Reasons Behind the Russian Revolution

Reasons Behind the Russian Revolution In March 1917, the situation for the Russians had become desperate and

the workers wanted political changes as well as food and fuel. In

Petrograd (as St.Petersburg had been renamed to avoid any German

connection), 40,000 workers went on strike for higher wages and the

people and troops overthrew the Tsar. The Rominov dynasty was to end

after 304 years, bought down by the March 1917 revolution. So what

were the long and short-term causes that led to this milestone in

history? Firstly we have to ask ourselves, what is a long-term cause

and what is a short-term cause. I consider a long-term cause to be

something that started more than one year before the event, in the

case of the Russian revolution, before 1916. A short-term cause

therefore is something that happened a year or less before the event,

1916 till 1917. This is usually the final spark, triggering the

inevitable - the Russian revolution. It seemed necessary for long and

short term causes to interact to cause the revolution.

The Tsars autocracy was very badly organised and caused many conflicts

between the people and the Russian government. It had been like this

for a long time and needed a complete change. The Tsarist system meant

that the Tsar had complete power and authority. He was the head of the

state and had control over the Russian Orthodox Church. All the

important decisions were made in St.Petersburg, without asking the

people of Ru...

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...ecause the main

trigger of the Russian 1917 revolution was the strikes and Nicholas's

behaviour in War. The working conditions did not improve under the

provisional government, which therefore meant there was more support

for the Marxists who made preparations for the revolution.

I therefore consider this long-term cause of the First World War to be

the main cause that contributed to all the others - without this main

cause the Revolution may not have happened at all. That would have

caused immense chaos and uproar because eventually the situation would

have reached breaking point. All of these causes are made worse in

conjunction with others. The working conditions did not improve under

the provisional government, which therefore meant there was more

support for the Marxists who made preparations for the revolution.