Long and short-term causes contributed to the March 1917 Revolution.

GCSE History

The Russian Revolution

History Coursework

July 2001

Question Two

Explain how long and short-term causes contributed to the March 1917 Revolution.

(10 Marks)

Answer Two

Firstly, a long-term cause is a factor that started well before the final event. It may well go back hundreds of years and has been mounting up over the years, usually getting worse instead of better. A short-term cause is one which is a recent factor contributing to the final event. Sometimes ten years or even a couple of days, depending on the circumstances. In this case, a long-term cause could have begun any time and then up to around 1914. A short-term cause follows on from that date, around three years before the revolution. I chose 1914 as the cut off point because August of that year was when WWI began, and this made many more factors increasingly important. There is also another category, ‘Trigger’; this is an event immediately before the Revolution, which is like the last straw, when no one can take anymore or when one last bad decision is made.

Out of the categories…

Social Structure
and economic hardship
Romanov misrule
Opposition Groups
Influence of Rasputin

World War One

Which contributed to the March 1917 Revolution, the long-term causes are as follows. Romanov Misrule, opposition groups, and social structure and economic hardship.

Romanov misrule started all the way back in 1616 when the Romanov ruling began, and so, I have considered it a long-term cause. Since then there has been seldom a peaceful government! There has been murders by siblings, outrageous laws passed, assassinations, wars won and lost, thousands killed, territory won and lost and much more.

In 1881, Alexander III came to the thrown. He was disliked more than the rulers before him were. He instituted rigid censorship and police supervision of intellectual activities. His rulings oppressed the Jews and the ethnic minorities, and forced to live in certain areas, not allowed to enter certain professions and killed in large numbers. This was the time of the Marxist theories, which found much support among the factory workers. Industrialisation caused a great increase in the number of workers, but this also created miserable working conditions and living conditions. A great deal is discussed over why a revolution did not occur during his reign, but Nicholas II (his son) succeeded him. Although Nicholas II was a firm believer in autocracy, he was a weak ruler. His good intentions were noted, but when he was faced with revolts, and war, the Russian people saw his weakness. He believed that God had placed Russia in his hands to as he saw fit.

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The opposition groups were all against the Tsar, his father, and other recent rulers from the autocratic Romanov house, dating back to the 1840’s, so this is also a long-term cause. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Marie Spirodonva and Nadazhda Krupskaya were the famous people who are now known for their revolutionary movements leading up to the revolution. These revolutionary groups often murdered cruel governors as part of their demonstrations, most were sentenced to death or life imprisonment in Siberia. Different revolutionary parties began because some believed the revolution would start among the peasant, other thought it would begin under the workers. There were the socialist revolutionaries, social democrats (Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks) and the liberals. They all had one thing in common; they wanted to overthrow the Tsar. Between all the groups they had a large following, and it was just a matter of time until the sparks of revolution flew.

The social structure of Russia was also a long-term cause, and was brought about by the misrule of the Romanov house. The Romanov rulers were autocratic, which meant they had absolute power. The social structure of Russia had been this way for hundreds of years, but as other countries changed their systems in the sixteen hundreds, the Russian people began to see how well it worked. Britain changed its system in the 1600 and then France in the1700; many were surprised how long it last in Russia. The social structure of Russia made it difficult for the 84% of Russians who were peasants to clear their debts and own their own land. There were serfs who did all the manual labour for the capitalists, and got next-to-nothing for a long day of work. The capitalists were known to be shot by the army, who were mislead by the church. All this happened under the ruling of the Royal Family and some aristocrats. The 80% of the population who were Russian had appalling living and working conditions. The social structure of Russia lead to many revolts by the worker. The aristocracy had vast estates and lead elegant lifestyles. There was such a large gap between the two. Ninety-four percent of the population of Russia had no say in the government! The fact that Russia is an autocracy means that the Tsar only called the Duma when he wanted, most of the time the decisions were left up to him and his incompetent advisors. Because of this, there was no freedom of speech or press, and the Cossacks and the Okhrana (secret police) enforced this. The social structure had been a problem to the millions of Russians for generations and they realised that things could be better for them if there was reform.

The economic hardship in Russia also began hundreds of years ago and was bad because of the social structure, and thus, a long-term cause. In the 1900, 84% of the population were peasants, they were very resentful towards the aristocracy of Russia who had three-quarters of the land but only made up 2% of the population. The middle classes of Russia contributed to 14% of the population, they also had no say in the government and the civil services were often corrupt. Industrial workers had poor diets, lived and worked in cramped conditions and were paid very little. The government invested enormous amounts of money into improving Russia’s industry, most of this money was squeezed out of the Russian people but other countries also contributed. To do this taxes were increased dramatically, and wages were not. Even more people starved and now, they had barely enough food to survive. The industrial slump in 1902 made matters even worse, this brought about outbreaks of violence and landlords’ houses were burnt. The government’s solution was to use troops to crush any disturbances. This was unsuccessful, and violence continued through the year and into the next.

The 1905 revolution was also a long-term cause and many historians wonder how the Tsar survived for another 12 years after it.

The short-term causes that contributed to the March 1917 revolution are as follows. Opposition Groups, Influence of Rasputin (and Romanov misrule), and the economic hardship (though WWI). All of these were contributing factors after 1914 (mainly).

Opposition Groups were all against the Tsar Nicholas II and his father Alexander III. Although this reason began in the 1860’s, it became increasingly worse in September 1915, when the Tsar went to war. The public were aware of Rasputin and his influence into most of the bad decisions that the Tsarina made. The dislike for Rasputin added fuel to the flames of Revolutionary groups and this is why I added it to short-term as well as long-term causes.

The influence of Rasputin was certainly a short-term cause. Although he had been an advisor to the Tsar for over 10 years, it was only when the Tsar went to war that Rasputin’s influence effected steps towards the revolution in March 1917. When the running of the country was left to the Tsarina, Rasputin’s influence destroyed all the hard work the Stolypin (the Prime Minister after 1905) and the rest of the Duma in rebuilding Russia after the 1905 revolution.

Economic hardships is also a short-term as well as long-term cause, in my opinion, because of the considerable increase in economic hardship during WWI. When the ruling of Russia was left to the Tsarina, and many government officials were dismissed, there was no one to organise the food, fuel, and other supplies for the cities. The railway systems fell into chaos and trainloads of food were left rotting in the sidings. Many factories closed, causing great levels of unemployment. Because of the shortages, the prices of goods were rising continually, but wages were not, the workers had to work more hours. The country suffered greatly from the economic effects of the war.

I think that the trigger to the beginning of the revolution was World War One, it influenced all other factors and the revolution happened during it.

As you can see, many factors contributed to the fall of the Tsar and the start of the Revolution in March 1917. As historians, we cannot guess and say that without one factor the revolution would or would not have happened. The causes continued to mount up, and in Russia’s case, it was only a matter of time or events that determined when the revolution would occur. It was not any individual reason that triggered the revolution but a bit of all of them. They are all linked in one way or another but all of them stemmed from the original autocratic Romanov house. This isn’t to say that Romanov misrule is the main factor but it was the one that contributed the most over time. In my opinion, the long and short-term causes were not all as important as each other but were all contributing factors in one way or another.

Camilla Marcus-Dew 10.4(3) Page of