|
Under Tsar Nicholas II (1894–1917), Russia: 1892–1917 slowly industrialized and yet repressed political opposition from the center and the far left. It recklessly entered wars with Japan (1904) and with Germany and Austria (1914) for which it was very poorly prepared, leading to the utter collapse of the old regime in 1917 and an era of civil war. During the 1890s, Russia's industrial development led to a large increase in the size of the urban middle class and the working class, which gave rise to a more dynamic political atmosphere and the development of radical parties. Because the state and foreigners owned much of Russia's industry, the working class was comparatively stronger and the bourgeoisie comparatively weaker than in the West. The working class and peasants were the first to establish political parties because the nobility and the wealthy bourgeoisie were politically timid. During the 1890s and early 1900s, bad living and working conditions, high taxes, and land hunger gave rise to more frequent strikes and agrarian disorders. These activities prompted the bourgeoisie of various nationalities in the empire to develop a host of different parties, both liberal and conservative. By 1914 40% of Russian workers were employed in factories of 1,000 workers or more (32% in 1901). 42% worked in businesses of 100 to 1000 workers, and 18% in businesses of 100 workers or less (in the USA, 1914, the figures were 18%, 47% and 35% respectively).〔Joel Carmichael, ''A short history of the Russian Revolution,'' (1964) pp 23-4〕 Politically, these opposition forces organized into competing parties: The liberal elements among the industrial capitalists and nobility, who believed in peaceful social reform and a constitutional monarchy, founded the Constitutional Democratic party or ''Kadets'' in 1905. Radical factions had their own parties. The workers in major cities revolted in 1905, with widespread strikes and mutinies. The Tsar barely kept control; he promised an elective parliament (the ''Duma'') and the revolt subsided. The Tsar then dissolved the Duma. He turned to Peter Stolypin to reform the huge but sluggish economy. Foreign policy was built around an alliance with France, and increased meddling in Balkan affairs. Russia proclaimed a role as military protector of Orthodox Christians, notably those in Serbia. Efforts to expand control in the Far East led to a short war with Japan in 1904-5, which ended in humiliating defeat. The Russians blundered into full-scale war in 1914 without realizing the risks. With few exceptions the government proved incompetent and the army lost heavily. Finally the liberal elements overthrew the Tsars and the entire regime in early 1917, as the radicals under Lenin waited their turn to seize power using soviets in the factories and the army. == The alliance with France, 1894–1914== The central development in Russian foreign policy was to move away from Germany and toward France. Russia had never been friendly with France, and remembered the wars in the Crimea and the Napoleonic invasion; it saw Paris as a dangerous font of subversion and ridiculed the weak governments there. France, which had been shut out of the entire alliance system by Bismarck, decided to improve relations with Russia. It lent money to the Russians, expanded trade, and began selling warships after 1890. Meanwhile, after Bismarck lost office in 1890, there was no renewal of the Reinsurance treaty between Russia and Germany. The German bankers stopped lending to Russia, which increasingly depended on Paris banks.〔Barbara Jelavich, ''St. Petersburg and Moscow: Tsarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, 1814–1974'' (1974) pp 213-220〕 In 1894 a secret treaty stipulated that Russia would come to the aid of France if France was attacked by Germany. Another stipulation was that in a possible war against Germany, France would immediately mobilize 1.3 million men, while Russia would mobilize 700,000 to 800,000. It provided that if any of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy) mobilized its reserves army in preparation for war, then both Russia and France would mobilize theirs. "The mobilization is the declaration of war," the French chief of staff told Tsar Alexander III in 1892. "To mobilize is to oblige one's neighbor to do the same." This set up the tripwire for July 1914.〔For more elaborate detail, see A. J. P. Taylor, ''The Struggle for Mastery in Europe: 1848–1918'' (1954) pp 334-345〕 George F. Kennan argues that Russia was primarily responsibility for the collapse of Bismarck's alliance policy in Europe, and starting the downward slope to the First World War. Kennan blames poor Russian diplomacy centered on its ambitions in the Balkans. Kennan says Bismarck's foreign policy was designed to prevent any major war even in the face of improved Franco-Russian relations. Russia left Bismarck's Three Emperors' League (with Germany and Austria) and instead took up the French proposal for closer relationships and a military alliance.〔George F. Kennan, ''The Decline of Bismarck's European Order: Franco-Russian Relations, 1875–1890'' (1979),〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Russia (1892–1917)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|