NAT HIS 4.1 Socialists and anarchists in Russia

• Geschiedenis
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

Socialists and anarchists in Russia

• The Russian pyramid
• Anarchism and peasant socialism
• Marxists

What caused the rise of socialism and anarchism in tsarist Russia?

The Russian pyramid

What did Russian society look like?

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Russia’s political system at the turn of the 20th century was known as tsarism. Russia’s tsarist government was one of the most backward in Europe. It was one of the few remaining autocracies where all political power and sovereignty were vested in a hereditary monarch.

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Unlike most other nations, Russia had no constitution, no elected representative assembly, no democratic processes within the national government, and no high court or court of appeal that could examine or restrain the tsar’s laws. Tsarist government was essentially government by decree: the tsar issued declarations or proclamations and his ministers, governors and bureaucrats implemented them.

Read text block: The Russian pyramid

Guess the percentages of total population for the following groups:

Upper classes: Royalty, nobility, higher clergy: 

Middle classes: Merchants, bureaucrats, professionals: 

Working classes: Factory workers, artisans, soldiers:

Peasants: Landed and landless farmers: 

Upper classes: Royalty, nobility, higher clergy: 12.5 per cent.

Middle classes: Merchants, bureaucrats, professionals: 1.5 per cent.

Working classes: Factory workers, artisans, soldiers, sailors: 4 per cent.

Peasants: Landed and landless farmers: 82 per cent.

Take a look at this so-called

'Russian weddingcake'.

1. What does it symbolize?
2. Why is it not accurate?

1. Russian society comprised of more than 125 million people. There was significant diversity of ethnicity, language and culture.

2. The dominant classes were royalty, aristocracy and land-owners, who wielded significant political influence.

3. Russia’s middle class was small in comparison to other nations but was growing by the early 1900s.

4. The peasantry made up by far the largest section, most living in small communities scattered across the empire.

5. Russian society was intensely patriarchal, with men dominant in most spheres of decision-making and        women denied many legal and civil rights.

Read text block: Anarchism and peasant socialism

anarchism is an ideology that is against any form of organized government.

anarchists: Bakunin,'no government', all land and production should be in the hands of everyone.

Narodniks: educated elite, the mirs should have all te power.

Socialist Revolutionary Party: only peasants could start a revolution.

Liberals: Russia should become a parliamentary democracy.