RUSSIAN POLICIES, 1906-1914
Backtracking from
the October Manifesto
❖
Duma to have no right of approval or supervision regarding national defense, foreign
policy, or Imperial Court
❖
Duma to be organized as a bicameral (two-house) legislature, with upper house
appointed by Tsar (not mentioned in Oct. Manifesto)
❖
Article 87 (of Fundamental Laws): Tsar could create laws by decree when Duma not in
session (to be approved later when it next met)
❖
As countryside violence resumed at times in 1906-07, summary justice &
executions were used (an apparent violation of Manifesto promise of
“inviolability of the person”)
❖
Censorship (greatly reduced in late 1905-1906) began returning gradually from
late 1906 onward
PARTIES & COALITIONS
The ShortLived “Duma
of Public
Anger”
SEATS
Constitutional Democrats
(Kadets)
179
Non-Russian nationalist
groups (as a total)
121
Trudoviks (moderate prolabor)
97 (coalition of labor
parties) = 136 seats)
Nationalists (right wing
parties)
60
Progressist Party (moderateliberal)
27
Social Democrats
18
(Mensheviks only; Bolsheviks
boycotted the election)
Octobrist Party (conservative- 17
liberal)
❖
The First Duma (1906): Opened April 14 (elected for 5 year term); dissolved
July 9 by order of the Tsar
❖
About 75% of elected representatives were opposition liberals or radicals;
Kadets (led by Miliukov) were single biggest party
❖
Bolsheviks had boycotted election
❖
Kadets’ program (demands for ministerial responsibility, as promised by Oct.
Manifesto & land redistribution) upset Nicholas II greatly
THE DUMA’S ANGRY
RESPONSE: 1906
The Vyborg Manifesto
❖
July 9: The Duma was ordered dissolved, with new elections to follow later.
❖
In response, the Kadets (working with Trudoviks and some Mensheviks) drafted a
proclamation, or appeal, that became known as the Vyborg Manifesto because the
representatives went to Vyborg, Finland (an autonomous part of the empire) to sign
it (on July 10) as a protest
❖
July 10: The ‘Vyborg Manifesto’ (written by Kadet leader Pavel Miluykov) calls for
people to refuse military service and tax payments in response; little support emerges &
the 200 Duma members who signed it were put on trial (and banned from future
Dumas)
❖
July 17-29: Mutinies erupt, followed by increasing rural violence & SR assassination
attempts (60,000+ jailed, exiled or executed in August 1906 alone)
❖
In effect, state of emergency established in September 1906
1906 Disruptions
❖
❖
❖
The Vyborg Manifesto did not lead to a mass
uprising against the regime, by may have fueled
some disruptions (many were still active, or
reappearing throughout 1906 as the military
struggled to re-establish and maintain order)
July 17-29, 1906: Mutinies erupt, followed by
increasing rural violence & further SR
assassination attempts against government
officials (60,000+ were jailed, exiled or
executed in August 1906 alone!)
In effect, state of emergency established in
September 1906 with full field courts-martial
authority granted following attempt on Stolypin’s
life in late August
“Wh
at h
ave
to d
I
o w
ith
this
?”
This was the note Nicholas II wrote
on the margin of a February 1906
report of a spasm of pogrom violence
in Gomel that resulted in the death of
36 Jews. Such acts of violence were
common at different points of Russian
history, but especially in the 1905-07
disruptions (as they were also in the
repression of the 1880s).
The Second Duma:
SHUT DOWN AGAIN
❖
❖
Opened Feb. 20; dissolved June 3 (made it 4 1/2 mos. this time)
Radical socialist parties (Social Revolutionaries and
“Menshevik” Social Democrats) participated fully in
elections & made promises of land redistribution;
Kadets and Trudoviks who had signed Vyborg
Manifesto were excluded, but new representatives
were elected from both parties (Trudoviks gained, but Kadets
PARTIES & COALITIONS
SEATS
Trudoviks (moderate pro-labor)
104
Nationalists (right wing parties - coalition of
93
multiple parties)
Constitutional Democrats (Kadets =
92
militant liberals)
Social Democrats (Mensheviks only;
47
Bolsheviks boycotted)
Octobrist Party (conservative-liberal)
42
Social Revolutionaries (non-Marxist
37
socialists)
dropped 80+ seats)
Progressist Party (moderate-liberal)
28
❖
Thus, the overall Duma membership was slightly to
the left of the previous one, with an increase also in
right-wing party reps; not surprisingly, no agreement
with gov’t reached
Extreme Right (including the Union of
10
❖
Gov’t unable to get key laws past 2nd Duma, so it was
shut down too (on June 3; admidst gov’t accusations
that Mensheviks were planning a military takeover) &
election rules were dramatically changed (to
favor the wealthy) for the Third Duma
Russian People)
PIOTR
STOLYPIN
LACKEY: “A person who is obsequiously willing to obey or serve another person or group of people.”
PIOTR
STOLYPIN
“Duma of the
Lords and
Lackeys”:
Third Time’s a Charm?
PARTIES & COALITIONS
Octobrist Party (conservative-liberal)
SEATS
154
Extreme Right (including Union of Russian 147
People)
Constitutional Democrats (Kadets)
52
Progressist Party (moderate-liberal)
28
Non-Russian nationalist groups
26
Nationalists (right-wing groups)
26
Social Democrats (Bolsheviks only)
19
Trudoviks (moderate pro-labor)
13
❖
3rd Duma opened Nov. 1, 1907; it served its full five-year term (!) because it was much
more cooperative with Tsar
❖
Stolypin (Prime Minister) achieved this by rewriting the electoral laws: Vote ‘weight’
was proportional to level of property ownership; also, votes of ‘Great Russians’
‘weighed’ more than those of ‘non-Russians’ (‘minority’ groups)
❖
Results: Labor parties representing workers collapsed in support (Trudoviks fell from
104 seats to just 13) and two main parties emerged (Octobrists, led by Guchkov, and a
coalition of extreme right-wing parties)
❖
Mensheviks excluded, but Bolsheviks finally campaigned (winning 19 seats); SRs
boycotted the elections
OBSEQUIOUS: “Obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree.”
PARTIES & COALITIONS
The Fourth
Duma:
“GUERRA INTERRUPTUS”
(Interrupted by War)
SEATS
Extreme Right (including Union of Russian People)
154
Octobrist Party (conservative-liberal)
95
Constitutional Democrats (Kadets)
57
Progressist Party (moderate-liberal)
41
Centre Party (newly created for 1912 elections)
33
Nationalists (right-wing groups)
22
Social Democrats (Bolsheviks only)
15
Trudoviks (moderate pro-labor)
10
❖
Using the same restrictive electoral rules drawn up by Stolypin in 1907, the
1912 election produced another conservative and initially cooperative Duma
(they even offered to dissolve themselves during the WWI period); this
changed a year into the war, when representatives from many parties began
to be seriously concerned whether Russia could win with the Tsarist regime
in charge and demanded to be called back into session
❖
Aug. 23, 1915: The Duma was suspended (after briefly being called back into
session during the summer of 1915) as Tsar Nicholas II takes over as
commander-in-chief on frontlines of WWI
❖
Feb. 6, 1916: Duma briefly reconvened, then suspended again (June 20) for
duration of war; however, a ‘Duma Committee’ (mostly Kadets) would
continue to meet and play a role in the Feb. / March 1917 Revolution.
Stolypin’s Land Reforms (1906)
❖
Long-Term Goal: To turn many of the peasants into
more independent, Western-style farmers who own
their own land and are thus less likely to revolt and more
likely to look to government to protect their property.
❖
Main course of action: Provide peasants living in a
mir (commune) the option to take their share of
commune’s land (called an “allotment”) OUT OF the
commune to be worked as their own private farm, or to
be sold to the commune or another buyer, so that the
peasant and family can leave (probably for the city).
❖
Implemented: Nov. 1906 by Minister of the Interior
Piotr Stolypin (later served as Prime Minister); it was
issued as a decree when the Duma was not in session
(according to the controversial Article 87 of the
Fundamental Laws)
Stolypin’s land
reforms echoed the
earlier
recommendations of
SergeiWitte and can
be seen as the next
logical extension of
the abolition of
serfdom plan begun
in 1861.
Partial Results of Stolypin’s
Land Reforms
❖
From 1907-1910, 2 million peasant heads of households applied
to leave their commune (1.5 million actually left)
❖
But from 1911-15, only 630,000 peasants applied to leave (about
450,000 did); World War I caused a suspension of the program
❖
While an estimated 20% of those eligible did opt to leave, far
more peasants stayed in communes than left (and those who left
became targets in later rural violence and uprisings)
❖
See CHOICES packet for additional results
1912-1914:
Massacres & Strikes Return
❖
Lena Goldfield massacre (1912): ~200 striking workers shot by
troops
❖
Unrest explodes in many areas, off and on, for the following year
❖
There were more strikes in first half of 1914 than in all of 1905
❖
See CHOICES packet (“We Can No Longer Live Like
This”) for additional statistics on strikes and protests in
the immediate pre-WWI period.