Question

Highlight the socialist movement in Russia

Answer 1

1.Russia society was divided into three classes, the Clergy, the Nobility and the working class. Slavery was abolished in 1861,but the peasants who constituted 85%of the population, had to pay heavy taxes for small holdings.
2.After Industrialisation, many factories were set up by industrilities. The wages were minimum and the working hours were 15 hours a day. The condition of workers were miserable. The state treasury was bankrupt due to heavy expenditure.
3.Under the autocratic rule of Tsar Nicholas 2, the Russia empire was vast and feudal. The disastrous defeat of Russia in Russo-Japanese War of 1904 had eroded the prestige of Tsar Nicholas 2.

Answer 2

Answer:

In 1898, the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was formed on the lines of Karl Marx. Some socialists formed the Socialists Revolutionary Party in 1900, to struggle for peasants’ rights and demanded that land belonging to nobles be transferred to peasants. Lenin felt that these were peasants who were poor as well as rich, so they could not all be a part of the socialist movement. Lenin, who formed the Bolshevik group felt that in a society like Tsarist Russia, party should be disciplined and should control its members number and quality, whereas Mensheviks thought that the party should be open to all. The party was divided over the strategy of organisation, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Bolsheviks were led by Lenin and Mensheviks by Kerensky.