War, Revolution, and Reform
Civilian Life
(1900-1911)

   

A historical overview of the political and civilian
events at the beginning of the twentieth century.

This section will focus on a history of events that took place throughout the Russian Empire during the time of the Russo-Japanese war to the end of the reforms of Peter Stolypin.  Here we will discuss the political changes and significant civil events that occurred between 1900 and 1911.  The Russian leader of the period will also be profiled at a later time.

Life for the average person in turn of the century Russia was not as bad as the revolutionaries would have liked to think.  There was a great deal of work available, both in the cities and in the countryside. In education the drive to create new schools continued. Primary education was provided for all children between the ages of 8 and 11.  Many prestigious universities also offered opportunities for Russians able to attend them. The reforms enacted by Prime Minister Stolypin allowed people to own the land they worked expanded.  The peasant class of this time took advantage of this and soon owned large amounts of land.  Four times the amount of land as the gentry in fact.  His death in 1911 marked the end of an era that, had it continued, would have saved Czarist Russia.

We are attempting to list all of the dates by the current calendar, old calendar dates will be given in parenthesis whenever possible. I ask you patience in this matter as it will take some time while I verify all the dates.

 

Political & Civil Events Historical Index

Russian Leaders (1900-1911)
1894-1917 Nikolas Romanov II

 

Timeline 1900-1911

 

1900

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Boxer Rebellion is suppressed in China
Russia occupies Manchuria
Russia annexes the eastern Pamirs.

1901

 

 

 

 
    Government institutes programs to fight disease and starvation.
Tolstoy is excommunicated from the Orthodox Church.
Minister of Education, Bogolepov is killed by a student.
31 January Anton Chekhov's 'Three Sisters' opens at Moscow Art Theater to poor reviews
1 May Joseph V. Stalin leads a May Day demonstration in the Soldatsky Market Place, in the center of Tiflis.
 

1902

 

 

 

 
Maxim Gorky writes the play 'The Lower Depths' it opens at Moscow Art Theater.
  8 January Georgi Malenkov, was born.  He would later become the Soviet Prime Minister from 1953 to 1955.  He would be dismissed from the Communist party in 1957 for trying to oust Khrushchev.
  Fall Massive unrest follows a poor harvest,  300 infantry battalions and cavalry squadrons are used to suppress uprisings that result.

1903

 

 

 

 
27 July Russian actor Nikolai Cherkasov is born in St. Petersburg.  One of his major roles would be in "Ivan the Terrible".
  17 November 2nd Bolshevik Party Congress is held in Brussels.
Lenin's efforts to impose his radical views on the Social Democratic Labor Party splits it into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.

1904

 

 

 

 
    General strike in Tbilisi and Baku
6 February Japan breaks off negotiations with Russia on the Korean issue and recalls their minister.
    Ivan Pavlov wins Nobel Prize for his work with dogs.
15 July Anton Chekhov dies.
Poet Alexander Blok publishes his first book, 'Songs about the Fair Lady'.

1905

 

 

 

 
  8 January 1905 Revolution:
Calling of a General Strike results in 200,000 workers stopping work.
  9 January Bloody Sunday:
A crowd of 100,000 led by Father Georgi Gapon marches on the Winter Palace.  Cossacks fire on the advancing crowd killing 92.
  22 January

3rd Bolshevik Party Congress
Constitutional Democrats (Kadets) Program
  15 June In Odessa, police, Cossacks, and the anti-Semitic group 'The Black Hundreds' fight strikers and kill Jews.  Martial Law is soon declared.
  27 June Russian sailors on the battleship Potemkin seized the ship in the Black Sea, and throw the commander and several other officers overboard.
  October General Strike spreads throughout the Russian Empire.
  26 October Revolutionary workers in St. Petersburg revolt and form the first assembly (Soviet) in their brief uprising..
30 October Tsar Nicholas II delivers the October Manifesto.  It promised an elected parliament (the Duma), a constitution, and extended voting rights..
  December Districts in Moscow are destroyed by vicious street fighting.
  3 December Members of the St. Petersburg Soviet are arrested en mass, including Leon Trotsky.

1906

 

 

 

 
The Orenburg-Tashkent Railroad is completed, linking Turkestan to European Russia.
  Spring Peter Stolypin becomes Prime Minister and institutes Land Reform until his death in 1911.
In the Baltic states, some 2000 rebels are shot or hung.  Lenin and other Marxist revolutionaries begin to despair.
  4th Bolshevik Party Congress
First Duma - later dissolved by Nicholas II
  27 April First Constitution (Fundamental Law)
19 December Leonid Brezhnev was born. He would become the leader of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  He would dramatically expand the military until his death in the 1980's.

1907

 

 

 

 
    Second Duma - later dissolved by Nicholas II
5th Bolshevik Party Congress
Emergence of Triple Entente (France, Britain, Russia) against Triple Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy)
Third Duma (1907-1912)
(18 August)

31 August

 The Anglo-Russian Convention was signed in St. Petersburg.  It resolved standing differences between the England and Russia over the lands of Persia, Tibet, and Afghanistan.
1908
30 June Tunguska Event - Large explosion of unknown origin devastates large area (around half a million acres) of Siberian wilderness.  Soviet scientists would only get around to study the site in 1927.

1909

 

 

 

 
  19 May First performance of Diaghilev's 'Ballet russe'
6 July Andrei Gromyko was born.  He would later become the Soviet Foreign Minister during the Cold War era.

1910

 

 

 

 
  19 May Igor Stravinsky's 'Firebird' scandalizes Paris.
  7 November Leo Tolstoy dies at Astapovo station.

1911

 

 

 

 
Balkan Wars begin, and last until 1913. 
  14 September Prime Minister Stolypin is shot in a Kiev opera house by Dmitry Bogrov who was a revolutionary and police spy.
18 September Prime Minister Stolypin dies.  Many people believed that any hope of saving Czarist Russia died with him.
24 September The future Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko was born.  He would lead the Soviet Union from 1984-1985.

  

 

Statistics of the Russia (1907 - 1909)

• Population: 160,095,200
• Number of Industrial Workers: 2,500,000
• Increase in Primary Schools: +50%
• Economic Growth Rate 6-7% per year (avg)

  

 

Selected Items from
The Turn of the Century

Back to War,
Revolution, and Reform