"The Tsarist regime collapsed in 1917 due to its failure in the First World War" How far do you agree with this statement?

          Workers were still not allowed to strike for better wages or working conditions as shown in the Lena massacre in 1912 where workers went on strike for better working conditions. The employers called in the police who opened fired at the protestors showing that the workers still had no rights. The workers were still living in the same appalling conditions and there was economic downturn after 1912. Stolypins land reforms allowed 15% of peasants to get lots of high quality land to become kulaks and left the rest landless and very angry as they had sold their land had and travelled by the Trans-Siberian Rail for several days to find that the land had already been taken.

           To make matters worse when the Tsar left to take control in the front line he left the Tsarina in charge. She was an even worse ruler than the Tsar and was disliked because she was German. Even worse she was influenced by a peasant from Siberia called Rasputin who helped her son survive haemophilia. Rasputin dismissed well abled ministers and replaced them with his friends messing Russia’s condition up even more. After the Tsar left Rasputin became even more unpopular as rumours of him having affairs circulated.

           The second view is that the war brought the collapse of the Tsarist regime. This is said because at the outbreak of war millions of peasants trying to get out of their normal job go and join the army creating a shortage of labourers on the land. This caused food prices to rise but the wages kept the same and other materials like armaments were in shortage for both troops and civilians. The Tsar still refused to listen to the Duma at the time about the formation of a “Government of the Public Confidence” The shortage in materials meant that even more people went to the already overcrowded towns and cities to work in the factories. In 1914 alone the Russian army suffered 2 heavy defeats with caused a collapse in moral across the country in civilian and military and left more than one million men dead.

          The Tsar thought it was his duty to go to the front in 1915 but Russia continued to lose more and more battles and now people blamed the Tsar for these losses as he was the one who was leading them. After the Tsar left the Tsarina was left in charge and the fact that she was German caused her to become unpopular as she was seen as the enemy and was an even worse leader than the Tsar. She wasn’t able to rally the people as the Tsar had done at the beginning of the war and her association with Rasputin made it even worse. Rasputin who helped her son survive haemophilia was unpopular with the nobles because he was a peasant and after the Tsar left it was rumoured he had all sorts of affairs and wild drunken nights.

             I would conclude from what I have seen that despite the hatred towards the Tsar it was shown that the army stayed loyal to him and while he had the army he could keep control. While Russia was slowly changing though no real progress was being made. Russia had lost against Japan, the workers and peasants had no rights and that despite all the efforts of the Duma the Tsar still had complete control. Uprisings were on the increase before the war and all the tension being built up just needed something to spark it as in the 1905 revolution where Bloody Sunday caused the spark to start the revolution. I conclude that as all the tension built up and the slaughter of the army continued the Tsarist regime became further and further under threat until the Tsar abdicated after a series of strikes and finally the loss of the army who joined the demonstrators.