History 356 Fall 2003
Study Questions, Week 15
I) Opposition to Autocracy
I will lecture (briefly!) on the Liberal, Marxist, and Populist movements circa 1900-1904.
Cracraft, Ch. 13
Emmons, The Constitutional Movement:
What social groups supported constitutional reform circa 1900-1904?
How does Emmons explain the emergence of a constitutionalist opposition?
What was the Union of Liberation, who belonged to it, and what were its goals?
How had Pleve responded to the political opposition? How was Mirsky's plan different?
What was the 12 December 1904 Ukaz?
What was Bloody Sunday?
What was the Bulganin constitution? How was the "Bulganin" duma to be organized?
What was the October Manifesto? What did it promise?
How as the new duma to be organized (who had voting rights, etc.)?
What changes were made in the duma's organization between October 1905 and April 1906? Why?
What was the State Council, and why was it created?
What powers did the Duma have? Did it satisfy the promises of the October Manifesto?
How did these legal changes effect the formal powers of the Tsar?
Who dominated the first Duma (what estates, social groups, and parties)?
Who were the Kadets? Trudoviks? Octoberists?
What tactics did the Kadets employ in the duma?
What issues led to confrontation between the Duma and the government?
Why and when was the first Duma dissolved?
What was the Vyborg Manifesto? Did the Kadets stick to this declaration? Explain.
How did results of the second Duma elections differ from those for the first Duma?
Why did the vote for "the two extremes in the political spectrum" increase?
What did these second elections demonstrate about support for the Kadets?
What was the 3 June 1907 "coup" and the Third of June System?
How did the 3 June System alter the organization of the duma?
What were the results of the third Duma elections?
What does Emmons consider important about Stolypin's "coup"? What were the results?
Introduction to documents:
Who wrote the October Manifesto and under what circumstances?
What was Bloody Sunday? Who was Father Gapon?
Who was Katerina Breshkovskaia?
Father Gapon Describes Bloody Sunday:
How does Gapon describe the impact of Bloody Sunday?
What strikes you about the tone of the 9 January appeal to the Tsar?
Would you consider this a supplication or a set of demands? Explain.
What did the appeal's first section ask for? The second section? The third?
Explain Nicholas II's perspective on the reforms requested in this appeal.
Lenin to the Proletariat, Jan. 1905:
How did Lenin interpret the 9 January events?
What was his argument to Russian workers in January 1905?
October Manifest:
How does Nicholas identify himself in this document?
How does he describe/explain the unrest of 1905?
How does he justify/rationalize making reforms?
Exactly what did the manifesto promise?
Cracraft, Ch. 14
Be prepared to discuss the essays by Shapiro and Rogger. As you read, consider these questions:
How did Stolypin hope to save the autocracy, and to what extend was the crisis described by Rogger the result of long term as well as short term factors?