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Class Pyramid of Russia

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1. Who is at the top and who is at the bottom?

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2.  What does this cartoon say about Russia's social classes?

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3.  Is there an equal distribution of wealth throughout Russia?

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4.  With such a distinct class system, would this create social problems or prevent them?

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5.  How important is religion in Russia?  Does this affect the Tsar?

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6.  Pay attention to the working class and peasant class, what are they doing and how do they feel?

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Tsar Alexander II

  • “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to await the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below.”
  • -Tsar Alexander IIto Moscow nobility, March 1856
  • Reign of Alexander II began with a promise of change
    • Eliminated the system of serfdom
    • Jury trials and relaxed censorship laws
    • Created zemstvos [local elected assemblies] to address local issues such as taxation and education
  • Assassinated in 1881

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Tsar Alexander III

  • Alexander III believed that western ideals were incompatible with “the very nature of Russian character.
  • Called for a policy known as “Russification,” which attempted to assimilate all non-Russian people.
  • Rigid censorship was imposed on people.
  • Widespread persecution of Jewish people
  • Secret police looked for those suspected of revolutionary ideas.

Alexander III (1881-1894) wanted nothing to do with reforms.

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Tsar Nicholas II

  • Born on May 6, 1868
  • Struggled to comprehend the subtleties of politics and economics
  • His father failed to provide him with much training in affairs of state.
  • Nicholas II inherited the Russian throne on October 20, 1894 at age of 26
  • Continued the conservative autocratic policies of his father

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Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

  • Conflict over Manchuria & Korea
  • Nicholas II thought war with Japan would be easy
  • Russia possessed outdated weapons & was poorly supplied
  • Japan modernized
  • Clear defeat for Russia

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Bloody Sunday & the January Revolution

  • In January 1905 a group of workers marched to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to make their demands.
    • Led by Father Gapon
    • 8 hour work day
    • Right to strike
    • Creation of an assembly
    • Universal suffrage
  • Imperial forces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing and wounding hundreds.
  • Strikes and riots broke out throughout the country in outraged response to the massacre

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January 9, 1905

“I saw these looks of hatred and vengeance on literally every face; old and young, men and women. The revolution had been truly born, and it had been born in the very core, in the very bowels of the people.”

-Bolshevik Martyn Liadov

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October Manifesto

  • Promised political reforms
    • Creation of a Duma (a nationally elected parliament)
    • Freedom of speech and press
  • Revolutionaries saw it as an attempt to silence the revolutionary forces of 1905 while the autocracy regrouped
  • Nicholas II dissolved the Dumas if they did not align with his ideals.

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End of the Tsars

Nicholas II and his family, were sent into exile in the Siberian town of Tobolsk by Alexander Kerenskyin August 1917. 

  • After the February Revolution the Romanov family was put under house arrest in the Winter Palace
  • In August of 1917 they were exiled to Siberia
  • In the early hours July 17, 1918 the Romanov family was, under Bolshevik orders, executed in Ekaterinburg Siberia
  • Their bodies were buried in unmarked graves, reportedly moved several times
  • In 1979 the bodies of five of the family members were discovered, but this was kept secret until 1991
  • In 2007 the remaining two bodies, those of Prince Alexi and his sister Anastasia were found