What Was the Tsarist Political System? To What Extent Had It Changed By 1914?

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What Was the Tsarist Political System? To What Extent Had It Changed By 1914?

The Tsarist political system before 1914 was very much similar to those of old feudal systems in medieval England. Much of this was due to the position of the Tsar within Russia. The autocracy that the Tsar held onto was built on the belief that the Tsars authority was descended from God. This made him answerable only to God which resulted in the Tsar being able to make all decisions and hire and fire advisors at will. It was the complete opposite to today’s system in which power lies with the electorate, and the executive is given authority by the people. Which means that at any time the legal power held by the people can be taken away if they are dissatisfied with the elected politicians. The consequences of the Tsars position were that there was no popular opposition to the Tsar and no political parties. In fact any threatening opposition was quelled by exiling people to Siberia and maintaining fear of speaking out. It can look as if the Tsar was more a dictator than a monarch.

The other consequences of the Tsars hold on Russia were the failing and ineffective administration that eventually led to the Tsarist systems downfall. A centrally appointed bureaucracy ruled Russia itself. The size of Russia made a unitary system completely ineffective, for example on the Western borders were Polish Jews yet in the Far East were peoples of Oriental origin at Vladivostok. No centralised government could understand the needs of all these peoples at the same time. The actual size of the country itself also made administration difficult as messages took a long time to pass from border to border.

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Unlike our system in which the different powers of government are separated, for example the judiciary, legislature and executive, in Tsarist Russia independence was impossible as all power rested with the Tsar. The legal system was totally controlled by the Tsar so no effective check on his power was kept that way, or any justice for ordinary citizens.

The inefficiency of the system was also present in the economy. It mainly was rooted in agriculture, which was sustenance farming. A limited craft industry existed as demand was not high. This was partly due to people not being given education so ...

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