Another reason Nicholas could be seen as being responsible for his own downfall concerned the Duma. Nicholas was forced to set up a Duma, parliament, as a result of the October Manifesto to give Russian people more rights. However Nicholas made sure that the Duma had no real power and that he would have the final say in every decision they were to make. In March 1906 the first Duma was elected. The voting system was not in favour of peasants, even so the majority of the Duma were critics of the Tsar and Nicholas was not comfortable with this political situation. Nicholas made sure the Duma would have very little power. Two months after the elections were held Nicholas issued a set of fundamental laws; that gave him total control once again. The Duma lasted just over two months before Nicholas dissolved it for demanding the right to appoint ministers. The next Duma was elected in 1907 and lasted for five months before it too was dissolved. Nicholas then decided to change the voting system so that he would not get any trouble from the next Duma; he changed it so that the richest two percent of the country represented two thirds of the whole vote. Nicholas did not have any problems with the Duma’s from then on but this did make him even more unpopular with the peasants of the country and did nothing to silence the rising voices of rebellion.
Nicholas regretted signing the October Manifesto and he dismissed Witte, the man who encouraged him to sign it. In Witte’s place he appointed a man called Peter Stolypin. Stolypin got to work immediately; he set up a special court for people who were obviously guilty it was called ‘field court for civilians’. The people who were being tried could not be found innocent. They were either sentenced to exile or execution. By the end of 1906 over one thousand terrorists or revolutionaries were sentenced to execution and another 20,000 were sentenced to exile. His measures were tough but effective, the number of Russian revolutionaries went down from 100,000 in 1905 to 10,000 in 1910. This settled the revolutionaries and helped Nicholas greatly but still people were annoyed at these harsh measures. Stolypin also tried to reduce revolutionaries by helping the peasants because they made up the majority of the population. He tried to give them better standards of living and encouraged them to buy their own land. The government provided loans for the peasants but still only the wealthier of them could afford loans. Although Stolypin’s harsh measures had worked the economy remained weak. Appointing Stolypin helped the Tsar and shows that he was not totally responsible for his own downfall because he helped reduce opposition to his rule, but it could be argued that these brutal methods were in fact only delaying the inevitable
Revolution against his government.
World War 1 had a huge impact on Russia not only because Nicholas left Russia in the hands of Alexandra and Rasputin but also because of how badly the war went for Russia. In 1914 Russia Joined in World War 1. At first the war went well and there was a lot of support for the war but as it went on the Russians lost two major battles and the worst case was in Tannenbourg. German forces trapped Russian troops in swampland over 100,000 Russians drowned and 90,000 more were captured. Russia was not doing well and in under a year they had lost over 1 million men in battle. The injured were in appalling conditions as there were not the resources to help them, “soon after the first battles, shocking reports came through of how the wounded were being treated at the front. “I visited the station there I saw 18,000 wounded men lying on the ground”. Later in spring 1915 the Germans invaded and advanced over three hundred miles. This was when Nicholas decided to dismiss his chief minister and take the role on himself this was a mistake as now the Russian people blamed him not the ministers. Many battles were lost and more soldiers were being wounded soldiers began to give up drop their guns and run for home, when this begins to happen within an army all discipline is lost. The war had a devastating effect on Russia and its economy. Its was not totally Nicholas’ fault that the war had gone so wrong but his actions made things worse and he was seen as a bad leader.
The influence of Rasputin was a major factor in the downfall of Nicholas. It was a huge mistake for Nicholas to leave the country to fight in World War I. After Stolypin had restored the Tsars authority and his harsh punishments had cut revolutionaries he was assassinated, some people believed that his assassination may have something to do with his criticism of Rasputin. Rasputin was a peasant who called himself a ‘Holy Man’ and believed he had power to cure people of their illnesses. After Nicholas and Alexandra had tried everything to help their son’s illness they turned to Rasputin who seemed to help calm Alexis and sometimes stop the bleeding. This impressed the Tsarina and Tsar very much and he started to become a permanent part of their family. He became very influential in court and with Military operations. This would not have mattered as much if Rastutin was not such an inefficient Ruler. It was during Rasputin’s time at court that things started to go disastrously wrong. All the good ministers were being replaced by incompetent ministers and soon there were huge problems with the government and Nicholas started to loose the support of his people once again. Although it was not totally Nicholas’ fault it was his fault that he had let Rasputin virtually take over the government of this huge country.
All these factors led to a serious rebellion in March 1917. Many historians argue that the March revolution was caused not only by the factors that have already been discussed, but also because the winter before had been particularly cold and although the weather can not be controlled this all added up to create a riot. The revolution was not planned and began in the capital, Petrograd. People were dissatisfied with the government, rising prices, and food shortages. Women were queuing for hours outside the bakery only to be told that there was no bread left. The women stormed the bakeries and by the next day thousands of workers were on strike, crowds gathered and chanted anti-government slogans. The crowds were getting out of hand attacking shops and setting buildings alight. The Tsar ordered the commander of the military forces to put an end to the disorders but the generals troops were new recruits and had sympathy for the people as they too were suffering. Nicholas did not realise the seriousness of the riots until too late and on March 15th Nicholas was forced to abdicate.
After looking at all the factors that contributed to Nicholas’ downfall, it would appear that Nicholas was to a very great extent responsible for his own downfall. It could not be said that he was totally the cause of his own ruin but certainly his actions contributed greatly to the increased unrest within Russia. The brutal treatment of his political enemies was only effective in the short term, and his lack of successful leadership on the battlefields led to more suffering for his already starving people. Nicholas made many bad decisions such as leaving the country in the control of with his wife and allowing Rasputin’s astonishing rise to power. There were other factors which contributed which Nicholas had no control over such as his son’s illness, the harsh Russian Winters, the unstable political situation outside of his borders and the very size of his country.
