Brewing Revolution: Russian Communists and Ukrainian Peasants Raise the Stakes
Russia had been growing in Eurasian regional influence for 50 years, and the surrounding nations had fought to limit its power. Napoleon Bonaparte of France targeted Russia, intending to make it join in his blockade of Britain.
However, his ill-fated winter raid of 1812 was repulsed by the weather, as well as hard-bitten Russian resistance. Then the Russians lost against the French, Turks, and British in Crimea. This war between Russia and her neighbors played itself out on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine was wary of war, and the credibility of the Tsars was at an all time low. Peasant rebellions became a permanent feature of the Russian landscape, each time savagely ridden down by the empire’s cavalry. The state instituted some cosmetic reforms, but the Tsar grimly held onto his royal prerogatives.Ukraine contributed vigorously to the unrest that brought down the Tsars. Workers took strike action. Peasants rioted and burned. In return, Tsarist soldiers slaughtered civilians. The Ukrainian dream of “rule by the Ukrainian proletariat” was ardently promoted in secret.
One of Russia’s unsatisfactory reforms at that time was the institution of dumas, or parliaments, where different regions could send delegates to represent regional interests. In the first and second dumas, the Ukrainian delegates formed a caucus to push Ukrainian concerns. The Tsar changed the duma rules after that, specifically to break the power of special interest blocs. He decreed that all delegates had to speak with a single voice, and not refer to the issues shared by several delegates and the states they represented. With their powers of expression so severely curtailed, all that made its way through the hot air of the dumas was that Russia should think about letting Ukrainians speak Ukrainian, and have a little more autonomy. It was a waste of time.