Plan of the first Russian revolution. Main events of the first Russian revolution

Reasons for the revolution:

• aggravation of the political situation in the country due to persistent reluctance ruling circles led by Nicholas II to carry out overdue reforms;
• the unresolved agrarian issue - peasants' lack of land, redemption payments, etc.;
• unresolved labor issue - lack of social protection of workers at an extremely high level of exploitation;
• unresolved national issue - infringement of the rights of national minorities, especially Jews and Poles;
• the decline in the moral authority of the government and especially Nicholas II due to the shameful defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.

The main stages of the revolution. Two stages can be distinguished.

The first stage (1905): events developed progressively.

Key dates for this stage

January 9- Bloody Sunday. The shooting of a peaceful demonstration of workers in St. Petersburg served as the reason for the start of the revolution.

February— March- mass demonstrations and strikes in all regions of the country.

May— June- strike of textile workers in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. The beginning of the creation of Councils of Workers' Deputies as alternative government bodies.

June 14—24- mutiny on the battleship Po-Temkin. The reason is the abuses of officers. It showed the government that it could not fully rely on the armed forces, and caused the first concessions on its part.

August— the draft law on the Bulygin Duma (named after the Minister of Internal Affairs A.G. Bulygin, the main developer of this project.) — an attempt to create a legislative advisory Duma. This was clearly a belated concession that did not satisfy any social force except the monarchists.

October 7—17- All-Russian October strike, the culmination of the revolution. More than 2 million people took part. It paralyzed economic life and forced the government to make serious concessions.

17 October!!! — Manifesto “On Improving State Order.” Democratic rights and freedoms were granted, elections to the legislative parliament - the State Duma and the creation of the Council of Ministers were announced (the first chairman was S. Yu. Vit-te, who was also the initiator of the publication of the Manifesto of October 17 and the electoral law).

11 -15th of November- an uprising of sailors of the Black Sea Fleet, soldiers of the Sevastopol garrison and workers of the port and the Marine Factory under the leadership of Lieutenant P.P. Schmidt. Depressed.

December 9—19— Moscow armed uprising. During the battles on Presnya, the Bolsheviks tried to raise a general armed uprising. It ended in failure.

The second stage (1906 - June 3, 1907) is characterized by a decline in the armed struggle, its transition into the mainstream of parliamentary struggle in the I and II State Dumas. All this happened against the background of intensified peasant uprisings and retaliatory punitive actions of the government, and the political struggle of various parties.

Key dates for this stage

March, April 1906 g. - holding elections to the First State Duma.

April 23 1906 g. - publication of a new edition of the Basic Laws of the Russian Empire: Russia legally ceased to be an absolute monarchy.

April 27 - July 8, 1906— I State Duma. The main issue in the Duma was the agrarian one: the “project of 42” Cadets and the “project of 104” Trudoviks. The Duma was dissolved early on charges of negative impact on society.

February 20 - June 2, 1907 - II State Duma. In terms of composition, it turned out to be more radical than the previous one: the Trudoviks took first place, the Cadets took second place. The main issue is agricultural.

June 3, 1907— coup d'état: dissolution of the Second Duma. Nicholas II, by his decree, changed the electoral law without the sanction of the Duma, which was a violation of the Basic Laws of 1906. This event marked the end of the revolution.

Results of the revolution:

• the main result is a change in the form of government in Russia. It became a constitutional (limited) monarchy;
• the government was forced to begin agrarian reform and cancel redemption payments;
• The situation of workers improved somewhat (increased wages, reduced the working day to 9-10 hours, introduced sickness benefits, but, however, not at all enterprises).

Conclusion: in general, the revolution was unfinished. She only half solved the problems facing the country.

Russian Revolution of 1905 or First Russian Revolution- the name of the events that took place between January 1905 and June 1907 in the Russian Empire.

The impetus for the start of mass protests under political slogans was “Bloody Sunday” - the shooting by imperial troops in St. Petersburg of a peaceful demonstration of workers led by priest Georgy Gapon on January 9 (22), 1905. During this period, the strike movement took on a particularly wide scale, in the army and There were unrest and uprisings in the fleet, which resulted in mass protests against the monarchy.

The result of the speeches was the enacted constitution - the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, which granted civil liberties on the basis of personal inviolability, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and unions. A Parliament was established, consisting of the State Council and the State Duma.

The revolution was followed by a reaction: the so-called “June Third Coup” of June 3 (16), 1907. The rules for elections to the State Duma were changed to increase the number of deputies loyal to the monarchy; local authorities did not respect the freedoms declared in the Manifesto of October 17, 1905; the most significant agrarian issue for the majority of the country's population was not resolved.

Thus, the social tension that caused the First Russian Revolution was not completely resolved, which determined the preconditions for the subsequent revolutionary uprising of 1917.

Causes of the revolution

The development of forms of human activity into a new infrastructure of the state, the emergence of industry and types of economic activities that were radically different from the types of economic activities of the 17th-19th centuries, entailed an increased need to reform the activities of government and government bodies. The end of the period of significant importance of subsistence farming, an intensive form of progress in industrial methods, already in the 19th century required radical innovations in administration and law. Following the abolition of serfdom and the transformation of farms into industrial enterprises, a new institution of legislative power and normative legal acts regulating legal relations were required.

Peasantry

Peasants constituted the largest class of the Russian Empire - about 77% of the total population. The rapid growth of population in 1860-1900 led to the fact that the size of the average plot decreased by 1.7-2 times, while the average yield during this period increased by only 1.34 times. The result of this imbalance was a constant drop in the average grain harvest per capita of the agricultural population and, as a consequence, a deterioration in the economic situation of the peasantry as a whole.

The course towards active stimulation of bread exports, taken since the late 1880s Russian government, was another factor that worsened the food situation of the peasantry. The slogan “we won’t finish eating, but we’ll export it,” put forward by Finance Minister Vyshnegradsky, reflected the government’s desire to support grain exports at any cost, even in conditions of internal crop failure. This was one of the reasons that led to the famine of 1891-1892. Since the famine of 1891, the crisis Agriculture was increasingly recognized as a protracted and profound malaise of the entire economy of Central Russia.

The motivation of peasants to increase their labor productivity was low. The reasons for this were stated by Witte in his memoirs as follows:

The constant reduction in the size of land plots (“land shortage”) led to the fact that the general slogan of the Russian peasantry in the 1905 revolution was the demand for land, through the redistribution of privately owned (primarily landowner) land in favor of peasant communities.

Industrial workers

By the 20th century, there was already a real industrial proletariat, but its situation was approximately the same as that of the proletariat in a number of other European countries in the first half of the 19th century: extremely difficult working conditions, a 12-hour working day (by 1897 it was limited to 11.5) , absence social security in case of illness, injury, old age.

1900-1904: Growing crisis

The economic crisis of 1900-1903 aggravated all the country's socio-political problems; the general crisis was also aggravated by the agrarian crisis that affected the most important agricultural areas.

The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War showed urgent need reforms. The authorities' refusal to make any positive decisions in this direction also became one of the reasons for the start of the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907.

Progress of the revolution

After the events of January 9, P. D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky was dismissed from the post of Minister of Internal Affairs and replaced by Bulygin; The post of St. Petersburg Governor-General was established, to which General D. F. Trepov was appointed on January 12.

By decree of Nicholas II of January 29, a commission was created under the chairmanship of Senator Shidlovsky with the aim of “urgently clarifying the reasons for the discontent of the workers of St. Petersburg and its suburbs and eliminating them in the future.” Its members were to be officials, factory owners and deputies from St. Petersburg workers. The elections of deputies were two-stage: electors were elected at enterprises, who, united in 9 production groups, were supposed to elect 50 deputies. At the meeting of electors on February 16-17, under the influence of the socialists, it was decided to demand from the government the transparency of the commission’s meetings, freedom of the press, the restoration of 11 departments of Gapon’s “Assembly” closed by the government, and the release of arrested comrades. On February 18, Shidlovsky rejected these demands as beyond the competence of the commission. In response to this, the electors of 7 production groups refused to send deputies to the Szydlovsk Commission and called on the workers to go on strike. On February 20, Shidlovsky presented a report to Nicholas II in which he admitted the failure of the commission; on the same day, by royal decree, Shidlovsky’s commission was dissolved.

After January 9, a wave of strikes swept across the country. On January 12-14, a general strike of protest against the shooting of a demonstration of St. Petersburg workers took place in Riga and Warsaw. A strike movement and strikes began on the Russian railways. All-Russian student political strikes also began. In May 1905, a general strike of Ivanovo-Voznesensk textile workers began; 70 thousand workers went on strike for more than two months. Councils of Workers' Deputies arose in many industrial centers.

Social conflicts were aggravated by conflicts on ethnic grounds. In the Caucasus, clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis began, which continued in 1905-1906.

On February 18, a tsar’s manifesto was published calling for the eradication of sedition in the name of strengthening true autocracy, and a decree to the Senate allowed the submission of proposals to the tsar for improving “state improvement.” Nicholas II signed a rescript addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs A.G. Bulygin with an order to prepare a law on an elected representative body - the legislative advisory Duma.

The published acts seemed to give direction to the further social movement. Zemstvo assemblies, city dumas, professional intelligentsia, who formed whole line all kinds of unions, separate public figures discussed issues of involving the population in legislative activities, and the attitude towards the work of the “Special Meeting” established under the chairmanship of Chamberlain Bulygin. Resolutions, petitions, addresses, notes, and projects for state transformation were drawn up.

The February, April and May congresses organized by the zemstvo people, the last of which took place with the participation of city leaders, ended with the presentation to the Sovereign Emperor on June 6 through a special deputation of an all-subject address with a petition for popular representation.

On April 17, 1905, the Decree “On Strengthening the Principles of Religious Tolerance” was adopted, proclaiming freedom of religion for non-Orthodox faiths.

On June 21, 1905, an uprising began in Lodz, which became one of the main events in the revolution of 1905-1907 in the Kingdom of Poland.

On August 6, 1905, the Manifesto of Nicholas II established The State Duma How “a special legislative establishment, which is provided with the preliminary development and discussion of legislative proposals and consideration of the breakdown of state revenues and expenses”. The convocation date was set - no later than mid-January 1906.

At the same time, the Regulations on the Elections of August 6, 1905 were published, establishing the rules for elections to the State Duma. Of the four most well-known and popular democratic norms (universal, direct, equal, secret elections), only one was implemented in Russia - secret voting. The elections were neither general, nor direct, nor equal. The organization of elections to the State Duma was entrusted to the Minister of Internal Affairs Bulygin.

In October, a strike began in Moscow, which spread throughout the country and grew into the All-Russian October political strike. On October 12-18, over 2 million people went on strike in various industries.

On October 14, St. Petersburg Governor-General D.N. Trepov posted proclamations on the streets of the capital, in which, in particular, it was said that the police were ordered to decisively suppress the riots, “if the crowd shows resistance to this, do not fire blank volleys or fire bullets.” don't regret."

This general strike and, above all, the strike of railway workers, forced the emperor to make concessions. The Manifesto of October 17, 1905 granted civil liberties: personal inviolability, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and union. Trade unions and professional-political unions, Councils of Workers' Deputies arose, the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Revolutionary Party were strengthened, the Constitutional Democratic Party, the "Union of October 17", "The Union of the Russian People" and others were created.

Thus, the liberals' demands were fulfilled. The autocracy went to the creation of parliamentary representation and the beginning of reform (see Stolypin agrarian reform).

Stolypin's dissolution of the 2nd State Duma with a parallel change in the electoral law (June Third coup of 1907) meant the end of the revolution.

Armed uprisings

The declared political freedoms, however, did not satisfy the revolutionary parties, who intended to gain power not through parliamentary means, but through an armed seizure of power and put forward the slogan “Finish off the government!” Ferment gripped the workers, army and navy (uprising on the battleship Potemkin, Vladivostok uprising, etc.). In turn, the authorities saw that there was no further way to retreat, and began to resolutely fight the revolution.

On October 13, 1905, the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies began its work, which became the organizer of the All-Russian October political strike of 1905 and tried to disorganize financial system countries, calling not to pay taxes and withdraw money from banks. The Council deputies were arrested on December 3, 1905.

The unrest reached its highest point in December 1905: in Moscow (December 7 - 18) and other large cities. In Rostov-on-Don, militant detachments fought with troops in the Temernik area on December 13-20. In Yekaterinoslav, the strike that began on December 8 developed into an uprising. The working-class district of the city of Chechelevka was in the hands of the rebels until December 27.

Pogroms

After the publication of the Tsar's manifesto on October 17, 1905, Jewish pogroms occurred in many cities in the Pale of Settlement. The largest pogroms took place in Odessa (over 400 Jews died), in Rostov-on-Don (over 150 dead), Ekaterinoslav - 67, Minsk - 54, Simferopol - over 40 and Orsha - over 30 dead.

Political assassinations

In total, from 1901 to 1911, about 17 thousand people were killed and wounded during revolutionary terrorism (of which 9 thousand occurred directly during the revolution of 1905-1907). In 1907, an average of 18 people died every day. According to the police, from February 1905 to May 1906 alone, the following were killed: governors general, governors and mayors - 8, vice-governors and advisers to provincial boards - 5, police chiefs, district chiefs and police officers - 21, gendarmerie officers - 8 , generals (combatants) - 4, officers (combatants) - 7, bailiffs and their assistants - 79, police officers - 125, policemen - 346, police officers - 57, guards - 257, gendarmerie lower ranks - 55, security agents - 18, civil officials - 85, clergy - 12, village authorities - 52, landowners - 51, factory owners and senior employees in factories - 54, bankers and large merchants - 29.

Notable victims of terror:

Socialist Revolutionary Party

The militant organization was created by the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the early 1900s to fight against the autocracy in Russia through terror. The organization included from 10 to 30 militants led by G. A. Gershuni, and from May 1903 - E. F. Azef. She organized the murders of the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin and V.K. Pleve, the Kharkov governor Prince I.M. Obolensky and the Ufa governor N.M. Bogdanovich, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich; prepared assassination attempts on Nicholas II, Minister of Internal Affairs P. N. Durnovo, Moscow Governor-General F. V. Dubasov, priest G. A. Gapon and others.

RSDLP

The combat technical group under the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), headed by L. B. Krasin, was the central combat organization of the Bolsheviks. The group carried out massive supplies of weapons to Russia, supervised the creation, training and arming of combat squads that participated in the uprisings.

The Military Technical Bureau of the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP is the Moscow military organization of the Bolsheviks. It included P.K. Sternberg. The bureau led Bolshevik combat units during the Moscow uprising.

Other revolutionary organizations

• Polish Socialist Party (PPS). In 1906 alone, PPS militants killed and wounded about 1,000 people. One of the major actions was the Bezdan robbery in 1908.
• General Jewish Workers' Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia
• Socialist Jewish Workers Party
• "Dashnaktsutyun" is an Armenian revolutionary nationalist party. During the revolution, she actively participated in the Armenian-Azerbaijani massacre of 1905-1906. The Dashnaks killed many administrative and private individuals who were disliked by the Armenians: General Alikhanov, governors: Nakashidze and Andreev, colonels Bykov, Sakharov. The revolutionaries accused the tsarist authorities of inflaming the conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
• Armenian Social Democratic Organization "Hnchak"
• Georgian National Democrats
• Latvian forest brothers. In the Kurland province in January - November 1906, up to 400 actions were carried out: they killed government officials, attacked police stations, and burned landowners' estates.
• Latvian Social Democratic Labor Party
• Belarusian socialist community
• Finnish Active Resistance Party
• Jewish Social Democratic Party Poalei Zion
• Federation of Anarchists "Bread and Freedom"
• Federation of Anarchists "Black Banner"
• Federation of Anarchists "Anarchy"

Representation in fiction

• Leonid Andreev's story “The Tale of the Seven Hanged Men” (1908). The story is based on real events- hanging on Lisiy
• Nosu, near St. Petersburg 02/17/1908 (old style) 7 members of the Flying Combat Detachment of the Northern Region of the Socialist Revolutionary Party
• Article by Leo Tolstoy “I Can’t Be Silent!” (1908) about government repression and revolutionary terror
• Sat. stories by Vlas Doroshevich “The Whirlwind and other works of recent times”
• Poem by Konstantin Balmont “Our Tsar” (1907). A famous accusatory poem.
• Poem by Boris Pasternak “Nine Hundred and Fifth” (1926-27)
• Boris Vasiliev's novel “And there was evening, and there was morning” ISBN 978-5-17-064479-7
• Stories by Yevgeny Zamyatin "The Unlucky" and "Three Days"
• Varshavyanka - a revolutionary song that became widely known in 1905

The aggravation of contradictions within the country and the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War led to a serious political crisis. The authorities were unable to change the situation. Causes of the revolution of 1905 - 1907:

• reluctance supreme authority conduct liberal reforms, the projects of which were prepared by Witte, Svyatopolk-Mirsky and others;
• the lack of any rights and the miserable existence of the peasant population, which made up more than 70% of the country's population (agrarian question);
• lack of social guarantees and civil rights among the working class, the policy of non-interference by the state in the relationship between entrepreneur and worker (labor issue);
• policy of forced Russification in relation to non-Russian peoples, which at that time constituted up to 57% of the country's population (national question);
• unsuccessful development of the situation on the Russian-Japanese front.

The first Russian revolution 1905 – 1907 was provoked by the events that took place in early January 1905 in St. Petersburg. Here are the main stages of the revolution.

• Winter 1905 – autumn 1905. The shooting of a peaceful demonstration on January 9, 1905, called “Bloody Sunday,” led to the start of worker strikes in almost all regions of the country. There were also unrest in the army and navy. One of the important episodes of the first Russian revolution of 1905 - 1907. There was a mutiny on the cruiser "Prince Potemkin Tauride", which occurred on June 14, 1905. During the same period, the workers' movement intensified, and the peasant movement became more active.
• Autumn 1905 This period is the highest point of the revolution. The All-Russian October strike, started by the printers' trade union, was supported by many other trade unions. The Tsar issues a manifesto on the granting of political freedoms and the creation of the State Duma as a legislative body. After Nicholas 2 granted the rights to freedom of assembly, speech, conscience, the press, the “Union of October 17” and the Constitutional Democratic Party, as well as the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, announced the end of the revolution.
• December 1905 The radical wing of the RSDLP supports an armed uprising in Moscow. There are fierce barricade battles on the streets (Presnya). On December 11, the regulations on elections to the 1st State Duma are published.
• 1906 - first half of 1907 Decline in revolutionary activity. Start of work of the 1st State Duma (with a Cadet majority). In February 1907, the 2nd State Duma was convened (left-wing in its composition), but after 3 months it was dissolved. During this period, strikes and strikes continued, but gradually the government's control over the country was restored.

It is worth noting that along with the government’s loss of support for the army and the all-Russian October strike, the law establishing the Duma, the granting of freedoms (speech, conscience, press, etc.) and the removal of the word “unlimited” from the definition of the tsar’s power are the main events of the revolution of 1905 - 1907

The result of the revolution of 1905 - 1907, which was bourgeois-democratic in nature, was a number of serious transformations, such as the formation of the State Duma. Political parties received the right to act legally. The situation of the peasants improved, since redemption payments were canceled, and they were also granted the right to free movement and choice of place of residence. But they did not receive ownership of the land. Workers won the right to legally form trade unions, and the working hours in factories were reduced. Some workers received voting rights. National policies have become more lenient. However, vital importance revolutions 1905 - 1907 is to change the worldview of people, which paved the way for further revolutionary changes in the country.

Today it is not customary to talk much about the causes of the first Russian revolution, its course and the consequences it entailed. Even school history textbooks pay rather modest attention to these events. The two subsequent coups d'etat, which occurred in February and October 1917, have been studied in much more detail. However, the significance that the revolution of 1905-1907 had on the emergence and development of parliamentarism in Russia, and on the further historical fate of the country as a whole, is quite difficult to overestimate. Especially if we consider these revolutionary events impartially and taking into account the current political realities that have developed today in the Russian state. In this context, one can find many interesting analogies and allusions to the events of 110 years ago.

Causes of the first Russian revolution

Of course, revolutionary events almost never arise spontaneously, on unprepared soil and without certain conditions. The prerequisites that caused the revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia were the following reasons:

Political background:
1. The emergence of parliamentarism in Russia began much later than in most leading countries of the world of that period. If in England the parliamentary system began to take shape after 1265, and in France the date of birth of parliamentary reforms is considered to be 1302, then in the Russian Empire, even at the beginning of the twentieth century, parliamentarism was still in its infancy. This caused sharp discontent among the so-called “progressive minds” of Russian society, who paid increasingly close attention to the experience of Western countries.
2. Comparatively liberal politics, carried out by the tsarist government of Russia in the second half of the 19th century, led to the strengthening of the influence of circles professing leftist views, the emergence of various parties and movements that demanded greater democratic freedoms. Moreover, along with legal organizations, various associations that carried out their activities from underground began to play a significant role. Including quite a few radical organizations that did not shy away from terror, outright provocations and agitation in favor of the overthrow of the autocracy.
3. Failures in the Russo-Japanese War, which ultimately led to the defeat of Russia, dealt a significant blow to the national self-awareness of the country's population and a noticeable drop in Russia's prestige in the international arena.

All this could not but cause revolutionary sentiments and demands political reforms as in the area foreign policy, and in the sphere of internal government of the country.

Economic prerequisites:

1. The global financial crisis that broke out in turn of the 19th century and XX centuries, hit the Russian Empire quite painfully. Russia's external debt, which formed back in the days of Russo-Turkish War. The fall in bread prices and the appearance of American grain on the market at dumping prices significantly reduced export cash receipts to the treasury.
2. With all this, the reorientation of agrarian Russia onto an industrial path required more and more expenses. Of course, the most vulnerable segments of the population suffered the most from this, they are also the most numerous. It's about about such categories of citizens as peasants, workers, civil servants, and townspeople.
3. The so-called “tightening of the screws” undertaken by the tsarist government at the turn of the century took away from the common population and commoners most of the few freedoms granted by the autocracy in previous years. The reactionary government has taken a fairly tough course to suppress free thought and persecute those who disagree with the current regime. The dissatisfaction of the free-thinking population was actively supported, among other things, by foreign special services, intelligence services of bourgeois countries and financial circles that were not interested in the establishment of Russia as one of the leading players in the world financial and commodity markets.

Thus, the revolution of 1905-1907 was not only the result of purely internal political problems Russian state, but was also caused by a whole complex of economic troubles.

Social prerequisites

Can't be underestimated social contradictions, established in Russia by the beginning of 1905.

1. Rapid population growth and rapid industrialization of the country led to a sharp reduction in available land plots and a very noticeable drop in the well-being of peasants, who at that time made up over 75% of the country's population.
2. Development in large cities industrial production caused a rapid influx of population from agricultural areas. People were ready to work 12 hours a day, almost seven days a week, and even endure constant wage cuts.
3. Widespread corruption, unjustified bloat of the bureaucratic apparatus, sluggishness state system, the indifference of officials caused natural irritation and an understanding that many things needed to be changed in the most radical way.
Of course, the above list of reasons is far from complete, although it reflects the main prerequisites due to which the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 broke out.

Revolution of 1905-1907: course of events

The revolution of 1905 began in the very first days of 1905 with a strike that broke out in the then capital - St. Petersburg - and instantly covered all the large industrial enterprises of the city. The cause for unrest was the seemingly insignificant fact that four workers of the Kirov plant were fired for their political views. By January 7, the strike had become widespread, and one of the ideological inspirers, a priest named Gapon, called on the common people to organize a procession to the Winter Palace in order to deliver the compiled “Petition of Rights” into the hands of the Tsar himself. The procession, which according to some estimates was attended by about 150,000 people, was dispersed by force, resulting in more than 100 demonstrators being killed and about 500 injured.

The brutal suppression of a peaceful demonstration in St. Petersburg caused a real storm of protests throughout the country. In May, in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, far from St. Petersburg, for example, the first workers' council in the history of Russia was formed. As summer approached, the country was rocked by a series of peasant uprisings, riots and acts of disobedience. Individual units of the army and navy began to join the rebels (the uprising on the battleship Potemkin, for example), and the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907 reached its peak in the fall, when the All-Russian political strike was held. At the same time, the terrorist activities of the Socialist Revolutionaries and other radicals were repeatedly activated. All these events posed such a real threat to the very existence of Russian statehood that on October 17, Nicholas II was forced to sign a special Manifesto, providing certain categories of the lower strata of society with a number of concessions, freedoms and privileges.

Despite the fact that after the signing of the Manifesto, the most organized participants in the events - liberal-minded circles - preferred to enter into dialogue with the authorities, the authorities were forced to suppress peasant and worker unrest already in 1906. The official date for the end of the First Russian Revolution is considered to be June 3, 1907. Thus, unrest in the country occurred for 2.5 years - an unprecedented period for Russia!

Results and results of the First Russian Revolution

Despite the fact that the revolution of 1905-1907 did not achieve one of its main goals - the overthrow of the autocracy in Russia - it had a decisive influence on the further historical fate of the state. The old Russia no longer existed!
The reorganization of the State Duma, which previously performed mainly formal and sometimes simply decorative functions, allowed this body to become, in fact, the first parliament in the history of the country.
Tsarist manifestos and decrees granted many categories of citizens (excluding women, military personnel, students, landless peasants and some other groups) not only the right to elect members of state or local authorities, but also freedom of speech, conscience and assembly.
The social situation of the peasantry and the working conditions of employees of industrial enterprises have improved significantly.
The overwhelming majority of laws issued would henceforth receive the approval of the State Duma.
Even though the revolution of 1905-1907 did not lead to such radical changes as happened in 1917, it became a forerunner and a kind of “trial balloon” before the grandiose events that happened in the next decade!

They are an imbalance between the ideological aspirations of the Russian thinking society and the current formats of its life. Russia has outgrown the form of the existing system. She strives for a new system, which is based on a legal society based on civil liberties.

S.Yu. Witte

The Russian bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1905-1907, which we will briefly discuss today, was one of the first stages indicating that the people no longer wanted to live in the old way. The 1905 revolution is very important because it preceded the 1917 revolution, it embodied problems in Russian society, as well as unresolved conflicts in the foreign policy structure of the world.

Causes of the revolution

The main reasons for the revolution of 1905-1907 are as follows:

• Lack of political freedoms for the majority of the population Russian Empire.
• Unresolved agricultural issue. Despite the abolition of serfdom in 1861, there were no significant changes for the peasants.
• Difficult working conditions in plants and factories.
• Russia's failures in the Russo-Japanese War.
• National question. Russia was a multinational country, but many small nations had rights.

In fact, the revolution advocated limiting autocracy. There was no question of overthrowing the monarchy in Russia, therefore the events of 1905-1907 should be considered solely as preparation for the February and October revolution 1917. An important point that is unlikely to be dissuaded in most history books is the financing of the revolution. In order for the people to rise to active action, those who will lead the people must appear. These people respectively need money and influence. As the famous movie said, any crime has a financial trail. And this trace really needs to be looked for, since priest Gapon is not suitable for the role of the person who created the revolution and raised it from scratch to active action.

I propose to look for the origins of the first Russian revolution and the second Russian revolution in Witte’s reforms. The monetary reform of 1897, after which the gold standard was introduced in the Russian Empire, actually condemned the country. Russian ruble became more controlled by global financial institutions, and in order to finally fix the strings of the system, a revolution was needed. This same scenario was tested not only in Russia, but also, for example, in Germany.

Main goals

During the revolution, the following tasks were set:

• Limitation or elimination of autocracy.
• Creation of democratic foundations: political parties, freedom of speech, press, free choice of occupations, and so on.
• Reducing the working day to 8 hours.
• Providing land to peasants.
• Establishment of equality of peoples in Russia.

Understanding these tasks is very important, since they cover not just one layer of the population, but practically the entire population of the Russian Empire. The tasks covered all segments of the population, so it was possible to reach the broad masses who took part in the revolution.

The revolution of 1905-1907 was essentially bourgeois-democratic. Bourgeois, since the tasks of the revolution included the final destruction of serfdom, and democratic, since the broad masses of the population took part in it: workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals, and so on.

The course of the revolution and its stages

The revolution of 1905-1907 can be divided into three main stages: January-September 1905, October-December 1905, January 1906 - June 3, 1907. Let's take a more specific look at each of these stages, but before that I want to dwell on 3 main indicators that allowed start a revolution and accelerate its progress:

• Defeat of Russia during the Russo-Japanese War. Many historians say that Japanese intelligence actively financed the revolution in Russia. This was necessary to weaken the enemy from within. Of course, there are no traces proving this theory, but an interesting fact is that as soon as Russo-Japanese War ended - the first Russian revolution of 1905 began to decline.
• Crisis of 1900-1903. It was economic crisis, which hit the main sections of the population, especially the poor, very painfully.
• Bloody Sunday January 9, 1905. It was after this day that the revolution began to gain momentum as blood was shed.

The first stage of the revolution: January-September 1905

On January 3, a strike began at the Putilov plant, which was supported by the majority of large factories in St. Petersburg. The reason is the layoffs of several workers. The strike was led by the organization “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers of the City of St. Petersburg,” headed by priest Gapon. During the strike, they began to write a petition to the Tsar, which they decided to take to the Winter Palace on January 9. The petition consisted of five main points:

1. The release of all those who suffered for strikes, for political and religious beliefs in the country.
2. Declarations of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and integrity of the person.
3. Compulsory free education for all citizens.
4. Responsibility of ministers and ministries to the people.
5. Equality of all before the law.

Please note that the petition itself is not a call to start a revolution. Therefore, the events of January 3-8 can be considered as preparation for the revolution of 1905-1907. But the question is who prepared and who organized the first Russian revolution, if the protesters wanted to change the country, but did not call for taking up arms? Therefore, it is very important to study the issues of January 9, 1905, which went down in history as Bloody Sunday, since it was a provocation that came from both the priest Gapon and the tsarist army.

Main events

Strikes during the revolution

Changes in the number of strikes in Russia from 1905 to 1916.

Second stage of the revolution: October-December 1905

All-Russian strike

On September 19, Moscow newspapers came out with demands for economic changes. Subsequently, these demands were supported by workers of Moscow enterprises, as well as railway workers. As a result, the largest strike of the revolution of 1905-1907 began. Today this strike is called an all-Russian strike. More than 2 million people from more than 50 cities took part in it. As a result, protesters began to spontaneously form Soviets of Workers' Deputies in cities. For example, on October 13, the Council of Workers' Deputies appeared in St. Petersburg.

To understand the significance of those events, it is necessary to note once again that 2 million people took part in them, and during the event, classes in all educational institutions were canceled, banks, pharmacies, and shops stopped working. It was during the October strike that the slogans “Down with autocracy” and “Long live the democratic republic” were first heard. The situation began to get out of control and the tsar was forced to sign the manifesto “On the improvement of public order” dated October 17, 1905. This manifesto contained 3 main provisions:

1. All people receive civil liberties and personal integrity. Freedom of speech, conscience, assembly and association is also proclaimed. Freedom of conscience means freedom of religion.
2. Even those segments of the population that before 1905 were deprived of civil and voting rights are involved in the work of the State Duma.
3. Not a single law of the Russian Empire could be adopted without the approval of the State Duma.

The first two points are very important for the population, but not critical for the country. But the last point is very important for the history of Russia. The recognition that the monarch cannot issue independent laws without the approval of the State Duma is the end of autocracy. In fact, after 1905, autocracy ended in Russia. An emperor who cannot pass all the laws he considers necessary cannot be considered an autocrat. Therefore, from 1905 to 1917, Russia had a form of government reminiscent of a constitutional monarchy.

December events in Moscow

It would seem that the manifesto of October 17, 1905 was supposed to extinguish the hearth of the revolution, but the fact is that the political parties regarded the signing of this document as a diplomatic move by the tsarist government, which thereby tried to suppress the revolution, but did not intend to implement the manifesto. As a result, preparations began for a new stage of the revolution. Moreover, this stage was supposed to result in an armed conflict, because the revolutionaries for the first time began to purchase weapons on a large scale. On December 7, 1905, the Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies, which was formed only in November, addressed all citizens with a demand to stop work and go on strike. All Moscow workers heeded this demand, and they were supported by everyone and the workers of St. Petersburg. The government decided to suppress the rebellion with the help of the army, resulting in an active armed conflict. It happened on December 10th.

The fighting in Moscow lasted 7 days. About 6,000 people were on the side of the revolutionaries. Workers began to form their own neighborhoods, blocking them with barricades. On December 15, the Semenovsky Guards Regiment arrived in Moscow, which immediately began shelling the workers’ positions with artillery. The main events took place on Presnya. But the forces were unequal, so on December 19, the Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies decided that the uprising would end. There are no specific data on casualties; official sources only say that more than 1,000 people were killed and arrested in these events. This was the culmination of the revolution of 1905-1907, after which its intensity began to decline.

Key dates and events

Third stage of the revolution: January 1906 - June 3, 1907

The third stage of the revolution is characterized by a significant decrease in the number of strikes. That is, as soon as the war with Japan ended, the number of uprisings immediately decreased. This is an amazing fact, which once again proves that the revolutionaries had Japanese funding.

One of the first major events of 1906 was February 2, when the act establishing the State Duma was signed. The Duma was created for 5 years, and the tsar retained the right to dissolve it and announce new elections. From March 26 to April 20, elections to the first State Duma of the Russian Empire were held. From April 27 to July 8, the activities of the first State Duma in Russia continued, but these meetings did not create any significant documents. On July 10, 1906, the so-called “Vyborg views” were signed as a sign of protest by deputies against the dispersal of the Duma. In February 1907, elections to the Second State Duma began, which began on February 20 and continued until June 2, 1907. The chairman of the Duma was Cadet Golovin, the main issue for discussion was the agrarian question.

Among important events The third stage can be distinguished as follows:

• On April 23, 1906, the main set of laws of the Russian Empire was published, with amendments due to the revolution.
• November 9, 1906 - a decree allowing peasants to receive plots for personal use after leaving the community.
• July 3, 1907 - a manifesto was signed to dissolve the Duma and the adoption of a new electoral law. This was the end of the revolution.

Results of the revolution

The results of the revolution of 1905-1907 can be called intermediate. Globally, nothing has changed in the country. The only serious change concerned the fact that the tsar had to pass all laws through the State Duma. As for the rest: the peasant issue was not resolved, the working day was reduced slightly, salaries not enlarged. It turns out that 2.5 years of revolution were aimed at slightly limiting the power of the monarch, and at asserting the right to create trade unions and conduct strikes? The answer is paradoxical - this is exactly what was required of the first Russian revolution. It did not solve problems within the country, but prepared Russia for a future, more powerful revolution.

Trade unions, strikes and the State Duma played a big role in the 1917 revolution. Therefore, these two revolutions must be considered together. The second wouldn't exist without the first. After all, the revolution of 1905 did not solve any serious problems: the tsar remained in power, the ruling classes did not change, the bureaucracy did not disappear, corruption increased, the standard of living fell, and so on. At first glance, it seems illogical that under such conditions the revolution calmed down. After all, this is exactly what people were against. But if we understand that the revolutions in Russia were connected, then the results of the first revolution should ultimately become the reasons for the second revolution. And so it happened.