Section 3: Opposition 1 - The Intelligentsia

N.B. This section should be read along with Section 4 and the exercise that goes with it.

Despite the ruthless way that the tsarist state in Russia was run, the fact that opposition parties were not allowed and that the Okhrana (secret police) were very successful in sniffing out even the slightest opposition, there was nevertheless the growth of a number of movements wanting to reform or even get rid of tsarism altogether. 'The intelligentsia' means 'the educated people in Russia' and included the ruling classes, the aristocracy or great landowners. They weren't strictly speaking in opposition to tsarist rule but they did want to see some small changes that they thought might be of benefit to themselves as a class. They were afraid of giving any sort of power to the mass of the Russian people and referred to them as "The Black Masses". They wanted the Tsar to remain in control but some of them became frustrated when Nicholas II appeared to lack interest in any changes at all. Serge Witte was a "westerner" who wanted an industrial revolution in order to modernise Russia because he could see that other western nations were developing very quickly and that this was putting Russia in a vulnerable position. He attracted foreign investment (mainly from France) for such schemes as the Trans-Siberian railway which was meant to improve trade and the movement of goods across Russia. Nicholas' constant lack of interest in such mild reforms frustrated many intelligent people in Russia and caused them to begin to take notice of political ideas such as those shown below.

The Octobrist Party - (actually formed on 4th December 1905)

After the 1905 Revolution Nicholas II was forced to make some concessions and he issued The October Manifesto. The promised changes were very mild indeed and promised an elected assembly called a Duma that could suggest laws although these laws would have to be agreed to by the Tsar. Not much had changed but a group of middle class intelligentsia formed mainly of lawyers, financiers and industrialists and led by Guchkev and Rodzianko thought that the October Manifesto was as far as reform in Russia needed to go. They wanted Russia to remain an authoritarian state and eventually became the largest single party in the Duma after the Tsar had managed to get rid of more extreme members.

Kadets - Consititutional Democrats

This party was made up of progressive landlords and small industrial entrepreneurs and academics such as their leader Paul Milyukov. They were inspired by the German Peter Struve and had managed to get around the ban on political meetings by holding social events in each others' houses and hosting conferences. The party grew out of The Union Of Liberation which was a group working closely with the zemstvos. The Zemstvo Union itself had been pushed into more extreme demands by the refusal of local civil servants to act on any of their very moderate suggestions for change. In December 1904 the Union of Liberation called for a constitution and a parliament and this was an important element in the revolution which occurred the following year. In June 1905 The Union Of Unions was formed by the joining together of the Union of Liberation and the National Zemstvo Union and they became known as the Constitutional Democrats or Kadets for short.