Evaluating the Stability of Russia in 1914

Evaluating the Stability of Russia in 1914

In 1914 Russia was seen to be both stable and unstable. In fact it

could be said that there was no stability in parts of Russia, like the

cities due to many key problems with the government, the economy and

the society. Due to reasons like the economy, political situations and

discontented people in society, Russia was unstable. Russians were

slowly uprising against the Tsar and his council, and this was a major

issue. However Russia was also seen to be quite stable in her rural

areas, this was partially because peasants were happy about crop

rotations and good harvest.

The Tsar saw that many Russians were discontent and in fear of a

revolution, he tried to improve situations. The Tsar responded to this

situation by appointing member of his government who he thought could

vastly improve circumstances in Russia. The Tsar appointed Piotr

Stolypin to improve conditions in Russia. Stolypin immediately began

his reign to introduce his ideas like social modernization,

industrialization, agriculture reforms, education reforms, land

reforms and many more. Examples of how significant these changes were

can be seen when agricultural reforms helped to produce much more food

and tackled with food problems, this give to some extent what people

wanted. Another example was in the education reform, he tried to

reduce the number of illiterates in Russia by making children attend

school. In the period from 1904 to 1914 primary school numbers doubled

and secondary schools quadrupled. Although it seemed that Russia would

become substantially stable, unfortunately Stolypin died in 1911 and

it would seem that Russia would fail to stabilise.

The Tsar also introduced the Duma (they were the people’s council),

the duma were appointed by the Tsar for two reasons, firstly to please

people and avoid revolution and also for his own reason, which were to

avoid revolution. The Tsars aim was to satisfy people’s needs to an

extent, by giving them a little bit of “freedom”. By this I mean that

this was the seen to be “freedom” for them as they began to get what