The Russian Revolution of 1905: Centenary Perspectives

2005 marks the centenary of Russia's first revolution, the Revolution of 1905. Hundreds were killed and injured, when on the 9th January Bloody Sunday Cossacks fired upon workers and their families who were marching peacefully to deliver a petition to Tsar Nicholas II in St Petersburg. This set off a wave of strikes, urban uprisings, peasant revolts, national revolutions and mutinies across the Russian Empire. Tsarism survived, but only after having made significant political and social concessions, and allowing the Russian people a dress rehearsal in Lenin's words, for the revolutions of 1917. 1905 proved a crucial turning point in the demise of the autocracy and the rise of a revolutionary socialism that would shape Russia, Europe and the international system for the rest of the twentieth century. The centenary of the Revolution has prompted scholars to review and reassess our understanding of 1905. Recent opportunities to access archives throughout the former Soviet Union are yielding new provincialperspectives, as well as fresh insights into the roles of national and religious minorities and the parts played by individuals, social groups, political parties and institutions. The Russian Revolution of 1905 brings together some of the best of this new research and reassessment. The volume includes thirteen chapters written by leading historians from around the world, together with an introduction from Abraham Ascher.