Chapter 4

Revolution of 1905
The Revolution of December 1905 was a very important stage in the history of the Russian Revolution, a
rehearsal of the October Revolution. Therefore, while remembering the October Revolution, it is also
important to know under what circumstances this december revolution took place and why was it
defeated? As we see the arrival of the twentieth century coincided with the crisis of the capitalist
economy and Russia was caught in its whirlpool. From workers, farmers to university students and a part
of capitalists was also affected by it. This was a situation of internal turmoil and Russia’s defeat in the
Russo-Japanese war made this situation more explosive. Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War had made a
section of Russian rulers realize that Russia’s development was not possible without loosening the
stranglehold of tsarism. This defeat took this sentiment two steps further. In the Crimean War, Russia
was defeated by European countries and its status was reduced in Europe, but in this war it was defeated
by an Asian country and in this the myth of superiority of Europe over Asia was broken. In fact, this war
was a war between imperialist countries and its objective was the capture of the Pacific region and the
division of China. The foundation stone of this war had already been laid before 1900. In the same year,
the imperialist countries (Britain, Japan, Germany, France and Russia) launched a joint military operation
to suppress the rebellion of the Chinese people against the imperialist forces in China. This rebellion was
suppressed with the alliance of the then Chinese feudal state system and imperialism and a treaty was
signed in 1901 under which China had to pay compensation for this rebellion and military bases were
built at militarily important places. Even before this war, Russia had captured important land of China
including Port Arthur. A Russian railway line had been laid in Northern Manchuria and the Russian Army
used to establish a base to take care of it. Now the Czar had his eyes on Korea and he took steps in this
direction. This led to conflict with Japan.

Japan took the initiative in the war. In January 1904, it suddenly attacked the Russian military base in
Port Arthur. Britain, the then leader of the imperialist powers, was secretly supporting Japan. It did not
want Russia’s influence to increase in that region. There was huge destruction in this war and Russia had
to suffer defeat after defeat. The Czar and his associates were thinking that by fanning chauvinism under
the cover of this war, they would be successful in suppressing the revolution, but the result was the
opposite and this shameful defeat served as fuel of the flame of revolution.

During this war, the Mesheviks adopted the policy of ‘defense of the fatherland’ and the Bolsheviks
opposed Tsarism. Menshevik under the guise of defense of the fatherland was supporting tsarism (the
power of bourgeoisie and the big landowners)

The Bolsheviks were explaining to the people that they were not going to get any benefit from this war –
and that the defeat of tsarism would lower the prestige of the big capitalists and the landowners, they
would become weak and their weakness will go in favor of the liberation of workers and farmers. A very
small reaction of Lenin on the defeat of tsarism says everything clearly – ‘the defeat at Port Arthur was
the fall of autocracy'. Here Mensheviks were advocating capitalist (blind) nationalism and Bolshevik were
supporting the policy of proletariat.

In December 1904, there was a massive, well-organized strike by the workers of the Baku oil fields. This
strike was being led by the Baku Committee of the Bolsheviks. In this the workers won and a collective
agreement was reached between the owners and the workers. This was the first time in the history of
Russia such thing happened. Underlining the historical importance of this victory, Stalin said – ‘The Baku
strike served as a real spark for the spectacular actions of January and February throughout Russia'. On
3rd January 1905, strike started in St. Petersburg factories. This strike was against the dismissal of four
workers. What happened after that was a wonder in history. The Czar’s agent working among the
workers unknowingly became the vehicle of the revolution; the structure that the operators of the
system had created to confuse the revolution became the catalyst of the revolution. With the beginning
of the crisis, two trends started growing in parallel. On one hand polarization of workers started taking
place in favor of the social democratic movement, while on the other hand the state intensified its
efforts to mislead the workers. Two examples of this are notable.

The first was the Zubatov Workers’ Society, formed in 1902 and known in Russian history as ‘Police
Socialism’, and the second was the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg iin1904 under
the leadership of Father Gapon. The fate of both these organizations was contrary to the expectations of
their leaders, Zubatob was a senior police officer of the Tsarism and his purpose was to propagate the
idea among the workers that the Tsarism was capable of solving all the problems of the workers and was
also willing to do so hence, there was no need to turn to revolution. But his ideas and organization were
straws in the storm of revolution.

Similarly, Father Gapon wanted to make the workers understand that the Tsar was a father figure to the
people and the embodiment of compassion. But this Czar by drowning people in blood proved that the
power of the exploiting class is not a symbol of compassion and does not understand the language of
pleading. It only understands the language of battlefield and struggle. Now consider the role of this
father. When the strike started, this person made a deadly plan In the organization meeting. According to
this plan, on January 9 (Sunday) all the workers had to gather and carry out a peaceful procession
carrying Tsar's picture in the banner of the church and had to proceed towards the Winter Palace (the
residence of the Czar) where the Czar would come in front of the people and listen to their pain and
suffering. Workers and their families, children and old people all participated in this procession and
about 1.5 lakh people gathered on the streets of St. Petersburg. The Czar welcomed “his children” who
came to share their plight “with bullets”. The same tsarist government that was running away from the
Japanese attack was firing bullets at the innocent and unarmed workers. In this monstrous action of
Tsarism, more than a thousand people were killed and more than two thousand people were injured.
The streets of St. Petersburg were soaked with the blood of workers and the day became Infamous in
Russian history as ‘Bloody Sunday'. Bolshevik workers of St. Petersburg also participated in this
procession and their lives were also lost. It was under his influence that many political issues were added
to this demand letter. When the charter of demands was being read in the open meeting of the workers,
the Bolshevik workers also expressed their views from the stage, although they did not reveal the
identity of their organization. To this effect, the following political demands were included in the demand
letter.

i) freedom of the press,

ii) freedom of speech and organization,
iii) formation of a Constituent Assembly to change the political system of Russia,
iv) right to equality of all before the law,
v) separation of Church from State,
vi) end of war and transfer of land in favor of farmers.
This was not indicative of Father Gapon’s generosity. On the contrary, it was an indication of the political
consciousness of the workers; that agent of tsarism knew very well that these demands could not be
fulfilled in that system, but the anger of the workers could definitely be vented.

After ten massacres, the explosion of the labor movement spread throughout Russia. On the evening of
‘Bloody Sunday’ itself, barricades began to be erected in the working-class areas of St. Petersburg. They
said, ‘Czar gave it to us, now we will give it to him'. The news of the heinous crime of tsarism against the
Russian people spread like wildfire. As a result, so much anger and hatred of tsarism spread in the minds
of workers that it created turbulence in the entire country. There was hardly any city left where workers
have not launched some form of political movement against tsarism. Their slogan was – ‘Autocracy
should be destroyed!’. In the month of January alone, about 4,40,000 workers participated in the strike.
The work of a decade was done in a month. The economic struggle took the form of a political explosion
and thus the trumpet of revolution was sounded in Russia.

This voice of the workers reached the villages. Farmers started attacking big landholdings. The Bolshevik
policy of worker-peasant alliance proved correct in practice. The demand of the farmers was that the
landholdings should be confiscated and handed over to the farmers. They did not just limit themselves
to making demands, but also started attacking them. Teams of army soldiers and Cossacks were sent to
suppress the peasant rebellion. Bullets were fired, leaders of the movement were arrested and tortured.
But (the peasant struggle did not stop. It spread throughout the central part of vast Russia.

The Influence of the Social Democratic Party also continued to expand in the same proportion. Bloody
Sunday became a turning point in the history of the Russian Revolution. This happened in three
significant points.

i) The workers went beyond the scope of economic struggle,

ii) their struggle expanded from one city to another and from one industrial area to another and
iii) they included farmers, students, youth and even soldiers in his embrace.

Secondly, the situation became such that the workers became armed and started clashing against the
armed Czarist police. St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Riga and Baku emerged as the main centers of
labor struggle.

That year, on the occasion of May Day, there was a clash between workers and the armed forces in
Warsaw. The bloody conflict became historical. In response to the call of Polish social democrats,
workers responded the massacre of tsarism with a general strike. In Lodz (Polish industrial centre) the
struggle between the workers and the armed forces had started touching a new dimension. Here both
general political strike and armed struggle got mixed together. Lenin gave special significance to this
event and called it the first armed struggle of the workers in Russia. A similar courageous struggle was
demonstrated by the workers of Ivanovo Boznoshensk. There the strike continued for more than two
months. It was led by the Northern Committee of the Bolsheviks. To crush the strike, tsarism had to open
fire here too. The enthusiasm that this revolution had generated within the Russian public was equally
frustrating for the tsarist camp. Count Witte described the situation in these words:

‘By that time everyone had gone mad, or at least most of the people had gone mad. Everyone sought to
rebuild the Russian Empire on the extreme democratic principle of popular representation'.
On the other hand, a situation of chaos had arisen within the Tsardom. It was not possible to know
where the center of power was!. In the morning a proclamation from the Czar was issued from all the
churches in which it was said that the revolution would be crushed. In the afternoon, the Senate through
its proclamation appealed to the citizens to send their suggestions to the Tsar for improving the power
structure. In the evening the Czar held consultations with ministers and several members of the State
Council. The advice of ministers and councilors was that some improvements should be made to address
the concerns of the sensitive sections of the society. Tsar expressed displeasure at this suggestion and
said – ‘It seems that you people are scared of revolution'. On this, the recently reinstated Home Minister
Alexander Buligin agreed and said – ‘Your Excellency, the revolution has begun’. This sacrifice of the
workers was not going in vain. As a result of his sacrifice, a new ground was being prepared for the unity
of armed soldiers with workers and farmers in Russia. We have mentioned earlier about the increasing
rebellion of farmers. Here the rebellion of the sailors of the warship situated in the Black Sea is
noteworthy. This was the first rebellion of the military forces. The warship was located near Odessa (an
industrial area that was hit by a labor strike). The sailors of this ship revolted and brought it to Odessa.
These soldiers stood in favor of the workers and farmers. Although the Tsardom immediately suppressed
this rebellion, in September-October there was such a surge of revolution that every area of Russia,
every sphere of economic, social and political life came under its grip.

This was Russia’s first experience of political struggle under the leadership of the working class. Seeing
the scope and intensity of the labor strike, the Tsardom trembled with fear. To deal with this situation he
took a dual step. By issuing a manifesto on 7th October 1905, he expressed his intention to take steps
towards converting Russia into capitalist democracy. He promised to guarantee people’s personal
security and ensure that their rights of speech, assembly and organization remain intact. Along with this,
he decided to form Duma in which people of all sections were given the right to vote to elect
representatives. Historically, it is known as Buligin Duma. These were beautiful announcements. But on
the other hand, very gruesome incidents were happening in the real life of the society. To divide the
people, massacres of Jews were being planned and gangs of goons were being organized under the
supervision of the police. The role of reactionary landlords, businessmen, church priests and stray
criminal elements was important in creating such organizations. These reactionary gangs became known
as ‘Black Hundreds’. This means that on one side democracy was being declared and on the other side
the foeticide of democracy was taking place – this was the truth of the then Russian society.

The class conscious people of Russia were understanding this truth and also expressed it in their own
words-‘freedom for the dead and prison for the living’. Nomatter how gruesome this truth may have
been, but the seeds of the defeat of tsarism and the victory of the people were hidden in it. Lenin saw
this dual truth as a temporary change in the balance of power in Russian society. He acknowledged that
the manifesto of October 7th was the gift of tsarism which was afraid of the rebellious power of the
workers and peasants. According to this balance of power, the workers-peasant union was not powerful
enough to overthrow the tsarist government, and the tsarist government was also no longer powerful
enough to run the government in the old way. Thus the victory of the revolution now depended only on
the fact that- on every front who becomes successful in accumulating more power.

Even in these stormy days, the Russian working class made use of the rights snatched away from tsarism
to start building it’s political organization, in the form of Soviets of workers’ representatives. Marking the
political importance of these soviets, the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)
writes: ‘The Soviets were gatherings of representatives of all the mills and factories. They represented a
special kind of political mass organization of the working class, which had never been seen before in the
world. The Soviets that came into existence in 1905 were formed by the Bolsheviks in 1917’.

The Soviets were the pre-form of power established under the leadership. Thus, in the eyes of the
Bolsheviks, the Soviets were the embryonic form of proletarian power. In contrast, the Mensheviks saw
soviets as democratic centers of local self-government. The difference between these two views can be
understood from the role of the Soviets of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The leadership of the Moscow
Workers’ Soviet was in the hands of the Bolsheviks. With the efforts of the Bolshevik Party and the
Workers’ Soviets, military Soviets were also formed in Moscow. Workers’ Soviets were formed in most of
the industrial centres. In many areas peasant soviets were also formed and in some places even military
soviets were formed. But it did not achieve much success. Workers’ Soviets were proving to be a
headache for the tsarist government, although their organizational structure was not completely sound.
They were set up hastily and had no legal authority, yet these organizations brought laws for freedom of
the press and an eight-hour labor day.

They also called upon people not to pay taxes. In some cases they seized government funds and used
them to meet the needs of the revolution. In this way two entities started standing face to face – one in
embryonic form and the on it’s death bed. A clash between these two was inevitable and in December
1905 it exactly happened

The public revolt against tsarism was not stopping. Now it was on the verge of becoming an armed
rebellion. In this situation the Bolsheviks called for armed rebellion against the tsarism and the landlords.
They explained to the people that such a situation was inevitable. They increased the pace of
revolutionary activities among the army and the workers involved in the party’s military organization
were given training for using weapons etc.

By then the tsarism had got relief from the external front by making a humiliating agreement with Japan.
Now it had only one task left, to suppress the public rebellion.

Martial law was imposed in the areas of peasant revolt. An order was issued in those areas – ‘do not
imprison anyone and not a single bullet should be wasted'. Orders for the arrest of revolutionary leaders
were also issued.

In response to these steps of Tsarism, the Bolsheviks and Workers’ Soviet of Moscow decided to prepare
for armed rebellion without any delay. On December 5, the Bolshevik Committee of Moscow decided to
call a general strike of Soviet workers.

The underlying objective was that in the process of this struggle, an armed rebellion would begin. The
same happened too. A general strike began in Moscow on 7 December. But, it did not get full support
from St. Petersburg and the possibility of its spread throughout the country was diminished, thus the
elements of the revolution’s defeat were visible from the very beginning. There was no railway strike and
the traffic remained uninterrupted. In Moscow too garrison remained a victim of dilemma.

From December 9, workers started erecting barricades. The entire city was covered with barricades. To
deal with this situation, soldiers were called and cannons were ordered, the workers fought back with
courage. The struggle continued for nine days. The number of troops was increased and despite the
brilliant struggle of the workers the revolution was ultimately defeated.
The reasons for the defeat have been briefly discussed above, but there was yet one more reason.
Members of the Moscow Bolshevik Committee were arrested. The remaining leaders were also either
arrested or isolated.

As a result, the armed rebellions of different regions became isolated from each other, for 19 days the
workers brilliantly fought the tsarist army and ultimately the revolution was crushed. Almost the same
fate befell the flames of revolutionary rebellion that arose in other cities.

The fire of rebellion had also flared up among the oppressed nationalities. The torch of revolution had
been raised in Georgia at the forefront, in a large area of Ukraine and also in Latvia and Finland. One by
one all the rebellions were suppressed.

Between the defeat of the revolution and the complete victory of the counter-
revolution.

Even after the defeat of the revolution, the matter did not calm down suddenly. Russia was still burning.
The revolutionary workers and farmers slowly retreated while struggling. New workers kept joining the
struggle. In 1906, more than 70 lakh workers took part in the strike.

Whereas in 1907 there were 740,000 workers, about half of the uyezds of tsarist Russia were in the grip
of the peasant movement in the first half of 1906 and about a fifth in the latter. There was ongoing
confusion in the Army and Navy also. This was probably the restlessness before the final defeat.

By the end of 1907, the revolution was completely defeated.

The revolution was defeated but it prepared a strong ground for future revolutions. To understand this
truth, we will have to look at the Bolshevik-Menshevik dispute in the period before the revolution and
the dispute between the two camps on its evaluation after the defeat of the revolution. As we have
seen, the Bolsheviks considered the peasants to be the most reliable allies of the working class in the
democratic revolution in Russia while the Mensheviks considered the capitalists. This revolution proved
that the Bolsheviks were right.

The peasants were fighting a life-and-death battle against the landlords and the workers against the
capitalists, and unity was being established between the peasant and worker soviets, while the
capitalists were bent on bargaining to increase and strengthen their share under the tsarist power. The
post-revolution assessment leaves an even more dangerous message. While Mensheviks believed that
the workers should not have taken up arms, the Bolsheviks were of the view that the preparations for
armed rebellion should have been made in a more vigorous and organized manner. Hidden in the
analysis of the Bolsheviks was the attempt to understand the reasons for this defeat. To find the path of
future revolution, they found out the reasons for this defeat. According to their analysis:

The alliance of workers and farmers against tsarism could not become stableand strong. A large number
of the peasants were against the landlords, but they still had faith in the Czar and were loyal to the Duma
(the bulk of the peasantry was a follower of the Socialist Revolutionaries, not the Bolsheviks). The
wavering nature of the peasants affected the army too because theirown sons were working there too.
Some units of the army may have rebelled, but most of the soldiers were active in suppressing the
rebellion.

There was also lack of enough unity in the actions of the working class. While the front line of workers
had entered the revolutionary struggle in 1903 itself, the backward part of small industries continued to
come into the field one by one till 1906. Party of the Working Class (Russian Social Democratic Workers'
Party) itself was not united.

To suppress the revolution, the Czar got full support from the Western European imperialist countries.
French banks gave loans for this work and the German government was ready to intervene. The Czar’s
agreement with Japan proved to be very beneficial for the suppression of the revolution.

The Mensheviks were afraid of the revolution. These two viewpoints had two different sources.
Mensheviks always reminded the workers that the Russian democratic revolution was the task of the
Russian capitalists. Therefore, while taking any action, the workers should keep in mind that the
capitalists should not get scared by their steps. According to their idea, the working class should act like
lackeys of the capitalist class. This compromising stance of the Mensheviks made it clear to the class
conscious workers that their real friends and leaders in the revolution were the Bolsheviks.

Under the pressure of this revolution, the Czar took an important step towards capitalist reform by
forming the Duma. However narrow its scope might have been, it was certain that the reforms which the
Zemtsovists had been trying to achieve for four decades and had not been able to achieve, were
achieved by the workers-peasants’ revolt in just one year.

Controversy over Duma

Now the question was how and under what circumstances this platform should be used in the interest of
revolution. As we have seen, the Duma convened in 1904 (Bulygin Duma), which had only the power to
advise, was swept away in the storm of revolution. The Bolshevik policy of boycotting this Duma was
proven correct. Then in 1905, the formation of a State Duma was announced. It also had the power to
make laws.

The Bolsheviks boycotted this Duma too on the basis of the decision of their Tampere Conference, but
Lenin later criticized this decision. One basis for deciding whether the direction of the struggle in the
coming days will be revolutionary or revisionist became from the question of the manner in which the
proletarian parties should participate in the bourgeois parliament and under what circumstances.

Before moving ahead, it is important to understand why Tsarism was interested in this institution. As a
short term policy, it was to divert people’s attention from the revolution. In the long run, to include the
peasants and indifferent laborers in the political circle of Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. Even
during the period of revolutionary upsurge, these parties had tried to spread the illusion that the desired
system of the people could be created without rebellion, then what is the need for revolution?

The biggest question then was how to use this platform to stop the influence of capitalist/petty-capitalist
parties on the public. In the days of the rising of the revolution, the Bolsheviks responded to this trickery
by boycotting the Duma and showing that it was because of their boycott that the Bulygin Duma could
not come into existence. The Witte Duma came into existence in 1906 despite their boycott during the
defeat of the Revolution. Despite all caution and trickery, the first Duma became contrary to the wishes
of the Tsarist state. In the House of 448 members, 153 seats were held by the Constitutional Democrats
(Cadets), 107 seats were held by the Trudoviks, 105 seats went to the liberal leftists acting as
independent representatives, and 63 seats were held by the oppressed nationalities (Polish , Ukrainians,
Lithuanians and others) won by delegates representing their nationalities who were demanding self-rule.
Perhaps this was the first incident in the parliamentary history of European countries in which the
opponents of the system became the majority in the first Parliament itself. In a sense, the very first
Duma became a headache for the tsarist government.

To curb this headache, a provision was made in the election law that before entering the Duma, the
delegates would have to take an oath of allegiance to the Tsardom.

Such an oath was taken by everyone, but no one followed it. But the Tsar had to get rid of this.
Therefore, the State Council (the highest legislative body till then) formed in 1810 was amended. In
words it was described as parallel to the Duma, but in practice it was made superior to it. The rights
given to the Duma in the manifesto of 17th October 1905 were cut. If the drafts passed in the Duma are
rejected in the Council, they will not be sent to the Czar for consideration. In this Council, half the
members were nominated by the Czar and the remaining were selected on the basis of property.

Here too the differences between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks were very clear. Mensheviks was
convinced of the policy that electoral agreements should be made with the constitutional democrats and
those powers should be supported in Duma. The Bolsheviks were against this policy. Their opinion was
to formulate capitalist policies they do not need to work as a block in association with the constitutional
democrats. They should use this platform in the interest of the revolution.

This dispute was resolved in the fifth congress of the party held in London in May 1907. In this, the
parties participating in the Duma were divided into three categories. In the first category, those parties
were kept which were openly anti-revolution – such as the parties of the Black Hundred Group, the
Octobrists, the Commercial and Industrial Party and the Party of Peaceful Renovation. The second
category was the liberal Capitalist Constitutional Democratic Party. Congress’s decision regarding this
was to expose the fraud of this party. The third category included those parties which represented urban
and rural petty capitalist interests (middle class interests). The most prominent among these was the
Socialist Revolutionary Party. A policy of struggle and compromise was adopted regarding this party.
Attempts were taken to expose their socialist claims and barricading against tsarism and the
Constitutional Democratic Party. Needless to say, these policies had the full imprint of Bolshevik politics.
The Czar did not get any relief in the second round also. Anti-government forces captured 222 seats in
the 518-member Duma.

Immediately after the Fifth Congress, on June 3rd , 1907, the Czar dissolved the Second Duma. By
dissolving it the Czar had violated his own manifesto of 7 October which said that any new law would be
made only with the consent of the Duma. But the Czar defied this. This is known as state capture in the
history of Russia. In Duma 65 representatives of the Social Democratic Group were arrested and expelled
to Siberia.

Major changes were made in the methods and rules and regulations of the next Duma elections. It was
ensured that the reactionary forces will remain as a majority in the next Duma.
With this, reactionary aggression began. Thousands of peasants and laborers were shot or hanged in
villages and cities. The revolutionaries were physically and mentally harassed and tortured and their
primary targets were the Bolsheviks.