Soviet Enlightenment? (Part 1)

Living Conditions under Tzar Nicholas II (1905-1914)

  
 As the Bolsheviks ideology and power was spreading, it gained lots of followers that stood along side with the Reds, and dethroned the Tzar. The people of Russia felt that they're standards of living were not sufficient with what they thought it could be.

Social Classes
   Below the Tsar. 0.1% of population owned 25% of land. It was clear that the Nobles held more power then they should. Up to 80% of the population were peasants. This 80% was living in extreme poverty and had no more rights then prisoners, not being allowed to leave the village that they worked, which was slightly more progress which they had to fight for back in 1861, when they couldn't even leave the land that they worked on. Whole families had to sleep in a single room house, where they, slept, ate, and grew up in. The families would work on farms, but there were very poor farming methods which led to excessive food shortages, and most of their food would go to the Nobles and the Bourgeoisie.
   15% of the population were Industrial workers. These people lived in towns and cities, but their living conditions weren't much better then the peasants that were living on the country side. Although the number of industrial workers were rising to to peasants leaving farm lands, the homes in the city were in awful condition. most had no running water or sewage system. The working life was just as bad, men and womens had to work long hours and had very low wages. All trade unions were banned, and striking was illegal under the ruling of the Tzar, but was becoming common, as the workers could not bare the conditions under which they were living in.

Religion
  Religion played a huge role under the Tzar's ruling, the churches owned alot of land, and were in favor of the Tzar's ruling, and stating that opposing the Tzar was a sin.

Rising Discontent with Tzar Nicholas
  The peasants, Which made up 80% of the total population, were becoming increasingly fed up with the living conditions under the Tzar's ruling. The harvest was extreme poor during 1900 & 1902, and food shortages began to starve many people to death. and the industrial slump saw many workers being laid off, and created strikes, and demonstrations in many cities. The middle class (Bourgeoisie) were also becoming less happy, as they wanted more say in how the country is run.

Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905
  The Tzar decided to fight for the power and control over Korea and Manchuria. Believing that this would be an easy win over the Japanese, and distract its people from the tensions and problems back at home. But  Japan attacked and beat Russian forces at Port Arthur and Russia suffered a Humiliating defeat. The war conditions made Russia, even worse. With even more food shortages, inflating prices, and high levels of unemployment, the popularity of the Tzar government was shrinking rapidly.

Bloody Sunday 22 Jan 1905
   Citizens furious at the Tzar, Father Gapon led 200,000 workers through the streets of St. Petersburg right up to the Tzars front door, at the Winter Palace. With them they had a petition with all the problems the workers were facing. Unfortunetly the Tzar was not in the Palace at the time. The tensions around the Palace were rising and the guards panicked and fired at the crowed, killing close to 1000 workers. This event led many cities around the country to be in an outrage, and by January there were over 400,000 workers on strike. Many cities were electing soviets to lead the strikes. Even the peasants began an uprising of their own, in june/july many peasants began killing their land lords. these strikes seriously paralyzed Russia, and the St. Petersburg strike was led by Leon Trotsky, who began to have very influential power on the city.

October Manifesto
   In the pressure of the rising strikes, the Tzar decided to write up a list of promises in hopes of ending the revolution, the promises were as follows:

-An elected Duma (parliament)
-All Russian men to have the right to vote.
-All laws to be approved by the Duma.
-Human Rights,  Freedom of speech
-Right to form political parties
-Uncensored newspapers.

   The public didn't wasn't sure how these changes would effect them and better their lives, but the Bourgeoisie were very happy of these promises. The Tzar used the army to eliminate any violent soviet opposition.

Stolypin 
  The Tzar had appointed Stolypin as the chief Minister, Stolypin had very strict policies. Stolypin took down any Parliament that wasn't completely on side with the Tzar, and took a leftist approach. In order to calm down terrorism, Stolypin executed anyone opposing the Tzarist government.
-1906 – 1008 people arrested, tried and executed. 21,000 sent to prison camps in Siberia.
-1907-1911 – 1800 hanged – hangman nicknamed ‘Stolypin’s necktie’.

World War One
  The Russians were pleased about the war at the time, thinking it would boost employment and country morale. Russians began hating anything that was German, and even went as far as renaming St Petersburg to Pertograd to sound less German. But as Russians began losing the war, the enthusiasm for war ended, and suffered seriously problems. There were not enough men to work the factories, and the transportation was very poor, failing to bring food and ammo to troops in battle. The prices in Russia rose, and the wages did not, inflation had began. Women started striking in Moscow and Petrograd. On August 1915 Tzar blamed the Commander of the army for their loses in the war, and decided to take over control of the army, leaving his wife in charge of the county. The Tzars command did not improve the performance of Russia in the war, and the winter had Russia in chaos. Very little food, By 26th  of February, 250,000 workers were striking. This was known as the February Revolution, The Tzar, aggravated, ordered his troops to fire upon protesters  but the army refused, and joined the protest, making it first time the Tzar not being in control of his army.