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The Revolution of 1905 in the Baltic Provinces and Finland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Toivo U. Raun
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Extract

Historical studies of the Russian empire in upheaval in the first two decades of the twentieth century have tended to be animated by a narrow centralist bias or an equally narrow regional one. Although it is clear that the primary impulse for revolutionary situations in 1905 and 1917 resulted from events in St. Petersburg/Petrograd, a Russocentric approach to a society that was less than 50 percent Russian is surely inadequate. At the same time, studies of individual minority nationalities, however thorough, tend to view these groups in isolation. A comparative perspective, which could identify broader uniformities as well as local peculiarities, is usually lacking. In this article I shall present a synthesizing and comparative overview of the Revolution of 1905 in the Baltic Provinces and Finland. Although these areas constituted only 2 percent of the land area of the Russian empire and had less than 4 percent of its population in 1905,2 they were among the most modernized in the country, and their ethnic diversity and differing histories provide abundant material for a comparative case study.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , Fall 1984 , pp. 453 - 467
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1984

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References

1. Neither Soviet nor non-Soviet authors have undertaken the comparison made here. General Soviet works on 1905 emphasize the “great friendship” of Russians and non-Russians and provide merely descriptive material on the Baltic area and Finland; for instance, Pankratova, A. M., Pervaia russkaia revoliutsiia 1905–1907 gg., 2nd ed. (Moscow, 1951), pp. 192–96Google Scholar; Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 godov v Rossii (Moscow, 1975), pp. 220–25. Soviet monographs on the Baltic region and Finland in1905, while also stressing the “great friendship,” are organized on the basis of present political and administrative boundaries and do not use a comparative framework. See, for example, Krastiņs˘, Jānis, 1905. gada revolūcija Latvijā, 3rd ed. (Riga, 1975)Google Scholar; Karjahärm, Toomas and Pullat, Raimo, Eesti revolutsiooni tules 1905–1907 (Tallinn, 1975)Google Scholar; Vlasova, M. N., Proletariat Finliandii v gody pervoi russkoi revoliutsii (1905–1907) (Petrozavodsk, 1961)Google Scholar; and the articles by la. P. Krastyn’ [Krastiņs˘] on Latvia and G. I. Mosberg on Estonia in Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 gg. v natsional'nykh raionakh Rossii (Moscow, 1955). Even a recently published slim volume—T. Kar'iakhiarm [Karjahärm], la. Krastyn’ [Krastiņs˘], and A. Tila [Tyla], Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 godov v Pribaltike (Tallinn, 1981)—which purports to provide a comparative overview of 1905 in the Baltic area, is mainly a narrative of events based on previously published secondary sources and offers little analysis. Among non-Soviet authors, von Rauch's, Georg Russland: Staatliche Einheit und nationale Vielfalt (Munich, 1953)Google Scholar uses a comparative approach, but the scope is too broad to deal adequately with 1905. It should also be noted that although conceptualizations of the revolution differ—Western historiansspeak of “1905,” Baltic Germans of “1905–1906,” and Soviets of “1905–1907 “—there is general agreement that a truly revolutionary situation, if there ever was one, no longer existed by the end of December 1905.

2. Thaden, Edward C., et al., Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland, 1855–1914 (Princeton, 1981), p. 41 Google Scholar, Ezhegodnik Rossii (1905): 45–46, 55, 58, 65.

3. To avoid confusion with both earlier and later entities (for instance, medieval Livonia and twentieth-century Estonia), the tsarist Baltic Provinces will be referred to by their German names. Designations for cities and districts will also be given in German with the Latvian or Estonian equivalent when the name appears for the first time. It should be noted that before 1917 the Russian terminology for Baltic place names was nearly always a transliteration of the German form. For thorough comparative tables of Baltic toponyms in the late tsarist era, see Patricia K. Grimsted, Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the USSR: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Belorussia (Princeton, 1981), pp. 609–11.

4. Thaden, Russification, pp. 4–5; Ezhegodnik Rossii (1905): 45–46, 55, 58.

5. Troinitskii, N. A., ed., Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis’ naseleniia Rossiiskoi Imperii, 1897 g., 89 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1899–1905), 19:78–81; 21:78–81; 49:42–43Google Scholar.

6. The figures on land area are taken from Ezhegodnik Rossii (1905): 6–7, 16. The total landarea of the Baltic Provinces was 81,049 square versts or 36,513 square miles.

7. Suomen tilastollinen vuosikirja, 10 (1912): 43. Due to rounding off, the total is 100.1 percent.

8. Ezhegodnik Rossii (1907): 80–81; Suomen tilastollinen vuosikirja, 29 (1931): 47.

9. Rashin, A. G., Naseleniie Rossii za 100 let (1811–1913 gg.) (Moscow, 1956), p. 93 Google Scholar; s˘vābe, Arvēds, Latvijas vēsture 1800–1914, 2nd ed. (Uppsala, 1962), p. 566 Google Scholar; Helsingin kaupungin tilastollinen vuosikirja, 37 (1948): 21.

10. Ezhegodnik Rossii (1905): 45–46, 55, 58, 65.

11. Helsingin kaupungin tilastollinen vuosikirja, 37 (1948): 27.

12. Ezhegodnik Rossii (1905): 372–74.

13. Karma, Otto, Tööstuslikult revolutsioonilt sotsialistkikule revolutsioonile Eestis (Tallinn, 1963), p. 234 Google Scholar; s˘vābe, Latvijas vēsture, p. 568; C. Leonard Lundin, “Finland,” in Thaden, Russification, p. 408; Troinitskii, Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis', 19:81; 21:81; 49:43; Ezhegodnik Rossii (1905): 45–46, 55.

14. Andrejs Plakans, “Modernization and the Latvians in the Nineteenth-Century Baltikum, ” in Ziedonis, Arvids, Jr. et al., eds., Baltic History (Columbus, Ohio, 1974), p. 134 Google Scholar; Eesti NSV ajalugu , 3 vols. (Tallinn, 1955–1971), 2:76 Google Scholar; Köörna, A., “Oktoobrirevolutsiooni sotsiaalmajanduslikest eeldustest Baltimaadel,” Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Toimetised: Ühiskonnateadused, 16 (1967):32–33 Google Scholar; Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 gg. v Latvii: dokumenty i materialy (Riga, 1956), p. xi.Google Scholar

15. Eesti NSV ajalugu, 2:313; Ezhegodnik Rossii (1907): 210–11.

16. Kirby, D. G., Finland in the Twentieth Century (London, 1979), p. 7 Google Scholar; Jussila, Osmo, Nationalismi ja vallankumous venäläis-suomalaisissa suhteissa 1899–1914 (Helsinki, 1979), p. 22 Google Scholar; Lundin, “ Finland,” p. 413; Teljo, Jussi, Suomen valtioelaman muutos 1905–1908 (Porvoo, 1949), pp. 13–15.Google Scholar

17. Teljo, Suomen vältioeldmän muutos, p. 44.

18. Andrejs Plakans, “The Latvians,” in Thaden, Russification, p. 229; Kruus, Hans, ed., Eesti ajaloo lugemik, 3 vols. (Tartu, 1924–1929), 3:292–94.Google Scholar

19. For analyses of the impact of Russification in the Baltic Provinces, see the parts by Michael H. Haltzel (“The Baltic Germans “), Andrejs Plakans (“The Latvians “), and Toivo U. Raun ( “The Estonians “) in Thaden, Russification.

20. Teljo, Suomen valtioeldman muutos, pp. 31–32.

21. Ames, Ernest F., ed., The Revolution in the Baltic Provinces of Russia (London, n.d.), pp. 4–10 Google Scholar; von Rauch, Russland, p. 150; Krastyn', “Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 gg. v Latvii,” Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 gg. v natsional'nykh raionakh Rossii, pp. 256–57; Tobias, Henry J., The Jewish Bund in Russia: From Its Origins to 1905 (Stanford, Calif., 1972), pp. 283–84Google Scholar.

22. Karjahärm and Pullat, Eesti revolutsiooni tules, pp. 41–42. Mikhail Kalinin notes that in 1901 he was the only Russian employed in the Volta factory in Reval; Kalinin, M., “Prebyvanie v Revele,” Proletarskaia revoliutsiia, 3 (1921): 241–42Google Scholar.

23. Kirby, Finland in the Twentieth Century, pp. 26–27; Osmo Jussila, “Vuoden 1905 suurlakko Suomessa, sen historialliset edellytykset ja seurakset, Historiallinen Arkisto, 72 (1977): 73; Lundin, “Finland,” pp. 421, 438.

24. Jutikkala, Eino and Pirinen, Kauko, A History of Finland (New York, 1962), pp. 233–36Google Scholar; Jussila, Nationalismi, pp. 23–24; Copeland, William R., The Uneasy Alliance: Collaboration between the Finnish Opposition and the Russian Underground, 1899–1904 (Helsinki, 1973), pp. 16, 203; Google Scholar; Virtanen, Kari O., Ahdistettu kansakunta 1890–1917 (Porvoo, 1974), pp. 205, 210Google Scholar.

25. s˘v ābe, Latvijas vēsture, pp. 626–27.

26. Amal'rik, A. S., “K voprosu o chislennosti i geograficheskom razmeshchenii stachechnikov v Evropeiskoi Rossii v 1905 godu,” Istoricheskie zapiski, 52 (1955): 174 Google Scholar.

27. To avoid confusion, all dates will be provided according to both Old and New Style.

28. Ames, Revolution in the Baltic Provinces, pp. 31, 41; Baltische Revolutions-Chronik, 2 vols. (Riga, 1907–1908), 2:213 Google Scholar.

29. Eesti ala moisate nimestik (Tallinn, 1981), pp. 2–4.Google Scholar

30. Tornius, Valerian, Die baltischen Provinzen (Leipzig, 1916), p. 67 Google Scholar. Tornius's figures for Livland and Kurland are very close to those in Malyi entsiklopedicheskii slovar', 2nd ed., 2 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1907–1909), 2:367 (819 estates in Livland) and Courland, Livonia and Esthonia (London, 1920), p. 55 (650 estates in Kurland).

31. Latvian pagasts, Estonian vald, Russian volost'.

32. Plakans, “The Latvians,” p. 265; Karjahärm and Pullat, Eesti revolutsiooni tules, p. 121; Eesti NSV ajalugu, 2: 216; Krastiņs˘, 1905. gada revolucija, p. 192, gives a figure of “about 90 percent” for Kurland.

33. Ezergailis, Andrew, The 1917 Revolution in Latvia (New York, 1974), p. 7 Google Scholar; s˘v ābe, Latvijas vēsture, pp. 599, 629; Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 gg. v Latvii, p. xxxi: Eesti NSV ajalugu, 2: 406–409; Alfred Kliimann, ed., 1905. aasta verepulm Eestis, 1: Harjumaa (Paide, 1932), p. 7.

34. [von Transehe-Roseneck, Astaf] Die lettische Revolution, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1906–1907), 2:398 Google Scholar; von Tobien, Alexander, Die livländische Ritterschaft in ihrem Verhältnis zum Zarismus und russischen Nationalismus, 2 vols. (Riga, 1925; Berlin, 1930), 2: 215 Google Scholar.

35. Krastyn', “Revoliutsiia 1905–1907 gg. v Latvii,” p. 259.

36. The correlation coefficient R is calculated according to the formula in Floud, Roderick, An Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Historians (Princeton, 1973), p. 138.Google Scholar

37. In order to test the hypothesis and corollary it would be necessary to establish the residence patterns and social categories of rural Germans in the Baltic Provinces. Furthermore, the timing and circumstances surrounding the destruction of individual estates would need to be determined.

38. Virtanen, Ahdistettu kansakunta, pp. 214–15, 224; Jussila, Nationalismi, pp. 58, 71; Lundin, “Finland,” pp. 412, 416.

39. Jussila, “Vuoden 1905 suurlakko,” pp. 81–86; Soikkanen, Hannu, “Suurlakko,” in Tommila, Päiviö, ed., Venälätnen sortokausi Suomessa (Porvoo, 1960), pp. 178–86Google Scholar; Lundin, “Finland,” p. 444.

40. Mehlinger, Howard D. and Thompson, John M., Count Witte and the Tsarist Government in the 1905 Revolution (Bloomington, Ind., 1972), p. 73.Google Scholar

41. Berieht uber die Tätigkeit der Baltischen Konstitutionellen Panel 1906 (Riga, 1907), pp. 4–5, 22Google Scholar; von Pistohlkors, Gert, Ritterschaftllche Reformpolitlk zwlschen Russlfizlerung und Revolution (Göttingen, West Germany, 1978), pp. 256–57Google Scholar.

42. Lindemuth, Margarethe, “Die lettischen Parteien 1905 und ihre Programme,” Baltische Hefte, 15 (1969): 75–86 Google Scholar; Lindemuth, , Das lettisch-deutsche Verhaltnts vor dem 1. Weltkrieg auf Grund der lettischen Presse (Hannover-Dohren, West Germany, 1976), pp. 29–33 Google Scholar; Plakans, “The Latvians,” pp. 261–63; George Longworth, J., The Latvian Congress of Rural Delegates in 1905 (New York,1959), pp. 52–53 Google Scholar, 90; von Rauch, Russland, p. 150; Raun, “The Estonians,” pp. 338–39.

43. Longworth, The Latvian Congress, p. 103; s˘vābe, Latvijas vēsture, pp. 616–17; Raun, “The Estonians,” pp. 312, 339; Raun, Toivo U., “1905 as a Turning Point in Estonian History,” East European Quarterly, 14 (1980): 328–31Google Scholar.

44. Virtanen, Ahdistettu kansakunta, pp. 242, 269; Jussila, “Vuoden 1905 suurlakko,” pp. 81–82; Jussila, Nationalismi, pp. 50,112,137–38; Kirby, D. G., ed., Finland and Russia: From Autonomy to Independence (London, 1975), pp. 106–11, 117–18.Google Scholar

45. Leonard Lundin, C., “The Road from Tsar to Kaiser: Changing Loyalties of the Baltic Germans, 1905–1914,” Journal of Central European Affairs, 10 (1950): 225–26Google Scholar

46. Harcave, Sidney, The Russian Revolution of 1905 (London, 1970; first published, 1964), p. 241 Google Scholar. A recent Soviet source suggests that over 2,000 people in the Latvian areas of the Baltic Provinces and about 300 in the Estonian areas were killed by the punitive expeditions, 595 others were sentenced to execution by courts-martial throughout the three provinces, and hundreds more received jail sentences, forced labor, or exile as punishment. See Karjaharm and Pullat, Eesti revolutsiooni tules, pp. 151–53.

47. Raun, “1905,” pp. 327–30; Spekke, Arnolds, History of Latvia: An Outline (Stockholm, 1957), p. 314.Google Scholar

48. Harcave, The Russian Revolution of 1905, p. 258.

49. Jussila, “Vuoden 1905 suurlakko,” pp. 89–90; Soikkanen, “Suurlakko,” p. 189; Kirby, Finland in the Twentieth Century, p. 32.

50. I wish to thank Professors Andrejs Plakans an4 Rein Taagepera for helpful advice on the quantitative aspects of this article.