The year 1900 was coming, there was a heavy burden on his shoulders - he became the last one in the nineteenth century, which had almost outlived its usefulness, without solving the most burning problems - neither present nor future.
People in Russia have been waiting for this temporary milestone, as if the year 1900 could answer all these burning questions of our time and clarify the uncertainties of the future. They could not know, but they certainly felt that it was our fatherland that was to become that very world force in which many peoples would see equality and justice. The year 1900 was coming. The palaces celebrated with carnivals and fireworks. In the huts they drank, wept and prayed.
Late nineteenth century
Meeting the year 1900, in the Russian Empire, people tried to rejoice. On the one hand, humanity has developed, airships are about to fly, and the first planes soared in the sky, a tram passed through St. Petersburg, and cars on city streets were no longer so dumbfounded. More and more new stores opened luminous windows. Residents of cities were fascinated by silent films in cinemas.
And there were more and more people in the cities. The Russia of 1900 had already begun the ongoing processthe outflow of the rural population to more productive places. As now, adult men left to work - most often to artisans. Women found places in service. Even the kids were given "to the people".
Petersburg in 1900 was already a million-plus city. Moscow and all other more or less industrial cities grew rapidly. One million and two hundred thousand was the population of 1900 only in St. Petersburg.
Confrontation
From the middle of the nineteenth century, the state of enmity between the government and the opposition continued, which, despite the crushing actions of the tsarist secret police, still gravitated towards terror. The Russia of 1900 did not let this half-century conflict fade away. On the contrary, the wind of time turned into a storm. However, the events of 1990 show that there was not only radical opposition in the country. A liberal one has also appeared.
She was much more loyal to the government. And the masses did not yet understand too well who exactly drinks the blood of commoners. The peasantry, the townspeople, the Cossacks loved the tsar-father. But the proletariat is not. And it became more and more. The industry developed at an exceptionally fast pace. In factories, the working day lasted until twelve o'clock. Workers were crushed with fines, not paying for their work. But it is better to talk about all these conditions in detail and in order.
Research
There are works of the first Russian sociologists, written at the end of the nineteenth century, containing exact figures and facts about the conditionsin which Russia found itself in 1900. Statistical collections were published, sets of reports of factory inspectors were studied. And all this information was included in the works of S. G. Strumilin and S. N. Prokopovich.
The first was the most famous pre-revolutionary statistician and economist, became an academician in 1931, and died in 1974. The second is a social democrat and populist, freemason, minister of food of the Provisional Government, expelled from the country in 1921, died in Geneva in 1955. The tsarist regime, however, was severely criticized by both. These completely different people have the same Russian Empire of 1900 drawn. They didn't embellish anything. They didn't cover up anything. These dry numbers can be trusted.
Working day and wages
In St. Petersburg and the province, a worker's salary (average monthly) was 16 rubles 17.5 kopecks. But a penny of 1900 cannot equal even a modern hundred rubles. If we multiply this amount by 1046, we get the equivalent of the amount that a worker would have received in 2010. It turns out about seventeen thousand rubles. After the revolution of 1905, the wages of some categories of workers increased slightly. However, after paying incredible fines, most often the worker did not receive half of this amount. And it was necessary to rent an apartment for the family, eat, dress …
In 1897, by special decree, a working day was established for the proletariat employed in industry. The legislative norm ordered not to occupy workers for more than 11.5 hours a day. It should be noted that the states bordering Russia in 1900, as well aslocated more far away, their own workers also did not indulge in free time. Only distant Australians worked in factories for eight hours. Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium - eleven each, Norway, Denmark, USA - ten each.
Events
1900 turned out to be exceptionally significant. Not only in its calendar meaning. Indeed, the era of a certain number of light years was approaching (forgive me for the free quote). In May 1900, the New Admir alty plant in St. Petersburg launched a brand new cruiser. It still bears the same name familiar to every person - "Aurora".
This year there were no big popular unrest. But this entire period (1900-1917) turned out to be extremely rich in them. Already in 1901, this process began. In 1902, the peasant provinces of Kharkov and Poltava became agitated, mass strikes of workers began with demonstrations in Kyiv, Odessa, Zlatoust and two dozen other large cities throughout the country. Further, in 1905, after the Battle of Tsushima, the people were furious at the actions of their own government, which ruined the country and, nevertheless, shamefully lost the Russo-Japanese War. The ferment intensified and was already beginning to take the form of an organized struggle.
A Divided Society
The political opposition divided into dozens of parties of very different directions. There was almost no unity in this movement at that time, each party defended its own narrowly focused platforms, but it was the opposition that became thethe engine that set the country on the road to revolution. The largest parties at the beginning of the twentieth century were the Social Revolutionaries (Social Revolutionaries), the Cadets (Constitutional Democrats), the RSDLP (Social Democrats), the Octobrists and the RNC (members of the Union of the Russian People).
And then there were Popular Socialists, Progressives, Anarchists, the Ukrainian People's Party and a huge number of others. The ideological constructions and practical activities of all Russian parties at that time did not differ too much from each other, moreover, the ideology was often mixed so much that it was impossible to make out whether it was right or left. The composition of the parties was also variegated everywhere: peasants, workers, and educated intelligentsia gathered in one cell. It was there that strikes and demonstrations were prepared, it was from there that agitators came to the people.
Return to terror
The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War coincided with the deepest crisis experienced by Russian society. There are almost no positively minded people either in the capitals or in the provinces. The shortcomings of the existing government were too obvious, the state strength and power were too much undermined. The mood in Russia in 1905 was so revolutionary that the New Year 1900, which was met with hope, was even forgotten. Time passed, but the situation did not improve, mistakes multiplied, and the government and the tsar-priest were incredibly far from the people.
Murders of statesmen began to happen almost daily. Attacks were carried out more and more sophisticated and often ended successfully. However, andthe rest of the world did the same. The people no longer called the leaders of numerous parties rebels, they sympathized with them, they were helped. Even very smart and we althy people supported future revolutionaries (remember the industrialist Mamontov, and he was far from the only patron of the opposition movements).
Bloody Sunday
On January 9, 1905, a huge procession of workers decided to have a short talk with the tsar father about their problems. After all, they don’t tell him about the people’s troubles! He is kind, he will help, you just need to tell him the truth. So naive were people who had not known revolutions until now! The king did not come out to meet them, but the army came out. A mass execution of demonstrators with a petition took place.
And this treacherous and extremely short-sighted decision made the people explode with the first Russian revolution. Everyone was outraged - from the last peasant to the first intellectual. What can we say about the workers who quickly armed themselves, built barricades in both capitals and many other cities.
At the same time, peasant riots swept through the outback - government forests and manor estates burned, shops of local rich people were ruined. The tsar hastily published his October Manifesto, but it was already impossible to change the situation. The accumulated grievances needed an outlet. It cannot be said that "all the steam went into the whistle." In any case, not only the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but also the Bolsheviks who appeared in 1903 subsequently did a great job of correcting the mistakes.
The calm before the storm
K 1907year, the nuts in public freedoms had to be tightened to the very end. In 1906, there was an attempt on the life of Prime Minister Stolypin, who was forced to take, as today's liberals put it mildly, "the most severe measures." The security guard was really rampant. The revolutionaries gradually fled abroad, but they continued their activities there. One newspaper "Iskra" is worth something! It was from it that the flame of a perfectly prepared and successfully completed revolution flared up. By the way, the newspaper was born in the same 1900 as the cruiser Aurora.
And in the country, the revolutionary mood is not that subsided, they hid deep underground. Industry continued to develop, and after the events of 1905, the owners of enterprises were already afraid to continue to mock the workers. Even wages have risen everywhere. Several lean years are over, and there is so much bread in the empire that they began to sell it.
As always happens before big events (and even during big events), a particularly sensitive part of the population began to react adequately: the silver age of poetry came, Russian ballet rose high (Diaghilev conquered the whole world), theater gained exceptional popularity, became the music sounds completely different in content, and the painters surprised us with a new and not entirely clear handwriting.
World War I
The country did not prosper for long, in 1914 the war broke out in the summer, the first among the worst. I had to fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The people even then hatedeverything German, even the capital was renamed Petrograd. The war was not going smoothly, the unfortunate Tsushima was increasingly remembered. Unrest resumed, reproaches to the government and the emperor personally multiplied more and more. And there were reasons. Having fun shooting cats on walks, the tsar, who did not hesitate to dance at the ball immediately after Khodynka and Bloody Sunday, brought the "holy old man" Rasputin closer to himself, and could not please anyone at that moment.
Rasputin "steered" military operations, appointed and dismissed ministers and military leaders. He was not even afraid of the other Romanovs. So the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich was removed, and Nikolai II, who took the place of commander in chief, suffered one defeat after another. And the army is good, but the commander is bad. Again came a series of lean years, and even the country was bogged down in the war. Famine returned to the cities, and with it riots. The financial system of the state tried to survive this collapse. But she never survived it.
February 1917
It all started with a general strike in February 1917. Residents of cities actively protested. In St. Petersburg, such a rally was shot down on Znamenskaya Square, killing more than forty thousand people at once. The same number subsequently died of their wounds. After this, the country stood on its hind legs. Nicholas II was no longer able to change at least something in this life. The future white officers of the Civil War forced the sovereign to sign an abdication, after which he was arrested with his family and taken to Tsarskoe Selo.
The country was headed by the Provisional Government, which also did notknew exactly what to do with this country. Just in case, criminals were released from prisons. Robberies and murders began everywhere. It was even worse on the fronts. The soldiers were already very tired of losing the war and no less strongly wanted to go home. The officers were disarmed, their epaulettes were torn off, they ran away. They "fraternized" with the Germans.
And in St. Petersburg, in the meantime, the Council of Workers was organized, where there were a lot of peasants and soldiers. Urgent advice regarding his activities came from abroad. And after some time, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin illegally returned to the country.
Temporary? Get off
Already from July 1917, it became clear to everyone that the Great October Socialist Revolution was to be. When the demonstration was shot by the Provisional Government, everything had already been decided. "All power to the Soviets!" shouted her slogans. The Leninist party was banned, and he had to live in a Finnish hut, where he hatched a plan to overthrow the Provisional Government, which was incapable of action - neither peaceful nor military.
On October 25, St. Petersburg banks and telegraph offices were seized, and the Council of People's Commissars and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin became the heads of power. The provisional government was arrested. The Winter Palace has been taken. But the First World War in our country continued with the Civil War, because the white officers brought with them the troops of fourteen occupying states. And only two years later, peace finally came. Not too long either.
