How did the Tsar survive the 1905 Revolution?

How did the Tsar survive the 1905 Revolution?

Introduction

Controversy surrounds whether or not the revolution was a “dress rehearsal” for the 1917 revolution or a missed opportunity for Tsar Nicholas II to consolidate a constitutional monarchy.

This dissertation will focus on the survival of the Tsar, as it is ultimately an open question whether he would have saved the monarchy. The dissertation will also reveal that in the Tsar’s heart was more in reaction than reform. This coursework will show that part of the key to the monarchy’s survival was the division of the opponents of Tsarism. It took World War I to cause a major breakdown in relations that left the monarchy open to further revolution through total war.

The 1905 revolution was the result of the Russo-Japanese war which broke out in 1904. The war saw military and naval defeats for the Russian forces. There were food shortages in cities and the Soviets (assemblies of workers and soldiers’ representatives) were formed in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The event which started the whole revolution in the Russian Empire was “Bloody Sunday”; the event of the massacre of armament workers by Cossacks in front of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. The leader, Father Gapon, wanted to present the Tsar a petition requesting an improvement of living conditions and more freedom of expression. Riots spread to Odessa, the Black Sea Port and to Moscow where the Soviets were formed and Trotsky became involved. The battleship Potemkin mutinied and tried to help the Odessa rebels. There was a film made by the director Eisenstein which implied that the 1905 rebellion gave the momentum to a new revolutionary movement. However, ultimately, the revolution of 1905 was suppressed in the short term.

Summer brought mutinies from both the navy and army. The loss against Japan at Port Arthur and defeat at Tsushima far from strengthened the position of the Tsar’s government, in fact had weakened it. Autumn saw the transformation of industrial discontent give way to an all-out strike. It was then that the Soviets began to form-councils to demand improvements for the workers, led by Lev Trotsky.

Disturbances and riots such as Bloody Sunday clearly proved to be a challenge to the Tsarist system. There are key factors which allowed the Tsar to survive. We can isolate three factors which enhanced the Tsar’s survival: the loyalty of...

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...l and social grievances. Stolypin was dropped and he had been assassinated by 1911. The Duma was distrusted and total war after 1914 prepared the road of revolution by 1917. The Tsar survived the 1905 Russian Revolution by a combination of repression, economic reforms and tactics which divided the opposition.

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