In October 1905 Leon Trotsky and other Mensheviks established the St. Petersburg Soviet. Over the next few weeks over 50 of these soviets were formed all over Russia. The tsar responded to this by making concessions, on the advice of his prime minister. He stated these in his October manifesto. This granted freedom of conscience, speech, meeting and association. He also promised that in future people would not be imprisoned without trial. Finally he announced that no law would become operative without the approval of a new organization called the Duma. There were many different Duma’s yet none worked effectively. The first took each electoral class. Peasants, Landowners, Townspeople and Industrial Workers and member were chosen from each of these. These chose members of the Duma although; the Tsar had power to disband the Duma at any point. In the Tsars statement, the Duma would have to be consulted for all legislation however it was often not. The first Duma ceased to exist after 73 days because it was “too critical of the government policy”
In April, 1906, Nicholas II forced his prime minister to resign and replaced him with the more conservative Peter Stolypin. Stolypin attempt to provide a balance between the introductions of much needed land reforms and the suppression of the radicals. He brought a sort of capitalism to the system. Where hard workers would benefit more the more they worked. Peasants had more of an opportunity to acquire land, This created kulaks (Wealthy peasants). They would form a large portion of a political force. People in rural conditions got more freedom for their selection for the representative for the local councils. He introduced a new law system that involved a harsher punishment for revolutionaries. Over 3000 people were hanged under this charge. The noose was know As a result of this action the hangman's noose in Russia became known as "Stolypin's necktie”.
Because of the failure of the 1905 revolution, it was just a matter of time and situation before a full revolution came into being. The next major revolution was in March 1917. This revolution led to the Tsars abdication and the formation of a provisional government. There were a lot of short-term causes to this revolution, as well as long term ones such as the failed revolution of 1905. Firstly, world war one was a huge cause to the March revolution. It was one of the situations that were dramatically different from the 1905 revolution and is probably why it succeeded. In world war one, millions of Russian men were conscripted into the army. However, this was not a good move from the Tsar. The equipment and rations the soldiers needed couldn’t be supplied to them for 2 reasons. One – There was very few workers on the land and in the factories and not nearly enough could produce enough goods, and 2 – Anything that was produced could not get to the army in time because there was a huge problem with Transport. There was about 1 rifle for every three soldiers.
Another huge problem was the lack of morale due to incompetent generals. The generals were usually noblemen who did not care at about their soldiers one bit whatsoever. The tsar came and fought on the frontline, this had both advantages and disadvantages, it raised morale very slightly, but…it left the country ruled by his wife. She was German born and rumours went around that she was a German spy. There were poor conditions for the army, they lost faith in the system, which in consequence made them lose faith in themselves and this led to many failures. All troops were underfed and were fighting the best army in the world. It wasn’t a hopeful time for any Russians. However, what made it worse were the rumours about what was happening back home in the hierarchy.
Rasputin was made out to have many an influence over many of the aristocratic ladies including the Tsarina, however, his power was only due to rumours and what people said about him. Whether it was true or not is hard to find out. But it gained him power nonetheless. My penultimate point, is that there was a famine in 1917. There were many people dying of starvation and cold, especially in Siberia, a very remote part of Russia. There was growing discontent, which is always a spark for revolution. There were many mutinies and the soldiers refused to obey the Tsar. He had no force under his control, which made it very hard for him to get any support at all. Because he had no force, it meant he could not quash any uprisings. This is a large reason why the revolution was not eradicated. AS the tsar lost power more extremist groups gained it. The Bolsheviks in particular were very popular with the army and had a lot of armed forces, which enabled them to create a body with more substance The Bolsheviks increasingly gained in powers and revolutionary ideas were becoming more dominant in people’s minds.
In conclusion, from all these facts most of them have some relevance towards the March revolution. I think the main cause is the First World War and how the Tsar tried to overcome it. The Tsar was not a great military leader and would have been better in charge of his countries problems. The fact that the army was treated so poorly lost their support, which was vital to the tsar remaining in power. He did not treat them well. This was probably because of his ideas of aristocracy and that he was above them. To stay in power you need support. This is what the Tsar did not have. If you have uprisings, you need a force to deal with them. The tsar did not have this. Support he could have gained by changing from his autocracy. Which was unlikely… or to change the approach to world war one so that he kept the armies support and would have been able to eliminate opponents. However, he did not realise what conditions were like for them, which is down to the class system. Which is actually the final reason for change, hence why communism was introduced.
But I would say there is many over-rated and underrated people. For example, Rasputin was extremely over rated. The situation is Russia did not change one bit after his murder. Therefore you could argue it was not a direct cause. However I think Father Gapon had a big part to play in this. His first demonstration caused people to become aware of the idea of revolution. Trotsky and Lenin later helped this. However I think his role is possibly more important than Rasputin,
