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World history 9 the russian revolution
World history 9 the russian revolution
Causes, course and consequences of the 1905 revolution
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The Revolution of 1905 was crucial for Russia’s history, it opened up society in many ways, most importantly: there was open opposition to the Tsar. Uprisings became common as well as strikes, nationalist disturbances and even assassinations. A culmination of factors lead to the Revolution of 1905, and I believe there were three main causes: “bloody Sunday” which was the massacre of hundreds of peaceful protesters, the embarrassment of the Russo-Japanese War which brought the country a lot of humiliation, and the economic problems which had caused issues for years. This revolution was obscure because ultimately it failed to overthrow the Tsarist regime, but it can arguably be Russia’s most important revolution because it begins an era of change
There was pressure for Nicholas to change Russia’s government system from an autocracy to a constitutional monarchy, especially because of the discontent the people felt after Russia was horribly defeated in the Russo-Japense war. Nicholas was not prepared to be the Tsar of Russia, part of the reason he was so unsuccessful was because “he tried to emulate his father’s autocratic rule but he lacked his father’s domineering personality and there where-withal to provide a government.” A reason why this can be said to be Russia’s most important revolution is because of the events that took place on January 22nd 1905. Thousands of working class people came together at the Winter Palace to protest against their working hours and low wages. The peaceful protest was lead by father Gapon, many of the workers were holding portraits of the Tsar as a sign of respect, but there were troops called to attack the protesters. The palace guard attacking and killing these protestors showed how out of touch Nicholas was with his people. The response of the middle class and not just the peasants is really what turned the events of “Bloody Sunday” into a “revolutionary crisis of authority for the tsarist government”. Ultimately, Nicholas lost all chance of preventing a full blown revolution after the events of Bloody Sunday because “it drove liberals to the
He never would 've written the manifesto if his advisors hadn 't forced it, and because of this he did not feel “morally bound to observe it” The Manifesto did not address the issue of a constitution, which Nicholas carefully decided so that he could “maintain the illusion that he remained an autocrat even after creating a representative body with legislative powers” this combined with deception from his liberal advisors led him to believe that this would end all of the unrest. The October Manifesto proved to play an important role in the importance of this revolution. The Tsar continued to pretend like the promises in the October Manifesto did not exist, and liberal and radical groups continued to grow. Historian Richard Pipes says “the experience of 1905 left it more, not less radical. The terrible weakness of the bonds holding together the mighty Russian Empire became apparent to all and in the end Russia gained nothing more than a breathing
The October revolution of 1917 in Russia was a turning point that defined Russia as a nation. It was one of the most dramatic events in the history of the Russia that had completely changed the lives of the people at that time. The Russlander by Sandra Birdsell describes the live of a girl who was raised on a wealthy Mennonite estate. It seemed like her parents were ignoring all the troubles in the outside world, living a happy life together. But nothing lasts forever, and their happiness ended with the start of the revolution. At that time Katya was only 16 years old. Just like many people at that time she lost her family and friends, who were killed by the Bolsheviks. The conflict with the new leaders of the country started when her father refused to pay taxes and support his country, and ended with this horrible tragedy.
For centuries, autocratic and repressive tsarist regimes ruled the country and population under sever economic and social conditions; consequently, during the late 19th century and early 20th century, various movements were staging demonstrations to overthrow the oppressive government. Poor involvement in WWI also added to the rising discontent against Nicholas as Russian armies suffered terrible casualties and defeats because of a lack of food and equipment; in addition, the country was industrially backward compared to countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the USA. It had failed to modernize, this was to do with the tsars lack of effort for reforms. The country was undergoing tremendous hardships as industrial and agricultural output dropped. Famine and poor morale could be found in all aspects of Russian life. Furthermore, the tsar committed a fatal mistake when he appointed himself supreme commander of the armed forces because he was responsible for the armies constant string of defeats.
It was said that the educated people, the contact with other countries should contribute to the government policy. As said in document 1 , "By 1900 there were political parties raging from far right defenders of autocracy and russian power over all other ethnicities, to far left revolutionaries calling for the overthrow of the government." The government there was autocratic, which was when the tsar had all the power/control of the government. Another cause for the Russian Revolution was the outbreak of WW1. "Even before the war urban workers all over the Russian empire had been increasingly radical, but the war brought the government's incompentence and the people's grievances into sharper relief. The first months of the war were a disaster for Russia." It is much easier to overthrow a government than to try andcreate a new government. As said in document 2,"Chaos, conflict, uncertaunty; more violence are much more common and often led to centralized, authoritarian governments." There was celebration all over the streets after the indication that the tsar was overthrown after 300 years of a tsarist government ruling. "The problem was that, after the party, governing problems arose immediately.
Tsarism during the period after the 1905 revolution and the March revolution of 1917 faced a ‘wave of social discontent’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 57). This was no surprise, as there was many who during that period had thought that there was a ‘straight road [to] a socialist future’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 57). However many saw that there was not the means to happen in Russia at the time. Hobsbawm plants the idea of a Bourgeoisies revolution and the class struggles, combined with Karl Marx’s ideas about the impending revolutions. Centralised in Europe was the ideas of socialism and revolution. Hobsbawm reflects the ideas of the time, that they were ‘helpless’ by 1914 and by 1916 the majority followed. This was just the popular opinion of the time of the Russian public. Although he jumps between times, starting with the October revolution then jumping to the ‘overthrow(ing) of Tsarism’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 57) then back to the post October revolution. This does not affect the readability of the section. It gives a well-rounded description of the period to form a good base for Part II.
Czar Nicholas’ poor leadership forced him to abdicate and caused the Bolshevik takeover. One of the reasons I say that is because of the way he handled “Bloody Sunday”. “Bloody Sunday” was when troops killed over a thousand people in a peaceful worker assembly. After “Bloody Sunday”, workers all over Russia went on strike, and peasants caused uprisings that were suppressed by Nicholas II’s troops causing tensions to increase. Another reason was his disastrous involvement in World War I. In the beginning of the war, Russia’s armies did not do well. To fix this, Nicholas became the commander. Now under his command, their continued failure reflected the Czar himself, further decreasing his popularity. Lastly, civil unrest grew as food riots, chronic food shortages, and labor strikes continued to proceed. This eventually erupted into open revolt, and Czar Nicholas had no choice but to abdicate. Soon after, the new government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin.
future leader of the Soviet Union as a “dress rehearsal” for the 1917 revolution. The most important difference is that the 1905 revolution failed to destroy the autocracy in Imperial Russia. A combination of reasons can explain why this revolution failed at overthrowing the Tsar Nikolas the Second. The revolutions participants were not revolutionaries that wanted to overthrow the Tsar, it was not started by revolutionary groups. The military and military context played an important role to the revolution’s failure, and the autocracy’s reforms gave compromise to the protestors who could be satisfied with the changes. These factors show why the 1905 revolution failed to destroy the autocracy.
I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent, along with economic hardships, caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution, as they did in 1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards.
The resignation of Nicholas II March 1917, in union with the organization of a temporary government in Russia built on western values of constitutional moderation, and the capture of control by the Bolsheviks in October is the political crucial opinions of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The actions of that historic year must also be viewed more broadly, however: as aburst of social strains associated with quick development; as a disaster of political modernization, in relations of the tensions sited on old-fashioned traditions by the burdens of Westernization; and as a social disruption in the widest sense, concerning a massive, unprompted expropriation of upper class land by fuming peasants, the devastation of outmoded social patterns and morals, and the scuffle for a new, democratic society.
People believed that Bloody Sunday happened under Nicholas II because he could not be found when the marchers were marching to the Winter Palace, causing Russian troops to panic. The result of Bloody Sunday caused riots to break out, forming the councils of workers in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the bond between Nicholas II and the people was broken, causing the October Manifesto. A short term solution October Manifesto was granted, which was a constitution to stop the riots. The primary intentions of the October Manifesto were to divide the revolutionaries. The Italian Unification had a big impact on Nationalism, which was led by Benso di Cavour, which supplied most of the ideology for the movement.
By February 1917, discontent within the Tsarist society had risen to such a level that a revolution occurred. Originally, the revolution began as several protests about poverty, crime and the conditions in which Russians were forced to work and live in. These protests soon vilified Tsar Nicholas and turned into brutal and violent riots, although it can be argued that the Tsar acted villainous towards his people and thus deserved his status as an enemy of the people. There were many contributing factors that led to the Spring revolution, chiefly the growing vexation of the public that began many years before the war and the catalysis of the war in fuelling the fire of discontent. This essay will discuss the effects of these factors on the breakdown of the Tsarist society by February 1917 and form a supported conclusion on which factor had the largest impact and was, ultimately, the main reason for the breakdown of society and the subsequent revolutions.
The autocratic monarchy of Russia was unfair and unrepresentative of the Russian people, as the majority did not have the right to vote, let alone its peasant class. accounting for almost eighty five percent of the total population. This class lived in poverty, and were answerable to their landlords. and the Mirs, who would often use brutal measures to stabilise them. Nicholas II introduced the October Manifesto, which labelled Russia as a constitution, and the Tsar no longer had absolute power.
The Russian Revolutions of 1917 led to the riddance of the czarist Russia as well as the ushering in of the socialistic Russia. The first of the two revolutions forced Nicolas II to abdicate his throne to a provisional government. Lenin headed the second of the two revolutions in which he overthrew the provisional government.
The discontentment of industrial workers in Russia was an important factor behind the 1905 revolution in Russia. The conditions in the factories left a lot of workers dissatisfied with how they were treat, with many factories completely forsaking anything resembling health and safety regulations and others making their employees work 11 hours a day throughout the week and 10 hours on a Saturday. However, there were several other important factors that led to the 1905 revolution such as the Russo Japanese war in 1904-1905, The policy of Russification and the events of Bloody Sunday. All of these factors will be discussed in the
Russian Revolution Essay. Throughout history, there have been many revolutions between the population of a country and its government. People always wanted change, usually in the directions of freedom, peace and equality and in the lead up to the 1917 Russian revolution; there were a variety of social, political and economic situations that all played their part. In the years leading up to the revolution, Russia had been involved in a series of wars. The Crimean war, the Russo-Turkish war, the Russo-Japanese war and the First World War.
In examining the comparison of the 1905 events with the similar situation in 1917, it is vital to look at the backdrop circumstances in order to directly compare the revolutions. The combination of the social disruptions generated by the Russo-Japanese War effort caused unrest and several uprisings to take place in the period 1904-1905. In 1905 Russian armies suffered repeated defeats in the Russo-Japanese war leading to low morale, food shortages and bread prices soaring throughout Russia. Discontentment lay the foundation to political ferment amongst the Proletariat. The mobilisation of the working class accompanied the war effort, revitalizing the threat of a strike movement such like the one in 1905. The circumstances that Russian society found themselves in, in 1905 can be directly compared to the situation of 1914-1917.