Nicholas II and the challenge to autocracy
Cards (32)
- In the end he accepted the Romanov Way
- That he will 'maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as it was preserved by my unforgettable dead father'
- Nationalist gangs devoted to 'Tsar, Church and Motherland', emerging from c1900 and supported by clergy, landowners and government officials. They played a major role in crushing the 1905 revolution.
- The celebration continued as if nothing ever happened by Nicholas did visit the hospital of the injured later.
- Rise in opposition
- A squadron a mounted Cossacks charged into a crowd of students in St Petersburg, killing thirteen, and in the aftermath of the incident, 1500 students were improvised in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
- There was a lot of instances of arson in rural communities which were nicknamed 'the years of the red cockerel', referring to the leaping flames which resembled a rooster's comb.
- In central Russian provinces where there a traditional landlord-peasant relationship. This also spread to Georgia, Poland and Ukraine. Peasants set fire to landlords' barn, destroying grain and even going as far as attacking their landlords and officials.
- Stolypin dealt with this by flogging, arresting, exiling and even shooting peasants in thousands. This made the situation worse and Stolypin resulted in the lynching's to be called 'Stolypin's necktie'.
- The Obukhov factory in St Petersburg saw violent clashes between armed police and whip-carrying Cossacks.
- It had 12 branches and around 8,000 members.
- However, due to Japan expanding a lot during this time, it had control over this peninsula in 1895 and didn't give permission for the lease and began shelling the Russian navy in Port Arthur in January 1904.
- Japanese army underestimated and Russian overestimated. War 6,000 miles from the Capital
- When Plehve was assassinated in July 1904, crowds in Warsaw celebrated. They wanted a representative National Assembly and in November 1904, Mirsky reluctantly agreed to invite zemstvo reps to agree to form a rep gov for discussions.
- ' I will never agree to the representative form of government because I consider it harmful to the people of whom God has entrusted to me'
- He escaped Bloody Sunday and was exiled but was brought back by the SR's, when he did return he got in touch with the Okhrana and was hanged in 1906 due to the double-crossing...
- Nicholas sent 12,000 troops to deal with it, killing many.
- When townspeople came to pay their respects to the sailors that did this, troops fired at them, killing 2,000 and wounding 3,000.
- A General Strike started in 1905 to which Witte warned that the country was on a verge of a revolution that would 'sweep away a thousand years of history'.
- to give the Duma powers to approve laws
- This was the reality as Nicholas didn't actually want to become a constitutional monarch.
- December headquarters of St Petersburg Soviet was surrounded, and it's leaders were arrested, tried and exiled to Siberia. This weakened revolutionary groups and restored power of authorities in cities.
- deputies elected for 5 year terms
- The State council: half elected by zemstav, half appointed by tsar and had reps from major religious, social, educational and financial institutions.
- Every man over 25 could vote but only those with more than 400 acres could vote directly. The country was divided into districts and each elected a delegate to vote in the general election on their behalf. The result was that the vote weighed: 31% landowners, 42% peasants and 27% town dwellers.
- He claimed the right to: veto legislation, rule by decree of emergency/when duma was not in session, appoint& dismiss gov ministers, dissolve duma as he wishes, declare war, peace and negotiate treaties, control Orthodox church and overturn verdicts given by courts.
- Rightists: 8
- Rightists: 10
- Octoberists: 154
- Octoberists: 95
- Growth of middle class created pressure for political change, for a more representative and accountable governemnt.