L-23 Revolutionary Situation, 1895-1904

1. Crisis at the Top

2. Crisis from Without

3. Crisis from Below

Main Themes

1. “Revolutionary Situation”: Multi-dimensional

2. Crisis at the top: regime unable, unwilling to live with status quo

3. Crisis from without: foreign policy and war

4. Crisis from below: workers, peasants, minorities

1. Crisis at the Top

Images

1894 Nicholas and Fiancee

Nicholas II

Empress Alexandra

Imperial Family 1910

Matilda Kshesinskaia

The Imperial Hunter

1897 Nicholas at Hunting

Alexander III after the Hunt

Nicholas II Automobile

1912 Nicholas’s Mercedes

A. Tsar and Court

1. Reassertion of Autocracy

2. Nicholas II: Miscast but imperious

3. Ominous Coronation

4. Rescralizing autocracy: Serafim of Sarov

Ominous Coronation

Coronation May 1896

Hessian Duke at Coronation

Chinese Delegation to Coronation

Noble Representatives to Coronation 1896

National Representatives to Coronation 1896

Coronation in May 1896

Canonization of Serafim (1903)

Serafim of Sarov

Serafim Sarovskii

Nicholas and Alexander at Serafim’s Canonization (1903)

Serafim, 1919-1991

Icon of St. Nicholas

B. Bureaucratic Politics

1. Autocracy vs. bureaucracy

2. Rise of “bureaucratic parties”Ministry of Interior

Ministry of Finance

3. Crisis at the top

Ministers of Interior

D.S. Sipiagin

1899-1902

V.K. Plehve

1902-4

P.D. Sviatopolk-

Mirskii

1904-5

I.V.Goremykin

1895-99

C. Instruments of Rule and Repression

1. Police

2. Army

2. Crisis from Without: Diplomacy and War

A. West: Realignment

B. East: Compensatory colonialism

C. Russo-Japanese War

“Yellow Peril”: Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War: Battlefield Surgery

Naval Theater: Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War: Russian Troops in Manchuria

Russian POW’s at School

Port Arthur

Sinking of “Suvorov” in Battle of Tsujima Straits

Japan: Beheading of Alleged Spy

Russian Battleships in Port Arthur

Port Arthur 1904

1905: Russian Army Retreats after Defeat at Mukden

3. Crisis from Below

A. Peasants

B. Workers

C. Minorities

A. Peasants

1. Agrarian crisis

2. Peasant movement

3. State policy

Harvest in Moscow Provincec. 1900

Contradictions in the Countryside

Political Cartoon: Nicholas Thanks Repressive Governor

Peasant Disorders

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1890 1893 1896 1899 1902

Number ofDisorders

B. Workers

1. Peasant-proletarians

2. Working-class movement

3. State policy

New Working Class

Worker Meeting

Strike movement

0

50

100

150

200

250

1860-1869

1870-1879

1880-1889

1890-1899

1900-1904

Strikes/yr

C. Minorities