Modern World History: Pages 106-107

The troubled years, 1905-1914

After the 1905 revolution, it was clear that the Tsar needed to do something to try and make sure it didn't happen again. The Tsar needed to reform Russia and make the revolutionary groups happier. In 1906, the Duma met for the first time. They hoped they could make things better in Russia. However, they were soon disappointed. The Tsar just continued as before and didn't listen to them. The first and second Dumas criticised the Tsar and the Tsar sent them home in less than a year.

In 1907, the Tsar changed the voting rules so that none of his enemies were chosen to be in the Duma. This third Duma lasted until 1912, longer than the others, mainly because they didn't criticise the Tsar as much as the first two Dumas had done. However, by 1912, even this Duma was becoming very unhappy with the Tsar and his ministers. The Duma had no power to change things, though, and the Tsar's regime continued.

Stolypin

In 1906, the Tsar chose a new Prime Minister called Peter Stolypin. He was a hard, tough man who decided to use a 'carrot and stick' to solving Russia's problems.

The 'stick' was that he punished strikers, protesters and revolutionaries. Over 20,000 of them were exiled and over 1,000 of them were hanged by the neck. The noose was known as 'Stolypin's necktie.' In the countryside, this stopped any opposition to the Tsar until after1914.

The 'carrot': Stolypin tried to keep the peasants happy with the thing they wanted the most – land. He allowed the richer peasants (the 'kulaks') to leave the 'mir' (the village community of peasant farmers) and buy up land. These kulaks bought land and started to become richer. They created larger, better farms and the amount of food produced increased. However, in 1916, 90% of the good farmland in western Russia was still badly run by mir or 'communes.' Even in the Ukraine, Russia's best farmland, the farms were still very small and peasants lived in very bad conditions.

Stolypin also tried to improve Russia's industries. Between 1908 and 1911, there was a lot of economic growth in industries and they produced much more. However, Russia was still far behind other countries like Britain, Germany and the U.S.A. The workers in the city were not paid very much money and the cost of food and housing stayed high. The living and working conditions for industrial workers were very bad. The profits from industry were going to the capitalists or they were going to banks in France.These banks had loaned the money to Russia to pay for the industrial growth.

Stolypin was assassinated in 1911, but the Tsar was going to sack him anyway (he was going to take his job away from him). The Tsar was worried that Stolypin was trying to change Russia too much. Tsar Nicholas had already stopped some of Stolypin's plans for basic education for the people and also his plans to pass laws to protect factory workers. The tsar had listened to landlords and people in his court. These people didn't like Stolypin or his ideas. They liked the old, traditional Russian society where everyone knew their place.

Things got worse between the Tsar and his people. In1912, Russia started to have economic problems. The result was unemployed and hunger. In 1913, there were lots of celebrations to celebrate 300 years of the Romanov family (the Tsar's family) ruling Russia. These celebrations were supposed to bring the country together but lots of people didn't feel like celebrating.

The Tsar's government tried other things to make people like and support them. They discriminated against Jews, Muslims and other minorities and were even violent to them. This didn't have much effect and people became more and more unhappy with the Tsar and his government, especially in the cities. There were more and more strikes. At the Lena gold field there was a strike and the army shot the striking miners. The army and the police dealt with all these problems so it seemed that the Tsar and his government were in control. However, some of the government's supporters were not so sure about the government. Some industrialists (factory owners, etc.) were worried about the way that the Tsar gave jobs to people like Goremykin, who were loyal to him but who were not very good at their jobs.

Rasputin

Some of the Tsar's friends and supporters were very worried about a strange and dangerous person in the Tsar's life. This person was Gregory Yefimovich - everyone called him 'Rasputin.' The Tsar's son was very sick. He had a blood disease called haemophilia. It seemed as if Rasputin could control this disease. He did this possibly through hypnosis. The Tsarina thought he was wonderful. She thought he could work miracles. Soon, Rasputin was giving her and the Tsar advice on how to run the country. People in Russia didn't trust Rasputin. They said he was a drinker and had lots of girlfriends. The Tsar's opponents (people who were against him) said that because the Tsar listened to Rasputin so much, this showed that he was weak and not able to rule Russia. The Tsar didn't notice their worries or, worse, still, he didn't care. This showed how little he understood what his people were thinking.