Page 35 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

• Peasants had no respect for nobility. Russian peasants were unlike the French peasants.

• In Russia, peasants craved for the land of the nobles and often refused to pay rent and
even murdered landlords. In 1902, 1905 such incidents were common.
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
2.3 Socialism in Russia
l Before 1914, all political parties were illegal in Russia.

• The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party, which adhered to Marx’s ideas, was
founded in 1898.
• Some Russian socialists felt that the custom of dividing land periodically made the
Russian peasants natural socialists.
• Some of the active socialists in the country side formed the Socialist Revolutionary Party
in 1900.
• The party struggled for peasants rights and demanded land belonging to the nobles be
transferred to peasants.
• Vladimir Lenin (who led the Bolsheviks) believed that in a repressive society such as
Tsarist Russia, the party should be disciplined and strict.
• Others (the Mensheviks) believed that the party should be open to everyone (like it is
in Germany).

2.4 A Turbulent Time: The 1905 Revolution
l At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia was under the autocracy of the Tsar,
and most importantlly, the Tsar was not accountable to Parliament.
• During the Revolution of 1905,the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries,
worked with peasants and workers to demand a constitution for Russia.
• In 1904 prices of essential goods rose rapidly and their real wages declined by 20 per
cent, which led to the bad times for the Russian workers.
• When four workers of Putilov Iron works were dismissed, there was a call for industrial
action.
• Over 10,000 Workers went on strike in St. Petersburg, demanding a reduction in the
working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and improvement in working conditions.
• When the procession of workers led by Father Gapon reached at the Winter Palace, it
was attacked by cops and Cossacks. More than a hundred workers were killed.
• In a reaction of this incident workers went on strike.
• The incident came to be known as Bloody Sunday, and it resulted in the Revolution of
1905. Strikes by workers, students, lawyers, doctors, engineers followed, who established
the Union of Unions.
• The Tsar allowed the formation of an elected consultative Parliament, or Duma, during
the 1905 Revolution. The Tsar suspended the Duma within 75 days and proclaimed the
election of a new Duma.

• The third Duma was formed by the Tsar filled with the conservative politicians. He did
not want reduction in his power and authority.

H-28 History Class IX