Another reason in which made Russia hard to govern is because it was and autocracy. This meant that only one ruled and this was the tsar. This meant, that even though decisions would have been made quickly because it would not have needed to been discussed with others, problems would not have been solved very easily at all. Also there would have been fewer ideas given on how to improve the attitude of the people living in Russia and to help the country to evolve. Also the laws created will have suited the Tsar as he runs the and everything that would affect the Tsar badly in any way would not have been put into place and so change didn’t happen ad therefore the people of Russia were happy with an autocracy and so were not happy with the Tsar. Also being an autocrat made it hard to govern Russia for the Tsar as he had no help from others because he made all of the final ideas and nobody could change his mind. This also was a long term cause of why the Tsar was bad and so it would have also affected any previous tsars as well.
One other way in which made Russia a badly governed country in the period was the competency of the Tsar. It wasn’t just the size of Russia the affected the leadership, it was the leader himself. Tsar Nicholas II, although leader of Russia was not a great leader, he did not see his people he just believed that they were happy and that they did not need his help. Some noble Russians who were close to the Tsar would tell him what he wanted to hear and they would not explain the problems that needed to be resolved, and because the Tsar believed them he did not bother to visit his people, but continued to let them suffer. Nicholas was also a bad Tsar because he believed that democracy would lead to the downfall of Russia and so did not give any power to anybody else and so had very little help to govern the country and also his wife influenced him to much and got what she wanted, not what the people of Russia wanted. This was a short term cause and so this would not have affected any other previous tsars but was a problem of Tsar Nicholas.
Another reason in which made the country of Russia governed badly was the opposition groups. These groups were called the: Liberals, Social Revolutionaries and the social democrats who where split up into the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. These four different groups all wanted different things and some groups such as the social Revolutionaries were willing to get these things using violence and terrorism. All four groups consisted of different classes of people which is why they all wanted different things. This made it hard to govern the country as the Tsar would be split between the different groups and if he helped one group and didn’t help others, people would have hated him. It made it very difficult that they had different aims, and because of this the Tsar simply could not reach the aims and this meant that the country would not improve.
Bloody Sunday also made the Russian Empire so difficult to govern for Tsar Nicholas II because it made many Russian people believe that the Tsar was a very mean and aggressive person as he slaughtered so many people without thought, they were only delivering a petition but he ordered his men to open fire on the unarmed peaceful protestors marching towards the winter palace. This event made many Russian people think badly of the Tsar, and the citizens in his empire could trust him no more. It also made the country difficult to govern because after people found about the massacre, disorder and looting occurred. This is a short term cause that made the Russian empire very difficult to run, but it would not have affected any previous Tsars.
Due to Bloody Sunday and the war against Japan a period of political unrest sparked throughout most of the Russian empire. It included terrorism, peasant unrest, worker strikes and military munities. Due to the worker strikes the trans-Siberian railway was not running and so the Tsar could not travel around Russia and so he could not organise his empire. Also because of the peasant unrest no food was grown and so famine spread across the empire. The revolution eventually led to universal suffrage, which meant that the people of Russia felt that they had a right to vote for what they wanted. The revolution made it difficult for the Tsar as not only was his empire totally out of control, but he was being blamed for the famine although this was not his fault.
Another reason that affected the difficulty of controlling the Russian empire was Pyotr Stolypin. He was a very wealthy man at this period of time in Russia and served as Nicholas II’s Chairman of the Council of ministers (Prime Minister of Russia). Russia, in 1906, was troubled with revolutionary unrest and wide discontent throughout the population. This led to campaigns against the autocracy and Stolypin was left to deal with these problems. Stolypin was doing what the Tsar hadn’t and was beginning to change Russia. Nicholas did not give Stolypin the support he needed and his position in court was undermined by the time he was assassinated. This affected Tsar Nicholas as he lost popularity and Stolypin had ultimately showed Russia that the Tsar was not doing all that he entirely could be doing in order to improve his empire, although Nicholas did realise that Stolypin’s work was very helpful after the assassination, as he begged for forgiveness beside Stolypin’s death bed.
The final reason, other than size, that would have affected the Rein of Tsar Nicholas II was Grigori Rasputin. This historical figure, also known as the mad monk, was a close friend to Nicholas and his family. Nicholas had only one son out of 5 children called Alexei, who was heir to his throne, but unfortunately had a rare blood disease called haemophilia, this meant that his blood did not clot and so a minor cut meant that he could possibly bleed to death. This was not publicly known at this time as it could have affected the mood of the Russian people. Rasputin was known for his ‘healing powers’ and it is believed that whenever Alexei was bleeding and Rasputin was in the same room, the bleeding would stop. This ultimately led to Tsar Nicholas being influenced on his rule by Rasputin and this affected him badly. This meant that Rasputin would get what he wanted whilst some people in Nicholas’ empire would be suffering and overall this made it difficult to govern this huge empire. This was only a short term effect and would not have been a problem for any previous Tsars.
Overall, I believe that, although there are many different things and people that made it hard for Tsar Nicholas to govern the Russian empire before the first World War, but that size was the biggest factor in making Russia difficult to govern, even though so many Tsars before Nicholas had managed to handle the difficulties of looking after such a huge country. If Russia was half the size I think that Nicholas would have done a much better job of being Tsar and would have been a much more popular Tsar than he actually was.