The Russian Revolutions – 1917.

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The Russian Revolutions – 1917

The Tsars government had been failing for a long time, people were changing but the Tsar wasn’t. Steelworkers, women and other unhappy workers demanding bread and basic foods held strikes more frequently over the last few months of the Tsar’s rule. Railways didn’t have enough trains for armies and cities, so often food was left to rot at stations. The moral of the Russians was very low, the war wasn’t going well for them, and in March 1917 things got worse, the Tsar was forced to abdicate.

Some of the Reasons the Tsars Government went badly are:

  • impact of World War I
  • the character of the Tsar Nicholas II
  • the Tsarina and Rasputin
  • food shortages and strikes

  1. Explain how each of the above reasons contributed to the collapse of the Tsar’s government. What other reasons might there have been?

The impact of World War I greatly contributed to the collapse of the Tsar’s government. Russia entered the war in 1914, on the side of Britain, Belgium, France, Italy and Serbia, fighting Germany, Austria, Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. At the beginning of Russia’s involvement moral was high, the soldiers all felt they were helping their country. But by December 1914 over a million men out of 14 million had died. The army was in full retreat, the soldiers had one gun between three of them, and many had no boots. In September 1915 the Tsar decided to take over as commander in chief, to win the war for Russia, and to gain all the credit. Unfortunately this failed, Russia’s place in the war did not improve, and the Tsar took all the blame for the failures. He was held directly responsible, and the moral of the soldiers and Russian citizens plummeted even lower as they looked for someone to blame.

Because so many farmers and factory workers had been called away to war, food production had suffered and factories were closing down. Neither army or the citizens had enough food, the armies were also lacking munitions and the food being left to rot was greatly needed by people throughout Russia. This started the March Revolution, 1917, and so helped add to the collapse of the Tsars government.

The character of the Tsar Nicholas II was an important factor in the collapse of his government. The Tsar was a family man, and cared greatly about his wife and family. He was keen for his son to be cured and his wife to be happy, and so allowed Rasputin to stay and advise him and his wife. The Tsar was a week willed, indecisive man who was easily influenced by his wife. The head of the Duma told him in 1916 that Rasputin advising Alexandra undermined his authority, and the Tsar sent an order to get rid of Rasputin. It was cancelled at the demand of the Tsarina.

The Tsar was an autocrat, the absolute ruler. He had a bureaucracy made up from aristocracy, most of them were corrupt and accepted bribes. Because he was an autocrat, if anything went wrong he got absolute blame. He left when trouble was brewing, and ordered soldiers to fire at non-violent protesters, who were holding pictures of him as a sign of respect. He refused to listen to anyone else’s advice, and refused to reform when the people made reasonable requests of an eight-hour working day and minimum wage of one rouble a day.

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Also, the Tsar wasn’t a very good commander and still went to war, and left Rasputin (an unpopular peasant with a bad reputation) and Alexandra in charge of Russia. Rasputin’s reputation of being a womanising drunkard damaged the reputation of the Tsarina, he gave bad advice and soon became hated. There were many assassinations attempted on Rasputin, until Prince Yusupov finally murdered him on December 30th 1916.

The Tsar didn’t keep his word, he fooled the middle class liberals for a while into thinking he was fair with his ‘October Manifesto.’ In this he promised the right to ...

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