Russian Revolution of 1905

General Overview: The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. It included labor strikes, peasant unrest, military mutinies, and the formation of grassroots councils (soviets) of people's power. It is widely felt that the 1905 revolution set the stage for the 1917 Russian Revolutions, and for Bolshevism to emerge as a distinct political movement. Lenin later called it "The Great Dress Rehearsal", without which the "victory of the October Revolution in 1917 would have been impossible".

The 1905 revolution was spurred by the Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, which ended in the same year, but also by the growing realization by a variety of sectors of society of the need for reform in the face of agrarian crisis, economic stagnation, and political repression. However, it is generally felt that the detonator of the insurrection were the events of “Bloody Sunday”, in which a mass demonstration -led by priest and police agent, Georgy Gapon- which had sought to petition the Tsar for relief, was fired upon by the troops, killing hundreds of marchers.

There followed clashes in St. Petersburg, and spreading unrest throughout the rest of the Russian Empire. Strikes spread in three great waves: January, October, and November. In June the crew of the battleship Potemkin famously mutinied against their officers. There were further clashes in St. Petersburg in December.

The rebellion did not overthrow the autocracy, but by late 1905 the Tsar felt obligated by events to agree to constitutional reforms, including the establishment of the State Duma, a multi-party political system, and the Russian Constitution of 1906.

Who's Who

Differences Among the Russian Socialists, by Karl Kautsky (1905)

Eight Hours and a Gun: Revolutionary Russia, 1904-1905, by Dave Harker (2020)

Overviews of the 1905 Revolution

The Russian Revolution of 1905, by Albert Weisbord (1927)

1905, by Tony Cliff (1985)

The 1905 Revolution, from Trotsky: Towards October (1879-1917), by Tony Cliff (1989)

The 1905 Revolution, The Muzhik in Rebellion, and The Great Dress Rehearsal, from Lenin 1: Building the Party (1893-1914), by Tony Cliff (1975)

A Hidden Story of the 1905 Russian Revolution: The Unemployed Soviet, by Nikolai Preobrazhenskii (2005)

1905: The Consciousness Factor, by Pete Glatter (2005)

Contemporaneous Documents and Participants' Accounts

1905, by Leon Trotsky (1907)