Chapter+Nine-1905

Summary Phleve, the Minister of Interior had a plan that involved making all the workers love the tsar. He dies, but Father George Gapon took his mission into his own hands. He led a march of workers with a petition to see the tsar but soldiers opened fire. This became known as "Bloody Sunday", and destroyed the connection between the people and the tsar. Gapon became a full-fledged revolutionary. Russia was under a general strike by October 1905. Trotsky emerged as a leader from the Menshevik branch of the Marxist Social Democratic Party. Sergius Witte created the Imperial Manifesto of October 30, 1905, which created a semi-constitutional monarchy with freedom of conscience, speech, assembly, and association. There was also an elected parliament; the Duma. The tsar retained power over defense, foreign affairs, and the appointment of ministers. The constitutional monarchy failed--the right was angry because of the degradation of the autocracy, the liberals distrusted Witte, and the left "feared revolution would slip from its grasp". At one point two thousand workers held off government forces for 10 days and declared a Provisional Government. Lenin slipped back into Russia. The Tsar and Empress discovered their son had hemophilia.

Analysis I found this chapter interesting and well written, but a bit too dramatically written. The book is clearly meant to be entertaining rather than just an historical source. I did learn important facts but I had to dig to find them. It definitely is not a textbook. I think it could have gone into more detail, but I understand it did not because it was from the Tsar's point of view. I would rather read from the citizen's viewpoint.

Conclusion I would recommend this if the reader was interested in an interesting overview. If writing a paper, I would never suggest it.