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Other classes of Russian
population took an active part in the revolution alongside the workers. In this
sense the democratic revolution of 1905-7 is interpreted by some analysts as a
sum total of component elements, including workers, peasants, soldiers,
students, national-liberation and other currents of revolution with their
individual issues, aims and peculiarities. |
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In particular, the revolution of 1905-1907 is sometimes seen as ‘peasant’
revolution in recognition of the scale of the peasant movement directed
against the landowners and the government. Historians have uncovered about
twenty-six thousand instances of disturbances in the countryside during the
years of the revolution involving several millions of peasants. The peasant
unrest peaked in November and December 1905, when many peasants interpreted the
October Manifesto as permission to seize the gentry land they had long believed
was theirs by right. |
The chief
demand of all section of the Russian peasantry - from poor and
middle to well-to-do peasants - was the transfer of all the land to
those who cultivated it. The vast majority of peasants rejected the
idea of paying redemption fees for the gentry land and demanded its
confiscation and equal distribution among peasant families in line
with communal egalitarian traditions. The issue whether to hold the
land in private ownership or to make it subject to nationalization
or ‘socialization’ by the peasants was hardly ever seriously
considered. The majority of peasants insisted that land could not be
treated the same as other property, like farm tools, animals,
buildings, for instance, and therefore no one should have the right
to buy, sell or mortgage it. The land was ‘God’s’ and ‘no-one’s’,
and as such was the asset of the entire nation. Equally, the
preservation of the commune in those regions where it had
traditionally existed was never put into doubt.
As a result
of the powerful rise of the peasant movement in 1905-1907, the
peasants had won certain concessions from the government and the
landed proprietors which somewhat relieved the economic and fiscal
pressures on the village. The outstanding redemption payments were
cancelled, land rent fees were lowered, wages of hired agricultural
laborers increased by some 10 percent. However, a radical settlement
of the agrarian issue, sought by the peasant movement, had not been
achieved.
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Tsarist Russia |
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