The cause of the revolution was the growing contradictions in Russian society, expressed in the influence of internal (unresolved agrarian question, deterioration of the position of the proletariat, crisis in relations between the center and the province, crisis of the form of government (“crisis of the top”) and external factors.
Internal factors
Unresolved agrarian question
The agrarian question is a complex of socio-economic and political problems related to the prospects for the development of the agricultural sector of the country's economy, one of the most pressing issues in the social life of Russia. Its unresolved nature, combined with other internal and external problems, ultimately led to the revolution of 1905-1907. The origins of the agrarian question lay in the nature of the Agrarian Reform of 1861, which was clearly incomplete. Having given personal freedom to the peasants, she did not solve the problem of peasant land shortage, did not eliminate negative traits communal land ownership and mutual responsibility. Redemption payments placed a heavy burden on the peasant class. Tax arrears grew catastrophically, since under S.Yu. Witte, taxation of the rural population became one of the sources of ensuring the ongoing industrialization. Peasant land shortages became more and more evident, aggravated by the demographic explosion in the country: during the 1870-1890s. The peasant population of the Volga and some black earth provinces doubled, which entailed the fragmentation of allotments. In the southern provinces (Poltava and Kharkov), the problem of land shortage led to mass peasant uprisings in 1902.
The local nobility also slowly adapted to the new conditions. Most small and medium-sized owners quickly lost their land, remortgaging their holdings. The economy was conducted in the old fashioned way, the lands were simply rented out to peasants for work, which could not bring high profits. The income received by landowners from the state when peasants left serfdom was “eaten up” and did not contribute to the development of landowner farms on a capitalist basis. The nobility bombarded Emperor Nicholas II with requests for state support due to the loss-making nature of their estates and the high cost of loans.
At the same time, new phenomena were observed in the agricultural sector. Agriculture increasingly took on a commercial, entrepreneurial character. The production of products for sale developed, the number of hired workers increased, and farming techniques improved. Among the landowners' farms, large capitalist economies with an area of hundreds and thousands of dessiatines, involving hired labor and a large number of agricultural machines, are increasingly beginning to dominate. Such landowners' estates were the main suppliers of grain and industrial crops.
Peasant farms had much less marketability (production of products for sale). They supplied only half of the market volume of bread. The main producers of commercial grain among the peasantry were wealthy families, who, according to various sources, made up from 3 to 15% of the peasant population. In fact, only they managed to adapt to the conditions of capitalist production, rent or buy land from landowners and keep several hired workers. Only wealthy owners specifically produced products for the market; for the overwhelming majority of peasants, the sale of bread was forced - to pay taxes and redemption payments. However, the development of strong peasant farms was also limited by a shortage of plots.
The underdevelopment of the agricultural sector and the low purchasing power of the vast majority of the country's population hampered the development of the entire economy (the narrowness of the domestic market already made itself felt by sales crises by the end of the 19th century).
The government was well aware of the causes of the agrarian crisis and sought to find ways out of it. Even under Emperor Alexander III, a commission was formed at the Ministry of Internal Affairs to consider “the streamlining of peasant social life and management.” Among the pressing issues, the commission recognized resettlement and passport legislation. As for the fate of the community and mutual responsibility, disagreements arose in the government on this issue. Three fundamental positions have emerged:
1) The official point of view was expressed by V.K. Pleve and K.P. Pobedonostsev, who considered them “the main and most important means of collecting all arrears.” Supporters of preserving the community also saw this as a means to save the Russian peasantry from proletarianization, and Russia from revolution.
2) The exponent of the opposite point of view on the community was the Minister of Finance N.Kh. Bunge and the Minister of the Imperial Court and Appanages, Count I. I. Vorontsov-Dashkov. They stood for the introduction of household land ownership in Russia with the establishment of a land minimum and the organization of the resettlement of peasants to new lands.
3) S.Yu., who assumed the post of Minister of Finance in 1892. Witte advocated passport reform and the abolition of mutual responsibility, but for the preservation of the community. Subsequently, on the threshold of the revolution, he changed his point of view, actually agreeing with Bunge.
Peasant uprisings of 1902 in the Poltava and Kharkov provinces, the rise of peasant uprisings of 1903-04. accelerated work in this direction: in April 1902 mutual responsibility was abolished, and with the appointment of V.K. Plehve, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Nicholas II, transferred to his department the right to develop peasant legislation. Reform V.K. Plehve, pursuing other goals, touched upon the same areas as the later Agrarian Reform of P. A. Stolypin:
It was planned to expand the activities of the Peasant Bank for the purchase and resale of landowners' lands.
Establish resettlement policy.
The fundamental difference from the Stolypin reforms is that the reform was based on the principles of class isolation of the peasantry, the inalienability of allotment lands and the preservation of existing forms of peasant land ownership. They represented an attempt to bring the legislation developed after the reform of 1861 into line with the social evolution of the village. Attempts to preserve the basic principles of the agricultural policy of the 1880-1890s. gave Plehve's project a deeply controversial character. This was also evident in the assessment of communal land ownership. It was the community that was viewed as an institution capable of protecting the interests of the poorest peasantry. At that time, no emphasis was placed on the wealthiest members of the community (kulaks). But the farm was recognized as a more advanced form of farming, which had a great future. In accordance with this, the project provided for the removal of some restrictions that prevented people from leaving the community. However, in reality this was extremely difficult to implement.
The work of the Plehve commission became an expression of the official point of view on the peasant question. It can be stated that the proposed transformations did not depart from traditional policies, based on three principles: the class system, the inalienability of allotments, and the inviolability of the community. These measures were enshrined in the Tsar’s Manifesto “On the Immutability of Communal Land Ownership” in 1903. This policy did not suit the peasants, since it did not solve any of the pressing problems. Changes in agricultural legislation throughout the 1890s. little changed in the situation of the peasants. Only a few stood out from the community. The resettlement administration, created in 1896, practically did not work. Crop failures at the beginning of the 20th century only increased the tension that reigned in the village. The result was an increase in peasant uprisings in 1903-1904. The main problems to be immediately resolved were the question of the existence of a peasant land community, the elimination of stripes and peasant land shortages, as well as the question of social status peasants
Worsening position of the proletariat
The “labor question” - in the classical sense - is a conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, caused by various economic demands on the part of the working class in the sphere of improving its social economic situation.
In Russia, the labor issue was particularly acute, since it was complicated by a special government policy aimed at state regulation of relations between workers and entrepreneurs. Bourgeois reforms of the 1860-70s. little impact on the working class. This was a consequence of the fact that the formation of capitalist relations was still taking place in the country, and the formation of the main capitalist classes had not been completed. The government also, until the beginning of the 20th century, refused to recognize the existence in Russia of a “special class of workers” and even more so of the “labor question” in the Western European sense. This point of view found its justification back in the 80s. XIX century in the articles of M. N. Katkov on the pages of the Moscow Gazette, and from that time on it became an integral part of the general political doctrine.
However, the large-scale strikes of the 1880s, especially the Morozov Strike, showed that simply ignoring the labor movement could not improve the situation. The situation was aggravated by the different points of view of the leaders of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the government line in resolving the “work issue.”
By the end of the 1890s. Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte moves away from the idea of the government's guardianship policy as part of the government doctrine, built on the principle of a special, original evolution of Russia. With the direct participation of Witte, laws were developed and adopted: on the regulation of the working day (June 1897, according to which the maximum working day was 11.5 hours), on the payment of remuneration to workers in accidents (June 1903, but the law did not address issues pensions and compensation for dismissals). The institution of factory elders was also introduced, whose competence included participation in the resolution of labor conflicts). At the same time, policies aimed at strengthening religious-monarchical sentiments among the working environment intensified. The Ministry of Finance did not even want to think about creating trade unions or other workers' associations.
On the contrary, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is embarking on a risky experiment in creating workers' organizations controlled by the government. The spontaneous desire of workers to unite, the ever-widening response to the activities of the revolutionaries, and, finally, the increasing frequency of open political protests forced the authorities to switch to a new tactic: “police socialism.” The essence of this policy, carried out in a number of Western European countries in the 1890s, boiled down to attempts to create, with the knowledge and control of the government, legal pro-government workers' organizations. The initiator of Russian “police socialism” was the head of the Moscow security department, S.V. Zubatov.
Zubatov's idea was to force the government to pay attention to the "labor question" and the situation of the working class. He did not support the proposal of the Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin “to turn factories into barracks” and thereby restore order. It was necessary to become the head of the labor movement and thus determine its forms, character and direction. However, in reality, the implementation of Zubatov’s plan encountered active resistance from entrepreneurs who did not want to submit to the demands of any workers’ associations, even those controlled by the government. The new Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Plehve, who held this post in 1902-1904, stopped the Zubatov experiment.
As an exception, the activities of the “Society of Factory Workers” of the priest G. Gapon, which had minimal dependence on the authorities and was an example of “Christian” rather than “police” socialism, were allowed. As a result, traditional repressive measures turned out to be more common for the authorities in their fight against the labor movement. All factory laws adopted at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries provided for criminal liability for participation in strikes, threats against factory administration, and even for unauthorized refusal to work. In 1899, a special factory police was established. Increasingly, combat units and Cossacks were called in to suppress workers' protests. In May 1899, even artillery was used to suppress a 10,000-strong strike by workers at the largest enterprises in Riga.
The regime's attempts to slow down the natural course of development of new beginnings in the economy and society in this way did not lead to significant results. The authorities did not see an impending explosion in the growing workers' protests. Even on the eve of the revolution, paying attention to the changes taking place in the working environment, ruling circles They did not count on the “collapse” that could undermine the established foundations. In 1901, the chief of gendarmes, future Minister of Internal Affairs P.D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky wrote about St. Petersburg workers that “in the last three or four years, a good-natured Russian guy has developed into a type of semi-literate intellectual who considers it his duty to deny religion... to neglect the law, disobey the authorities and mock them.” At the same time, he noted that “there are few rebels in factories,” and it would not be difficult to deal with them.
As a result, by the beginning of the 20th century, the “labor issue” in Russia had not lost any of its urgency: no law on workers’ insurance was adopted, the working day was also reduced to only 11.5 hours, and the activities of trade unions were prohibited. Most importantly, after the failure of the Zubatov initiative, the government did not develop any acceptable program for organizing labor legislation, and the armed suppression of workers’ protests threatened to turn into mass disobedience. The economic crisis of 1900-1903 had a noticeable impact on the aggravation of the situation, when the situation of workers sharply worsened (decrease in earnings, closure of enterprises). The decisive blow, that “last straw,” was the shooting of a workers’ demonstration organized by the “Society of Factory Workers” on January 9, 1905, which became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Crisis in relations between center and province
The national question is one of the main socio-political contradictions in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century.
The dominance of the Russian people and Orthodox faith in the Russian Empire was enshrined in law, which greatly infringed on the rights of other peoples inhabiting the country. Small concessions in this matter were made only for the population of Finland and Poland, but were significantly curtailed during the reactionary Russification policy of Emperor Alexander III. At the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries in Russia general requirements of the nationalities inhabiting it become the equalization of rights of all nationalities, training in native language, freedom of religion. For some peoples, the land issue turned out to be extremely relevant, and it was either about protecting their lands from “Russian” colonization (Volga and Siberian, Central Asian, Caucasian provinces), or about the struggle against landowners, which acquired an interethnic character (Baltic and Western provinces). In Finland and Poland, the slogan of territorial autonomy, which was often backed by the idea of complete state independence, enjoyed widespread support. The growth of discontent in the outskirts was fueled both by the government’s harsh national policy, in particular, restrictions on Poles, Finns, Armenians and some other peoples, and by the economic turmoil that Russia experienced in the early years of the 20th century.
All this contributed to the awakening and strengthening of national self-awareness. By the beginning of the 20th century, Russian ethnic groups were an extremely heterogeneous mass. It coexisted ethnic communities with a tribal organization (the peoples of Central Asia and the Far East) and peoples with modern experience of state-political consolidation. The level of ethnic self-awareness of the majority of the peoples of the empire was very low even at the beginning of the 20th century; almost all of them defined themselves along religious, clan or local lines. All this together led to the emergence of movements for national autonomy and even state independence. S.Yu. Witte, analyzing the “revolutionary flood” in Russia of 1905-07, wrote: “In the Russian Empire, such a flood is most possible, since more than 35% of the population is not Russian, but conquered by the Russians. Anyone who knows history knows how difficult it is to weld heterogeneous populations into one whole, especially with the strong development of national principles and feelings in the 20th century.”
In the pre-revolutionary years, ethnonational conflicts increasingly made themselves felt. Thus, in the Arkhangelsk and Pskov provinces, clashes between peasants over land became more frequent. In the Baltic states, tense relations developed between local peasants and the barony. In Lithuania, confrontation between Lithuanians, Poles and Russians grew. In multinational Baku, conflicts constantly flared up between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. These trends, which the authorities increasingly could not cope with through administrative, police and political methods, became a threat to the integrity of the country. Individual concessions by the authorities (such as the decree of December 12, 1904, which lifted some restrictions that existed for peoples in the field of language, school, and religion) did not achieve their goal. With the deepening of the political crisis and the weakening of power, all processes of the formation and development of ethnic self-awareness received a powerful impetus and entered into chaotic movement.
Political spokesmen for ethnic and national movements On the outskirts of the empire, national parties emerged that arose in the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries. These political organizations relied on the ideas of national and cultural revival and development of their own peoples as necessary condition future state reorganization of Russia. Under the influence of the ideas of Marxism and liberalism, two ideologically different streams began to gain strength here: socialist and national liberal. Almost all parties of a liberal persuasion were formed from cultural and educational societies, the majority of parties of a socialist orientation - from previously carefully clandestine illegal circles and groups. If the socialist movement most often developed under the slogans of internationalism and class struggle, uniting representatives of all the peoples of the empire, then for each of the national liberal movements the issues of national self-affirmation of its own people became a priority. The largest national parties were formed at the end of the 19th century in Poland, Finland, Ukraine, the Baltic states and Transcaucasia.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the most influential social democratic organizations were the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the Social Democratic Party of Finland, and the General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (Bund), established in Vilna. Of the nationalist parties, we should highlight, first of all, the Polish National Democratic Party, the Active Resistance Party of Finland, the Ukrainian People's Party and the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun - the most significant national party that has emerged in Transcaucasia. All these parties, to varying degrees, took part in the revolution of 1905-1907, and then in the activities of the State Duma. Thus, members of the Polish National Democratic Party actually formed their own faction in the Duma - the Polish Kolo. There were also national groups of Muslim deputies in the Duma, from Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, etc. Deputies from these groups were called “autonomists,” and their number in the Duma of the first convocation was 63 people, and even 76 in the second.
Crisis of the form of government (“crisis of the top”)
The “crisis of the elite” at the beginning of the 20th century was the crisis of the autocratic form of government in Russia.
In the middle of the 19th century, the process of establishing a constitutional-monarchical form of government was actually completed in Western European countries. The Russian autocracy categorically rejected any attempts to introduce public representation in the highest state structures. All projects, including those drawn up in government circles, that envisaged the introduction of such representation, were ultimately rejected. During the reign of Emperor Alexander III, any attempts to somehow Europeanize the autocratic regime were decisively suppressed; the activities of populist terrorists played a significant role here. Mid 1890s was marked by the revival and consolidation of both the liberal zemstvo and left-radical movements. However, the new emperor immediately made it clear that he was not going to change anything. Therefore, when he ascended the throne, speaking before a deputation from the nobility, zemstvos and cities on January 17, 1895, Nicholas II called the hopes of zemstvo leaders to participate in the affairs of internal government “meaningless dreams,” making a grave impression on those gathered. The authorities also showed firmness towards oppositionists from the upper classes: resignations and administrative expulsions began. And yet the position of the liberals could not be ignored by the ruling structures. Some researchers believe that Nicholas II himself, already at the beginning of his reign, understood the need for some political reform of the country, but not by introducing parliamentarism, but by expanding the competence of zemstvos.
In the ruling circles themselves, different points of view on the situation of the country and the tasks of state policy emerged: Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte believed that the social movement in Russia had reached a level at which it could no longer be stopped by repressive methods. He saw the roots of this in the incompleteness of the liberal democratic reforms of the 1860-70s. It was possible to avoid revolution by introducing a number of democratic freedoms and allowing participation in government “legally.” At the same time, the government needed to rely on the “educated” classes. Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Plehve, who took his post at the beginning of the terrorist activities of the socialist-revolutionary pariah, saw the source of the revolution precisely in the “educated” classes - in the intelligentsia, and believed that “any game with the constitution must be stopped, and reforms designed to renew Russia can only be achieved historically.” the autocracy that has emerged in our country."
This official position of Plehve greatly impressed Nicholas II, as a result of which in August 1903 the all-powerful Minister of Finance Witte was removed from his post and received the less significant position of Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers (in fact, an honorable resignation). The emperor made a choice in favor of conservative tendencies, and tried to overcome the socio-political crisis with the help of successful foreign policy- unleashing a “small victorious war.” Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 finally pointed out the need for change. According to P.B. Struve, “it was the military helplessness of the autocracy that most clearly confirmed its uselessness and harmfulness.”
External factors
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 was a war between Russia and Japan for dominance in Northeast China and Korea (see the diagram “Russian-Japanese War 1904-1905” and the historical map “Russian-Japanese War”). At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Contradictions between the leading powers, which by this time had largely completed the territorial division of the world, intensified. The presence in the international arena of “new”, rapidly developing countries - Germany, Japan, the USA, which purposefully sought the redistribution of colonies and spheres of influence, became increasingly noticeable. The autocracy accepted active participation in the struggle of great powers for colonies and spheres of influence. In the Middle East, in Turkey, he increasingly had to deal with Germany, which chose this region as a zone of its economic expansion. In Persia, the interests of Russia collided with the interests of England.
The most important object of the struggle for the final division of the world at the end of the 19th century. China was economically backward and militarily weak. Since the mid-90s, the center of gravity of the autocracy's foreign policy activity has shifted to the Far East. The close interest of the tsarist government in the affairs of this region was largely due to the “appearance” here by the end of the 19th century. a strong and very aggressive neighbor in the person of Japan, which has embarked on the path of expansion. After the victory in the war with China in 1894-1895. Japan acquired the Liaodong Peninsula under a peace treaty; Russia, acting as a united front with France and Germany, forced Japan to abandon this part of Chinese territory.
In 1896, a Russian-Chinese treaty was concluded on a defensive alliance against Japan. China granted Russia a concession to build a railway from Chita to Vladivostok through Manchuria (Northeast China). The Russian-Chinese Bank received the right to build and operate the road. The course towards the “peaceful” economic conquest of Manchuria was carried out in accordance with the line of S.Yu. Witte (it was he who largely determined the policy of the autocracy in the Far East) to seize foreign markets for the developing domestic industry. Russian diplomacy also achieved great success in Korea. Japan, which established its influence in this country after the war with China, was forced in 1896 to agree to the establishment of a joint Russian-Japanese protectorate over Korea with the actual predominance of Russia. The victories of Russian diplomacy in the Far East caused growing irritation in Japan, England and the United States.
Soon, however, the situation in this region began to change. Pushed by Germany and following its example, Russia captured Port Arthur and in 1898 received it on lease from China, along with some parts of the Liaodong Peninsula, to establish a naval base. Attempts by S.Yu. Witte to prevent this action, which he considered as contrary to the spirit of the Russian-Chinese treaty of 1896, were unsuccessful. The capture of Port Arthur undermined the influence of Russian diplomacy in Beijing and weakened Russia's position in the Far East, forcing, in particular, the tsarist government to make concessions to Japan on the Korean issue. The Russo-Japanese Agreement of 1898 actually sanctioned the seizure of Korea by Japanese capital.
In 1899, a powerful popular uprising began in China (the “Boxer Rebellion”), directed against the foreigners who shamelessly ruled the state. Russia, together with other powers, took part in suppressing this movement and occupied Manchuria during military operations. Russo-Japanese contradictions escalated again. Supported by England and the USA, Japan sought to oust Russia from Manchuria. In 1902, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was concluded. Under these conditions, Russia reached an agreement with China and pledged to withdraw troops from Manchuria within a year and a half. Meanwhile, Japan, which was very belligerent, led to an escalation of the conflict with Russia. There was no unity in the ruling circles of Russia on issues of Far Eastern policy. S.Yu. Witte with his program of economic expansion (which, however, still pitted Russia against Japan) was opposed by the “Bezobrazov gang” led by A.M. Bezobrazov, who advocated direct military takeovers. The views of this group were also shared by Nicholas II, who dismissed S.Yu. Witte from the post of Minister of Finance. "Bezobrazovtsy" underestimated the strength of Japan. Some ruling circles viewed success in the war with their Far Eastern neighbor as the most important means of overcoming the internal political crisis. Japan, for its part, was actively preparing for an armed conflict with Russia. True, in the summer of 1903, Russian-Japanese negotiations on Manchuria and Korea began, but the Japanese war machine, which had received direct support from the United States and England, was already launched. The situation was complicated by the fact that in Russia the ruling circles hoped that a successful military campaign would eliminate the growing internal political crisis. Minister of Internal Affairs Plehve, in response to the statement of Commander-in-Chief General Kuropatkin that “we are not ready for war,” replied: “You don’t know the internal situation in Russia. To prevent revolution, we need a small, victorious war.” On January 24, 1904, the Japanese ambassador handed the Russian Foreign Minister V.N. Lamzdorf a note about the severance of diplomatic relations, and on the evening of January 26, the Japanese fleet attacked the Port Arthur squadron without declaring war. Thus began the Russo-Japanese War.
Table. Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905
| Date | Event |
| January 26-27, 1904 | Attack by Japanese ships of the Russian Pacific squadron in Port Arthur and Chemulpo Bay. |
| February 2, 1904 | Japanese troops begin landing in Korea, preparing to conduct an operation against the Russian Manchurian Army. |
| February 24, 1904 | Instead of Vice Admiral O.V. Stark, Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov was appointed commander of the Pacific squadron, under whom the combat activities of the Russian fleet were intensified. |
| March 31, 1904 | During the combat operation, the flagship of the Russian squadron, the battleship Petropavlovsk, is blown up by a mine and killed; commander S. O. Makarov is among the dead. |
| April 18, 1904 | The Battle of the Yalu River (Korea), during which Russian troops failed to stop the Japanese advance into Manchuria. |
| June 1, 1904 | Battle of Wafangou (Liaodong Peninsula). General Stackelberg's corps, trying to break through to Port Arthur, retreated under the pressure of superior Japanese units. This allowed General Oku's Japanese 2nd Army to begin the siege of Port Arthur. |
| July 28, 1904 | An attempt by the Russian squadron to break through from besieged Port Arthur to Vladivostok. After the battle with Japanese ships, most of the ships returned, several ships went to neutral ports. |
| August 6, 1904 | The first assault on Port Arthur (unsuccessful). Japanese losses amounted to up to 20 thousand people. In September-October, Japanese troops launched two more assaults, but they also ended without significant results. |
| August 1904 | In the Baltic, the formation of the 2nd Pacific Squadron begins, the task of which was to release Port Arthur from the sea. The squadron set out on a campaign only in October 1904. |
| August 13, 1904 | Battle of Liaoyang (Manchuria). Russian troops, after several days of fighting, retreated to Mukden. |
| September 22, 1904 | Battle of the Shahe River (Manchuria). During the unsuccessful offensive, the Russian army lost up to 50% of its strength and went on the defensive along the entire front. |
| November 13, 1904 | Fourth assault on Port Arthur; The Japanese managed to penetrate deeply into the fortress’s defense line and gradually suppress the fortress structures with fire from the dominant heights. |
| December 20, 1904 | The act of surrender of Port Arthur was signed. |
| February 5-25, 1905 | Battle of Mukden (Korea). The largest military operation of the entire war, in which up to 500 thousand people participated on both sides. After three weeks of fighting, Russian troops were under threat of encirclement and were forced to abandon their positions. Manchuria almost completely came under the control of the Japanese army. |
| May 14-15, 1905 | Battle of Tsushima. During the battle with the Japanese fleet, the 2nd Pacific Squadron was partly destroyed and partly captured (Admiral Nebogatov’s detachment). The battle summed up the military operations in Russian-Japanese war. |
| August 23, 1905 | The Treaty of Portsmouth is signed. |
A heavy blow for Russia was the death of the commander of the Pacific squadron, the outstanding naval commander S.O. Makarova. The Japanese managed to gain supremacy at sea and, having landed large forces on the continent, launched an offensive against Russian troops in Manchuria and Port Arthur. The commander of the Manchurian Army, General A.N. Kuropatkin, acted extremely indecisively. The bloody battle of Liaoyang, during which the Japanese suffered huge losses, was not used by him to go on the offensive (which the enemy was extremely afraid of) and ended with the withdrawal of Russian troops. In July 1904, the Japanese laid siege to Port Arthur (see historical map "Storm of Port Arthur 1904"). The defense of the fortress, which lasted five months, became one of the brightest pages of Russian military history.
Defense of Port Arthur
The hero of the Port Arthur epic was General R.I. Kondratenko, who died at the end of the siege. The capture of Port Arthur was costly for the Japanese, who lost more than 100 thousand people under its walls. At the same time, having taken the fortress, the enemy was able to strengthen his troops operating in Manchuria. The squadron stationed in Port Arthur was actually destroyed in the summer of 1904 during unsuccessful attempts to break through to Vladivostok.
In February 1905, the Battle of Mukden took place, which took place on a more than 100-kilometer front and lasted three weeks. More than 550 thousand people with 2,500 guns took part in it on both sides. In the battles near Mukden, the Russian army suffered a heavy defeat. After this, the war on land began to subside. The number of Russian troops in Manchuria was constantly increasing, but the morale of the army was undermined, which was greatly facilitated by the revolution that had begun in the country. The Japanese, who had suffered huge losses, were also inactive.
On May 14-15, 1905, in the Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian squadron transferred to the Far East from the Baltic. The Battle of Tsushima decided the outcome of the war. The autocracy, busy suppressing the revolutionary movement, could no longer continue the struggle. Japan was also extremely exhausted by the war. On July 27, 1905, peace negotiations began in Portsmouth (USA) with the mediation of the Americans. The Russian delegation, headed by S.Yu. Witte managed to achieve relatively “decent” peace conditions. Under the terms of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Russia ceded to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin, its lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula and the South Manchurian Railway, which connected Port Arthur with the Chinese Eastern Railway.
The Russo-Japanese War ended with the defeat of the autocracy. At the beginning of the war, patriotic sentiments swept through all categories of the population, but soon the situation in the country began to change as reports of Russia’s military failures came in. Each defeat turned into a new and new round of political crisis. Trust in the government was rapidly declining. After each lost battle, rumors about unprofessionalism and even betrayal of the senior command, about unpreparedness for war, grew more and more in society. By the summer of 1904, the fervor of patriotic fever had given way to deep disappointment and a growing conviction of the incompetence of the authorities. According to P.B. Struve, “it was the military helplessness of the autocracy that most clearly confirmed its uselessness and harmfulness.” If at the beginning of the war there was a noticeable reduction in peasant uprisings and labor strikes, then by the autumn of 1904 they were again gaining momentum. The “Little Victorious War” turned into the shameful Peace of Portsmouth, a significant deterioration in the economic situation in the country, and also a catalyst for the revolution of 1905-1907. During 1905-1907 There were several major anti-government protests in the army and navy, largely predetermined by the unsuccessful military campaign.
By its nature, the revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia was bourgeois-democratic, because it set the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic transformation of the country: the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic, the elimination of the class system and landownership, the introduction of basic democratic freedoms - first of all, freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, equality of all before by law, the establishment of an 8-hour working day for wage earners, the removal of national restrictions (see the diagram “Revolution of 1905-1907. Character and goals”).
The main issue of the revolution was the agrarian-peasant issue. The peasantry made up more than 4/5 of the population of Russia, and the agrarian question, in connection with the deepening peasant land shortage, became more widespread by the beginning of the 20th century. special sharpness. An important place in the revolution was occupied by national question. 57% of the country's population were non-Russian peoples. However, in essence, the national question was part of the agrarian-peasant question, for the peasantry made up the overwhelming majority of the non-Russian population in the country. The agrarian-peasant issue was the focus of attention of all political parties and groups.
The driving forces of the revolution were the petty-bourgeois strata of the city and countryside, as well as the political parties that represented them. It was a people's revolution. Peasants, workers, and the petty bourgeoisie of the city and countryside formed a single revolutionary camp. The camp opposing him was represented by landowners and the big bourgeoisie associated with the autocratic monarchy, the highest bureaucracy, the military and clerics from among the upper clergy. The liberal opposition camp was represented mainly by the middle bourgeoisie and bourgeois intelligentsia, who advocated the bourgeois transformation of the country through peaceful means, mainly through parliamentary struggle.
In the revolution of 1905-1907. There are several stages.
Table. Chronology of events of the Russian revolution 1905 – 1907.
| Date | Event |
| January 3, 1905 | The beginning of the strike of workers of the Putilov plant in St. Petersburg. To calm down the striking workers, the Society of Factory Workers is preparing a peaceful march to the Tsar to submit a petition about the needs of the workers. |
| January 9, 1905 | « Bloody Sunday" - shooting of a workers' demonstration in St. Petersburg. The beginning of the revolution. |
| January-April 1905 | The strike movement grew, the number of strikers in Russia reached 800 thousand people. |
| February 18, 1905 | A rescript from Nicholas II is issued addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs A.G. Bulygin with instructions to develop a law on the creation of an elected representative institution (Duma). |
| May 12, 1905 | The beginning of a general strike in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, during which the first council of workers' representatives was created. |
| May 1905 | Formation of the All-Russian Peasant Union. The first congress was held July 31 – August 1. |
| June 14, 1905 | Uprising on the battleship Potemkin and the beginning of a general strike in Odessa. |
| October 1905 | The beginning of the All-Russian political strike, within a month the strike movement swept Moscow, St. Petersburg and other industrial centers of the empire. |
| October 17, 1905 | Nicholas II signed a Manifesto granting the population “the unshakable foundations of civil freedom.” The manifesto served as an impetus for the formation of two influential bourgeois parties - the Cadets and the Octobrists. |
| November 3, 1905 | Under the influence of peasant uprisings, a manifesto was signed to reduce redemption payments and their complete abolition from January 1, 1907 |
| November 11-16, 1905 | Uprising in the Black Sea Fleet under the leadership of Lieutenant P.P. Schmidt |
| December 2, 1905 | The beginning of an armed uprising in Moscow - the performance of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment. The uprising was supported by a general strike of workers. The most fierce fighting took place in the Presnya area, where the resistance of armed worker vigilantes to government troops continued until December 19. |
| December 11, 1905 | A new election law for the State Duma, developed by S.Yu., was issued. Witte |
| February 20, 1906 | “Establishment” published State Duma”, which determined the regulations of its work. |
| April 1906 | The IV (Unification) Congress of the RSDLP began its work in Sweden, in which representatives of 62 RSDLP organizations participate; of which 46 were Bolsheviks, 62 Mensheviks (04/23-05/8/1906). |
| April 1906 | Elections to the First State Duma took place |
| April 23, 1906 | Emperor Nicholas II approved the Basic State Law Russian Empire |
| April 27, 1906 | Start of work of the State Duma of the first convocation |
| July 9, 1906 | Dissolution of the State Duma |
| July 1906 | Uprising in the Sveaborg fortress, supported by the fleet. Suppressed by government forces three days later. The organizers were shot. |
| August 12, 1906 | Explosion of the dacha of Prime Minister P. Stolypin on Aptekarsky Island by the Socialist Revolutionaries; 30 people were killed and 40 were wounded, including Stolypin’s daughter. |
| 19 August 1906 | Nicholas II signed a decree developed by Prime Minister P. Stolypin on the introduction of military courts on Russian territory (abolished in March 1907) |
| November 9, 1906 | On the initiative of P. Stolypin, Nicholas II issued a decree regulating the procedure for peasants leaving the community and securing allotment land as personal property. |
| January 1907 | Strikes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Rostov and other cities in connection with the 2nd anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” |
| May 1, 1907 | May Day strikes in Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkov. Shooting of a workers' demonstration in Yuzovka |
| May 10, 1907 | Speech by Prime Minister P. Stolypin at a meeting of the Second State Duma “Give Russia peace!” |
| June 2, 1907 | Police arrested members of the Social Democratic faction in the State Duma on charges of preparing a military conspiracy. |
| June 3, 1907 | The manifesto of Nicholas II on the dissolution of the Second State Duma, elected at the end of 1906, was published. The new electoral law, published simultaneously with the manifesto, gave an advantage in the new elections to representatives of the nobility and the big bourgeoisie |
The first is the mass movement in the spring-summer of 1905.(see diagram “Revolution of 1905-1907. 1st stage”). The revolutionary movement during this period was manifested in an unprecedented increase in the strike movement of workers with a predominance of political demands and took on an increasingly organized character (see the article “Revolution of 1905 in Russia” in the anthology). By the summer of 1905, the social base of the revolution had also expanded: it included the broad masses of the peasantry, as well as the army and navy. During January-April 1905, the strike movement covered 810 thousand workers. Up to 75% of strikes were political in nature. Under the pressure of this movement, the government was forced to make some political concessions. On February 18, by a rescript from the tsar addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs A.G. Bulygin was ordered to begin developing a law on the creation of an elected representative institution. A draft for the creation of the State Duma was prepared. This “Bulygin Duma,” as it was called, caused an active boycott by workers, peasants, intelligentsia, and all left-wing parties and associations. The boycott thwarted the government's attempt to convene it.
Revolutionary protests grew. In connection with the celebration of May 1, a new wave of strike movement swept through, in which up to 200 thousand workers took part. In the major textile center of Poland, Lodz, a workers' uprising broke out, and the city was covered with barricades. On May 1, a demonstration took place in Warsaw: dozens of demonstrators were killed and wounded. Clashes between workers and troops during the May 1 demonstrations occurred in Riga and Revel.
An important event was the general strike of workers that began on May 12 in the large textile center of the country - Ivanovo-Voznesensk, which lasted 72 days. Under her influence, workers in nearby textile cities and towns rose up. During the Ivanovo-Voznesensk strike, a Council of Workers' Representatives was elected. Under the influence of the growing strike struggle of the workers, the village also began to move. Already in February-March, peasant riots covered 1/6 of the country's counties - in the provinces of the Black Earth Center, Poland, the Baltic States and Georgia. In the summer they spread to the Middle Volga region, Ukraine and Belarus. In May 1905, the All-Russian Peasant Union was formed, in which the leading role was played by the right Socialist Revolutionaries, led by V. M. Chernov.
On June 14, an uprising broke out on the battleship Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky. The sailors took possession of the ship, elected a new command staff and a ship commission - the body of political leadership of the uprising. On the same day, the mutinous battleship and the destroyer accompanying it approached Odessa, where at that time a general strike of workers began. But the ship's commission did not dare to land troops in the city, expecting the remaining ships of the Black Sea squadron to join the uprising. However, only one battleship, St. George the Victorious, joined. After 11 days of the raid, having exhausted its fuel and food reserves, the Potemkin arrived at the Romanian port of Constanta and surrendered to local authorities. Subsequently, the Potemkin and its crew were handed over to the Russian authorities.
Second stage - October-December 1905(see diagram “Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia. 2nd stage”). In the fall of 1905, the center of the revolution moved to Moscow. The All-Russian October political strike that began in Moscow, and then the armed uprising in December 1905, were the highest upsurge of the revolution. On October 7, Moscow railway workers went on strike (with the exception of the Nikolaev Railway), followed by workers of most of the country's railways. On October 10, a citywide strike of workers began in Moscow.
Under the influence of the October strike, the autocracy was forced to make new concessions. On October 17, Nicholas II signed a Manifesto “on improving the state order” on the basis of actual personal integrity, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly, unions, granting the new State Duma legislative rights, and it was stated that no law could gain force without its approval by the Duma.
The promulgation of the Manifesto on October 17, 1905 caused rejoicing in liberal-bourgeois circles, who believed that all conditions had been created for legal political activity. The October 17 Manifesto served as an impetus for the formation of two influential bourgeois parties - the Cadets and the Octobrists.
The autumn of 1905 was marked by an increase in peasant revolts and revolutionary uprisings in the army and navy. In November - December, the peasant movement reached its climax. During this time, 1,590 peasant uprisings were registered - approximately half of the total number (3,230) for the entire 1905. They covered half (240) of the districts of the European part of Russia, and were accompanied by the destruction of landowners' estates and the seizure of landowners' lands. Up to 2 thousand landowner estates were destroyed (and in total over 6 thousand landowner estates were destroyed in 1905-1907). Peasant revolts took on a particularly wide scale in the Simbirsk, Saratov, Kursk and Chernigov provinces. Punitive troops were sent to suppress peasant uprisings, and a state of emergency was introduced in a number of places. On November 3, 1905, under the influence of a broad peasant movement that developed with particular force in the fall of that year, a tsar’s manifesto was issued, announcing the reduction of redemption payments from peasants for allotment land by half and the complete cessation of their collection from January 1, 1907.
In October-December 1905, there were 89 performances in the army and navy. The largest of them was the uprising of sailors and soldiers of the Black Sea Fleet under the leadership of Lieutenant L.L. Schmidt November 11-16. On December 2, 1905, the 2nd Rostov Grenadier Regiment rebelled in Moscow and appealed to all the troops of the Moscow garrison to support its demands. It found a response in other regiments. A Council of Soldiers' Deputies was created from representatives of the Rostov, Ekaterinoslav and some other regiments of the Moscow garrison. But the garrison command managed to suppress the soldier movement at its very beginning and isolate unreliable military units in the barracks. The December events ended with an armed uprising and barricade battles in Moscow (December 10-19).
On December 11, 1905, S.Yu., developed by the government, was published. Witte new election law for the State Duma. It retained the basic provisions of the electoral law of August 6, 1905, with the only difference that now workers were also allowed to participate in the elections, for which a fourth, workers’, curia was introduced and the number of seats for the peasant curia was increased. The plurality of elections was maintained: first, electors were elected, and from them, deputies to the Duma were elected, with one elector per 90 thousand workers, 30 thousand peasants, 7 thousand representatives of the urban bourgeoisie and 2 thousand landowners. Thus, one vote of the landowner was equal to 3 votes of the bourgeoisie, 15 peasants and 45 workers. This created a significant advantage for the landowners and bourgeoisie in terms of representation in the Duma.
In connection with the creation of the legislative State Duma, the State Council was transformed. On February 20, 1906, a decree “On the reorganization of the establishment of the State Council” was issued. From a legislative body, all of whose members had previously been appointed by the tsar, it became the upper legislative chamber, which received the right to approve or reject laws adopted by the State Duma. All these changes were included in the main “Basic State Laws”, published on April 23, 1906.
On November 24, 1905, a decree was issued on new “Temporary Rules for Timely Publications,” which abolished preliminary censorship for periodicals. By the decree of April 26, 1906 on the “Temporary Rules for Non-Timely Press,” preliminary censorship was also abolished for non-periodical publications (books and brochures). However, this did not mean the final abolition of censorship. preserved various kinds penalties (fines, suspension of publication, warnings, etc.) to publishers who published articles in periodicals or books that were “objectionable” from the point of view of the authorities.
Retreat of the revolution: 1906 - spring-summer 1907(see diagram “Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia. 3rd stage”). After the December events of 1905, the retreat of the revolution began. First of all, it was expressed in a gradual decline in the strike movement of workers. If during 1905 2.8 million strike participants were registered, then in 1906 - 1.1 million, and in 1907 - 740 thousand. However, the intensity of the struggle was still high. In the spring and summer of 1906, a new wave of the agrarian peasant movement arose, which acquired an even wider scope than in 1905. It covered more than half of the country's counties. But despite its scope and mass character, the peasant movement of 1906, as in 1905, was a series of disparate, local riots that had practically no connection with each other. The All-Russian Peasant Union failed to become the organizing center of the movement. The dissolution of the State Duma of the first convocation in July 1906 and the “Vyborg Appeal” (see the article “Vyborg Appeal” in the reader) did not lead to a sharp aggravation of the revolutionary situation.
There were uprisings in the army and navy, which, like the peasant uprisings, took on a more threatening character than in 1905. The most significant of them were the uprisings in July-August 1906 of sailors in Sveaborg, Kronstadt and Reval. They were prepared and led by the Socialist Revolutionaries: they developed a plan to surround the capital with a ring of military uprisings and force the government to capitulate. The uprisings were quickly suppressed by troops loyal to the government, and their participants were court-martialed, 43 of them were executed. After the failure of the uprisings, the Social Revolutionaries switched to the proven tactics of individual terror. In 1906, the national liberation movement assumed impressive proportions in Finland, the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, and Transcaucasia under the leadership of local nationalist parties.
On August 19, 1906, Nicholas II signed the plan developed by Prime Minister P.A. Stolypin decree on the introduction of military courts on Russian territory (abolished in April 1907). This measure made it possible to reduce the number of terrorist acts and “expropriations” in a short time. The year 1907 was not marked by any serious unrest in the countryside or in the army - the activities of military courts and the beginning of agrarian reform had an impact. The coup d'état of June 3, 1907 marked the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907.
Historical significance of the revolution of 1905-1907. it was huge. It seriously shook the foundations of the Russian autocracy, which was forced to make a number of significant self-restraints. The convening of the legislative State Duma, the creation of a bicameral parliament, the proclamation of civil liberties, the abolition of censorship, the legalization of trade unions, the beginning of agrarian reform - all this indicated that the foundations of a constitutional monarchy were being formed in Russia. The revolution also received great international resonance. It contributed to the rise of the strike struggle of workers in Germany, France, England, and Italy. (see diagram “Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia. Results”)
“History of Russia from ancient times to 1917.”
Department staff National history and culture of Ivanovo State Energy University, consisting of: Ph.D. Bobrova S.P. (topics 6,7); Associate Professor of the Department of OIC Bogorodskaya O.E. (topic. 5); Doctor of History Budnik G.A. (topics 2,4,8); Doctor of History Kotlova T.B., Ph.D. Koroleva T.V. (topic 1); Candidate of Historical Sciences Koroleva T.V. (topic 3), Ph.D. Sirotkin A.S. (topics 9,10).
At the beginning of the 20th century. In Russia, objective and subjective prerequisites for revolution have developed, primarily due to the characteristics of Russia as a second-tier country. Four main factors became the most important prerequisites. Russia remained a country with an undeveloped democracy, the absence of a constitution, and the lack of guarantees of human rights, which resulted in the activity of parties opposing the government. After the reforms of the mid-19th century. the peasantry received less land, which they used before the reform to ensure their existence, which caused social tension in the village. Growing since the second half of the 19th century. the contradictions between the rapid growth of capitalism and the remnants of serfdom created objective preconditions for discontent among both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In addition, Russia was a multinational country in which the situation of non-Russian peoples was extremely difficult. That is why the majority of revolutionaries came from non-Russian peoples (Jews, Ukrainians, Latvians). All this testified to the readiness of the whole social groups to the revolution.
The revolutionary uprising, caused by the above contradictions, was accelerated by such events as crop failures and famine in a number of provinces at the beginning of the 20th century, the economic crisis of 1900-1903, which led to the marginalization of large masses of workers, and the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. By its nature, the revolution of 1905-1907 was bourgeois-democratic, as it was aimed at realizing the demands: the overthrow of the autocracy, the establishment of a democratic republic, the elimination of the class system and landownership. The means of struggle used are strikes and strikes, and the main driving force- workers (proletariat).
Periodization of the revolution: 1st stage - initial - from January 9 to the autumn of 1905; 2nd stage - culminating - from autumn 1905 to December 1905; and the final stage - January 1906 - June 1907.
Progress of the revolution
The beginning of the revolution is considered to be January 9, 1905 (“Bloody Sunday”) in St. Petersburg, when government troops shot down a demonstration of workers, believed to have been organized by the priest of the St. Petersburg transit prison, Georgy Gapon. Indeed, in an effort to prevent the development of the revolutionary spirit of the masses and bringing their activities under control, the government took steps in this direction. Minister of Internal Affairs Plehve supported S. Zubatov’s experiments to bring the opposition movement under control. He developed and introduced “police socialism”. Its essence was the organization of workers' societies that were engaged in economic education. This, according to Zubatov, was supposed to take the workers away from the political struggle. A worthy successor to Zubatov’s ideas was Georgy Gapon, who created political workers’ organizations.
It was Gapon’s provocative activities that gave impetus to the beginning of the revolution. At the height of the St. Petersburg general strike (up to 3 thousand people participated), Gapon proposed organizing a peaceful procession to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Tsar about the needs of the workers. Gapon notified the police in advance of the upcoming demonstration, which allowed the government to quickly prepare to suppress the unrest. During the executions of the demonstration, more than 1 thousand people were killed. Thus, January 9, 1905 marked the beginning of the revolution and was called “Bloody Sunday.”
On May 1, a strike of workers began in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. The workers created their own government body - the Council of Workers' Representatives. On May 12, 1905, a strike began in Ivano-Frankovsk, which lasted more than two months. At the same time, unrest broke out in villages that engulfed the Black Earth Center, the Middle Volga region, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. In the summer of 1905, the All-Russian Peasant Union was formed. At the Congress of the Union, demands were put forward for the transfer of land into the ownership of the entire people. Open armed uprisings broke out in the army and navy. A major event was the armed uprising prepared by the Mensheviks on the battleship Prince Potemkin Tauride. On June 14, 1905, the sailors, who captured the battleship during a spontaneous uprising, brought the ship to the roadstead of Odessa, where at that time a general strike was taking place. But the sailors did not dare to land and support the workers. "Potemkin" went to Romania and surrendered to the authorities.
The beginning of the second (culminating) stage of the revolution occurred in the autumn of 1905. The growth of the revolution, the activation of revolutionary forces and the opposition forced the tsarist government to make some concessions. By a rescript of Nicholas II, the Minister of Internal Affairs A. Bulygin was instructed to develop a project for the creation of the State Duma. On August 6, 1905, a manifesto on the convening of the Duma appeared. The majority of participants in the revolutionary movement were not satisfied with either the nature of the “Bulygin Duma” as an exclusively legislative body, or the Regulations on elections to the Duma (elections were held in three curiae: landowners, townspeople, peasants; workers, intellectuals and the petty bourgeoisie did not have voting rights). Due to the boycott of the Bulygin Duma, its elections never took place.
In October - November 1905, unrest among soldiers occurred in Kharkov, Kyiv, Warsaw, Kronstadt, and a number of other cities; on November 11, 1905, an uprising began in Sevastopol, during which sailors under the leadership of Lieutenant P. Schmidt disarmed the officers and created the Sevastopol Council of Deputies . The main base of the rebels was the cruiser "Ochakov", on which a red flag was raised. On November 15-16, 1905, the uprising was suppressed and its leaders were shot. Since mid-October, the government has been losing control of the situation. Rallies and demonstrations took place everywhere demanding a constitution. To overcome the crisis, the government tried to find a way out of the impasse and make even greater concessions.
On October 17, 1905, the Tsar signed a Manifesto, according to which the citizens of Russia were granted civil liberties: personal immunity, freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly and unions. The State Duma was given legislative functions. The creation of a unified government - the Council of Ministers - was declared. The manifesto influenced further development events, reduced the revolutionary impulse of the liberals and contributed to the creation of right-wing legal parties (cadets and Octobrists).
The strike that began in October in Moscow spread throughout the country and grew into the All-Russian October political strike. In October 1905, over 2 million people went on strike. At this time, the Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies arose, which from bodies of the strike struggle turned into parallel (alternative) bodies of power. Those who took part in them: the Mensheviks considered them as bodies of local self-government, and the Bolsheviks - as bodies of an armed uprising. Highest value had St. Petersburg and Moscow councils of workers' deputies. The Moscow Council issued a call to start a political strike. On December 7, 1905, a general political strike began, which grew in Moscow into the December armed uprising, which lasted until December 19, 1905. Workers built barricades on which they fought with government troops. After the suppression of the December armed uprising in Moscow, the revolutionary wave began to subside. In 1906-1907 strikes, walkouts, peasant unrest, and protests in the army and navy continued. But the government, with the help of severe repressions, gradually regained control over the country.
Thus, during the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1905-1907, despite all the achievements, it was not possible to achieve the solution of the main tasks put forward at the beginning of the revolution, the overthrow of the autocracy, the destruction of the class system and the establishment of a democratic republic.
The first Russian revolution - time period from January 22, 1905 to July 16, 1907 More than 2 million people took part, of whom about 9,000 died. The result of the revolution was a reduction in the working day, the introduction of democratic freedoms and the resolution of moderate opposition.
The beginning of the 20th century for the Russian Empire turned out to be a series of severe trials that determined its political appearance. Important role in strategy historical development played by two key events: the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. V. Lenin and I. Stalin addressed the events of this time more than once in their works.
The emergence of discontent among educated residents of Russia began to arise long before 1905. The intelligentsia gradually realized that in all spheres of society there were problems that the state did not want to solve.
Table of prerequisites for revolution
|
Political |
Economic |
Social |
|
Russia's noticeable lag in political development. While advanced Western countries had long since moved to a parliamentary system, the Russian Empire only began to think about carrying out such a reform at the end of the 19th century. |
The global economic crisis, which worsened at the turn of the century, played a role in shaping the decadent mood of citizens. The quality of life of the population has deteriorated significantly due to the fall in prices for the main export product - bread. |
Population growth and advancing industrialization left a large percentage of the peasant population without a land share. |
|
Foreign policy reforms carried out in the second half of the 19th century by Alexander III led to a strengthening of the status of liberal parties. |
The rapid development of industry aimed at getting the country out of the crisis required huge financial expenditures. The largest segments of the population suffered from this - peasants and workers. |
12-14 hour work shifts, lack of wages and a significant influx of population into the cities all had a negative impact on public sentiment. |
|
Russia's defeat in the war with Japan undermined its authority in the international arena and convinced the people of the insolvency of power. |
Restriction of civil and economic freedoms of the population |
Constantly growing level of corruption, bureaucracy, negligence of officials and inaction of government bodies |
Causes of the first Russian revolution
The main reasons include:
- Low standard of living of the people;
- Social vulnerability of citizens;
- Untimely implementation of reforms (usually with great delay) by government bodies;
- The rise of the labor movement, the activation of radical intelligentsia in the early 1900s;
- The defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, associated primarily with the mistakes of the commanding leadership and the technical superiority of the enemy.
The military defeat of Russia by Japanese troops finally undermined the people's faith in the strength of the army, the professionalism of the commanders-in-chief, and also significantly reduced the authority of state power.
Beginning of the 1905 revolution
The reason for the uprising was the mass execution of civilians who went to the sovereign to demand respect for their civil rights and freedoms. This day, January 22, went down in history under the name Bloody Sunday. The reason people came out to demonstrate was the dismissal of 4 employees of the Kirov plant for their disagreement with state policy.
Main events of the first Russian revolution.
- January 9, 1905 - Bloody Sunday, execution of peaceful demonstrators.
- June 14, 1905 - the uprising on the battleship Potemkin was suppressed.
- October 1905 – All-Russian October political strike, signing of the “Manifesto of Freedoms” by the Tsar.
- December 1905 - armed uprising in Moscow, culmination.
- April 27, 1906 - opening of a new government body - the State Duma, the birth of parliament in Russia
- June 3, 1907 – dissolution of the State Duma. The revolution ended in defeat.
Participants of the revolution
Radical actions were simultaneously prepared by participants in three socio-political camps:
- Supporters of autocracy. These people knew the need for reforms, but without overthrowing the current government. This included representatives of the highest social strata, landowners, military personnel, and police officers.
- Liberals who wanted to limit royal power peacefully without destroying it. These were the liberal bourgeoisie and intelligentsia, peasants, and office workers.
- Democratic revolutionaries. They, as the party most affected by the economic crisis, actively advocated for indigenous changes in government. It was in their interests to overthrow the monarchy. This camp includes peasants, workers and the petty bourgeoisie.
Stages of the 1905 revolution
When analyzing these events, historians identify several stages in the development of the conflict. Each of them was accompanied important points, determining the direction further actions both from the revolutionaries and from the authorities.
- The first stage (January - September 1905) was distinguished by the scale of the strikes. Strikes took place throughout the country, which prompted the authorities to take immediate action. The outcome was also influenced by the mass demonstrations of the army and navy in 1905.
- The culmination of the events of 1905 was the December armed uprising in Moscow - the bloodiest and most numerous during the entire conflict. This marks the second stage: October – December. The Emperor created the first manifesto of the revolution - “On the establishment of a legislative body - the State Duma,” which did not give the right to vote to the majority of the population, and therefore was not approved by the revolutionaries. It was soon followed by a second manifesto, to the delight of political forces, “On the abolition of the unlimited monarchy in Russia.”
- The third stage (January 1906 – June 1907) saw a decline and retreat of the protesters.
The nature of the revolution
The rebellion was bourgeois-democratic in nature. Its participants advocated the establishment in Russia of those political, economic, social rights and freedoms that had long been established in Europe and hampered the development of the country.
Goals of the task and demands of the revolution:
- The overthrow of monarchism and the establishment of parliamentarism in Russia;
- Improving working conditions for workers;
- Return of lands lost due to industrialization to the peasant population;
- Promoting equality among all segments of the population
Political parties in the first Russian revolution
The driving forces of the rebellion were the Socialist Revolutionaries and liberals. The first belonged to the Socialist Revolutionary Party and advocated an aggressive and radical change in the existing system. This party was distinguished by the largest number. This included workers, peasants and the youngest representatives of the resistance to the authorities - students.
The Liberal Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party (Cadets) differed in the level of education of their members. This included the most famous scientists and academicians, such as Vernandsky, Miliukov, Muromtsev and others. Liberals advocated changing the constitutional system.
The views of representatives of the RSDLP were divided into two opposing camps: Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. They were united by the desire to organize an armed uprising.
Chronology of revolutionary actions
- January 1905 – beginning
- June-October 1905 – uprisings and strikes throughout the country
- 1906 - decline of the revolution
- June 3, 1907 - suppression by authorities
Consequences of the first Russian revolution
The revolutionaries achieved the fulfillment of some of their demands. Working conditions were improved, autocracy was undermined, and democratic rights began to gradually be introduced into public life.
The meaning of revolution
The bourgeois revolution in Russia was a shock to the world community. It generated great resonance within the country. Peasants and workers realized the influence they could have on the government and political life of the country. There was a huge change in worldview - the people were shown life without autocracy.
Peculiarities
This is the first nationwide event in Russia directed against the established system. At the first stages, it was characterized by cruelty - the authorities fought the protesters with particular zeal, shooting even peaceful demonstrations. The main driving force in the revolution was the workers.
Chronology of the Russian Revolution 1905-1907.
1904
July 15– The murder of the “reactionary” Minister of Internal Affairs by the Socialist-Revolutionary E. Sazonov V. Plehve.
August 26– Appointment of a liberal as the new Minister of the Interior P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky.
September – October- Secret meetings in Paris of members of the liberal " Liberation Union"with Socialist Revolutionary terrorists, Finnish and Caucasian nationalists.
November 6-9– Meetings of zemstvo leaders in St. Petersburg throw a demand into the country legislative people's representation. Soon after them, high society opens a “banquet campaign” demanding the most extensive government reforms.
December 12– The government, by its decree, rejects even advisory popular representation, but accepts other demands of the Zemstvo residents (freedom of conscience, revision of press laws, etc.).
1905
Investigation into the circumstances of the uprising on the battleship "Potemkin" (first episode "Spontaneous Riot")
– Agrarian riots throughout the country. Burning of landowners' estates by peasants.
August 6- Project deliberative"Bulygin Duma" (6.08), rejected by the "liberals".
August 27– A law on broad autonomy for universities, thanks to which they begin to organize violent revolutionary rallies with the widespread participation of outsiders, often armed.
August– Armenian-Azerbaijani massacre in Transcaucasia.
September– The next Zemstvo Congress adopts a resolution demanding broad autonomy for Poland.
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin
July 9– Dissolution of the First Duma (its constitutional possibility is provided for by the “Fundamental Laws”).
July 9 – Vyborg Appeal: 180 (about a third) deputies of the dissolved Duma call on the people to stand up for popular representation and not give the government “neither soldiers nor money.”
August 12 – Terrorist attack on Aptekarsky Island: a group of maximalist Socialist-Revolutionaries blows up Stolypin’s residence. In this case, more than 30 people die, not counting the killers themselves, the prime minister’s children are seriously wounded, but he himself remains unharmed.
August 25– Publication of an extensive government reform program and law on courts-martial.
August – September– Decrees on the transfer of appanage, state and cabinet lands to the peasantry (i.e. state lands and those that were previously owned by the royal and grand ducal families).
October 5– Stolypin’s law on civil equality of peasants (later not approved by the Duma “liberals” - they do not agree to approve it before “Jewish equality” is introduced). A similar fate befalls another important Stolypin law - on the establishment of zemstvos in the volosts (in a unit smaller than the appanage).
October 14– “Robbery in Fonarny Lane” is the largest revolutionary-criminal expropriation of the period of the First Russian Revolution: the seizure of more than 360 thousand rubles from the transported customs sums by the Socialist-Revolutionaries-maximalists in St. Petersburg.
November 9– The main measure of the Stolypin agrarian reform is the law providing peasants with the opportunity to leave the community.
1907
March 6– Stolypin’s government declaration in the Duma proclaiming a broad program of reforms.
April 16– “Zurabov incident”: Tiflis deputy Zurabov from the Duma tribune vilifies the Russian army in “the worst Russian language”: it, they say, has always been beaten, will be beaten, and it will only be good to fight against the people. The Duma noisily approves of Zurabov’s mocking speech, and this greatly lowers her in popular opinion.
April 20– The decree on military courts, not approved by the Duma, according to the law, ceases to be in effect 8 months after entering into temporary force.
June 1– The government demands that the Second Duma lift parliamentary immunity from 55 socialist deputies convicted of preparing a military conspiracy. The Duma refuses.
Revolution of 1905 First Russian Revolution |
|
Russian Empire |
|
Land hunger; numerous violations of workers' rights; dissatisfaction with the existing level of civil liberties; activities of liberal and socialist parties; The absolute power of the emperor, the absence of a national representative body and constitution. |
|
Main goal: |
Improving working conditions; redistribution of land in favor of peasants; liberalization of the country; expansion of civil liberties; ; |
Establishment of Parliament; June 3rd coup, reactionary policy of the authorities; carrying out reforms; preservation of land, labor and national issues. |
|
Organizers: |
Socialist Revolutionary Party, RSDLP, SDKPiL, Polish Socialist Party, General Jewish Labor Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia, Latvian Forest Brothers, Latvian Social Democratic Labor Party, Belarusian Socialist Community, Finnish Active Resistance Party, Poalei Zion, “Bread and Freedom” "and others |
Driving forces: |
Workers, peasants, intelligentsia, parts of the army |
Number of participants: |
Over 2,000,000 |
Opponents: |
Army units; supporters of Emperor Nicholas II, various Black Hundred organizations. |
Dead: |
|
Arrested: |
|
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, it was required new institute legislative power and normative legal acts regulating legal relations.
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:
|
How can a person show and develop not only his work, but initiative in his work, when he knows that the land he cultivates after some time can be replaced by another (community), that the fruits of his labors will be shared not on the basis of general laws and testamentary rights , and according to custom (and often custom is discretion), when he can be responsible for taxes not paid by others (mutual responsibility) ... when he can neither move nor leave his, often poorer than a bird’s nest, home without a passport, the issuance of which depends on discretion, when in a word, its life is to some extent similar to the life of a domestic animal with the difference that the owner is interested in the life of the domestic animal, because it is his property, and Russian state At a given stage of state development, there is a surplus of this property, and what is in surplus is either little or not valued at all. |
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, a real industrial proletariat already existed, but its situation was approximately the same as in a number of other European countries the proletariat was 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) , lack of 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 the urgent need for reform. 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. The strike movement and strikes began in railways Russia. 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, the professional intelligentsia, which formed a number of various unions, and individual 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 as “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 empty 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 for not paying taxes and withdrawing 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 attempts on the lives of 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 - the hanging on Lisy
- 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
