Russi A Cold Bed Of Political Activism

The division of society into bourgeoisie and proletariat in Russian revolution brings conflicts and disputes among the classes .The bourgeoisie annihilated fundamental rights of the

This demonstrates that since the stress of waging war was tremendous, it should be no surprise that the first war could be a primary cause of the Russian Revolution. Moreover, the major powers of Europe hurt Russia in World War I; yet, by 1917, all the combatants horrifically suffered from the strains of war economically, proving this to be a long-term cause. This was, to a great extent, considerable because the military defeats and social strains of World War I had created a crisis in Imperial Russia. Before, Russia had some military accomplishments and they were on their way to being successful. Nevertheless, their triumphs were not long-standing; hence, Russia was not able to be victorious due to the fact that Russia decreased in economy because of the limitations in Russia. Similarly, restraints included the shortage of food and the huge problems with getting the obligatory materials for the army during World War I, which shows that this was momentous. Along with Russia being defeated and having a scarcity of supplies, Russia also showed economic oppression due to the pressure in jobs workers faced.

In 1905, the social and economic tensions building up within Russia boiled over into Revolution. It was described by Lenin as the “Great Dress Rehearsal” for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and may give us clues as to why the 1917 revolution started. The suggestion that Tsar Nicholas II and his actions were to blame for this revolution is debatable and there are many factors such as the repressive Tsarist system, the growth of opposition from the time of Alexander II and the defeat in the war with Japan to consider. These events can be separated into short and long term effects on the revolution. Bloody Sunday and defeat to Japan would be short term effects whereas the

During the 1900’s the Russian Government made it extremely hard for the Bolsheviks to progress which made them revolt against the government making this a prime matter for the start of the Revolution. The Czarist government was ostracized by the common people of Russia so Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown by the Provisional Government, whom later on were overthrown by Lenin and shortly after the Bolsheviks took control over Russia. Russia was hard to develop because of the major leaders who had control; Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky. Almost overnight an entire society was destroyed and replaced with one of the most radical social experiments ever seen. Poverty, crime, privileged and class-divisions were to be eliminated, a new era of socialism

The Bolshevik revolution came to prominence because of the Provisional Government’s inability to gain support from the Russian population. ‘The government enjoyed little confidence amongst the masses; and many of its members were largely unknown to the new Russia that had burst upon the political scene.’[3 ] Kerensky himself comments on the problematic circumstances his government experienced, ‘the old (governmental machine) had disappeared; the new was not yet established.’ The support of the peasantry was critical in establishing popular rule, as historian Richard Abraham comments, ‘the largest social class in Russia was still the peasantry.

In 1917, Tsar Nicholas ll is the current ruler of Russia. Russia’s economic growth is increased by the czar’s reforms of the production of more factories. Since, Russia desperately needed to keep up with the rest of Europe’s industry. This reform worked out perfectly, but the working conditions of these factories didn’t please factory workers. After the events of the Russo-Japenese War, “Bloody Sunday”, and WW1, all of Russia was in utter chaos under the czar’s ghastly leadership. With no signs of the czar’s attempt to solve the problems that kept coming up, all of Russia banded together and filled the streets with strikes and riots. A revolution was peaking among the peasants. The uprising brought Nicholas ll no choice but to abdicate

The first section of Fitzpatrick’s essay discusses how Marxism was such an important part to creating classes during the Bolsheviks rule in the beginning of the 20th Century. She notes that this western belief system was popular with Russian intellectuals, especially on revolutionary left. (173) However, around the 1890’s industrialization was starting to catch up with the Marxist dreams, and the first soviets were founded in Moscow and Petersburg in 1905 helped bring down the tsarist regime in February 1917 (Suny 173).

Despite all the work Alexander II did toward reforming Russia, the “Era of Great Reforms” left one crucial aspect unaltered: the power of the emperor. The intentional neglect of this was what kept the reforms from realizing their true potential. This led to dissatisfaction, which encouraged repression, terror, and most importantly: revolution. The first was the Polish Rebellion, caused by the failure of Russian authorities to suppress Polish nationalism. Although the Poles failed, other minorities sprung up for their voice

Initially, the general masses that were just days before striking and demonstrating for changes in working conditions now fell to their knees in support of their nation. What they did not know was just how woefully unprepared their country was to take action against the Central Powers. Guns and ammunition were in a vast shortage. In training, one gun was used by three recruits. More ammunition was being fired in a day than could be manufactured in a month. During battles, soldiers relied on using the guns of the killed or wounded. Combined with this lack of preparedness, the promotion system was based off of seniority or family ties, not skill. This led to many incompetent leaders that lacked the skills, training, or intelligence needed to make strategic decisions to ensure Russian victories. While the Russian army was able to secure victories against Austria-Hungary, the campaign against Germany went horribly wrong. The first real defeat was at Tannenberg, where Russian forces lost 300,000 men. Russia’s military force was far behind Germany’s, and when the Austro-Hungarian army was joined by German troops, Russia was effectively nothing more than cannon fodder to divert German forces away from the Western Front. The public support earlier mentioned was now non-existent. Public displays against war were common and usually brought down forcedly by the police. During

Before the end of the tsarist reign the ruling class was oppressed to a very autocratic and religious government. After the Russo – Jap war “The catalyst which in 1905 transformed the complex pattern of social and political agitation into a direct assault upon the autocracy was a disastrous war with Japan.” (E Acton: op.cit.). This quote shows the political unrest throughout Russia against the tsar. Social democrats began to demand political reform, eventually leading to Bloody Sunday.

The two essays I have selected take different approaches concerning Tsar Nicholas II and his decision making process. The two men take not only different approaches to the tsar but arrive at different conclusions. Rotem Kowner’s essay, Nicholas II and the Japanese body: Images and decision-making on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, examines Nicholas’s attitude toward the Japanese and how it affected his decision. Raymond Esthus’s essay, Nicholas II and the Russo-Japanese War, shows Nicholas’s commitment to autocracy and a stubborn resolve to defend Russia’s honor.

an attempt to address the issues that serfdom created, Russian thinkers desired to avoid doing what their Western counterparts did and radically modernize (Sakwa 1999). Instead, the aim became to utilize the traditions and way of life that have already been established in Russia for decades and centuries and implement them to make the move from feudalism to the institution of socialism (Sakwa 1999). Socialism would blur and erase the socioeconomic divide between classes and help to implement equality in Russia by creating a society that was classless and mostly homogenic in nature (MacKenzie and Curran 2002). This blurring would, in theory, help to ease the economic troubles that kept surfacing while the provisional government attempted to

The outbreak of the unrest, in January 1905, found Lenin anxious to set down a novel strategy for revolution: the need for the proletariat (the working class) to win "hegemony" in the democratic revolution. He flatly declared to both major political parties of the time (the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) that the proletariat was the

Therefore, morale in Russia was not a reason why there was an outbreak of revolution in 1917. Nevertheless, the few military successes could not make up for the shocking casualty list revealed later on in wartime. Also, when the economic and military problems arose they could have been tolerable for the general public if they were encouraged by the people at the top such as the Tsar but no leadership was shown. Though this was a problem in Russia the morale in Russia was not too bad although people did begin to focus more on taking care of themselves because of the effects of the war on everyday life. On the other hand, the fact that central leadership was not being provided to the Russian public, criticisms began to be pointed directly at the Tsar. Nicholas failed in being commander-in-chief of the Russian armed services. He did not encourage war effort and did not prove to be the appropriate representative for the Russian people. In addition, the fact that he took on this important role meant that he was responsible for the wars consequences and the survival of Tsardom depended on military success. Due to the lack of success, Nicholas II was blamed and not his generals. This was a reason for the revolution in February 1917 to happen as it appeared to the citizens of Russia that they did not have a strong leader, also the tsarist system’s claim to the loyalty of the Russian people had been forfeited thus

The First World War became the Tsars worst nightmare. Russia joined the war in many ways to keep peoples minds of Russia’s backwardness and badly run government, and onto the war effort itself. But within the first year of the war people’s minds began to wander away from troop moral and toward the Tsar and his control.