Opposition Groups In Russia In 1894

In 1894, Tsar Nicholas II inherited the Russian throne from his father, Alexander III, who was known to be a strong and tall man and also used repression as a way of keeping political order and stopping any opposition to his rule. On the other hand, Nicholas was a timid, easily swayed man with a smaller frame than his father and appeared weaker, however, when Nicholas came to the throne in 1894, he continued his father’s policy of Russification. The policy of Russification tried to impose Russian ideals on ethnic and religious minorities within the empire. This policy aimed to loosen opposition to Tsardom and to promote the superiority of everything Russian. This was not the case as the policy alienated minorities and they were treated as inferior

By forcing Russian culture onto minorities, it created more hate and resentment between them and the Tsar. The imposition of Russian as the first language of everyone living within the Russian empire locked minorities out of access to the justice system, and positions of office so they were not represented in any capacity within the government which led to more dissatisfaction within the minorities. This dissatisfaction led to large groups in the empire demanding their independence with the rise of revolutionary groups throughout the 1900s, the Poles wanted to break away from the empire and had already revolted in 1863 and the rise of a new proletariat had shown a favour towards socialism and Marxism with two popular political parties becoming popular, The Polish Socialist party and The Polish Democratic party. This became a threat to Tsar Nicholas as it undermined Russia’s autocracy and provided a group to fill the void of the Tsar. Many ethnic minorities wanted independence from the ‘Little Father’ and started calling for independence and revolution which couldn’t be suppressed through the policy of

The economic development of the Russian empire aimed to be used for the military by providing more weapons and uniforms. The Great Spurt was a result of private enterprise and foreign loans. The money that was borrowed from other industrialised nations was put into building factories and railways. The railways were built to promote easier transport and communication across the empire, the Trans-Siberian railway was a large undertaking and they quickly grew from 21,000 Km in 1891 to 53,000 Km in 1900, whilst this was a big achievement under Witte many parts of the railway were unfinished and it was still hard to travel and export resources to the far east. The railway did also help emigration within the empire for labourers finding work from corners of the empire as it was now easier to travel to European Russia to places like St Petersburg and Moscow. Witte also The factories that were built with foreign loans were built to poor standards and went they were operational worked the labourers in poor conditions and for long hours and wages almost all of Russia’s heavy industries were foreign-owned, which could cause problems within the empire if funding was withdrawn which made them dependent on money from other nations. Higher taxes were also levied on the people to help pay for these loans which cause dissatisfaction within the people and made Witte unpopular. However, the new