The Revolution of 1905 in Russia

The Revolution of 1905 in Russia

The Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, never fully accepted the view that

his will was not above the law. This autocratic notion was out of tune

with the times and helps to explain much of what happened after 1905

in Russia and elsewhere. He had bad advisors, of course. There was the

sinister influence of a journalist by the name of Meshchevsky, the

dominating influence of a certain M. Philippe and the notorious monk

Rasputin. The latter two worked through the tsarina, especially after

1911. Nicholas also retained the ministers of the reactionary

Alexander III, particularly Pobedonestsev and Witte.

I. Revival of Opposition to the Tsar

A. Russian Marxism

The revival of opposition to the tsar came with the famine of

1891-1892. The Marxists, the populists and the liberals were the main

forces at work against the monarchy. Plekhanov, the grand daddy of

Russian Marxism, had founded the "Liberation of Labor" back in 1883.

Lenin and Martov organized the "Fighting Union for the Liberation of

the Working Class" in 1895. These groups adopted new tactics:

agitation among the ranks of the proletariat. In part the result this

agitation was a wave major strikes in the late 1890s, like the St.

Petersburg textile strike of 1896-1897. A new coalition of Marxists

took place in 1898 when the Russian Social Democratic Party was

founded in Minsk. Lenin had little to do with this since he was in

exile in Siberia between 1895 and 1900.

But Russian Marxism was still full of strife and as a result

ineffectual. Its newspaper, Iskra, founded in 1900, pushed for unity

among the various factions. At the famous Congress o...

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...ntually the St. Petersburg Soviet lost its hold on the workers and

the call for a general strike issued in November was a complete

failure. Witte ordered the arrest of the president of the Soviet,

Nosar, a Menshevik. A new committee is quickly formed, including

Trotsky, which appeals to the armed forces and urges non-payment of

taxes. Witte's response is to arrest the committee. The Soviet of

Soldiers in Moscow does manage to start an uprising, but is quickly

crushed by government troops. Insubordination in the army and the navy

is also crushed. The strike on the Trans-Siberian Railway is brought

under control. So the economic and social order remained unscathed.

Trotsky cried:

"The revolution is dead, long live the revolution!"

There are people today everywhere in the world in whom this phrase

still re-echoes.