Opposition to Tsarism
There were many groups opposed to current Tsarist regime, with many of them gaining most of their influence following the 1905 Revolution.
The Popularists had been around since the 1870s and had established a supporter base of peasants. This came from their ideology of a peasant-based revolution and that the peasant class were responsible for the future of Russia.
The Socialist Revolutionaries (SR’s) evolved from the Popularist movement in the 1890s. They also had a large peasant supporter base but they also had urban workers representing the party. Their ideology was to not have a class war and that the proletariat should not overthrow the bourgeoisie, Russia would naturally become a socialist society. Their initial leader was Victor Chernov who was later replaced by Alexander Kerensky who would become the Prime Minister of Russia in 1917. The party struggled to stay unified with two main groups being represented in the SR’s, the ‘maximalists’ and the ‘revolutionaries’. The maximalists held the left-wing belief of participating in terrorist style activity and economic terror to fast track a revolutionary situation, whereas the revolutionaries held the right-wing view of remaining moderate and cooperating with others to bring improvements in their society.
The Social Democratic Worker’s Party (SD’s) were the first Marxist party in Russia, they were formed in 1893 by George Plekhanov, the ‘father of Russian Marxism’. Lenin would eventually lead the SD’s. The SD’s had a main supporter base of the industrial working class and held the ideological view of the Marxist idea of a class war. This was view was contrastingly different to the view held by the SR’s, demonstrating the division between the opposing groups to Tsarism. They firmly believed in the proletariat carrying out a socialist revolution. The terms Bolsheviks and Mensheviks emerged during 1903, due to opposing views in the SD’s, Lenin and his supporters became known as the Bolsheviks (the majority) and Martov and his supporters became known as the Mensheviks (the minority). Lenin believed in a “revolutionary elite” where a small group made executive decisions on the revolutionary process, whereas Martov held the view of opening up all decisions to debate and voting. By 1905 the groups began to head in their own ideological ways and officially split in 1912.
The Liberals were left-leaning intellectuals who came from a progressive middle class. They believed in a social and political reform rather than an overthrow of the Tsarist regime, and held the opposite view of the SR’s and SD’s in believing that man and society could not be perfected. Two main groups evolved from the Liberalist movement, the Octoberists and Kadets. Both were formed in response to the October Manifesto.
The Octoberists believed in the preservation of Tsarism, but having it in conjunction with a Legislative Assembly. They were strongly anti-violence, believing peace and discussion could help solve Russia. They were more conservative than the Kadets, however they did support the dumas demonstrating that they did want a slow reform.
The Kadets held the view of keeping the Tsar but moving to a constitutional monarchy, where the powers of the Tsar would be limited by a constituent or national assembly. The Kadets were the first main oppressors to the Tsar in the Duma, when they made their list of demands, including universal education, civil rights for all citizens and freedom to strike and publically assembly.
All opposing groups contributed to a revolutionary situation, however differing views between and in groups led to situation where those combating Tsarism were not unified.
Book: Reinventing Russia, Lauren Perfect, Tom Ryan, Scott Sweeney Book: Analysing the Russian Revolution, 2nd Edition, Richard Malone Book: Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894-1924, Michael Lynch
SEAN
The Popularists had been around since the 1870s and had established a supporter base of peasants. This came from their ideology of a peasant-based revolution and that the peasant class were responsible for the future of Russia.
The Socialist Revolutionaries (SR’s) evolved from the Popularist movement in the 1890s. They also had a large peasant supporter base but they also had urban workers representing the party. Their ideology was to not have a class war and that the proletariat should not overthrow the bourgeoisie, Russia would naturally become a socialist society. Their initial leader was Victor Chernov who was later replaced by Alexander Kerensky who would become the Prime Minister of Russia in 1917. The party struggled to stay unified with two main groups being represented in the SR’s, the ‘maximalists’ and the ‘revolutionaries’. The maximalists held the left-wing belief of participating in terrorist style activity and economic terror to fast track a revolutionary situation, whereas the revolutionaries held the right-wing view of remaining moderate and cooperating with others to bring improvements in their society.
The Social Democratic Worker’s Party (SD’s) were the first Marxist party in Russia, they were formed in 1893 by George Plekhanov, the ‘father of Russian Marxism’. Lenin would eventually lead the SD’s. The SD’s had a main supporter base of the industrial working class and held the ideological view of the Marxist idea of a class war. This was view was contrastingly different to the view held by the SR’s, demonstrating the division between the opposing groups to Tsarism. They firmly believed in the proletariat carrying out a socialist revolution. The terms Bolsheviks and Mensheviks emerged during 1903, due to opposing views in the SD’s, Lenin and his supporters became known as the Bolsheviks (the majority) and Martov and his supporters became known as the Mensheviks (the minority). Lenin believed in a “revolutionary elite” where a small group made executive decisions on the revolutionary process, whereas Martov held the view of opening up all decisions to debate and voting. By 1905 the groups began to head in their own ideological ways and officially split in 1912.
The Liberals were left-leaning intellectuals who came from a progressive middle class. They believed in a social and political reform rather than an overthrow of the Tsarist regime, and held the opposite view of the SR’s and SD’s in believing that man and society could not be perfected. Two main groups evolved from the Liberalist movement, the Octoberists and Kadets. Both were formed in response to the October Manifesto.
The Octoberists believed in the preservation of Tsarism, but having it in conjunction with a Legislative Assembly. They were strongly anti-violence, believing peace and discussion could help solve Russia. They were more conservative than the Kadets, however they did support the dumas demonstrating that they did want a slow reform.
The Kadets held the view of keeping the Tsar but moving to a constitutional monarchy, where the powers of the Tsar would be limited by a constituent or national assembly. The Kadets were the first main oppressors to the Tsar in the Duma, when they made their list of demands, including universal education, civil rights for all citizens and freedom to strike and publically assembly.
All opposing groups contributed to a revolutionary situation, however differing views between and in groups led to situation where those combating Tsarism were not unified.
Book: Reinventing Russia, Lauren Perfect, Tom Ryan, Scott Sweeney Book: Analysing the Russian Revolution, 2nd Edition, Richard Malone Book: Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894-1924, Michael Lynch
SEAN
Opposition to the tsarist regime took place in (though not exclusively) universities, which were centres of revolutionary thought – Richard Pipes explains that, in Russia at the time, the word “student was synonymous with revolutionary.” Halliday divides revolutionaries into three main groups: those who believed that only a “more or less violent overthrow of the existing regime could save Russia,” those who aimed for a “relatively quiet revolution” through reform, and unaligned, moderate liberals who admired Britain’s constitutional monarchy. The first two types are demonstrated by, respectively, significant groups such as the Social Democrats (SDs) and the Social Revolutionaries, the former which split into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks in August, 1903. The existence of revolutionary thought and centres for these contributed to a revolutionary situation – groups and leaders could not necessarily direct or control popular movement. Notably, Lenin was in exile in Switzerland during the February Revolution, 1917.
VIVIAN
VIVIAN
Opposition to tsarism was characterised by numerous political factions. The Octobrists, while loyal to the tsar, heavily supported the October manifesto and warned catastrophe is the Tsar continued to remove the rights of the Duma. The Kadet party (constitutional democrats) were a liberal group within the duma that represented middle class professionals and supported a constitutional monarchy. The social democrats were perhaps the largest groups, despite being split into several factions, who opposed the system of tsarism. Socialists had been split into the mensheviks (men of the minority) and the Bolsheviks (men of the majority), their leadership was middle class and their support was directed at the industrial class. Mensheviks concentrated on making life better for the working masses and while not opposed to revolution, believed it was unnecessary for working conditions to improve. The Bolsheviks idealised a revolution which would be followed by a beneficial period of change for society and the economy (socialism) which would be followed by communism.
The Socialist Revolutionaries enjoyed mass support from the peasantry and were the most popular party in Russia and aimed to weaken the power of the Tsar. The SR’s were united in their determination to redistribute land and power.
ALIX
The Socialist Revolutionaries enjoyed mass support from the peasantry and were the most popular party in Russia and aimed to weaken the power of the Tsar. The SR’s were united in their determination to redistribute land and power.
ALIX
Throughout Nicholas 11 reign there were two main groups that opposed tsardom, those being the revolutionaries and the liberals. the revolutionaries were broken into three main forces, being the populists who believed the future of Russia as being in the hands of the peasants and in 1879 found the peoples will who had the intention of murdering members of the ruling class involving the assassination of alexander ii. However this act weakened their support as alexander had implemented many important reforms for Russia, and the fact that Russian peasantry were simply not interested in a political revolution mean a peasant based revolution was unrealistic.
The social revolutionaries
Grew out of the populist movement and the economic spurt of the 1890’s saw an opportunity to gain recruits from a rapidly increasing workforce. The key figures being victor chernov and leon Trotsky. Known for their terrorist acts between 1901 and 1905 responsible for over 2000 political assassinations . in 1906 the SR party committed itself to revolutionary socialism and gave a pledge to the peasants that it would end the bourgeois principle of private ownership by retuning land to those who worked for it. The SR’s remained the party with the largest popular following in Russia.
The social democrats
Came into power in 1898 with their aim to achieve revolution in Russia by following the ideas of Karl Marx. The main being the critical determinant of human behaviour was class struggle.
Lenins impact on the Social democrats
After returning from exile to western Russia in 1900 Lenin set about turing the sds into his vision of how a revolutionary party must be. Within this he formed the revolutionary newspaper the Iskra. However lenin often criticised his colleague Plekhanov for being more interested in reform rather than revolution. After a serious disagreement it resulted into two factions known as the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks were run by Lenin and were the more radical of the two groups, often reverting to violence and theft as a mean of revolution in an attempt to raise money for their party. Despite their efforts during this period lenins revolutionaries were regarded as a fringe group of extremists.
The liberals
The octobertists were ran by Mikhail Rodzianko who issued the 1905 october manifesto hence the name. this resulted in the formation of a duma. The octobertists were moderates who were basically loyal to the tsar. The octobertists were criticised for unwilling to challenge the existing system, however they were very willing to point out the governments failures within the Duma.
The Kadets
Were the largest liberal party and came into power at the time of the 1905 revolution. They wanted to develop a constitutional monarchy in which the government would be constricted by a national assembly, in an attempt to control Russia’s social, political and economic problems. The kadets dominated the 1st and 2nd dumas in which they were very open to limiting the Tsar’s power ultimately resulting in their absence in the 3rd and 4th Dumas in which was run by the Octobertists.
JAYE
The social revolutionaries
Grew out of the populist movement and the economic spurt of the 1890’s saw an opportunity to gain recruits from a rapidly increasing workforce. The key figures being victor chernov and leon Trotsky. Known for their terrorist acts between 1901 and 1905 responsible for over 2000 political assassinations . in 1906 the SR party committed itself to revolutionary socialism and gave a pledge to the peasants that it would end the bourgeois principle of private ownership by retuning land to those who worked for it. The SR’s remained the party with the largest popular following in Russia.
The social democrats
Came into power in 1898 with their aim to achieve revolution in Russia by following the ideas of Karl Marx. The main being the critical determinant of human behaviour was class struggle.
Lenins impact on the Social democrats
After returning from exile to western Russia in 1900 Lenin set about turing the sds into his vision of how a revolutionary party must be. Within this he formed the revolutionary newspaper the Iskra. However lenin often criticised his colleague Plekhanov for being more interested in reform rather than revolution. After a serious disagreement it resulted into two factions known as the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks were run by Lenin and were the more radical of the two groups, often reverting to violence and theft as a mean of revolution in an attempt to raise money for their party. Despite their efforts during this period lenins revolutionaries were regarded as a fringe group of extremists.
The liberals
The octobertists were ran by Mikhail Rodzianko who issued the 1905 october manifesto hence the name. this resulted in the formation of a duma. The octobertists were moderates who were basically loyal to the tsar. The octobertists were criticised for unwilling to challenge the existing system, however they were very willing to point out the governments failures within the Duma.
The Kadets
Were the largest liberal party and came into power at the time of the 1905 revolution. They wanted to develop a constitutional monarchy in which the government would be constricted by a national assembly, in an attempt to control Russia’s social, political and economic problems. The kadets dominated the 1st and 2nd dumas in which they were very open to limiting the Tsar’s power ultimately resulting in their absence in the 3rd and 4th Dumas in which was run by the Octobertists.
JAYE
The main opposition to the Tsar and the old regime came in the form of small (to start with) socialist groups. Perhaps the smallest being the Kadets, a minor liberal Duma party seeking a constitutional monarchy for the benefit of the businessman. A greatly more influential group were the social democrats spit in 1903 to form the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, with the latter led by Lenin. The Mensheviks focused on obtaining better conditions for the growing proletariat whilst the Bolsheviks sought the opposite. Hoping it’ll cause enough tension to spark revolution and completely abolish Tsarism altogether. The other, more popular, revolutionary group the Social Revolutionaries boasted major support from the peasantry. By far the most popular party in Russia, they sought to distribute the land evenly, removing much of the power from the monarchy and nobility.