Liberal Opposition

• Industrial and educational expansion produced a middle class that seeked liberal change.
• Support for the middle class came from professional groups that were joined by the liberal nobility.
• 2 liberal priorities were civil rights and a State Duma.
• Liberals and professionals were strongly represented in the zemstva and they were highly critical of autocracy.
• The introduction of Land Captains in 1889 caused further opposition that was fuelled by overruling zemstva decisions.
• The Great Famine exemplified Tsarist incompetence.
• The idea of a National Duma by the Zemstvo of Tver was dismissed as a "senseless dream" in 1895.
• The All-Zemstva Organisation was banned in 1896.
• Liberal intellectuals helped popularise political changes with Tolstoy being an example of this.
• Trade unions were legalised in 1900 with SV Zubatov - Head of Moscow Okhrana given permission to legalise them.
• Zubatov's permission was revoked in 1903 because trade unions attempted a general strike.
• The first liberal opposition group formed in 1899 and was known as Beseda.
• Beseda merged with the Union of Liberation in 1903 who were led by Peter Struve.
• Struve was formerly Marxist and he opposed violent revolution.
• Struve wanted Tsarism to become a constitutional monarchy.
• 50 banquets were held over winter 1904 to spread the union's message.
• Liberal opposition had limited political influence before 1905 but they were won over by the October Manifesto and the Duma.
• The liberal opposition was largely represented by the Kadets who believed in a constitutional democracy.
• Liberals tried to co-operate with the Tsarist government but they were increasingly frustrated by the intransigence of the Tsarist regime.
• Kadet leaders were arrested after the First Duma dissolved in 1906 and the electorate was reduced in size after the Second Duma dissolved in 1907.
• The Tsar increasingly ignored the Dumas to pass laws and there was little semblance to a constitutional monarchy by 1914.