Russia: Industrial Development and the Birth of Bolshevism

1890s – Russia entered the industrial age Tsar Alexander III(1881 – 1894) and Nicholas II(1894 – 1917) –They were determined to make Russia an industrial power –This was the only way for Russia to maintain its position as a great power

Count Sergei Witte was appointed finance minister in 1892 –Implemented protective tariffs, high taxes, the gold standard, and efficiency in government and business –Established strong financial relationship with the French money market – this enabled Russia to finance its modernization (French loans) –Increase in railroads, steel production, textiles, and pig iron (what is pig iron?)

Witte did little to improve the living and working conditions of the industrial proletariat Peasant farmers had to work on farms owned by other more prosperous peasant farmers, known as kulaks Because of the immense poverty and discontent, numerous political organizations formed –Social Revolution Party 1901 –Constitutional Democratic Party 1903

Enter Lenin: –Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) 1870 – 1924 –Marxist –St. Petersburg law student –Essential Concept: “He substituted the small, professional, nondemocratic revolutionary party for Marx’s proletariat as the instrument of revolutionary change.” Lenin created factions within the London Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party in 1903 –Lenin’s faction? Bolsheviks “Majority” –All the rest? Mensheviks “Minority”

Professional Revolutionaries – Read page 789 answer questions