[MUSIC] Hello, I am very happy to see you again Today we shall speak about multiple Russian revolutions which happened, shook Russia In the early 20th century. All Russian revolutions happened in connection with wars. So the early 20th century saw the Russia-Japanese War. It happened in 1904, 1905. Russia suffered a humiliating defeat. The war showed how rotten the whole Russian system was because the Russian army in the far east did not have enough ammunition, it did not have enough clothes, it did not have enough food and these was because the roads were bad because far east was at the far end of the Russian empire, and because the empire was not really ready to supply it's own troops in the far east. On top of these, some commanders were incompetent and some were even corrupt. So all that led to huge disappointment and the feeling of frustration among the Russians. The early 20th century was generally not a happy time in Russia. There were several bad harvests, and because of the bad roads, and the severe winters bred, workers' staple diet was not delivered to St. Petersburg in time. Protests started with several strikes and several demonstrations. And at that time, there were many sort of messianic movements particularly at the center but also in some regions. One of the most influential was that started by Father Gapon. He was a mysterious figure. He was very popular among the workers including the workers of the best factories such as for example, Putilov Factory. He tried to persuade the workers that they need to bring their petition to the Tsar personally. To give him that petition personally, because he said ministers would not allow the Tsar see the petition. Gapon was actually connected with the police too. He saw himself as an intermediary. He thought that his connections with the police are useful for the workers' movement. The contents of the petition was discussed in the Russian society for a very long time. Zemstvos (they were local elected bodies) discussed this petition, or any other petition which had to be submitted to the Tsar, for a very long time. Zemstvos offered land reform. They wanted elected bodies at the national level. In the late 1904, a general strike started in St. Petersburg, 625 factories went on strike. And 125,000 workers were on strike. It's a very powerful movement. And Gapon decided that this was a proper time to hand in the petition to the Tsar. The ministers were well aware of the proposed march to the palace to hand in the petition. They were not really going to shoot at the demonstration, but what happened was that they saw beforehand the contents of the petition and they were stunned. Because actually the workers who signed the petition and they were dozens of thousands of them, these workers demanded everything that even the Zemstvos did not dare to demand. They wanted universal suffrage. They wanted direct vote. They wanted reforms. They wanted eight-hour working day. They wanted education, which would be free or paid for by the government. You name it, they wanted everything. So when the demonstration happened, it was 9th January, 1905, 150,000 people took part. But the ministers gave the order to shoot, because what their petition demanded was actually the limitations of autocracy. And that was totally unacceptable to the Tsar. Now you see in the pictures there are red banners. Don't confuse the red banners with the red flags which were the flags of the revolution. Here, they were religious banners because workers naively carried with them the portraits of the Tsar. And they actually wanted the protection from the Tsar. They could not believe and Gapon could not believe that the demonstration would be shot at, but it was. This is a well known picture by one of Russian painters. This is the real picture, this is a photograph. You see that the picture reflected the reality quite closely. How many people were killed? Historians now consider that it was about 200. 800 were supposedly wounded. That shooting over peaceful demonstration, (demonstrators were not armed) brought about a complete disillusionment on the part of the workers, they stopped to believe in the Tsar. Even Gapon after the demonstration started shouting, we have no Tsar anymore. Maybe he became a revolutionary, maybe not. He was later on killed by socialists. But from January until October 1905 was the time of troubles. The really difficult time for the workers, and there was one strike after another. The uprising developed in every region of the Russian Empire. The Tsar could not imagine that his autocracy could be limited. He had to take the full responsibility for the country. So he did not agree to any reforms. During the uprising, a new form of workers organization came into being, that was Soviets. This was a form of sort of consultative elected bodies which were created by the workers to manage the strikes basically. The first Soviet appeared in Ivanovo-Voznesensk during the October General Strike. This was the strike that broke the camel's back. 2 million people were on strike. Even the circle close to monarchy asked the Tsar to sign a manifesto granting rights to his subordinates. His own mother asked him to do that. Now finally Nicholas signed the manifesto. He signed the manifesto under the pressure from Prime Minister, liberal Prime Minister Sergei Witte and his own brother whom he chose to be a dictator, a military dictator. But Grand Duke Nicholas refused. He said that he would rather shoot himself than shooting the workers. So Nicholas, here, is signing the manifesto, and his Prime Minister stands over him making him do it. Nicholas could never understand the meaning of what he signed. He actually signed the manifesto which granted civil rights to the Russian population. He agreed to the creation of the Parliament. He agreed to the elections. They were not general elections. There was no universal suffrage and the elections were not direct. This is a picture by Russian artist Ilia Repin. He was a really talented artist, look at these faces. They are not workers, they are not peasants, look at the crowd. The middle-class people, perhaps even aristocracy, and they are very happy. You can see that they have received what they wanted. It is not clear whether the workers were really satisfied or not, from this picture, and that's how it was. 17th October, the date when the manifesto was signed was the day of huge celebration for the many people in Russia, but Repin was absolutely correct. This was mostly the celebration for the middle classes. According to the Constitution of 1906, the Russian Duma was elected in several stages and several parties were represented in it. It had the right to introduce laws. And the rule was that no law could be accepted if not passed by the Duma, the Parliament. However, the Tsar's heart was not with the Duma. He was not going to subject himself to the will of the Duma. On top of which the Duma could not agree on anything. It could not agree on the major laws that were suggested by different deputies, the law that was absolutely needed was the land law, but different parties could not agree. They argued, and argued, and argued over different drafts or the land law and they could not pass it. So seeing that and seeing that actually the Parliament was rather liberal and rather radical because one draft land law was more radical than the other. So the Tsar dissolved the first Duma. But the second election brought even more radical people to the Duma because they were elected according to the same law. Then in 1907, the Tsar introduced a new electoral law and more qualifications were introduced. And so it was a kind of a coup. The third Duma was much more conservative and it agreed with many of the views that Tsar and his surrounding tried to indicate that they wanted expressed by the Duma. [MUSIC]
