At the turn of the twentieth century, Russia was a curious society, still stratified into nobility and peasantry. The Russian people seemed to be as immovable as the dark ground which they farmed, welded to the ground by centuries of struggle. While the Europeans fought political battles, the Russians wrestled against the cold and starvation. Four decades earlier, Czar Alexander II signed the ``Emancipation Manifesto'' which freed the serfs from ownership by the nobles.1 He had hoped to finally bring Russia out of the dark ages. His bureaucracy continued to elevate the peasants by making all classes of society equal under the law and increasing the availability of education.2 Nevertheless, the Dark People of Russia remained in their darkness, understanding little besides their own existence in the context of their communes. The commune oriented nature of the Russian peasants made Russia a prime target for
Marxist revolutionaries. The uniquely backward culture of Russia spawned a singularly Russian form of Marxism, Narodnichestvo. Russian intellectuals of the 19th century felt that the socialist revolution must come from the uprising of the rural peasant masses, rather than through the proletariat of the cities. The peasants were remarkably unreceptive to revolutionary agitators. They were blind to events outside of their own commune. More often than not, the agitators were run out of town by suspicious peasants. 3 By 1900, the remnants of the Narodonik philosophy had melted into the Social Republican party. 4 The
``Emancipation Manifesto'' had marked the beginning of the end for the nobility.
Deprived of their serfs and unable to gain any power in the government, the
Nobles were forced to sell off their land, little by little, to support their lifestyle.
For a government supported by nothing more than the momentum of history and tradition, the decline of the nobility foreshadowed the destruction of the autocracy. At the turn of the century, the Czar had very little support outside his own bureaucracy. Young Nicholas II, heir to the throne in the late 1800's, inspired hope in those rallying for governmental reform. Zemstvos and volosts, local governments elected by nobles and peasants, hoped that Nicholas would at least allow these legislatures to have an advisory function for the Czar. 5
They were sadly disappointed once Nicholas II ascended the throne. Upon the death of Alexander III, the zemstvo of Tver petitioned Nicholas II to allow local representative bodies ``to express their opinion on questions of concern to them, in order that. . . the Russian people might reach the height of the throne.
. .''. Nicholas replied, ``I am extremely astonished and displeased with this