Public development of Russia: forms, dynamics, history

The socio-political development of Russia in 1894-1904 is associated with the formation of new thinking among the broad masses of the population. Instead of the habitual "God Save the Tsar!" In the streets, it was carried to the open "Down with the autocracy!" All this eventually led to a catastrophe that had no analogues in the entire millennial history of our state. What happened? A plot at the top, backed by external factors, or indeed social development, led to the fact that the people demanded change?

Why did the emperor turn into a "bloody king" at the peak of the economy, science, culture, education, agriculture, industry in the country? Of course, history has no subjunctive mood. But, whether Nicholas II really was the "bloodthirsty executioner of the peoples", as his contemporaries called it, there would be no revolution, and the workers of the Putilov plant, who paralyzed all military production in the country's main industrial city during the World War, would be shot as "traitors to the Motherland" . This happened after the Revolution, during the period of the communists' stay in power. But in 1884 no one else could know this. More details about the social development of the society of that time will be discussed below.

How it all began

The change in public consciousness began on October 20, 1894. On this day Emperor Alexander III died, received the nickname "Reformer" from grateful contemporaries and descendants. The throne was joined by his son Nicholas II - one of the most controversial personalities in our history, along with Ivan the Terrible and Joseph Stalin. But, unlike them, the emperor was never able to hang the label of the "murderer" and "executioner", although for this, perhaps, everything possible was done among Soviet historians. It was with the last Russian tsar that the dynamics of social development began to grow at a tremendous pace towards the overthrow of the autocracy. But first things first.

Biography of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov

Nicholas II was born on May 6, in 1868. On this day, Christians revere St. Job the Long-suffering. The emperor himself believed that it was a sign that he was doomed to suffer in life. So then it happened - social development led to the fact that the hatred of autocracy among the people over the previous centuries reached the boiling point and resulted in irreversible consequences. The age-old wrath of the people fell on that king, who, more than all his forefathers, cared for the well-being of his own people. Of course, with this view, many will argue, but, as they say, how many people, so many opinions.

Nicholas II was well educated, perfectly knew several foreign languages in perfection, but always spoke Russian.

Liberal politicians hung on him the labels of a weak, weak-willed person who did not make independent decisions and was always influenced by women: first the mother, and then the wife. Decisions, in their opinion, were taken by an adviser, who last consulted with the emperor. The Communists called him "the bloody tyrant" that led Russia to disaster.

I want to object to all the labels, and recall the bloody year of 1921 with the mass executions of the Cheka, as well as the period of Stalin's repression. The "bloody tyrant" did not even shoot those who, during the World War, sabotaged the supply of bread and ammunition to the front at the end of 1916, when Russian soldiers were dying of starvation, and the lack of cartridges forced them to attack with machine guns with their bare hands. Of course, rank-and-file soldiers did not understand the real reasons for what was happening, and skilful agitators quickly found the culprit of all ills in the face of the last Russian emperor.

Nor was Nicholas II a weak-willed person who personally took many political decisions against the opinions of the surrounding minority, the bourgeoisie, the upper classes of the nobility and court relatives. But they were not all "vagabonds of the tyrant", but they solved serious problems of the broad masses of the population. The last of the advisors, he called only one who shared his point of view, hence the erroneous opinion of liberal politicians.

January 17, 1895 Nicholas II announced the preservation of the autocracy and the former order, which automatically predetermined the further development of the country. The revolutionary base after these words began to form with unprecedented speed, as if someone had purposefully organized it from the outside.

Social and political development of Russia in 1894-1904: the struggle in the highest echelons of power

It is a mistake to think that the split was only among ordinary people. Public development has led to the fact that even among the highest political figures of the state there were disagreements about the way of development of Russia. The eternal struggle of Western liberals, flirting with countries of Europe and America with patriotic conservatives who tried to isolate Russia by any means, became aggravated at this time. Unfortunately, the absence of a "golden mean" and the understanding that economic, political and social development in the state should go in alliance with the West, but with the upholding of internal interests, has always been in our history. Today's time has not changed the state of affairs. In our country there are either patriots who want to isolate themselves, close themselves from the whole world, or liberals willing to give all concessions to foreign countries.

Nicholas II pursued a policy on the principle of the "golden mean", which made him an enemy for both the first and second. The fact that the emperor was precisely an adherent of the union with the West in defending internal interests, says the internal political struggle of the two forces, both of whom held high public office.

Westernizers

The first were the Western liberals, headed by the Minister of Finance S. Yu. Witte. Their main task is the development of the country's economy: industry, agriculture, etc. The industrialization of the country, according to Witte, must strongly influence the socio-political development. It will solve the following tasks:

• Collect funds to solve social problems.
• To develop agriculture at the expense of more sophisticated and cheap, in comparison with imported, tools.
• Form a new class - the bourgeoisie, which can be countered by the traditional nobility, governing the principle of "divide and conquer."

Conservatives

At the head of the conservative forces was Interior Minister VK Plehve, who was later killed in a terrorist attack, as well as another ardent patriot who made the most for Russia's development - PA Stolypin. It is also strange that none of the pro-Western high-ranking politicians suffered in the "bloody purge" of the terrorist revolutionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who considered Russia an original state with their mentality and culture.

Plehve believed that economic and socio-political development is impossible under the influence of the "immature" youth, which "becomes infected" with pro-Western ideas alien to our country. Russia is a country with its own developmental vector. Reforms, of course, are necessary, but there is no need to break down all the social institutions that have developed over the centuries.

The growth of contradictions

Revolution, as is known, is committed by the hands of youth. Russia was no exception in this regard. The first massive unrest in 1899 began precisely among students demanding the return of autonomy rights to universities. But the "bloody regime" did not massacre the demonstrators, no one was arrested among the organizers. The authorities only sent several activists to the army, and the "student riot" immediately died away.

However, in 1901 Minister of Education N.P. Bogolepov was fatally wounded by a former student P. Karpovich. This murder of a high-ranking official after a long interruption of terrorist attacks indicated that social development leads to radical changes.

In 1902 uprisings broke out in the southern provinces of the country among peasants. They were unhappy with the lack of land. Thousands of thousands of people thundered the landlord's huts, food barns, warehouses, emptying them.

To restore order, the army was attracted, which was categorically forbidden to use weapons. This shows the authorities' ability to establish order and at the same time shows the whole "bloody" regime. The only harsh measure was applied to instigators who were subjected to public flogging. No mass executions and executions were recorded in historical sources. For comparison, I want to recall the events that occurred 20 years later in Tambov province. There arose a mass uprising against the food riots of the Bolsheviks. The Soviet government ordered the use of chemical weapons against peasants hiding in the forest, and for their families they devised a kind of concentration camp, in which they drove wives and children. Men had to at the price of an exchange for their own lives to release them.

Unrest in Finland

It was troublesome on the national outskirts. For the first time in the history of Finland's entry into Russia in 1899, the central authorities carried out the following measures:

• Restricted the National Seim.
• Entered office work in Russian.
• The national army was disbanded.

All this can not but speak of the firmness of Nicholas II's political will, since before him even the most determined rulers did not take such measures. Of course, the Finns were unhappy, but let's imagine that there is some kind of autonomy within the state where the budget money for development is invested, but it has its own army, laws, government that does not submit to the center, all official proceedings are conducted in the national language. Finland was not a colony of the Russian Empire, as local nationalists like to say, but an independent territorial entity that enjoyed the protection and financial assistance of the Center.

Social and political development of Russia 1894-1904 is associated with the emergence and development of a new force that will play a huge role in our history - the party of the RSDLP.

The Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP)

In March 1902, the first congress of the party took place in Minsk from 9 people, 8 of whom were arrested, which debunks the myth of the inability of law enforcement services to identify conspirators. Sources say nothing about why they did not arrest the ninth delegate and who he was.

The Second Congress was held in July-August 1903, two years before the first Russian revolution of 1905, far away from Russia - in London and Brussels. It adopted the charter and program of the party.

The minimum program of the RSDLP

Today's opposition parties are even afraid to think about what tasks the party of the RSDLP has had. Minimum:

1. Overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic.
2. Universal suffrage and democratic elections.
3. The right of nations to self-determination and their equality.
4. Wide local self-government.
5. Eight-hour working day.
6. Cancellation of redemption payments, return of money to those who have already paid everything.

The maximum program of the RSDLP

The maximum program consisted in the universal world proletarian revolution. In other words, the party wanted to unleash a world war on the planet, at least, it proclaimed it. Violent change is not just power, but social order, peaceful ways is not achieved.

Political parties with charters, programs, goals are new forms of social development of Russia of that time.

The delegates of the RSDLP split into two camps at the second congress:

1. The reformers, led by L. Martov (Yu. Zederbaum), who were against the revolution. They advocated a civilized, peaceful way of gaining power, and also expected to rely on the bourgeoisie in achieving their political goals.
2. Radicals - were declared to overthrow the power by any means, including during the revolution. They relied on the proletariat (the working class).

Radicals led by Lenin received the majority of seats in the party's leading posts. For this reason, they were named after the Bolsheviks. Subsequently, the party split, and they began to be called the RSDLP (b), and after a while - the CPSU (b) (All-Russian Communist Party of the Bolsheviks).

Party of Social Revolutionaries (AKP)

Officially, the AKP adopted its charter in December 1905 - January 1906, when the socio-political development of Russia changed after the revolution and the Manifesto on the creation of the State Duma. But the social revolutionaries, as a political force, appeared long before that. It was they who organized mass terror against the statesmen of that time.

In their program, the SRs also proclaimed a violent change of power, but, unlike all the others, they relied on the peasantry as the driving force of the revolution.

Public development of Russia: general conclusions

Many ask the question, why in science exactly a decade from 1894-1904. Is considered separately, because Nicholas II continued to be in power? We will answer that the history of social development of 1894-1904. Preceded the first Russian revolution of 1905, after which Russia became the Duma monarchy. Manifesto October 17, 1905 introduced a new authority - the State Duma. Of course, the laws passed were not valid without the approval of the emperor, but her political influence was enormous.

In addition, it was then that Russia began to lay the mine of delayed action, which would break later, in 1917, which would lead to the overthrow of the autocracy and the Civil War.