Zritel’, vol.1, no.19, November 3, 1905
Satirikon, vol. 2, no. 45, November 7, 1909
I chose both of these images as they both emphasize the precarious nature of the government after 1905, and the ensuring governmental reforms. The first depicts the ever common metaphor for a precarious structure that is doomed to fall – a man building a house of cards. The caption underneath it says, ” наша конституция – просять не дуть… ( Our constitution – please don’t breathe ( it is asked not to breathe). This goes well with Hosking’s chapter “The Revolution of 1905-7” that we read, which, in a manner similar to Leopold Haimson well known articles in the Slavic review, emphasis the fractured nature of Russian society and the divisions that separated the different segments of the population ( Haimson published two articles in the Slavic Review, which argued that by 1914 civil society had become estranged not only from the state, but split between workers and educated elite, creating profoundly difficult problems for social stability in Russian prior to World War I). This image shows that the creator of this image also saw the precarious nature of the political manuverings in the post-1905 era. The dress of the man building of the house of cards (his face is hidden from the future) seem to be that of the upper class, therefore perhaps this is showing the government’s tricky position after 1905, rather than emphasizing the differences between the various societal groups that are achieving political power at this time.
The second image also, at least in my opinion, shows the divisions of the Russian politics at this time, although the text is a bit trickier to understand.
— Что это вы Ваше Пр—во на руки воду льете?
П. А. Столыпинъ. — А это видите ли, у меня сейчасъ будутъ лидеры думскаго центраj и если мое рукопожатіе выйдетъ сухимъ—сейчасъ же начнутъ циркулировать слухи о непрочности Думы!
What are you your Pr – pour water into your hands?
P. A. Stolypin. “And you see, I’ll have the leaders of the Duma center now and if my handshake is dry — now rumors about the instability of the Duma begin to circulate!”
I assume that dry hands here are being taken as a sign of nervousness (?) ( I would have thought that sweaty hands would be a surer sign of nervousness)) but in any case this cartoon points at the instability of the Duma that was set up after the 1905 revolution. That the absence of presence of water on hands could start the rumor mill about Duma being unstable, means that that it was in a precarious position, and that society recognized that it was in a very fragile structure.