BACKGROUND

• PRE REVOLUTION

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By the 20th Century

• A major crisis was due and had to happen
• Russia was an unfair society and needed social,
  economic and political reform.
• WHY????

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Political

• Nicholas II autocratic and ineffective
• Ruled a country covering one-sixth of the earths
  total land surface
• Massive personal wealth
• Backed by an army of 1 million and secret police
  (OKHRANA)
• Political parties banned critics ended up in
  prison or exile
• Press was censored

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Yet

• Many Russians worshipped the Tsar and peasants
• typically had a picture of the Tsar on a wall of
  their hut.

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His rule

• His word was law
• He appointed his ministers
• But did not have to listen to them
• AND could hire and fire them at will
• He was a true autocrat.

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SOCIAL
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Russia was..

• Only 40 ethnic Russians
• 80 were peasants subsistence farmers
• 60 illiterate
• Life expectancy 40
• Low tech and low investment
• Land ownership rare
• Land owned by OBSCHINA (Commune)
• It also organised taxes and allotted strips of
  land to each household

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Peasants contd

• Peasants could not leave the commune without the
  consent of the elders
• Discipline and punishments harsh even to exile
  in Siberia
• Drought and crop failure common
• 1891 famine cholera and typhus 400,000 dead
• 1890 64 of peasants called up for military
  service were declared unfit.

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YET..Yet

• Some did prosper and it was generally the
  shortage of land rather than shortage of food
  that was the irritant.
• Rural population grew but land owned by peasants
  and land size failed to keep pace.
• Faith in Tsar remained strong
• BUT hunger for land would grow.

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Industrial and urban

• Russia had grown industrially but living and
  working conditions were horrendous
• Average working day was 14 hours
• Trade unions banned but some strikes took place
• Potential for hotbed of political activism

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Unrest prior to 1905

• The passivity of the Russian people had limits
• May 1896 riots in St. Petersburg
• 1902 - Street demonstrations in major cities
• 1901-1907 arson of manor houses in rural areas
  became commonplace
• 1904 Minister of the interior assassinated by
  Social Revolutionary