The Romanov empire at the time of Nicholas II

• Grievances against the government

  • Discontent became organised through illegal political parties and other groups, each with its own illegal newspaper
  • Middle and upper class liberals supported the Union of Liberation, wanted Russia to become a democracy with a constitution and a parliament to limit the Tsar's powers
  • Socialist intellectuals, influenced by the teachings of the German philosopher, Karl Marx, formed the Social Democratic Labour Party (later split into the Bolshevik and Menshevik parties), believed in socialism and thought that revolution was the only way of ending tsarist rule, sought support from urban workers
  • The Socialist Revolutionary Party also aimed to overthrow tsarist rule, fought hard for a democratic and free society where capitalism existed but was restricted by being run by the state, workers and peasants, used terrorism as one of its methods and was responsible for the assassination of hundreds of political figures
• In the early 1900s, Russia was on the brink of crisis. Failed harvests, inflation and economic depression saw Russia's peasants and urban workers increasingly resort to riots, demonstrations and strikes to protest their poor conditions
• Tsar Nicholas II persisted in the belief that to grant reforms would undermine his autocratic power
• Emancipation of peasants


  1861
• Emancipation of peasants


  Peasants were granted their freedom from ownership and 'given' land to farm
• Communes


  • Peasants would now be required to be a part of village communities called communes
  • Each commune had a community debt, being responsible for paying for the land they were given under the new emancipation decree
  • The village council in each commune would organise farming tasks
  • Peasants needed permission from the commune if they wanted to move from their village
  • Ex-peasants still had to send back regular payments to offset the communal debt
• Farming and living conditions

  • Peasants continued to use old-fashioned farming methods involving manual rather than machine labour
  • A peasant's work life would have been very hard and tiring
  • Living standards were poor with a whole family often sharing a single room
  • Life expectancy was very low given these conditions