In the nineteenth century, Russia was a huge empire that encompassed the most different national groups and had a political structure controlled by the tsar, the highest authority of the Russian monarchy. In its extensive territory, with more than 22 million kilometers, more than 80% of the population lived in the countryside under the power of a land-owning nobility. In this context, Russia was a country with feudal characteristics without visible conditions to overcome its economic backwardness.
In 1860, seeking to alleviate the tense conditions of exploitation that prevailed in the countryside, Tsar Alexander II he resolved to abolish the system of serfdom that traditionally guided relations between peasants and landowners. However, this political reform was not enough for the peasants to achieve a better life or have access to fertile land. At the same time, the government was trying to introduce a complicated process of industrialization into an economy with agricultural traits.
The Russian industrial park began to be formed from a policy that allowed the entry of foreign companies interested in exploiting the country's wealth. With this, the modernization of the Russian economy could not proceed at full strides in view of the capital flight caused by the interest of foreign companies. Furthermore, the arrival of these companies was responsible for preparing a large contingent of urban workers subjected to oppressive working conditions.
In this way, countryside and city became different poles of a context in which the popular layers had their workforce exploited and did not have any kind of political participation. In a short time, revolutionary and anti-monarchic ideas took shape among these workers. Several secret societies formed opposition groups that planned to overthrow the government and promote the renewal of the country through political orientations of a socialist and anarchist character.
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In the 1880s, visible social tensions gained strength with the attack that murdered Tsar Alexander II in 1881 and the exponential growth of revolutionary groups. Under Nicholas II, the situation in Russia deteriorated significantly. The new king had clear intentions of preserving the centralized political structure and, with that, faced a series of revolts in the colonies that no longer accepted the colonization of the Russian Empire.
In 1898, the political anxieties of the popular classes gained greater expression with the creation of the Workers' Party Russian Social Democrat (RDSP), which became the main stage for discussions on the political, economic and social situation of the parents. Being harshly persecuted by government authorities, this party held several congresses in the interior with the aim of discussing the conduct of the Russian revolutionary process.
From these discussions, two different party orientations emerged within the RSDRP. On the one hand, Georgy Plekanov and Yuly Martov led the Menshevik wing, which defended the idea that a bourgeois-democratic government should give way to tsarism. According to the Mensheviks, this reform in power would bring the necessary conditions for the country to overcome its economic backwardness, and only then could the proletarian revolution take place.
In another faction were the Bolsheviks, a group headed by Vladmir Lenin, who favored the installation of an immediate proletarian revolution. This other political group believed that Russian workers should be organized in order to urgently promote all the changes that a bourgeois-oriented government would not have the interest of accomplish. In this way, the Russian political scene took different orientations.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "Antecedents of the Russian Revolution"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/antecedentes-revolucao-russa.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
