The Effects of the 1905 Revolution

The Tsar kept his promises that was mentioned in the October Manifesto and upheld with these rules. He selected a new Prime Minister to help deal with the problems of Russia. The new Prime Minster had fixed most of the problems that were occurring in the countryside of Russia. He had created the parliament that the government had promised to the people. These changes were still corrupted in a way, but it made some improvements with the Russian Empire until the 1914 war.

The newly chosen Peter Stolypin, the Prime Minister of Russia, had set out to stop the riots and violence that were appearing in the countryside. He solved this problem by being strict with the people and had set up a military courts. These courts had the ability to sentence someone to death on the spot. This resulted in thousands of executions of the peasants and the noose that had been used had a name of, ‘Stolypin’s necktie.’

But with his brutal ways, he still help develop the peasants who were struggling to improve their lands. Stolypin had introduced reforms to help improve the lifestyle of the peasants. The way he did this is by selling pieces of land that was from the nobles and loaned them some money to buy their lands. He also introduced them a new style of farming which was efficient and reliable. He did this in hopes to creating a new social class of peasants which was the Kulaks. This plan wasn’t agreed upon the peasants and only fifteen percent of the peasants followed the reform. But it did create improvements with the grain production increasing and a decreased chance of a crop failure.

But the problem with this reform is that the peasants ended up selling their lands and became a wanderer or labourer to other peasants who had the land. They had to seek works in other places like the cities or stay in the countryside without any land to grow their food.

Millions of peasants were told that they could set up a farm around the Trans Serbian railway. They would travel for hours to get there and settle around the railways. But the rich has already taken the land that they were about to settle in which only made the peasants angrier.

The Tsar also promised a parliament or a duma to be elected by the people. But the parliament has no power on anything and the Tsar always makes the decisions. These people can’t make laws, appoint leaders and cannot decide where the money should be invested in like resources or defence.

The promise of freedom of speech for the people didn’t quite go as planned. The Okhrana, the secret police, were still around the streets censoring things. But instead of throwing people into Serbian prison camps they would fine the newspaper articles that would write against the government or write anything that criticises the government.