I love Democracy (October-December, 1905
I love Democracy (October-December, 1905).
[First (I) Convocation of the State Duma]
November 2, 1905.
The first elections of the Russian Empire were undoubtedly somewhat complicated, simply because they were the first elections of this kind (the population for decades had only elected Zemstvos and local administrations).
Even some members of the government feared that the majority of the population would fall before demagogues (which would be negative for the Russian government), others believed that the reform was insufficient and there were still people opposed to parliamentarism.
About 83% of the trained people participated in the election of the First Duma, a historic event for the young democratic reform of the Russian Empire. Votes from Russia proper (which made up the majority of voters), Poland, Finland, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
With this large amount, the First Duma reached its first difficulty, the first Premier of the State Duma.
There was a center composed of non-partisans, moderates, Kadets and Septembristas. Some more inclined towards the Russian left and others more inclined towards the right.
With the far-left faction led by the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) and the Trudoviks as a junior partner, and the far-right faction led by the 'Black Hundreds' and the Greens.
The autonomists were somewhat smaller groups, close to the center but not part of the factions proper.
The reason for the disputes was the aforementioned differences between the moderates and non-bards, and the right-wing members of the Kadets and Septembrists, ultimately causing disparity as to which candidate preferred the majority of the Duma (the center).
Liberal, moderate and left-wing MPs preferred the Minister of Finance, Trade and Industry, Sergei Witte. Conservative MPs, center-right and right preferred General and Minister of War Mikhail Skobelev.
Witte was popular as a pragmatic, relatively liberal and capable leader for the first Duma, with some 56 years and decades of work in the Russian administration. Skobelev was popular as a leader of the right (affiliated with militant pan-Slavists and Russian nationalists), war hero, and another administrator with decades of work behind him, but he was already 62 years old.
And age was important, according to Suverennyy Ukaz, the Premier could serve for an indefinite number of terms, but he could only serve up to 75 years.
Why this? The Russian state and society had chosen-accepted the importance of collectivity and continuity over other values for their democracy. A government that leads for many years may be a government dedicated to building Russia (another reason why there was an empowered czar).
But fresh blood was still needed from time to time, so a Premier at a certain point was expected to retire from the office. Although not necessarily from politics, a former Premier would be a valuable advisor to his successors, with some influence and guidance.
Under these conditions of what the Russian society and deputies expected, at first it ended up electing (for very little) Minister Sergei Yulyevich Witte as First Premier of the Russian Empire.
Under Witte, the First Deputy Premier of the Government of the Russian Empire, Governor and Administrator Pyotr Arkádyevich Stolypin, is also appointed.
Some Black Hundreds boycotted the election, but it didn't go far. On the other hand, the left factions did not comment on it, which proved to be a success in the future.
In the final months of the First Duma there was not much actually, but there were already proposals from liberal deputies and Finnish autonomists. Proposals that involved:
* Female suffrage.
*Abolition of the death penalty.
* Political amnesty.
Some came to fruition relatively quickly, but there were other matters to attend to and discussions regarding some projects expanded further than expected.
Premier Sergei Witte was in favor of the execution penalty but admitted the need for more political 'openings', as Premier Witte was highly concerned with learning about foreign views on Russia and the Russian government.
Witte and some others understood how Russia was seen abroad, and how little news from Russia reached abroad, seriously impacting the public perception of Russia (which in regions like the UK, was already bad enough).
*******
[Events of Russian democracy]
October 7, just weeks before the first elections, Russian intelligence services (more specifically the Okhrana) put the anti-lobbying laws of the Russian Empire into serious operation for the first time.
Several nobles (Baltic Germans) and some banker-corporations of the Baltic governorates tried to influence the elections to support suitable candidates for them (generally right wing or similar), in their respective regions.
It must be understood that the socio-economic elites (nobility) of German origin in the Baltic lost enormously with the democratic reform, simply because they were greatly outnumbered by the lower-middle class masses.
Therefore supporting politicians from the right or of Baltic German origin was more advantageous for them and their interests, thus maintaining influence and power in the young Russian democracy.
Even though it was against the law.
This led to strikes and other demonstrations by the Baltic population (Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Russians, Jews and others) on October 14. For an approximate period of 2 weeks, protesting against the immision of these elites in Russian democracy.
The Baltic German nobility was the first to be the most threatened by the democratic reform, after all with the military reform the number of Baltic Germans with high positions in the army decreased enormously.
It did not mean that corruption would end, or that the Baltic German nobility were the last to try to influence Russian democracy.
Similar demonstrations occurred in Moscow (host city of the First Duma) and Crimea during the final days of October for example.
On the other hand, on November 16, the First Duma, Premier Sergei Witte and Tsar Alexander III approve the granting of political 'amnesty' to all non-terrorist exiles of the Russian Empire.
Certainly a remarkable event for some, but Russia was still not a very open or liberal country. Those who did not enter the revised 'amnesty list' simply could not return to the country or remained in prison.
The list and therefore the political pardon only applied to those who had not been part of terrorist activities or foreign organizations.
Some Jews, Russians, Baltics, and Caucasians returned.
The Poles and terrorists mostly stayed outside of Russia.
Vladimir Lenin decided to stay in Germany, where he studied as closely as possible to the First Duma.
Lenin later condemned the boycott of the First Duma of the Russian right, although at first he thought that the left did not make the right decisions when participating.
*******
[Russian opinions]
Like many societies of millions of inhabitants and of great geographical, cultural-linguistic and social diversity, Russian society was not a monolith on foreign affairs (there were not even monolithic opinions on domestic politics).
Depending on the position, the Russians ranged from calm, to enthusiasm and paranoia.
The Russians understood that certain issues were not theirs and they mostly stayed away, such as the Caribbean-American War between the United States and Germany (plus their allies).
It was simply too far away.
On the other hand there were Russians (such as socialists and anti-British) highly excited by the news from Bengal and shocked by the events of British-Norwegian intervention in Sweden.
Because they were actively opposed to imperialism and supported the colonial struggle movements of natives against foreign rule, or were simply anti-British (anglophobia, a xenophobic sentiment spread to some extent in various parts of the Russian Empire).
Anti-Japanese and interventionist cliques argued that Russia was very soft on her treaties with Japan and Greece, and that Russia should take even more territories or some other form of intervention in those states.
*******
[Medicine]
At a conference of the Saint Petersburg Military Medical Academy on November 8, surgeon Nikolai Sergeyevich Korotkov (born in Kursk) presents the modern method of blood pressure measurement.
This is undoubtedly Korotkov's most famous achievement (basically catapulting him to fame), who was developing a thesis at the time. The method was developed under the direction-observation of Mikhail Vladimirovich Yanovsky (therapist and academic) but this solid method is undoubtedly due in large part to Korotkov's work, experimentation and research.
Korotkov's contribution is such that the Korotkov method is the only official method for non-invasive blood pressure measurement internationally accepted in modern times (since 1935 at least).
In Russia on the other hand this involved an investment in pioneering vascular surgery techniques, continuing Russia's growing reputation as one of the centers for medical research.
Korotkov received his doctorate from him a few years later, but almost immediately he began to work in the military-medical institutions of the Russian Empire as a military surgeon, and also worked in some medical-educational institutions of the Russian state.
*******
[Archeology]
On December 4, at the initiative of Tsar Alexander III, the Ministry of Education, museums (the Hermitage in particular), the Russian State Library (Российская государственная библиотека, Rossiyskaya gosudarstvennaya biblioteka (universities), located in the city of Moscow) and educational institutions ) instituted official reforms regarding archeology and other recover-restore-find human material culture activities.
This means the institutionalization of archaeological teams or expeditions for the study of historical material within Russia, and through negotiations, outside Russia.
This is mostly put in charge of the ministry of education, the Hermitage authorities and the RSL authorities, beginning the formation of regional archaeological research centers and massive large-scale work was carried out in most of the territory. From Russia.
It also allowed Tsar Alexander III, later Russian tsars, and governments to get hold of an excuse to buy foreign artifacts such as a ring from the Emperor Caligula of the Roman Empire, Napoleon's sword, the Gilgamesh epic, Viking ships, religious artifacts, and others.
Some individuals from other nation-states participated by working for Russia, receiving particular status and fame within Russia, such as Ananda Coomaraswamy (from Sri Lanka, British Raj).
One of the first countries to cooperate with Russia in this regard was Afghanistan.
*******
[International]
October 1, the Turkish National League (a weak union of nationalist-Islamist, agrarian and populist groups) launches an operation to try to crush the Turkish Revolution of Mustafa Kemal and his Turkish Communist Party.
The battle turns out to be a near-miraculous victory for Mustafa Kemal, who defeated the disunited forces of the TNL, effectively giving a strong founding myth to the Turkish Revolution of the TCP.
On the same day the Czech worker František Pavlík (1885-1905) is assassinated by the army (stabbed with a bayonet) by the German army in the city of Brünn (Brno), Bohemia.
This assassination was part of the crushing of a workers' demonstration in front of the university in the city of Brünn. For the Chevos (Bohemian Slavs), this has been enough.
On October 27, violence and civil movements (against the German government) erupt throughout Bohemia once again after this injustice, increasing in number due to the national economic crisis that Germany is suffering, fighting in the Caribbean and Mexico against the United States of America.
And Kaiser Wilhelm II keeps trying to solve all this with violence.
October 2, the UK and Canada begin to join Australia and New Zealand to treaties on defense 'responsibility' and common budget (for the British Empire navy).
Again uniting more the white dominions of the British Empire and the main islands. British South Africa lags a bit behind in these respects due to its poor military development during and post-Fashoda War.
October 5, the conflict in Mexico escalates when US military forces bombard some rival positions.
The United States Navy continues the bombardment of some ports in Cuba, purely military targets like some forts. The German navy counterattacks successfully, although Haiti remains out of German clutches.
In mainland Mexico, on the other hand, bombing by the US military (which was intended to suppress guerrilla movements) only ends worse for the United States, as local guerrilla forces increase as the war spreads.
The US government approves that the army continue advancing towards the south of Mexico to try to crush the continental Mexican resistance (and also take the Tehuantepec canal), but they send reinforcements to the forces in the north to crush the guerrilla movements there.
October 16, Lord Curzon (Governor of British India) to 'facilitate the administration', divided the province of Bengal into half Hindu territory and half Muslim territory.
This has other associated reasons of course, but it has far more consequences than expected. This is in the midst of the Bengal famine (and complicates the situation a bit more for the natives by administrative changes, but that is another matter) and the revolution of some Bengali rebels.
The partition of Bengal further fuels Bengali resistance movements to the British Empire, uniting Hindus and Muslims alike in a local guerrilla movement against colonial administrators.
The Hindus understood that partition was, in part, a strategy of division and conquest of the British against Bengal. Muslims on the other hand had been for years forming their revolutionary movements, which only gained more support with this pseudo-awakening in local consciousness by the partition of Bengal.
October 26, the government of the Republic of Sweden puts many troubled neighborhoods under martial law, now it is the paramilitaries and the new administration who purge their own citizens, without the need for British-Norwegian help.
This causes a new wave of Swedish migration to Finland (more specifically Aland and some private cities), in the Russian Empire.
The matter is later discussed by the Diet of Finland and the First Duma of the Russian Empire, although it is not resolved in late 1905.
October 30, Jules Guesde, leader of the People's Republic of France, announces the October Manifesto (Manifeste d'octobre), officially nationalizing all the natural resources and industries of the French territory, nationalizing church property (land) and creating the collective farms of France.
Opposition from 'right-wing and bourgeois elements' comes to call out these reforms, but there is no uprising after years of civil conflict.
November 7, political reform in Sweden increasingly limits feminist movements and leftist parties, supporting militarization and right-wing extremism in the Scandinavian country.
November 9, the Social Aristocrats of Canada come to power in the first federal elections in Alberta, a recently formed province in Canada.
November 12, Norway begins to follow the militaristic reforms of the United Kingdom and Sweden, focusing mainly on the navy.
November 28, Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith is arrested in Dublin after breaking laws about speaking out against the monarchy (laws created during the Victorian era, and which are very helpful to the Social Aristocratic government against anti-monarchical Irish separatism) .
Shortly after Griffith dies two months later from a brain hemorrhage from heart failure, there is no evidence that the British authorities were responsible, but it is a popular myth that Griffith was explicitly murdered.
The Irish nationalist movement continues its serious divisions after this.
December 2, the Norwegian government initiates state projects for the production of electrical energy.
December 9, the Deuxième bureau de la République Populaire (Second Office of the People's Republic) is created, reestablishing the secret services of France (French People's Republic).
With this Jules Guesde begins the purge of bourgeois elements and other remaining anti-socialists in France, including anarchists, conservatives, criminals during the civil war, etc.
Those who are not executed during this Red Terror (which some equate to Revolutionary France, but the truth is that they are different scales) are put in prisons that were previously of the Second French Empire.
Due to the lack of population in some places, prisoners are forced to do forced labor for the reconstruction of the People's Republic of France, which has demographic problems after years of conflict, Fashoda war and bad Boulangerists policies.
The truth is that the Second French Empire in Africa does not have much better, with the fall of continental European France comes a fall in the markets of colonial Africa, especially Algeria.
The mostly rural population suffers from other problems.
Although the main losers are the native Africans living under the regime of Charles Maurras, who will have to endure it for years while he is angry at the socialist victory.
The British are doing nothing as they are busy with other business.
December 11-16, popular uprisings in Mexico City are crushed by the United States Army.
Felix Diaz, Porfirio Diaz's nephew, is forced to retire after a defeat while attempting to lead his own guerrilla movement in central Mexico because of this.
December 15, in addition to the efforts of the Russian government for archeology, the Pushkin House (also known as the Institute of Russian Literature) was created, dedicated to the preservation of the cultural legacy of Alexander Pushkin.
December 25, the forces of Colombia and Venezuela finally manage to expel the United States from the north of Colombia. The United States now only has Panama, which they can successfully defend against the Latin American advance.
Again the Panamanian front stagnates.
December 30, more attacks throughout the south by Mexican guerrillas end in the death of American officers and soldiers.
In the United States, attempts are being made to blame the Western Federation of Miners (a union with a militant reputation) for the assassination of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg.
That he was killed by a bomb by Albert Edward Horsley, also known by the pseudonym Harry Orchard.
The Western Federation of Miners is innocent, but Harry Orchard was once a member of a union. It is not the first or last time that authorities will try to blame unions.