The, “1905 Russia Revolution,” can be attributed to many factors.
Firstly and arguably the most significant cause to the Revolution was the socio-economic climate. The Emancipation Edict of 1861 brought frustration to the Peasants and Landowners. This was because; the legislation terminated serfdom and gave serfs their freedom, as well as land and the right to paid employment. However, the land given to the serfs was not sufficient in size as well as being of poor quality. The serfs had to pay ludicrous amounts of redemption taxes in return for the small and poor quality land and as a result many serfs had fundamentally no income to survive on. Also, the Edict of 1861 only granted these reforms to privately owned serfs. Government serfs had to wait until 1886 before they were granted full rights. This may have led to division between privately and publicly owned serfs.
The Landowners resented the Edict as they had lost large proportions of land to their serfs, as well as having to pay serfs wages were as previously they did not. As a result many Landowners accumulated huge debts through their excessive lifestyles, and therefore had to sell their assets and relocate to cities. This is illustrated through the statistic that in 1861 there were 128,000 landowning families in Russia, however by 1905 this had fallen to 107,000. In summary the Emancipation Edict promised the serf community much but in reality delivered very little, whilst the landowners faced seriously lifestyle changes resulting from the reform. As a result there would have been widespread civil unrest across the landowning and serf communities due to the introduction of the Emancipation Edict.
Another socio-economic cause was the working and living conditions faced by the working classes. This included factory workers frequently doing 12 to 16 hour working days. Working conditions in industries such as oil and mining were extremely dangerous, fatalities and debilitating injuries were common...