Revo Of 1905 :: essays research papers

At the turn of the twentieth century, Russia was a curious society, still stratifiedinto nobility and peasantry. The Russian plenty seemed to be as immovable asthe dark ground which they farmed, welded to the ground by centuries ofstruggle. While the Europeans fought political battles, the Russians wrestledagainst the cold and starvation. Four decades earlier, Czar Alexander II signedthe Emancipation Manifesto which freed the serfs from ownership by thenobles.1 He had hoped to finally bring Russia out of the dark ages. Hisbureaucracy continued to elevate the peasants by making all classes of societyequal under the impartiality and increasing the availability of education.2 Nevertheless,the Dark People of Russia remained in their darkness, understanding littlebesides their own existence in the context of their communes. The communeoriented constitution of the Russian peasants made Russia a prime target forMarxist revolutionaries. The uniquely backward culture of Russia spawned asi ngularly Russian form of Marxism, Narodnichestvo. Russian intellectuals ofthe nineteenth century felt that the socialist revolution must come from the uprising ofthe rural peasant masses, rather than through the proletariat of the cities. Thepeasants were remarkably unreceptive to revolutionist agitators. They wereblind to events outside of their own commune. More often than not, theagitators were run out of town by suspicious peasants. 3 By 1900, the remnantsof the Narodonik philosophy had melted into the friendly Republican party. 4 TheEmancipation Manifesto had marked the beginning of the end for the nobility.Deprived of their serfs and unable to gain any power in the government, theNobles were forced to sell aside their land, little by little, to support their lifestyle.For a government supported by nothing more than the momentum of historyand tradition, the decline of the nobility foreshadowed the destruction of theautocracy. At the turn of the century, the Czar had very lit tle support outsidehis own bureaucracy. Young Nicholas II, heir to the throne in the late 1800s,inspired hope in those rallying for governmental reform. Zemstvos and volosts,local governments elected by nobles and peasants, hoped that Nicholas wouldat least allow these legislatures to have an advisory function for the Czar. 5They were sadly disappointed erstwhile Nicholas II ascended the throne. Upon thedeath of Alexander III, the zemstvo of Tver petitioned Nicholas II to allowlocal representative bodies to express their opinion on questions of concern tothem, in order that. . . the Russian people might reach the height of the throne.. .. Nicholas replied, I am extremely astonished and displeased with this