Opposition Groups

Opposition Groups

1. Tsar Opposition Before 1905

   • Social Revolutionaries
     • Land taken from landlords and divided amongst the peasants
     • Large popular fan base
       • Intellectuals who wanted contact with the mass of the population
       • Industrial workers 50% of members by 1905
     • Peasants – main support for a popular rising
     • Accepted development of capitalism as a fact because the peasants could rise up against their masters
       • Overthrow Tsarist government and replaced by a democratic republic
     • Assassination of Government officials
     • Agitation
     • Terrorism
   • Populists/Narodniks
     • Believed that local peasant organisations (communes) offered the fairest future for Russia
     • Encouraged the peasants to rise up against the Tsarist Government
     • Failed to win the support of the peasants
     • Many were arrested or imprisoned
     • Disliked the autocratic rule of the Tsars
     • Led to the founding of two radical parties
       • Social Revolutionary Party (1901)
       • Social Democrat (1898)
     • 1879 – More radical group formed “The People’s Will”
       • Aimed to assassinate leading members of the Tsarist state
         • Alexander II in 1881

2. Political Parties

   • Liberals (Octobrists)
     • Wanted free elections in which all men could vote
     • Industrialist support
     • Used the Zemstva and Duma
     • Non violent political channels
     • Businessmen and larger landowners supported them
     • More Conservative Liberals
     • Civil rights
     • Wanted Parliamentary democracy
     • Used articles in the press, meetings etc
   • Liberals (Kadets)
     • Aimed for parliamentary democracy, civil rights and free elections in which all men could vote
     • Academics, lawyers, doctors and progressive landlords
     • Party of Popular Freedom
     • Intelligentsia support
     • Used the Zemstva and Duma
     • Middle class support
     • Used articles in the press
     • Wanted a big change
     • Non violent political channels

3. SDs

   • Mesheviks
     • Broadly based – took in all who wanted to join
     • More democratic
     • Organising strikes in factories
     • Less radical than the Bolsheviks
     • Members of the intelligentsia
     • Members have a say in policy making
     • Broader range of people: more non Russians, Jews and Georgians,
     • Different types of workers to the Bolsheviks
     • Working class support
     • Encouraged trade unions to help working class to improve their conditions
   • Bolsheviks
     • Centralised leadership
     • Working class support
     • Marxism (not as evident here as in the Mensheviks)
     • Small number of highly disciplined individuals (revolutionaries
     • Vladimir Lenin
     • Socialist consciousness to the workers – lead them through the revolution
     • Organising strikes in factories
     • Support of more militant, younger peasants who liked discipline, firm leadership and simple slogans