David

 =WELCOME TO DAVID'S RUSSIAN REVS PAGE ! ! = 

__SUMMARY OF 'REACTION AND REVOLUTION 1894-1924' BOOKLET__  Russia's geography and people
 * In 1894 Russia covered over eight million square miles, an area equivalent to two and a half times the size of the USA today.
 * It covered a large part of two continents.
 * From 1815-1914 the population of European Russia went from 40 million to 165 million.
 * The greater part of the population was located in European Russia.
 * The sheer size of the Russian Empire tended to give an impression of great strength.
 * The population contained a wide variety of peoples of different race, language, religion and culture. Controlling this over such a vast territory had been a major problem.

THE MAJOR NATIONALITIES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE ACCORDING TO THE 1897 CENSUS (IN MILLIONS)
 * NATIONALITY || POPULATION ||
 * Russian (Slav) || 55.6 ||
 * Ukrainian || 22.4 ||
 * Polish || 7.9 ||
 * White Russian (Belorussian) || 5.8 ||
 * Jewish (defined by faith) || 5.0 ||
 * Kirgiz/Kaisats || 4.0 ||
 * Tartar || 3.4 ||
 * Finnish || 3.1 ||
 * German || 1.8 ||
 * Latvian || 1.4 ||
 * Bashkir || 1.3 ||
 * Lithuanian || 1.2 ||
 * Armenian || 1.2 ||
 * Romanian/Moldavian || 1.1 ||
 * Estonian || 1.0 ||
 * Mordvinian || 1.0 ||
 * Georgian || 0.8 ||
 * Tadzhik || 0.3 ||
 * Turkmenian || 0.3 ||
 * Greek || 0.2 ||
 * Bulgarian || 0.2 ||
 * Uzbekh || 0.1 ||




 * The Tsar abdicated in February 1917. Explain how this came about and the government/s formed after? Introduce, Lenin, Trotsky and Kerensky.

The winter of 1916-1917 was severe and this drained supply of food and fuel. Also due to the seasonal factors some railways were cut and this prevented supplies from being shipped around Russia. The people of Russia were fed up with these food and fuel shortages and this caused an increase in unrest, protests, strikes and looting. The tsarina, who was currently in command, wrote to Tsar Nicholas II to inform him of this discontent, his actions would backfire. Nicholas ordered troops to Petrograd to 'take out' anyone displaying this behavior, however the troops either did nothing at all, joined the protestors or in one case, shot their commanding officer. At this point Nikky new he was in some serious strife and boarded a train back to St Petersburg. On March 2 he was met in his railway car by a delegation from the duma, insisting on his abdication. The Tsar said he would consider it but would like to consult his generals first. It was when the delegation showed him telegrams from many of the generals urging him to abdicate that Tsar Nicholas II signed the instrument of abdication, ending more than 300 years of Romanov autocracy. Before the tsar abdicated he called off the duma and they formed the Provisional Government who elected Alexander Kerenski as its only socialist. The Provisional Government were referred to as 'authority without power'. Also the petrograd soviet was formed. **