ABSTRACT
The early twentieth-century popular uprising against the tsarist government is known as the Revolution of 1905 because the peak of revolutionary activity occurred in that year. In fact, however, it’s first manifestations date to 1904, and the revolutionary movement in the countryside and in the army continued into 1907. The strain and sacrifice of war, coupled with the humiliation of Russian losses and the country’s final defeat by Japan, provided the immediate pretext to attack the government. In March 1905 the Union of Unions was formed to bring together over twenty professional associations of lawyers, doctors, engineers, and other occupations, and it sought similar reforms. Between the Revolution of 1905 and the outbreak of war in 1914 Russia had a brief period of “normal” development, marked by a limited constitutionalism, renewed economic growth, rapid social evolution, basic changes in agriculture, and a remarkable spurt of cultural creativity.
