1905January - Bloody Sunday Massacre
On a freezing Sunday morning on 9th January 1905, the largest strike in Russia's history occurred. It is estimated that 111 000 men, women and children who started in different sections of the city of St Petersburg with the intention of marching to the Tsar's Winter Palace on the Neva River. The Sunday march was led by Father Gapon, a preist from the Orthodox Church. Their intention was to present the Tsar with a petition. The petition pleaded for an improvement of the living and working conditions, an elected State Duma, the right to vote and civic freedoms. However, they were confronted with a line of the Tsar's troops and a company of mounted cossacks. The cossacks galloped towards the crowd with swords in the air injuring and killing hundreds of men, women and children. The goverment report decleared that 96 had died and 333 were wounded. Modern historians believe that 200 were killed and 800 were wounded. This began the breakdown of trust between the Tsar and his people and was the the start of the 1905 revolution. May - Battle of Tsushima The Russo-Japanese War had begun in 1904 and alfter six months of travel the Russian navy was demolished in 24 hours at the Battle of Tsushima. Because the Russians desired to slip undetected into Vladivostok, as they approached Japanese waters they steered outside regular shipping channels to reduce the chance of detection. On one night in May, the Russian fleet approached Tsushima Strait. In the dark, misty night, a thick fog blanketed the straits, giving the Russians an advantage. At the same time the entire Japanese fleet went to sea, with Admiral Tōgō from his flagship Mikasa leading over forty vessels to met the Russians. As both sides met they signalled war to each other. The Russians were defeated and suffered 4,380 deaths, 5,917 captuered including two Admirals and lost all of it's battleships and most of it's cruisers, while the Japenese lost just three torpedo boats, 117 deaths and 500 wounded. Japan sealed the military defeat of Russia and the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. This defeat left the russians humiliated as Japan was seen as a backward country and turned on the Tsar. June - Mutiny of the battleship Potemkin After hearing the defeat of the Russo-Japanese War their was a mutiny on the battleship Potemkin by a navy crew in the Black Sea. The Potemkinwas a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet. It was a rebellion of the crew against their oppressive officers in June 1905. The rebellion went on for 15 days before Nicholas was able to silence the disturbance when the Potemkin half-sunk. This showed that Nicholas was losing support of some armed forces. He was able to restore order given the random nature and location of armed oppsition. September - Mutiny on the Trans-Siberian Railway On return from fighting the Japanese in the east, army troops mutiny and control a section of the Trans-Siberian Railway. An American diplomat wrote that ‘the Tsar has utterly lost the affection of his people.’ Protests and strikes spread like wildfire. Some railway men on the Trans Siberian Railway went on strike and were joined by a handful of mutinous troops. This threatened any bid to summon men home from the Far Eastern Front so that they could put down the revolution at home. The Tsar was able to dispatch loyal soldiery to retake control of this vital railway line. The significance of this mutiney was that opposition to tsarism became too disorgonised and violent. Throughout 1905...1905 also saw the formation of movements, representing the rights of various sections of the Russian society. In May, The Union of Unions, a liberal reformist group led by Paul Miliukov, would call for political reforms, representing the middle classes and intelligentsia. In June, the All-Russian Union of Peasants would be formed. Most importantly, in October, the St. Petersburg Soviet would form, and also be the head of approximately 80 Soviets across Russia. Led by Trotsky (at the time a Menshevik), would represent the workers of industrial cities. Workers and peasants were now formally represented and their grievances could be heard. October - General Strikes General strikes began in St. Petersburg and other industrial cities and the widespread nature of these strikes halted the economy. The revolt spread to non-Russian parts of the empire, including Poland, Finland, and Georgia. Soon general strikes had spread to all the large cities, and the workers' councils or soviets, often led by the Mensheviks, became revolutionary governments. Despite the spontaneous nature of the strikes, still without coordinated leadership, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to act. |
The Tsar respondsThe October ManifestoThe Strikes forced the Tsar's hand as the Country's economy ground to a halt. Advised by Sergei Witte, the October Manifesto promised an elected legislature (a Duma), the right for political assembly and greater individual freedoms.
The Tsar had 3 major social groups to appease. The peasants, enticed with agrarian reforms and cancellation of land loans, returned to the land. The liberals (although divided), welcomed the reforms, in particular the Octobrists. The workers, led by the Soviets, however soon cracked down upon. The members of the St. Petersburg Soviet were all arrested, and half were jailed. Trotsky, among them, was sentenced to life exile in Siberia (however he soon escaped). Armed uprisings in Moscow were brutally crushed. |
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