The View that the Main Cause of the Collapse of Tsarist Rule was the Tsar's Supporters Lost Faith in the Regime

The View that the Main Cause of the Collapse of Tsarist Rule was the Tsar's Supporters Lost Faith in the Regime

The tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated in 1913, the

Royal family travelled throughout Russia in order to gain support.

Figes believes this anniversary was manipulated in order to increase

support for an ever increasingly unpopular dynasty. The discontent

for the Tsarist system was widespread and is undoubtable that the

pillars that had once held up the autocratic system were weakening.

Historians however have different believes over the influence that

these unstable pillars had on the Muscovite Tsar, with many viewing

the peasantry and proletariat more influential in bringing about the

downfall of the regime rather than the army and aristocracy.

The report from the Okhrana, which describes the situation in and

around Petrograd, describes the “bitterness of feeling among wide

sections of the population” in former St. Petersburg. The source,

similarly to source five acknowledges the “unbelievable burdens of

war.” The Russian Army was huge, with over a million in conscripts in

1826, the 25 year service was a great dread for most Russians with

fierce discipline imposed on soldiers. Although in 1905 the soldiers

had suppressed the uprisings of the proletariat the situation in 1917

was very different. The inability of Tsar Nicholas who had taken over

Russia’s military campaign in the Great War had caused mass

dis-satisfaction within the rank and file of the army. This

discontent led to mass mutinies, the most famous of which was during

the Petrograd garrisons where soldiers laid down their arms, became

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Tsar was “God on Earth”, made the most famous of these grievances. A

call for the dissolution of the Duma was made however around ten of

the members of the body defied the constitution and refused to step

down showing the open opposition that was beginning to emerge towards

the ever crumbling regime.

In conclusion although the Tsar’s supporters did desert the regime in

its hour of need it can be argued that the actions of the aristocracy,

army and the middle class were a reaction to the immense power that

the proletariat were voicing. It can be argued that although the

groups who supported the Tsar had grievances they were only prepared

to act upon them due to the openly rebellious attitude of the

proletariat whom along with the Duma first openly threatened the

regime set the ball of the revolution in motion.