Russia Revelution 1905

1. Why was modernisation needed?
Modernisation was needed for two reasons, to be a great power in the twentieth century and it was important to industrialize so that it would be able to provide weapons, ships, munition and the other military equipment for modern warfare. The second reason that modernisation was needed was because Russia was poor. The farmers were still doing outdated traditional methods, such as strip farming, and making minimal use of machinery and modern farming methods.

2. Why was modernisation dangerous to the Tsar?
Modernisation was dangerous to the Tsar because it posed as a serious threat to the tsarist regime. Industralizaton created social tension when millions moved from the country sides to cities. Living in the cities would make it easier then the peasants to undertake concerted action. The growth of the middle class would create pressure nfor polictical change and for more accountable and representative government.

3. How did Witte try to build up industry?
Witte's plan was to make a huge investment in industry to create a spiral of upward industrial groth. The more the industry grew, the more demand there would be for other products, which would lead to further growth, and so on. Witte places much nof his faith in the development of railways. These would improve communications betweens cities, they would also create demands for iron, steel, coal and other industries associated with railways building. This wasn't enough though so the government needed to buy more expensive machinery. Witte's policy ws to squeeze resources out of the peasants to pay for industrialisation. He kept the urban workers' wages low so that all the money available went into industrial development. Witte hoped that industrial growth would lead to more wealth for everyone before the squeeze hurt too much.

4. How successful was Witte's ecomonic policy?
Witte's economic policy was not successful in the end. It was very successful when he was sqeezing the peasants to pay for industrailisation but then they were being sqeezed too much. They had been squeezed so hard that they did not have any more money to spend on manufactured goods. Thousands of new industrail workers lost their jobs and strikes and protests broke out in most cities. There were also problems in the country side. There was bad harvest in 1900 and 1902 which pushed the peasants into starvation. They had already been squeexed by Witte's policies and now they were at a breaking point. Witte's economic policy was working for a better industrialisation but it only worked for some time because the peasnats couldnt buy any more to keep it going which in the end colapsed everything.