H1: Kaiser Wilhelm and Germany

📋 Key Concepts

Autocracy: Nicholas II (1894–1917) ruled by divine right; censorship; Okhrana. Opposition: Kadets (liberals), Social Revolutionaries (peasants, terror), Social Democrats (Marxists — Bolshevik/Menshevik split 1903). Strains: Witte’s industrialisation, peasant land hunger, defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). 1905: Bloody Sunday (22 January) — Gapon’s peaceful march shot down; strikes, Potemkin mutiny, peasant disorders → the October Manifesto (liberties + Duma) split the opposition; the Fundamental Laws (1906) restored autocracy; Stolypin repressed (the “necktie”) and reformed (wager on the strong); the 1907 electoral coup packed the third Duma.

🧮 Worked Examples — Exam Style

❓ Practice Questions

✅ Answers

1. Bloody Sunday 22 Jan 1905 (Gapon).
2. October Manifesto Oct 1905; Fundamental Laws Apr 1906 ('supreme autocratic power').
3. Stolypin: wager on the strong, hangings, 1907 franchise change.
4. Dumas 1 and 2 dissolved; third (1907) loyal.

📌 Key Facts to Memorise

• Sand Creek 1864; Fetterman 1866; Treaty 1868; Little Bighorn 1876; Wounded Knee 1890.
• Dawes Act 1887: 160-acre allotments, 'surplus' sold.
• Buffalo ~30 million to near-extinction by 1885.

🗺️ In the Exam

1905 vs 1917 comparisons: 1905 = spontaneous, loyal, ended by concessions; 1917 = organised, war-worn, irreversible. Keep the comparison ready.

⚡ Targeted Drills

• Parties: Kadets (liberals) · SRs (peasants/terror) · SDs (Marxists; Bolshevik/Menshevik split 1903).
• Bloody Sunday 22 Jan 1905 — Gapon; "we have no Tsar".
• October Manifesto: liberties + Duma; Fundamental Laws took it back (Apr 1906).
• Stolypin: necktie, wager on the strong, 1907 coup; assassinated 1911.
• Russo-Japanese defeat (Portsmouth treaty, Sep 1905) weakened the regime.

📖 Detailed Notes: Opposition Parties and Stolypin’s Gamble

• Kadets (1905): constitutional democrats — lawyers, zemstvo gentry; wanted a British-style parliament; led the first Duma. Socialist Revolutionaries: peasants’ party, land socialisation, the Combat Organisation’s terror (killed Plehve 1904, Grand Duke Sergei 1905). Social Democrats: Marxist factory party; the 1903 split — Bolsheviks (Lenin: disciplined cadre party) vs Mensheviks (mass party, two-stage revolution).
• Bloody Sunday in detail: ~150,000 marched with portraits of the Tsar and Gapon’s petition (an 8-hour day, a constituent assembly); troops fired at the Winter Palace square; official figure 96 dead, contemporary claims 200–1,000. "We have no Tsar" — the loyalty myth broken.
• The 1905 sweep: the Potemkin mutiny (June), the All-Russian railway strike (October), the St Petersburg Soviet (Trotsky’s platform), peasant seizure of estates; Witte negotiated the Manifesto while returning from Portsmouth (the peace treaty with Japan).
• Stolypin (PM 1906–11): field courts-martial (3,800 hanged — "Stolypin’s necktie"); dissolved the 1st and 2nd Dumas; changed the electoral law (1907) to favour landowners — the "coup of June 1907"; his land reform let peasants leave the mir and consolidate (khutors) — 2m used it by 1914; assassinated in Kiev (1911).

⚠️ Common Errors

• Wrong: The Duma had real power from 1906 Correct: The Fundamental Laws kept autocracy — the Tsar ruled by decree
• Wrong: Bloody Sunday was a revolutionary plot Correct: Gapon’s march was peaceful — the shooting radicalised it

🧭 Board Focus — OCR

✍️ Extended Answer Plan — "The 1905 Revolution changed nothing." How far do you agree? (16 + 4)

CHANGED NOTHING: the Fundamental Laws restored autocracy; Stolypin’s coup (1907) reversed the franchise; repression increased.

CHANGED MUCH: the Duma existed (a forum never before allowed); trade unions and a free press briefly legal; Stolypin’s land reform began; the Tsar’s sacred image never recovered; the parties and Soviets of 1905 were the machinery of 1917.

Judgement: constitutionally nothing, politically everything — 1905 taught both sides the lessons they used in 1917. Conclude: 1905 was the dress rehearsal whose script 1917 improved.

🔬 Case Study Focus — Stolypin's Necktie and the Wager on the Strong

Pyotr Stolypin (PM 1906–11) ran repression and reform as one policy: field courts-martial hanged ~3,800 in 18 months ("Stolypin’s necktie" — the noose); meanwhile his agrarian reform let peasants leave the mir, consolidate strips into single farms (khutors) and buy land through the Peasant Bank — the "wager on the strong": create a loyal kulak class. By 1914 ~2m households had left the mir (10–15%); the rest stayed. He was shot at Kiev opera house (September 1911, in front of Nicholas II — by a double agent, Bogrov). Exam use: Stolypin answers "could the Tsar have survived?" — his reforms MIGHT have modernised autocracy, but the war interrupted and the Terror discredited the man delivering them.

🎯 Exam Tips

• Trigger-vs-cause distinction for every revolution question.
• 1905 = dress rehearsal — use it to explain February 1917’s success.

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