Russian Peasants' uprising of 1905–1906
The Russian peasants' uprising of 1905–1906, also known as the Jaquerie of 1905–1906 or the agrarian revolt of 1905–1906, was a series of
Background
The peasants uprising was connected to the
The revolt
The general 'mood of rebellion' riding the country quickly spread to the provinces and the countryside. Seeing the weakness of the government, they started organising rent strikes in an effort to force the landowners to pay out higher wages. They began trespassing on the land of the gentry, chopping down trees and harvesting their hay. When early summer came and it became clear that the harvest had failed, the peasants started launching large, organised attacks on the estates; they would loot the properties, and set the manor on fire, making the landowner flee.[1] The uprising was mainly caused by the peasants misunderstanding the October Manifesto as a license to seize the countryside from the gentry: despite some rural unrest in the spring of 1905, and more in the summer, the unrest only 'exploded' after October 17.[2]
Several witnesses noted how the night sky was illuminated by the amount of burning manors, and how long lines of peasant carts drawn by horses filled the roads, packed with stolen items.[1] In the violence there was also a much 'culture smashing', and peasants went out to destroy anything that 'smacked of superfluous wealth': setting fire to libraries, smashing antiques and dumping faeces on the expensive oriental carpets all took place. Some also seized the expensive works of art, the fine china, and the luxurious clothes and divided it amongst themselves along with the captured farming equipment. There was also a reported case of a group of peasants breaking apart a grand piano, sharing out the ivory keys.[1]
Most violence occurred in the so-called '
Despite the large destruction there were only one confirmed account of a landowner being killed, although reports report that 50 non-communal peasants who were particularly disliked were murdered. The main aim of the uprisings were however only to deprive the squires and non-peasant landowners of the opportunity to make money of the countryside, and a saying was that the peasants were just 'smoking them out'. One observer noted how the violence were almost purely directed towards the property and not the owners, saying that 'the peasants had no use whatever for landlords, but needed the land'.[2]
During this 'Great Fear of 1905', many landowners seemed open to accept expropriation and concessions to save themselves.
The army was called to put down the disorder, but the vast majority of the Imperial Russian Army's private soldiers were peasants, and the soldiers' morale was severely impacted by news received from their own villages. As the army was called out to put down the peasant uprisings' of 1905–1906, many units — especially in the infantry, which consisted mainly of peasants — refused to obey orders and mutinied in favor of the Revolution; between autumn 1905 and winter 1906 over 400 mutinies took place, causing the army to be brought to the brink of collapse, with it taking several years to restore something close to order.[5]
Aftermath and reaction
Almost 3000 manors were destroyed by the 'Jaquerie of 1905-06', 15 percent of the country total.[1] In some areas, the revolt was accompanied by pogroms against Jews.[2]
What followed the uprisings was a wave of 'gentry reaction'. Organisations like the United Nobility was formed to protect the gentry's properties, and the provincial zemstvos changed nature from being 'liberal strongholds' to 'bastions of law and order'.[4]
With the most destruction finding place in Saratov,
References
Bibliography
- Figes, Orlando (2014). A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 9781847922915.
- Pipes, Richard (1991). The Russian Revolution. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780307788573.