Czar Nicholas II (1894-1917)
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• Easily influenced by those around him
• Convinced of the suitability of autocracy in Russia (therefore inflexible on political change)
• Accepted danger fatalistically (didn’t step to change things)
• Had little experience of gov.
• His wife had immense influence upon him (ie: w/ Rasputin)
• Not as firm as Alexander III his father à increased opposition
• This led to the rise of several political movements
• The Liberal Movement : a middle class party
• The Social Revolutionary Party: (from Land and Liberty Party) prepared to use violence but rather utopian
• The Social Democratic Party: Mensheviks (believed in a mass movement of workers gradually progressing towards a socialist state) and Bolsheviks (believed in revolution by a party of elite leading the workers)
• The Revolution of 1905 (result of defeat against the Japanese in 1904-05 and Bloody Sunday)
• General strike called
• Czar’s uncle assassinated by Social Rev.
• Mutinies in the armed forces
• Setting up of a workers council (Soviet)
• Peasants seized the land of the nobles
• The effects:
• The October Manifesto which granted: Freedom of Speech / a Duma (parliament)
• The Czar made no move towards political change
• The army remained loyal / this was not to be in 1917
• The Duma only had limited power (couldn’t initiate constitutional change / could be suspended by the Czar)
• The Duma was not fully democratic
• The creation of the Duma split the opposition: Constitutional Democrats (wanted full constitutional gov.) vs. Octobrists (satisfied w/ the October Manifesto)

Perter Stolypin (1906-11) (Prime Minister)

• Abolished payments by peasants for their gain in land from the nobles
• Introduced low interest loans for peasants (so they could buy land)
• Tried to establish a middle class of peasants loyal to the Czar
• Firm against non-parliamentary opposition
• Assassinated in Sept. 1911

Other Notes in this Category

1. Czar Alexander II (1855-1881)
2. Czar Alexander III (1881-1894)
3. Czar Nicholas II (1894-1917)
4. End of the Tsars according to Orland Figes
5. Foreign Policy 1919 to 1934
6. Russia Time-Line
7. The Civil War 1918-1921:
8. The New Economic Policy (NEP)
9. The Period of Lenin’s Rule (1917-24)
10. The Period of Stalin’s Rule (1924-53)
11. The Russian Revolutions of 1917

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