SUMMARY:

Chapter 10 of the history course A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia is titled “The Twentieth Century: Empire in the Era of Mass Society.” This is the story of the “revolt of the masses” that initially manifested itself through the dramatic rise in the urban population at the expense of migrants from the countryside. The emerging mass society produced new economic and cultural patterns and changed the demographic and political balance, but all these new developments were almost completely ignored by the imperial regime of Nicholas II. During his first decade in power (after 1894) he consistently strived to implement his father’s political ideal of ethnic Russian “popular monarchy,” with disastrous results in both the international arena and domestic affairs. The Revolution of 1905 became a culmination of the “revolt of the masses,” who had been left too long to their own devices. Deeming imperial regime and empire itself as no longer relevant, various social, political, and economic groups rose to pursue their distinctive and often mutually contradictory collective interests. Unable to offer a “new deal” to the diverse populations of North Eurasia, the emperor and empire lost all relevance and hence any ability to mobilize resources in their defense. The 1905 October Manifesto introducing the constitutional regime became the game changer: it gave the Russian Empire a second chance, and restored the role of Nicholas II as the supreme arbiter.