1. The Russian Revolution
Importance and Causes

2. Long Term Causes Russia was technologically and economically backwards
There was an inability to form a government that successfully harnessed the will of the people
The reforms of Alexander II seemed to move Russia in the right direction, but they encountered a new set of problems

3. Serfs were forced to continue living on mirs until they had paid for their land
Large landowners garnered best lands for themselves
Rural overcrowding and a shortage of land led to unrest in the countryside

4. Russian intellectuals divided between Slavophiles and Westernizers
Many of the worse problems of industrialization experienced by western European nations seemed accentuated in Russia (especially Moscow and St. Petersburg)
Russian manufacturing tended to be large making it easier for workers to organize politically

5. Reforms only seemed to fuel the growth of movements that wished to take things further
An anarchist movement known as the People’s Will succeeded in assassinating Alexander II, and other anarchists succeeded in assassinating thousands of Russian officials between 1871 and 1914

6. The less violent Social Revolutionaries favored socialism led by peasants
Westernizers stood strongly divided between the Constitutional Democrats (Cadets) and the Social Democrats
Within the Social Democrats divisions existed (Mensheviks and Bolsheviks)

7. Revolution in 1905
Russia’s poor showing in the Russo-Japanese War produced an economic crisis and a breakdown of infrastructure
Revolutionary groups looked to exploit the situation
Strikes broke out in the major cities
University students rallied

8. A group of peaceful protestors marched on the tsar’s Winter Palace
Troops fired on the crowd
Event becomes known as Bloody Sunday
Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto promising the creation of the Duma and other reforms

9. Any efforts toward a constitutional monarchy were undermined by the actions of Nicholas II
His Prime Minister, Peter Stolypin, introduced a series of reforms
Peasants were finally allowed to sell their land shared to the Mir
Property rights were advanced
The zemstvos were strengthened

10. Nicholas thwarted Stolypin’s attempts to work with the Duma
He exercised his royal prerogative to suspend the legislature whenever it annoyed him
Stolypin was assassinated in 1911