Lesson 1 - Russia Before 1917, déjà vu?
In one of our previous lessons we were looking at the First World War and in it I wrote: 'In the summer of 1916, General Brusilov (Brusilov Offensive) led a stunning offensive against the Austrians. Three Russian armies broke through the Austrian lines and captured the city of Lutsk on 8 June. But by August, the Russian advance was running out of steam. Another 500,000 Russians were dead or wounded, adding to the half million dead or wounded already in 1916. Such losses intensified Russia’s domestic problems.' In this first lesson we are going to look more closely at those 'domestic problems' because those long-term problems led to (arguably) the most significant event of the 20th century, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
|
|
The Story of My Life: Father Gapon
|
Father Georgy Gapon was a Russian Orthodox priest and social reformer. He founded the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers in 1903, aiming to improve conditions peacefully. His memoir, The Story of My Life, was published posthumously in 1906. It is a source that is popular with the Matu examiners. In it he describes the condition of Russia at the turn of the century and how he petitioned the Tsar to help improve the workers lives. He identifies 5 main problems:
1) Abuse of Power and Autocracy: Gapon observed that the Tsar was surrounded by people of the upper classes whose policies did not benefit the people. He also saw the government as oppressive, noting that "the misery of the people was increasing in direct proportion with the increase of the oppressive measures of the Government". 2) The lack of basic human rights is a recurring theme in Gapon’s work. His petition calls for "Freedom and inviolability of the person, liberty of speech, of the press, of association, of conscience in matters of religion, and separation of Church and State", directly addressing the absence of these fundamental rights. |
3. The dire economic conditions of the working class, noting the "excessive toil" and the lack of fair treatment. He also pointed to the "injustice of their situation and the unchristian relations of capital and labour" that allowed the workers to be exploited.
4. Corruption was rife, with Gapon observing that "only those of the eagerly waiting crowd being selected able to pay a bribe to the gate-keeper or the policemen" when seeking work. He also noted that even factory doctors proved to be "faithful servants of the masters who paid them, and often in cases of accident managed in a very cruel way to deprive the workmen of compensation".
5. Suppression of Labour Movements: Gapon described the attempts of the government to control and manipulate the labour movement and also noted that factory inspectors "nearly always took the side of the employers, using all their efforts to induce or force the men to submit".
4. Corruption was rife, with Gapon observing that "only those of the eagerly waiting crowd being selected able to pay a bribe to the gate-keeper or the policemen" when seeking work. He also noted that even factory doctors proved to be "faithful servants of the masters who paid them, and often in cases of accident managed in a very cruel way to deprive the workmen of compensation".
5. Suppression of Labour Movements: Gapon described the attempts of the government to control and manipulate the labour movement and also noted that factory inspectors "nearly always took the side of the employers, using all their efforts to induce or force the men to submit".
Activity
You know you're getting better at doing history when you start to see things you've seen before. If you can start to see links between separate events and patterns in the chaos of the past, you are beginning to think historically. History starts to become more interesting when it is more than simply 'one damn thing after another'. History also starts to become more useful, because you start to see those links and patterns in your daily life. (I wrote those words before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine...)
You've studied revolutions a number of times before, what did they have in common? This is a typical exam question because its asking you to compare and contrast events from different times and places in history. This is the sort of thing you might be asked to do in both the Matu oral and even more likely in the IB exam. The challenge is to think in an altogether more abstract way, to identify common themes and recurring patterns that help you understand historical events (and current/future events) in a wider historical context.
As you read through your textbook try to identify problems in Russia that seem similar to the problems we have seen before in earlier revolutions in America in the 1770s, France in 1789, Europe in 1830 and 1848 and Meiji Japan. But also expect to see things that were new and perhaps unique to Russia before 1917.
Create a table like the following to make your notes as you work your way through pages 98-103. Try to identify at least five similar problems.
You know you're getting better at doing history when you start to see things you've seen before. If you can start to see links between separate events and patterns in the chaos of the past, you are beginning to think historically. History starts to become more interesting when it is more than simply 'one damn thing after another'. History also starts to become more useful, because you start to see those links and patterns in your daily life. (I wrote those words before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine...)
You've studied revolutions a number of times before, what did they have in common? This is a typical exam question because its asking you to compare and contrast events from different times and places in history. This is the sort of thing you might be asked to do in both the Matu oral and even more likely in the IB exam. The challenge is to think in an altogether more abstract way, to identify common themes and recurring patterns that help you understand historical events (and current/future events) in a wider historical context.
As you read through your textbook try to identify problems in Russia that seem similar to the problems we have seen before in earlier revolutions in America in the 1770s, France in 1789, Europe in 1830 and 1848 and Meiji Japan. But also expect to see things that were new and perhaps unique to Russia before 1917.
Create a table like the following to make your notes as you work your way through pages 98-103. Try to identify at least five similar problems.
|
|
Extension
|
The diplomatic journalist Tim Marshall wrote a best selling book in 2016 about how physical geography explains global politics. He updated the book 'Prisoners of Geography' in 2019. In it he wrote an interesting chapter about Russia and refered to some of the history we have mentioned/studied before - Catherine the Great, Napoleonic Wars, Crimean War, Russo-Japanese war, WWI - and many events we will study in the coming months. Most interesting was his analysis (and prediction) of what was likely to happen in the Crimea. He was certainly very prescient and insightful about much of what has happened since February 2022, although he did conclude that full scale invasion of bordering states was unlikely because, 'President Putin is a student of history. He appears to have learnt the lessons of the Soviet years, in which Russia overstretched itself and was forced to contract.' You can read an edited extract here and the full account here.
|