The Occurrence of the 1905 Revolution and the Ineptitude of Tsar Nicholas II
The 1905 Revolution in Russia occurred because of a variety of long and short term causes, which led to the Tsar to lose the support of his people. These causes comprised of the economic hardship in Russia, the refusal of the government to broaden their representation, the military failure, and the mishandling of the 1905 crisis, "Bloody Sunday." However, the underlying factor in all of these causes is the ineptitude of Tsar Nicholas II, as he held supreme autocratic power, and so would have been able to avoid revolution by permitting reforms. Therefore, although there were many other issues which provoked the idea of
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Village councils, Zemstvas, were set up, and these were very successful; they organized transport of food etc. The Zemstvas success offered a more attractive alternative to the government, which was previously unthought-of concept. The fact that people discovered an alternative to the Tsar's government demonstrates the ineptitude of Nicholas II as he allowed the situation to escalate with minimal interference, and his people gained power to help themselves out of poverty. The economic problems therefore led to the politicization of the Russian people.
However, after giving the Russian people the power to help themselves through the famine, the Tsar's government remained absolutely unwilling to compromise their position. The refusal of the government to broaden their representation increased criticism of the Tsar, which could have been avoided. The Zemstvas requested that they be consulted and allowed to express their views on matters, but Nicholas refused to comply. Instead he relied on a system of repression to quiet the newly politicized Russia. Protesters were harshly beaten by the police, and student protesters had their Universities closed and many were forced to spend time in the army. In a bid to divert the blame, the Tsar and his government attempted to encourage Russian people to blame the
The mess that causes the Russian Revolution The three cause of the Russian revolution was a long-term cause, short-term cause, and one in the middle. The long term cause was that the people of Russian were overwhelmed because of the population of the poor peasants. ‘'( between 1649-1861) the majority of those peasants were enserfed. They lived like slaves on land owned by noblemen.''
The Russian Revolution began in 1917 and lasted until late 1930’s, the revolution was very brutal with total death of 3 million people and 7 million people were arrested (Document 12). The revolution broke out when Nicholas II comes to power because Bloody Sunday leads to Duma, then he steps down and the Duma sets up a provisional government thus sparking the want for domination and the revolution kicks off (Book). By the end of the revolution Russia was definitely weakened in some aspects but strengthened as a nation. Therefore, the Russian people were better off after the Russian Revolution because they benefited from a better economy, government, and living conditions.
In 1917, a revolution started more specifically the Russian Revolution. Many people were impacted by this revolution. It started in 1905 when Russia was suffering military defeats in the Russo-Japanese War. Following, Russians flooded the streets protesting. About 300 people were killed and many were wounded. The two leaders during this time were Czar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin. Czar Nicholas II was the leader who caused the Russian Revolution because of his bad leadership.
Assess the role of the Bolsheviks for the decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty.
In order for a great leader to succeed, he/she must recognizes the aspirations of his/her people and maintain an efficient government. Leaders who do not achieve those will most likely to rule poorly and often lead to destruction of their regimes. Their failures as leaders included policies that either pleased or benefited the people. During the early 18th century, tsar Nicholas II, took reign and caused chronic discontents brewing throughout Russia. His actions were seen as obstinate such as his managements of society and economy. With Russia’s poor economy resulted from WWI and increasing burden of tsar for industrial workers and soldiers, the provisional government was at stake. Growing civil unrest, coupled with chronic food shortages, erupted into revolts of peasants, forcing the abdication of Nicholas II. By the end of the nineteenth century, the economy, social organizations and military were at great decline, ending Russia’s long term imperial rule. It became the least advanced of the major European nations in political and social developments. However, some historians believed that the Revolution was caused by the government’s political oppression, while others claimed that it was the inability of tsar to fulfill Russia 's aspirations. While the utter political failures of WWI escalated paths to the Revolution, the primary cause for the Russian Revolution of 1917 was the revival of socio-economic tensions and
Nicholas II was known, not only for being the Emperor of Russia but also for his character and personality which undoubtably led him to his own downfall. Nicholas was often referred to as not being ready to become Tsar as well as being a weak leader. Firstly, Nicholas II himself, amongst a very large proportion of Russian society, believed that he was not prepared to be coronated Emperor. Nicholas himself stated “What is going to happen to me and all of Russia? I am not prepared to be a Tsar. I never wanted to become one. I know nothing of the business of ruling.”. (Russian Revolution Quotations 2015). Nicholas was aware of what he was getting himself into and that he was not prepared for such a role. This is further corroborated by the
The Russian Revolution was a series of two revolutions that consisted of the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The February Revolution of March 8th, 1917 was a revolution targeted and successfully removed Czar Nicholas II from power. The February Revolution first began to take place when strikes and public protests between 1916 and early 1917 started occurring. These strikes were created to protest against and to blame Czar Nicholas II for Russia’s poor performance in WWI and severe food shortages that the country facing. Soon, violence between protesters and authorities began to escalate, and on February 24th, 1917 in the city of Petrograd, hundreds of thousands of male and female workers flooded the streets. They all had the same purpose which was to protest against the “Great War” and the monarchy. The protests began to escalate and the vastly outnumbered police were unable to control the crowds. When news of the unrest reached the czar, he ordered the military to put an end to the riots by the next day, and on February 26th, 1917, several troops of a local guard regiment fired upon the crowds, but however many soldiers felt pity and empathy for the protesters than the czar, and on the next day, more than 80,000 soldiers join the protest even directly fighting the police.
Russia's overthrows and shortage caused revolutionary upheaval and massive inflation, which led to deprived infrastructure. During World War I, Russian society naturally caused great dissatisfaction among the serfs. As the revolution wore on, numerous reform and Tsar Nicholas II, a ruler, tried to change Russia's social structure and government. Among the masses, there was discontentment with Russia's social system and living conditions. Laborers worked and lived in horrendous conditions, which played a crucial role in aggravating the condition of workers and peasants. As a result, peasants starved and Russia’s armies were overpowered on the battlefield because much of its terrain was occupied by enemies. Hence, Imperial Russia was a
“The power still has to be snatched from the hands of the old rulers and handed over to the revolution. That is the fundamental task. A general strike only creates the necessary preconditions; it is quite inadequate for achieving the task itself”(Trotsky). The ineffectiveness of the strikes can be found in the fact that in nearly every occasion the soldiers were ordered to shoot on the crowd, stopping the revolts and leaving the tsar as obnoxious to the situation as before. Also the peasants in the countryside suffered land-hunger due to the growth of population caused by the decreased of mortality rates. Backwardness was also caused by the “open field system”, which didn’t motivate the peasants to improve their machinery or seeding methods since their land would be taken away from them and redistributed when a member of the community died. Nicholas II was a weak, indecisive and obstinate ruler who, being very conservative and reactionary, used extensively the secret police (“Third Section”) and the army to suppress uprisings and political enemies. He alienated the intelligentsia and angered the liberals with his lack of political participation and exaggerated reliance on the Fundamental laws, which said that the tsar was appointed by god and was rightfully in charge of the country. As a response, the liberals initiated a banquet campaign that started in November 1904, and ended in January 1905 with the aim of making the tsar give
In 1917 a great revolution would collapse Russia’s monarchy and extend the color of red throughout the world. During this time, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were instrumental in causing the grand collapse of the Russian government and the reformation into a communist state. The Russian revolution changed the world when it happened and I believe it changed the people of Europe after it occurred.
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 Russian Revolution of 1917 set the country on a course that few other countries took in the 20th century. The shift from the direction of a democratic, parliamentary-style government to a one party communist rule was a drastic change that many did not and could not predict. Looking back on this key moment in Russian history, many historians ask the question ‘why did the political power in Russia shift to the Bolsheviks’? Since the revolution in 1905 Russia was becoming progressively more democratic, distributing power throughout the political sphere. This came to an abrupt halt when Vladimir Lenin was put into power by the Bolshevik takeover of the Provisional Government. Many authors have had different takes on this event. Two particularly interesting ones were Arthur Mendel and John D. Basil. Their pieces On Interpreting the Fate of Imperial Russia and Russia and the Bolshevik Revolution give various perspectives on the Russian Revolution and attempt to answer the question of the power shift. This key point in Russia’s history sets the tone for the next 100 years. Russia became a superpower, an enemy of the United States, started multiple wars directly and indirectly, and started using an economic system used by various countries around the world. Today we still see the effects of the 1917 Revolution. Looking at both Mendel’s and Basil’s attempt to answer why the power shifted to the Bolsheviks. Since both historian 's account of the events is different they cannot
The long term causes lead back to the time between the end of the 1905
The Russian Revolutions of 1917 There were two revolutions that occurred in Russia in 1917. The first one, in February, overthrew the Russian monarchy. The second one, in October, created the world’s first Communist state. The Russian revolutions of 1917 involved a series of uprisings by workers and peasants throughout the country and by soldiers, who were predominantly of peasant origin, in the Russian army.
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