Was the collapse of tsardom inevitable in Russia by 1914?

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Was the collapse of tsardom inevitable in Russia by 1914?

In 1914, Russia had the largest army in the world, the largest air force and a respectable naval fleet. Yet, this military powerhouse had just a few years back suffered a terrible setback with the loss of their Baltic fleet at the hands of the Japanese at Tsushima. During the First World War, Russia lost more than three million people, close to 2% of their entire population and had a further five million wounded. Three years later came the collapse of tsardom. Had the wars proved too much for the Tsar to handle? The question suggests that the collapse was a done deal as of the year 1914 and there was nothing anybody or anything could have done to prevent its collapse. In this essay, we will attempt to weigh the factors that seemed to suggest that tsardom was doomed by 1914 against those which seem to suggest otherwise in order to make a valued judgment on just how assured the collapse of tsardom by the said year is, if even at all.

The situation certainly looked bleak for tsardom since Nicholas’ ascension in 1894. Against a backdrop of political confusion caused in no less part due to the conflicting approaches in the handling of state matters by the two previous Tsars, Nicholas had to lead a country, which had been unceremoniously thrust upon him due to the sudden passing of his father due to kidney failure. There was an increasing number of the middle class who had become enlightened over the years to liberal ideas of democracy and constitutional representation such as those developing in other parts of Europe. These people wanted to see Russia move in the direction of some of constitutional representation and felt betrayed when with the sudden reversal of policies from the seemingly forward moving polices of Alexander II to the sudden repression by Alexander III. With Nicholas II seeming to favour the more traditional school of thought, resentment grew among these people. One such policy was Russification which restricting the influence of the national minorities with the aim of uniting all of them under the great banner of a Russian identity. However, the discrimination that followed caused great suffering to many such as the Poles and Ukrainians through the banning of their national languages and attempt at diminishing their culture. The Jews were known to have suffered the greatest. Already unpopular with their being labeled as ‘Christ killers’ as well as being infamous as moneylenders, they were heavily persecuted often being the target of the pogroms. The tightening of such controls on the people led to the alienation of a large number of national minorities who resented the move. The incongruence of Tsarist policies made them confused and frustrated and this in no small part gave rise to greater opposition to tsardom with the growth of more organised reformists and revolutionaries. In the years leading up to 1905, Nicholas II had indeed caused much unhappiness amongst the national minorities and educated middle class. The result of this were inherent splits in the country and growing dissatisfaction which seemed to point towards the impending collapse of tsardom in the near future.

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The events that led however were more serious. With Russia’s costly battle with the Japanese and failure to bring victory home, there was great humiliation having lost to a supposedly inferior island nation. This contributed to the buildup of tension leading up to the 1905 revolution. The Bloody Sunday incident, which was essentially a petition to the Tsar by groups of workers and their families to relieve them of their desperate conditions but ended in a violent dismissal with 200 marchers killed and hundreds injured gravely damaged the image of Nicholas II as the anointed protector and ruler of ...

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