Bloody Sunday

Russian Revolution

The czar also began to strengthen his hold on the government and destroy anything that looked like it might be against his government. The serfs then began to speak up for reform, and eventually a czar gave them some land, but the serfs had to pay back the government for the next 49 years. Later, a new czar wanted to force all people to adopt the Russian language and the Russian orthodox church. This further angered many of the Russian minorities. Also, the Russian workers received only very small wages, which led to many strikes. This inability to appease the powerful groups and intellectuals in Russia matched the first step of a revolution. The second step occurred when a large number of Russian workers marched in front of the czars palace in St. Petersburg. They attempted to present a method of reform to the czar. The czar, seeing this as a challenge to his power, massacred them all in an act known as Bloody Sunday. This aroused much public opposition against the czar. This caused the Russian revolution to explode. Violence and thievery erupted all over the country. Steps three and four of the revolutionary cycle occurred next. To help control this violence, the czar attempted to appease some of the citizens by promising "freedom of person, conscience, assembly, and union", and appointing a national assembly, called the DUMA. This was a quest to carry out a method of moderate reform, but unfortunately, the czar gave them no real power, and dismissed the Duma when it disagreed with him. The government did, however, succeed in a few pieces of moderate reform, such as the beginning of a program to help the peasants buy back their land. Still many of the average citizens and intellectuals were still dissatisfied with the state of their country.

Finally, the czar was overthrown, and the government could begin a true method of moderate reform. At this same time, the soviets were rising to power. They demanded the right to run factories and...