A2 Russian History Help

Hey I have the essay title:

"To what extent can 1905 be described as a turning point in the modernisation of russia from 1856 - 1917?"

any ideas of what to look at?

Reply 1

T kay

Bexx

Hey I have the essay title:

"To what extent can 1905 be described as a turning point in the modernisation of russia from 1856 - 1917?"

any ideas of what to look at?

I'm doing Russia aswell though not exactly the question you've been set. I am vaguely familiar with the economics because we studied it as part of our background work to the Russian module.

More specifically, I'd argue that Russia showed signs of industrialisation from the 1890's. You definitely should mention Sergei Witte who was appointed Minister of Finance in 1892; he played a very significant role in the modernisation of Russia. The railway industry expanded along with the iron and coal industries and Russia began to introduce a system of investment.

Regarding 1905, I think that's a key date because the First Duma was established; now I previously talked about early signs of industrial modernisaton, the 1905 Duma represented political modernisation. The First Duma (which is basically a parliament if you didn't know) - though not entirely democratic - was closer to the Western democracies than the autocratic Tsarist system that had existed before.

However, you can - and really should - argue that Russia only really showed limited signs of modernisation. Industry wise, it was still backward compared to other powers; a system of investment had only just been established and more importantly agriculure hadn't been modernised as it had been in Britain (where an Agriculture Revolution laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution). Politically, though the 1905 Duma appeared to show political modernisation in reality it wasn't. The Tsarist elite were still all powerful, still autocratic and the Duma most of the time argued amongst themselves. Moreover, the Duma didn't pose any economic threat to Tsardom because the Tsar had just obtained a hefty loan from the French. Also, the Tsar split the Duma into an upper and lower chamber where the upper chamber made all the decisions, and surprise surprise, the upper chamber was hand picked by the Tsar. Therefore, the 1905 Duma was just a tool to show that Russia was politically modernising but in reality the Tsar ruled as an unlimited monarch.

So really, Russia had shown signs of modernising in 1905 (and even before) but in fact it was still the same old Russia; economically and politically backward.

Sorry if this was a bit rambly :smile: