Political Issues:
Russia was ruled in an autocratic system till 1917, which means that the Tsar had the final say. The people thought that the autocratic system was really unfair. The Tsar during 1914 was Nicholas II, so the people were even more outraged since Tsar Nicholas II was not that good at making decisions. Even though the autocratic system was already horrible the fact that the number of serfs out numbered the Tsar made it harder to control. Thus creating the revolution… But before we start talking about the revolution, we still need to talk about the Political Issues. Tsar Nicholas II was very conservative; he believed that God had put him as Tsar. Some of the people didn’t believe that Tsar Nicholas II was put there by God; therefore true Russian people were not as devoted to Tsar Nicholas II as he felt he was to them. With the dissatisfaction of the autocratic ruling system that was followed by Bloody Sunday on January 1905, the Russian workers now thought even less of the Tsar since the guards fired at the workers just for bringing a petition. Tsar Nicholas II then offered the October Manifesto that promised a parliament elected by the people, freedom of speech and conscience, uncensored newspaper and the right to form political parties. Tsar Nicholas II finally got the support of the people. But later in December Tsar Nicholas II felt strong enough to take back his power. Then said he one again had full power of Russia and the people. One of the reasons Tsar Nicholas II wanted to go into war because he wanted to restore the prestige that Russia had lost in the Russo-Japanese War. Others thought that the only reason Tsar Nicholas II wanted to go to war was to distract the people from the obvious problem of food shortage, poverty, inequality, poor working conditions etc. but world war I only caused more poverty and food shortages, not to mention the large amount of military casualties. Not only was Tsar Nicholas II indecisive but he also inherited a lot of his fathers problems when he became Tsar.
Social Issues:
Russia in 1914 definitely had a large difference in social classes. The Photo below shows us an example of a social class pyramid.
As you can see the Tsar is on the top by himself and the peasants are on the bottom. In between there is the nobles after the Tsar, then the church, military and merchants. The pyramid shows how the population and power worked, the pyramid sort of works like the less of one kind of social status the more power. For example there are a lot of serfs, so they have less power. There is only one Tsar so he has a lot of power. Eventually people realized that that was all unfair and that the serfs could actually overthrow the Tsar. The Tsar had absolute ruling of Russia, technically everything that happened in Russia was under the Tsars responsibility. Tsar Nicholas II was interested in bringing the mediaeval idea of the Tsar and his people. Not till 1861 were the serfs not allowed to be bought like slaves. The serfs were allowed to pay for this in long term redemption payments to the government. After the serfs were freed, many the landowners became poorer and poorer everyday. Russian Nobility, how were people nobles? Well the Tsar had power to grant hereditary titles. Most of the time, he would give them to men who had achieved high rank in the military and the civil service. In 1900 it was estimated that there were about 1.8 million members of nobility in Russia. Most of the people living in the Russian Empire were members of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1721 the Orthodox Church became a government department called the Holy Synod. It was run by the Chief Procurator, an official appointed by the Tsar. The Orthodox Church was under the control of the government. The church played a major role in the russification campaigns. (Forbidding the use of local languages and the suppression of religious customs) In a way that would help Tsar Nicholas II rule the country easier but some people might not agree to russification and just end up hating Tsar Nicholas II even more than they already did for corrupting Russia and making the people starve.
Economic Issues:
After the defeat of the Russo-Japanese war, the Russians were in an embarrassing situation. The economic situation for a large part of Russia was distressed. Russia spent a lot of money giving supplies for the soldiers because Nicholas II thought that when they won the war it would look good upon him, he thought he would win the war since Japan is such a small country. Tsar Nicholas II borrowed even more money from the other countries even though Russia was already in a huge debt. To some that up, the defeat of the Russo-Japanese war led in the short term to a reform of the Russian military that allowed it to face Germany in World War I. The revolts at home following the war planted the seeds that presaged the Russian Revolution 1917. A lot of peasants were weighed down to the limit by taxation, and wanting land. Even the living conditions of the industrial worker were as depressing as the peasants. There were demonstrations of people wanting food but were very badly dealt with by the authorities. That triggered the 1905 revolution. Just as people thought things couldn’t get worse in 1906 Russia had a great problem with harvest, their crops were falling from 12.8 million metric tons in 1905 to 9.9 million in 1906, oats from 12.0 million to 8.8 million, potatoes from 27.6 million to 25.1 million. Later the peasants pay increased by 100% which would normally be a very good thing, except for the fact that the costs of food and living supplies sky rocketed to 300% more than before. Most people in the agricultural business were leaving to go to the cities in search for better jobs, but they weren’t enough jobs to give to everyone, and if they weren’t filled, well, they weren’t offering a very good pay. In Russia the main industries were agricultural and the heavy industries such as metal industries. Russia was in debt, the agriculture was growing badly, and the amount of Jobs wasn’t enough for the growing population.
Conclusion:
Times like this you wonder, what did Tsar Nicholas II do to help Russia? Well, the things mentioned just now aren’t entirely Tsar Nicholas II fault, so you couldn’t really blame him for having inherited a country that was very large, or already in debt, but we can blame him for making matters a little worse than they already were. And being a tad bit full of himself thinking that he could beat the Japanese with only his strategy.
Bibliography:
Sites:
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U.S. Library of Congress. 16 Sept. 2007 <http://countrystudies.us/russia/
4.htm>.
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History Man. 10 Sept. 2007 <http://www.historyman.co.uk/Russia/
index..html>.
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Spartacus schoolnet. 10 Sept. 2007 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/
RussiaIssues.htm>.
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KMLA. WHKMLA: History of Russia. 8 Nov. 2004. 10 Sept. 2007 <http://www.zum.de/
whkmla/region/russia/rus190514ec.html>.
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Britannica. Britannica - Russia from 1905 to 1917. 16 Sept. 2007
<http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-213972/Russia>.
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High Beam Encyclopedia. Road to Revolution. 16 Sept. 2007
<http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Nichls2-Rus.html>.
Photos:
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- Tsar photo
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- Peasant photo
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- Russian military
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- Russian nobilities
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- Russian Church