Why did Tsarism fail to survive the first world war

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Why did Tsarism fail to survive the First World War?

        When examining the fall of Tsarism in Russia, It is vital to further explore the rest of Europe and under what form of government it was under in order to fully understand and be able to compare how backwards and in some sense, medieval Tsarism was. Tsarism was a backwards regime that was not up to date so to speak with the rest of Europe and around 1900, worker’s conditions in Russia were way below that of any other European country, which triggered much social unrest. The reason it failed, is because of many short term such as the outbreak of the first world war, the abdication of Nicholas ll, the 1905 revolution and the 1917 February revolution, as well as long term factors such as the state of the society, the politics, the backwards economy and the poverty that had been getting worse and worse throughout the years. Ultimately it was a dictatorship, with a Tsar supposedly appointed by god and the 1917 revolution was the final block that caused the whole regime to fall. To add to the demise, the Tsar Nicholas was a fairly unfit person to rule such a vast amount of land and under such circumstances, but his abdication was not the immediate end of Tsarism, but rather a factor that greatly contributed to its end.  As history shows, no country or people ever are satisfied under a dictatorial regime and revolution is inevitable. Tsarism was no exception and was a recipe for the destruction of itself. It gave ultimate power to the Tsar without regard to the people’s suggestions, requests or will. Russia was stuck in the middle ages. It used horses instead of motor transport, and lacked efficient lines of communication which meant that it took weeks before the Tsar’s message was delivered to the far outskirts of Russia. Most villages did not know much about the Tsar, or even that he existed. The state of the society, economy and politics were appalling and prohibited the continuation of such a regime at the start of the 20th century. Rather, caused its demise. Though Historians such as Robert Conquest (who is a reliable source since his works were written in the 21st century) have stated that if not for the First World War, Tsarism in Russia would have lasted much longer. This brings up the thought that maybe Tsarism failed because of the destruction and turn of the army, thus making it the most significant and prominent factor in the fall of Tsarism.         

        Before the outbreak of the First World War, Russia was already on a fixed path to a revolution. Firstly, the Tsar himself was not a very good ruler. This was not helped by the fact that he had a very large and difficult country to rule. Russia’s poor communication, bad economy etc only aided Nicholas’s poor ruling and the fact that all of the Tsar’s ministers worked separately rather than as a team. This showed that before the revolution even, Russia was not in a very stable condition and in 1902, riots started. 80 estates in the province of Kharkov were attacked. Peasants attacked and burned down the houses of their landlords. The peasants wanted to have their own land. Later, in 1904, 400,000 workers went on strike in St. Petersburg1, the capital. The Tsar, wanting to prevent further revolts made public meeting illegal which only made matters worse. Rural social unrest had become the main issue of the Tsar and the people wanted a liberal government, they were yearning to have their own land. A very significant event would be Bloody Sunday (January 22, 1905) where the people displayed their unification against the Tsar, but in a peaceful manner. 150,000 people marched in protest to the winter palace where they were savagely gunned down by the Imperial Guard2. Bloody Sunday sparked off much rebellion all around Russia and the idea for revolt had been planted. Nicholas ll was able to instill fear in the people using his army, and able to enforce his regime therefore keeping Tsarism alive. It was his manner of controlling the population by force and having a wall protecting him from their violence and revolt. It was, as Richard Pipes had stated in one of his works “The final lifeline that kept Tsarism alive”.

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        The outbreak of the war provided somewhat of an advantage for the Tsar. He was able to gain much popularity among the people and was a leading figure towards the fight against the invading German troops. The army was comprised of professional soldiers at the beginning of the war in 1914, but after the battle of Tannenberg which proved to be a devastating defeat for the Russian army due to the advanced German war machine and technologically backwards equipment of the Russians, produced 70,000 deaths and 100,000 taken prisoner on the Russian side. The backwards economy limited the Russian equipment ...

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