The socio-political development of Russia in 1894-1904 is associated with the formation of new thinking among the broad masses of the population. Instead of the usual “God save the king!” “Down with the autocracy!” smashed openly in the streets All this ultimately led to a disaster, which had no analogues in the entire thousand-year history of our state. What happened A conspiracy at the top, supported by external factors, or did social development really lead to the fact that the people demanded change?
Why, at the highest peak of the economy, science, culture, education, agriculture, industry in the country, did the emperor become a "bloody king"? Of course, history has no subjunctive mood. But, if Nicholas II really was a “bloodthirsty executioner of peoples”, as his contemporaries called him, there would be no revolution, and the workers of the Putilov factory, who paralyzed all military production in the country's main industrial city during the World War, would have been shot as “traitors to the motherland” . A similar thing happened already after the Revolution, during the period when the Communists were in power. But in 1884 no one else could know this. More details about the social development of society at that time will be discussed later.
How it all started
A change in public consciousness began on October 20, 1894. On this day, Emperor Alexander III died, who received the nickname "Reformer" from grateful contemporaries and descendants. His son Nicholas II, one of the most controversial figures in our history, along with Ivan the Terrible and Joseph Stalin, ascended the throne. But, unlike them, the emperor was never able to hang up the label "murderer" and "executioner", although for this, perhaps, everything possible was done among Soviet historians. It was during the last Russian tsar that the dynamics of social development began to grow at a tremendous pace towards the overthrow of the autocracy. But first things first.
Biography of Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov
Nicholas II was born on May 6, in 1868. On this day, Christians honor St. Job the Long-suffering. The emperor himself believed - this is a sign that says that he is doomed to suffering in life. And so it happened later - social development led to the fact that the hatred of autocracy among the people over the previous centuries reached the boiling point and resulted in irreversible consequences. The centuries-old anger of the people fell precisely on the king who, more than all his ancestors, cared about the well-being of his own people. Of course, many will argue with this point of view, but as they say, how many people, so many opinions.
Nicholas II was well educated, knew several foreign languages perfectly, but he always spoke Russian.
Liberal politicians labeled him a weak, weak-willed person who did not make independent decisions and was always influenced by women: first mother, and then wife. Decisions, in their opinion, were made by the adviser who last consulted with the emperor. The communists called him a "bloody tyrant", which led Russia to disaster.
I would like to object to all the labels, and remember the bloody 1921 with the mass executions of the Cheka, as well as the period of Stalin’s repressions. The "blood tyrant" did not even shoot those who during the World War sabotaged the supply of bread and ammunition to the front at the end of 1916, when Russian soldiers were dying of hunger, and the lack of ammunition forced them to attack with machine guns with their bare hands. Of course, ordinary soldiers did not understand the true causes of what was happening, and skilled agitators quickly found the culprit of all the troubles in the person of the last Russian emperor.
Nor was Nicholas II a weak-willed person who personally made many political decisions contrary to the opinions of the surrounding minority, the bourgeoisie, the top of the nobility and court relatives. But all of them were not “whims of a tyrant," but they solved the serious problems of the broad masses of the population. He called the last of the advisers only the one who shared his point of view, hence the erroneous opinion of liberal politicians.
January 17, 1895 Nicholas II announced the preservation of the autocracy and the previous order, which automatically predetermined the further development of the country. After these words, the revolutionary base began to take shape at an unprecedented rate, as if someone had purposefully organized it from the outside.
Socio-political development of Russia in 1894-1904: the struggle in the highest echelons of power
It is a mistake to believe that the split was only among the common people. Social development led to the fact that even among the highest political figures of the state there were disagreements about the path of development of Russia. The eternal struggle of Western liberals, flirting with the countries of Europe and America with patriotic conservatives, trying to isolate Russia by any means, has intensified at this time. Unfortunately, the absence of a “golden mean” and the understanding that economic, political and social development in the state should go in alliance with the West, but with the defense of internal interests, has always been in our history. Today's time has not changed the situation. In our country, there are either patriots who want to isolate themselves, close themselves from the whole world, or liberals who are ready to give all concessions to foreign countries.
Nicholas II pursued a policy of the “golden mean” principle, which made him an enemy for both the former and the latter. The fact that the emperor was precisely the adherent of an alliance with the West in upholding domestic interests is evidenced by the internal political struggle between the two forces, both of which occupied high government posts.
Westerners
The first were Western liberals, led by Minister of Finance S. Yu. Witte.
Their main task is the development of the country's economy: industry, agriculture, etc. Industrialization of the country, according to Witte, should greatly affect socio-political development. It will solve the following problems:
- Accumulate funds to solve social problems.
- To develop agriculture at the expense of more advanced and cheaper tools than labor imports.
- To form a new class - the bourgeoisie, which can be opposed to the traditional nobility, governed by the principle of "divide and conquer."
Conservatives
At the head of the conservative forces was Minister of the Interior V.K. Pleve, who was later killed during the attack, as well as another ardent patriot who made the most for the development of Russia - P. A. Stolypin. It is also strange that not one of the pro-Western high-ranking politicians was hurt in the "bloody cleansing" of revolutionary terrorists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who considered Russia an original state with its own mentality and culture.
Pleve believed that economic and socio-political development is impossible under the influence of “immature” youth who are “infected” with pro-Western ideas that are foreign to our country.
Russia is a country with its own development vector. Reforms, of course, are necessary, but it is not necessary to break all the social institutions that have developed over the centuries.
The growth of contradictions
Revolutions, as you know, are committed by the hands of youth. Russia was no exception in this regard. The first mass unrest in 1899 began precisely among students demanding the return of autonomous university rights. But the "bloody regime" did not massively shoot the demonstrators, no one was arrested among the organizers. The authorities merely sent several activists to the army, and the “student revolt” immediately faded.
However, in 1901, Education Minister N.P. Bogolepov, a former student P. Karpovich, was mortally wounded. This killing of a high-ranking official after a long interruption of terrorist acts indicated that social development was leading to radical changes.
In 1902, uprisings broke out in the southern provinces of the country among the peasants. They were unhappy with the lack of land. Thousands of crowds smashed the landlord huts, food barns, warehouses, emptying them.
To restore order, they attracted an army, which was strictly forbidden to use weapons. This indicates the ability of the authorities to restore order and at the same time shows all the “bloodiness” of the regime. The only severe measure applied to the instigators, who were subjected to public flogging. No mass executions and executions were recorded in historical sources. For comparison, I want to recall the events that occurred 20 years later in the Tambov province. A mass rebellion broke out there against the food robberies of the Bolsheviks. The Soviet government ordered the use of chemical weapons against the peasants hiding in the forest, and for their families they came up with a kind of concentration camp, in which they drove wives and children. Men had to free them at the cost of exchanging for their own lives.
Unrest in Finland
It was troubled in the national suburbs. For the first time in the history of Finland joining Russia in 1899, the central authorities carried out the following measures:
- Restricted the national diet.
- Introduced paperwork in Russian.
- Disbanded the national army.
All this cannot but speak of the firmness of the political will of Nicholas II, since before him even the most determined rulers did not go to such measures. Of course, the Finns were unhappy, but let's imagine that the state has some autonomy, where budget money is allocated for development, but it has its own army, laws, a government that does not obey the center, all official paperwork is conducted in the national language. Finland was not a colony of the Russian Empire, as local nationalists like to say, but an independent territorial entity, which enjoyed the protection and financial assistance of the Center.
The socio-political development of Russia 1894-1904 is associated with the emergence and development of a new force, which will play a huge role in our history - the party of the RSDLP.
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP)
In March 1902, the First Party Congress took place in Minsk out of 9 people, 8 of whom were arrested, which debunkes the myth of the inability of law enforcement services to identify conspirators. Sources say nothing about why they did not arrest the ninth delegate and who he was.
The II Congress was held in July-August 1903, 2 years before the first Russian revolution of 1905, and away from Russia, in London and Brussels. It adopted the charter and program of the party.
RSDLP minimum program
Modern opposition parties are even afraid to think about what tasks the RSDLP party had. Minimum:
- The overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic.
- Universal suffrage and democratic elections.
- The right of nations to self-determination and their equal rights.
- Broad local government.
- Eight hour work day.
- Cancellation of redemption payments, return of money to those who have already paid everything.
RSDLP maximum program
The maximum program was the universal world proletarian revolution. In other words, the party wanted to start a world war on the planet, at least it proclaimed it. A violent change of not just power, but of the social system, by peaceful means is not achieved.
Political parties with charters, programs, goals - these are new forms of social development of Russia at that time.
The delegates of the RSDLP at the second congress split into two camps:
- Reformers led by L. Martov (J. Cederbaum), who were against the revolution. They advocated a civilized, peaceful way of gaining power, and also intended to rely on the bourgeoisie to achieve their political goals.
- Radicals - proclaimed to overthrow the government by any means, including during the revolution. They relied on the proletariat (working class).
The radicals, headed by V.I. Lenin, got the majority of seats in leading positions of the party. For this reason, the name Bolsheviks was assigned to them. Subsequently, the party split, and they became known as the RSDLP (b), and after a while - the CPSU (b) (All-Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks).
Party of Social Revolutionaries (AKP)
The AKP officially adopted its charter in December 1905 - January 1906, when the socio-political development of Russia changed after the revolution and the manifesto on the creation of the State Duma. But the social revolutionaries, as a political force, appeared long before that. It was they who organized mass terror against the statesmen of that time.
In their program, the Social Revolutionaries also proclaimed a violent change of power, but, unlike everyone else, relied on the peasantry as the driving force of the revolution.
Social Development of Russia: General Conclusions
Many ask the question why in science is precisely the decade from 1894-1904. considered separately, because Nicholas II continued to be in power? We answer that the history of social development of 1894-1904. preceded the first Russian revolution of 1905, after which Russia turned into the Duma monarchy. The manifesto on October 17, 1905 introduced a new authority - the State Duma. Of course, the laws adopted were not valid without the approval of the emperor, but her political influence was enormous.
In addition, it was then that Russia began to lay a time bomb, which would explode later, in 1917, which would lead to the overthrow of the autocracy and the Civil War.