“Why was there a revolution in Russia in 1905?

Russia was faced with a Revolution in 1905 through a chain of events. With the
economic instability, poor working conditions and the growing discontent of the
people, the demand for reform and revolution soon arose. Collapse of the Romanov
Empire shortly occurred with the inability of the autocracy to cope with such demand
and pressure.

Russia in the 19th and 20th century faced economic slumps along with inflation which
would test the nation’s and the people’s patience towards coming hardships. The
increasing population of Russia outlined a new milestone for the empire. A population
increase demands more from the economy and requires a higher order of thought to
please the entire nation. However, Russia and the Tsar were definitely not ready for
such expansion in population and backward views on society only provided another
reason to further worsen the arising discontent. Village population had grown from 61
to 78 million between 1877 and 1905 but the land owned by peasants only grew 24.2
percent. Clearly, there was a shortage of land, and a shortage of determination to
improve the land and shortened patience to hope for better times.

The emancipation of the Serfs by Tsar Alexander II in 1861 did little to solve the
discontent and agitation of the working people. The outlook of the freed serfs was the
final ownership of land in return for powering the nation’s economy and hence the
empire. However, the disappointment appeared when out of prospect, the Tsar
approved freedom for oneself, yet taxed them for living on land which they had
believed to rightfully own from years of slavery. The view on autocracy was being
undermined, even though there was trust in the Tsar and his connection with god,
maybe for the last time. The Tsar’s “ignorance” on issues such as the poor living
conditions for the peasants in the country outlined a path of public dismay and
questioning. While the peasants resisted questioning due to their simplicity, influence
from other parts of Europe and the slow industrialisation saw them thinking about the
nature of their misfortune and famine. Whilst ‘freeing the Serfs’ and granting them
their ironic independence, rising prices along with tremendous taxes influenced the
peasants to revolt, hence playing a part in the Russian revolution.

Russia was seen as a backward nation, in agriculture, technology and in rule of power.
In many countries, especially in the United States, power had been redistributed to the
people and technology along with industrialisation had allowed for better living
conditions and a step further in economic strength. Tsar Nicholas II was a
conservative leader and debatable as ‘unsuitable’ for taking on the demanding roles to
effectively rule the nation. His decision to prevent reform was sensible possibly in
older times; however the decision to repress revolution and limit ideas of individuality
backfired, only forming more demand for reform all across Russia. The Tsar had tried
to modernize Russia through active developments while retaining the autocracy
legacy while holding ignorant and naïve views on his people; this was not going to
retain in and indeed was unstitching the stitches of the already delicate situation.
Undoubtedly, the attitude of ruling the country without reform, expecting
developments without any change was ignorant of Tsar Nicholas II, which drove the
nation to a revolution like no other.

Witte’s rapid industrialization program heightened discontent within peasants and

workers. From 1880 onwards, the Russian government had encouraged industrial
growth. This encouraged the countryside (peasants) to migrate to the city in hope of a
better life. This was a step to adapt Russia to their surrounding industrial powers
along with introducing the public to a completely new workforce know as the urban
workers. Witte’s vision was to shape Russia slowly to a more industrialized nation in
which the economy grows and allows the previous peasants to become workers with
an accumulation of their own money independent to their communes. However, the
outlined plan would require the Russian people to suffer hardships in the short term to
receive benefits when it would rank to other industrial powers in the world. With this
was the rapid development of new types of workers (urban workers) who survived in
unsanitary conditions while dealing with the high rates of food resulted by inflation.
Again, the government established industrialization without regarding the
infrastructure and assuming the workers will be content with the conditions, which
was not possible especially at a time of uprising revolt. Situations like these resulted
in taking shelter under revolutionary parties which promised better conditions and
raised dreams to a fairer and better system of work. Strikes occurred many times
which outlines the inability of the government to once again control this situation of
people’s discontent. Industrialization was not recognized as a ‘eventually beneficial’
scheme but rather was another medium at which the newly established workers sought
to demand more and express their rage of wanting more power, money and reform
immediately.

Illegal political parties were uprising to share their discontent with Russia and their
Tsar and create a framework for ideas of revolution, demands and strikes. The social
revolutionaries and democrats had existed from 1901, yet public support was achieved
in 1905 when living was hard, and the belief of god and the Tsar had been slowly lost.
These parties were illegal, yet the Tsar (Nicholas II) could not satisfy the people in
order to prove these parties unnecessary. All these political opponents were a figure of
showing the attention needed to Russia, how strong actions needed to be taken and the
hunger of the people needed to be satisfied at any scale possible. The participation of
these parties resulted in strikes and a buildup of the Russia changing general strike.
Conclusively, the build of political parties and the failure to stop their need allowed
the citizens of Russia to demand and express themselves more, hence leading to the
activity of revolution and strength.
Winning the war was perhaps the only thing that could bring Russia together with
ultimate enthusiasm; however the tables were turned when the war was lost. This
showed people of the further incompetence of the Tsar (Nicholas II) who’s most
important and essential job is to show his command of his army. Enthusiasm was the
first reaction to this war, giving the country something to take its mind off, stop the
rioting and focus on the winning. However, as soon as it became clear that Russia was
losing for the first time to an Asian power, the people declared unrest and resumed,
stronger than ever the strikes and demand for reform. Russia’s ignorance on world
issues was showed and clearly laid for the people of Russia to see. The loss of the
war, symbolizing the only hope allowed the revolution of 1905 to take place, forming
a large number of strikes, constant pressure on the government and the demand for
reform.

‘Bloody Sunday’ intensified the revolutionary movement and finally abolished the
people’s view of the Tsar, and everything else they stood for. On 9th January 1905,
distressed workers came peacefully to address a petition, and expected the Tsar to
ease their problems. However, the peaceful demonstration was inflicted with bullets
from the guns of the soldiers, in a way killing the last remaining peace inside all of
Russia. It was disastrous for the people to see deaths contrasted to their optimistic
hymns and demonstrations. In fact, after ‘Bloody Sunday’, the cusp of revolution was
over and certainly now it stood in every person’s right to take political concern and
begin strikes that would ripple to form a halt in the nation. By September there were
massive strikes by factory workers and railway men. Soon enough the country was
virtually halted by a general strike, which stopped everything Russia relied on.
Revolution was here, and the government prepared plans for their overthrow.

While the county recovered, autocracy had only one thing it could do to survive. Tsar
Nicholas II granted some of the rights the people wanted, civil rights, rights to vote
and a Duma. This was the survival of the Tsar, perhaps for the last time. All the evens
of the revolution had caused it to this stance, giving an insight of what is to come in
the future.

The outbreak of the revolution was caused by a number of events. It was the constant
pressure building amongst the peasants and the workers, the poor thought and
reluctance to change the country by the Tsar (Nicholas II) and foremost the economic
slumps, failure in war and ‘Bloody Sunday’ which allowed Russia to outbreak its
attitude towards convention and demand for changes in conditions often ignored
ineffectively over time. Unrest is only cured by rest yet revolution is never caused by
repression.