Why the Tsar Fell From Power in 1917
On March 2nd 1917 the Tsar agreed to abdicate, this was the accumulation of a series of factors associated with the Tsarist Russian society. All workers, middle classes, aristocrats and even some of the Tsars oldest and most faithful supporters were starting to resent the system they were under. Famines, inflation, strikes and incisive rumors all took their toll on the populace. The icing on the cake came in the form of the extremist feelings of anger the army felt towards Nicholas I, and their withdrawal of support for him. Here are some of the events that led up to the 1917 revolution in more detail.
In August 1915, the Tsar left Petrograd to command the Russian
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They considered the Tsar irresponsible for taking over the army and held him responsible for everything; as a result more conflicts between the people were started.
The Tsarina and Gregory Rasputin were other figures that played a significant part in causing the Russian revolution. They were both very unpopular with the country. Rasputin was a monk in the Russian Orthodox Church and had increasing importance and influence on the Tsar as he helped cure Alexei of haemophilia. Rasputin made a mockery of the Royal Family and the people of Russia despised him for his rebellious background and the rumours surrounding him about heavy drinking and his influence on woman. The Tsar was so taken in by him; he left Rasputin and the Tsarina to rule Russia during the First World War. The people did not trust either of them, because the Tsarina was German they thought she would deliberately rule Russia badly so Russia would lose the war and Germany win. Even though this chaotic situation would have challenged the best of leaders, the Tsarina and
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By December 1915, more than one third of all men of the working age had been recruited into the army of fifteen million troops. By 1916, peasants were being asked to bring pitchforks with them when they were called up for their service. Not surprisingly, Russian casualties were very high. In 1916, two million soldiers were killed or seriously wounded and one third were taken prisoner. Soldiers saw their comrades as they were being slaughtered in a futile manner - officers were blamed and it was severely disturbing and unjust. Consequently, when these people were being recruited to fight in the war, the unemployment rate in the cities increased and factories were desperate for workers. Wages got lower and lower so the factory owners could afford to employ them and more and more strikes broke out. In December 1916, workers in Petrograd starved due to lack of workers - Russia was in chaos. Not only the soldiers but also the civilian population became angry.
The Tsar's fall from power was due to his poor leadership and control of his country. He made many vital mistakes when ruling his
Nicholas II ruled Russia from 1894-1917 and was to be its final tsar. He ascended the throne under the impression that he would rule his whole life as it's undisputed leader. Accompanied by his wife, Alexandra, they lived a comfortable life of luxury while the country suffered around them. Nicholas was determined to rule as harshly as his father; however, he was a very weak and incompetent character who did not posses the qualities capable of guiding Russia through its time of turmoil.
In the years leading up to the fall of the three hundred year old Romanov dynasty there was increasing tension building up in Russia. The failing of Russia in the war, the failings of the tsar and his decisions, and the social and economic situations in Russia all played a part in the fall. Still it is believed that the First World War had played the biggest part in the fall of the dynasty.
By March 1917, disasters on the battlefield, combined with food and fuel shortages on the front, brought the monarchy to collapse. In St. Petersburg workers were going on strike. Marchers, mostly women were shouting, "Bread! Bread! Bread!" Troops refused to fire on demonstrators, leaving the government helpless. Duma politicians setup a temporary government/ Middle class liberals prepared a constitution for a new Russian republic. At the same time they continued the war with Germany. That decision proved fatal. Most Russians were fed up with the war and returned home, leaving the front. Peasants wanted land and people wanted food. Cities set up soviets, council of workers and soldiers, which worked dramatically within the government. Before long a radical social group took charge called the Bolsheviks emerged. Their leader was V.I. Lenin.
The Transformation of Bolshevik Position Between February and October 1917 Most historians think that the Bolshevik’s position went from playing almost no role in February 1917; they had only 150 members in the Pultilov Works which had 20,000 workers, to taking control of the country in October by a combination of luck and skill. It was said of the Bolshevik party in early 1917 that “The Communist Party existed solely in the leaders.” Many historians think Lenin’s leadership was the joint main reason for making the party into the leading revolutionary group in Russia, along with the luck the Bolsheviks had in the circumstances under the Provisional Government. A few historians claim Germany played a major role in the Bolshevik’s road to power. The Germans helped many previously exiled revolutionaries to get back to Russia when the Tsar abdicated and the Provisional Government came to power from March onwards, in the hope that they would end the war.
The Russian Revolution was a historical moment that had occurred during the 1900s. It all started when the Czar of Russia was overthrown from his throne and was executed. Ever since, Russia 's government, economy, and society has changed. Five texts were provided to portray whether the French Revolution was a success or a failure. This paper will only focus on three of the sources, including Animal Farm, by George Orwell, “Education, Literacy, and the Russian Revolution”, by Megan Behrent, and “the Reasons For The Failure of The Russian Revolution”. All of these texts provide information for either claim, but are also limited in providing further examples. As a result, the Russian Revolution was a failure because the peasants of Russia lacked
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.
It was Tzar Nicholas 2 political naivete and extreme obstinance that led to the downfall of the Russia
In 1917, two revolutions were involved in Russia, which terminated centuries of imperial ruling. The Russian revolution was made up of two revolutions, which the first one was in February, and the second one was in October.These revolutions started political, and social changes that lead to the creation of the Soviet Union. By March of 1917, Russia who became civil turned into turmoil, which caused constant food shortages.This turned into a revolt against Czar.By the year of 1917 lots of Russian citizens lost faith in their leader Czar Nicholas II. The citizens lost faith in Czar’s leadership due to the governments corruption, Russia’s economy, and Czar constantly affecting the success of the Duma ( the Russian legislative assembly established by Czar Nicholas II in 1905) .This impacted Russia in a disastrous way, which caused Czar Nicholas II to be overthrown.A few months later after Czar was overthrown, the new provisional government was overthrown by Bolsheviks. The first appearance of the Russian Revolution was in February 1917, due to the destructive involvement in World War I. The military and imperial side of Russia, could not compare to the industrialized Germany at the time. The costly war also made Russia’s economy decline in a major way. Word count: 207
The PG was set up by the Duma and it would run Russia until the open
Throughout the time of the Revolution there was never just one individual revolution. There was a series of revolutions that were set in Russia in 1917. Some were crushed in the making and had no result but, others ended up being made a very big deal. These sequences of revolutions ended up dismantling the Tsarist autocracy which also resulted in the creation of the “Russian SFSR”. As a result of these revolutions “the emperor was forced to resign from his post and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution.”2
The Russian Revolution was two revolutions. One was in "March of 1917" (Llewellyn, 2012) and the other one was in "October of 1917" (Llewellyn, 2012). The first revolution happened because "the Russian people wanted change" (Llewellyn, 2012). Tsar Nicholas II, the autocratic ruler of Russia. He clung stubbornly to his power and he believed that the power was to be his divine birthright. The people on the other hand would change the future of Russia, not God. The first revolution started as a peaceful march in Russia’s capital city. The march then grew into a torrent of protest. Within a week of the protest, Tsar Nicholas II had been toppled from power and replaced by an interim government. This government was filled with liberals and moderates. The new government lasted barely six months before the government was overthrown and replaced, this time by radical socialists. "This group, known as the Bolsheviks, struggled to keep their power by suppressing dissent and eliminating their opponents" (Llewellyn, 2012) The Bolsheviks also began planning Russia’s transformation which was from a backward economic state organized on medieval principles into a modern industrial and technological superpower. "This transformation alone made the Russian Revolution one of the most significant events in modern history for all countries" (Llewellyn, 2012).
The Nature of Tsarism and the Policies of Nicholas II as the Cause for the Revolution of February in Russia 1917
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 government and reform; the actual character of Nicholas II hindered his time in office, for example his outlooks on situations meant he did not trust a lot of his advisors, he was also seen to have been very lazy with respects to making decisions, other observations included him being, weak, timid and lacked guts. This all adds up to a very weak leader that is vulnerable to opposition, due to his tunnel vision and un-ability to see the main needs of the country. The duma was another challenge to the tsar; after the 1905 revolution the tsar had set up an elected body called the duma, this was a way of showing the public that he could be open minded in that delegating decisions to other people, looking back in hindsight this would also be seen as a challenge to the tsar as he never gave the duma any real power, and were easily dissolved, this meant that people were further angered and he was receiving opposition from all sides, it did however hold off opposition for a small period of time in order for the tsar to retain his power. Other individuals had an influence to the challenges facing the tsar, Nicholas had brought some new people in to try and conquer some problems, these included Rasputin who he had originally appointed to become saviour of family, he managed to influence the tsar in many of his decisions, this inevitably caused there to be conflict as the he was relying on Rasputin to relay details of the state of the country, these were not accurate which meant that tsar could not act upon opposition. Other people did help the tsar for example stolypin and his reforms.
An unrelenting series of war’s, Unnecessary hunger and famines and the selfish greed of the ruling elite. These are some of the many reasons, along with the Romanov family’s inability to lead either troops in modern warfare or the Russian population into a modern industrialised society that brought about the inevitability of the 1917 Russian revolution and thus, The USSR.