The Occurrence of the 1905 Revolution and the Ineptitude of Tsar Nicholas II

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 revolution, it was the Tsar's mishandling of the problems,

especially Bloody Sunday, which were the final thrust to send Russia

into revolution.

One of Russia's grievances was the economic hardship caused by the

industrial slump in the years leading up to 1905. Russian society was

80% peasantry, and its agricultural system was backwards and

inefficient. The peasants were dissatisfied with the government

because they strongly resented land repayments, and they wanted to a

much greater amount of land. The social consequence of this was that,

although many peasants still loved the Tsar, they opposed his

government. At the end of the 19th Century, over 36 million Russians

were threatened with starvation due to the famine of this time, and

the government appeared to be doing nothing to rectify the situation.

Their slow and clumsy reaction suggested that they were incapable of

looking after their people, and that they did not care. The government

...

... middle of paper ...

...as the turning

point, since the Russian people had previously not held the Tsar to

account for their problems, blaming instead the officials. Bloody

Sunday caused the people to see that it was really Nicholas who was to

blame, since he was the autocratic ruler and had the power to change

his country. Since the Nicholas held absolute power, he can therefore

also be held to account for all the other issues facing Russia, since

he was unwilling to allow the reforms which would have appeased his

people. Tsar Nicholas believed his power was God-given, so he did not

have the right to dispute this autocracy, and he refused to compromise

power. In the end, it was this policy of repression and the Tsar's

ineptitude in handling the crisis' that Russia faced, that led to his

complete loss of support, and so caused the revolution.