The 1905 revolution was infact the first of two revolutions were other parties tried to take Russia from under Tsar Nicholas rule. But it failed because Tsar Nicholas still had the support of his army, which helped protect him. But now Tsar Nicholas released that for him to survive as Russia’s leader he would have to make changes to the way he ran Russia. The result was The October Manifesto. This meant that Nicholas would become a figurehead, leaving the important decisions to elected politicians (rather like the monarch in Britain) called Duma. The peasants, Landowners and townspeople that owned property would elect the Duma. Fortunately the working class and women were not allowed to vote. I think this is many because the Tsar had problems with them e.g. International Women’s Day where they went on protest and Bloody Sunday. Tsar Nicholas knew that they were on the Socialist Revolutionaries side and he did not want them to be in the Parliament. The October Manifesto made an immediate impact.
Even though the October Manifesto promised everyone an election, but when it came to the first election in Russia’s history Tsar Nicholas broke his promise. The system was fixed so that the votes of landowners and property owners were worth more than those of the peasants and workers. And why the election was taken place Fundamental Laws were published which made it clear that the Duma would have fewer powers than the October Manifesto promised. The first Duma only lasted 72 days. The Duma voted that it had no confidence in the Tsar’s government and demanded that the Tsar form a new government of ministers chosen from the Duma. Once again the Tsar had failed to have the support of his new government and his only answer to this mess was to dissolve the Duma. Nicholas suddenly had hatred for Witte making him agree to the October Manifesto. While Witte was trying to form a new government, the Liberals refused to help him. Leaving him to resign.
In January 1906 Social Revolutionaries launched a new campaign of terror in the countryside to make people lose faith in the government. 9,000 people died in they campaign and the Tsar was forced to chose a New Prime Minister. To help him with the tasks of the October Manifesto, Tsar chose an able tough man called Peter Stolypin to strengthen his authority and to restore laws and orders. Stoylpin was a much hatred man who used ruthless methods e.g. giving peasants land and them then only harvesting crops was only a third of what other smaller countries where producing. This shows that while Stolypin was getting peasants to support, the Tsar was losing faith in the Farmers that had once owned this land.
Although Nicholas seen as handsome, quite intelligent, charming and easy to get along with. He was infact very weak and indecisive. He would rather spend his time with his family. He and Alexandra had five children, the youngest of whom was their only son and heir, Alexis. Alexis had inherited a rare blood disease Haemophilia. In 1905 Alexandra employed a man called Rasputin that was said to have special powers to stop bleeding and pain, to look after Alexis. However people noticed something unusual about his eyes and that Rasputin was a heavy drinker and that he fascinated women. So, when Alexandra and Rasputin got close as we can we see in a letter stolen from Rasputin that was written by Alexandra, “My much loved never to be forgotten teacher. I am so wretched without you. My soul is only rested and at easy when you my teacher are near me. I kiss your hands and lay my head upon your blessed shoulder. I feel so joyful then. Then all I want is sleep, sleep forever on your shoulder, in your embrace…” you can see why people grew to dislike him.
Stolypin ordered the Okhrana to watch Rasputin to protect the Tsar. But while he was collecting evidence to discredit Rasputin, a police informer of the Okhrana shot Stolypin during an opera performance in September 1911. Rasputin and Alexandra’s relationship was still going on behind the Tsar’s back but everyone knew except the Tsar himself.
After the death of Stolypin, the First World War started. Russia had five million men in their army. This was bigger than Germany’s and Austria-Hungary put together. But the problem was that the soldiers were underfed, had no weapons and no boots. By December 1914 the army had over a million men dead. The situation got worse with defeats in 1915. The Russian army was on the verge of collapse. So Nicholas decided to take personal command of the army. This was a fatal mistake for several reasons. To begin with he was not a good commander, his people would blame him personally for failure. Finally he left the Tsarina and Rasputin in full command of Russia back in St. Petersburg. The people did not trust the Tsarina because she was German and Rasputin was seen as an evil influence on government.
The Tsarina made many bad decisions, which Rasputin had put he up to. Such as dismissing ministers replacing them with hopeless ones. In December 1916, some aristocrats murdered Rasputin, but the damage had already been done. Economic chaos at and the military disaster in the war had spelt end for the Tsarist regime. Lenin knew this and was able to increase his party popularity all he needed was a revolution to happen.
Finally the Revolution was triggered by cold weather, St. Petersburg and 340,000 soldiers protected the Tsarina. They were stationed in overcrowd barracks in and around the city. These soldiers were the newest recruits; they were mostly peasants in uniform. These soldiers where newly trained and inexperienced or unable to serve at the front because of war injuries. The soldiers were not disciplined in the Russian army. They were often cold or hungry.
Because of the cold weather piles of snow and ice stopped the railways carrying fuel and supplies into the city, Women factory went on strike. Their menfolk followed them. On the 23rd of February the women held a demonstration, this was called International Women’s Day. Men of the city joined them and soon people from outside the city were trying to get. Nicholas sent an order to the General Khabalov “I order you to stop the disorders in the capital which are unacceptable.” So when the River Neva was closed to stop the demonstration but people began to walk across the river because the water was still frozen. Officers ordered troops to fire. The soldiers shot about forty people before refusing to continue to obey orders.
Meanwhile, twelve Duma Deputies had formed a Provisional Committee to take over the government. The workers, soldiers and sailors of St. Petersburg formed a Soviet to watch over them. This shows that the people of Russia have totally lost confidence in Nicholas and now they are trying to plot against him to rule their country.
When the Tsar finally realized what was happening he set off from the Military headquarters at Mogilev in his royal train for his family home in, Tsarskoe Selo. His Train stopped at Pskov station, so that he could get help but instead he learnt that his generals would no longer support him. Nicholas had total lost control of his country. So in a final attempt to keep Tsarist going on in Russia, He asked his brother, Michael to help. But Michael refused and Nicholas abdicated.
Without Nicholas being weak and not wanting to run the country. The people would of supported him but fortunately for Lenin he could use Tsar Nicholas’s faults to help him understand what the Russian public wanted and he was able to persuade them to start supporting the Bolsheviks Party.
2) Using some of the causes in the list explain how both Long-term and short-term causes countries contributed to Lenin’s rise to power.
The way that Russia society was organized and the economic effects of World War one were two long-courses to Lenin’s rise to power but the short course helped contributed to.
The Tsar Nicholas way of ruling was autocracy. No one was allowed to question his authority or to challenge his power. The Russian Orthodox Church provided Nicholas with another way of controlling his people, by using Religion and the Autocraist belief. A government minister ordered the Bishops to train their Priests to preach Loyalty to the Tsar. To most Russian’s it must have seen as if there was a little difference between the duty of God and the obedience of their Emperor. This lead to the Tsar’s strongest supporters, which were Landowners and Government officials being his supporters because the laws supported them. Only because they were keen to protect their wealth and Privileges. The Capitalists or businessmen made money from the expansion of Russian Industrials in 1890. Their profits came from exploiting the workers who received miserable wages in return for a 15-hour day. Some peasants and working class did not support the Tsar, because of their exploit and because the Tsar promised the October Manifesto but he broke his promise to them.
This Long Term lead to a Short term, which the Russian people could not get out of joining, because they did not want to get invaded by Germany. This was the First World War. The effects on Russia in the First World War were probably the worst in the first year. Many Russians died and the country did not have enough money to supply the soldiers with equipment, clothes and food. Many widows and families were mad that so many people died and when the cold weather came around and they themselves were starving and not working they decide to get rid of the Tsar. This lead to the Tsar abdication and followed by another Short courses The Provisional Government. This new government took over from the Tsar and promised that the nation would have an election for a new government. But instead the Provisional Government was not the only possible government. One man was determined to push the revolution further and this was Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks. When he heard about the February Revolution, Germany lent him his own train to return to Russia.
Between May and October 1971, the Provisional government made a series of mistakes which played into the hands of the Bolsheviks. First and most important no steps were taken to end the war. After the February Revolution many men had left the army, which lead the Provisional Government to a Military Failure in July. Then the Provisional Government told Russia that the elections would now be moving to November. This shows that the Provisional Government did not want to let go of power. Lenin used this to help him again support. He gave a speech to the nation about “Peace, Bread and Land” this had begun the great appall, especially since the Bolsheviks had carefully distanced themselves from the Provisional Government.
This lead to the Kornilov revolt. General Kornilov plotted some kind of Military Takeover to defend St. Petersburg from attack. He released Bolshevik leaders from prison and armed their supporters. When he was trying to return to Petrograd on his train, the Bolsheviks stopped him. So in return the Bolsheviks came the defenders of Petrograd.
All these Long courses and Short courses show how the problems in Russian help Lenin and the Bolsheviks gain support to be able to take over Russia.
3) Was any one of these reasons more important than the others in Lenin’s rise to power?
There were a number of reasons why Lenin was able to rise to power. Russia was ruled by a series of out of touch men, whom had fallen behind in technology. Tsar Nicholas II ruled a disorganized nation. His government of appointed officials and men in inherited positions which did not represent the people. Russia had little machinery, so like the rest of Europe it tried to create and Industrial Revolution. To do this Tsar Nicholas traded with other countries in exchange for machinery, eventhough this would mean that more people would starve. Combined this with the devastation and desperation brought on shortly by World War 1, the Russian public lost confidence in the Tsar and his Government. This lead to political groups being formed against the Tsar and each one did not get on with another. Liberal constitutionalists wanted to remove the Tsar and form a republic; the Social revolution tried to promote a peasant revolution. The Marxists promoted a revolution among the proletariat or urban working class.
The Russian public was fed up with their Government’s state of affairs and ready for change. This Change was presented in the form of Lenin. Lenin was a superb speaker; he would hold audiences at rapt attention with his powerful speeches. People became convinced of his socialist views. Lenin formed his own party, they were called the Bolsheviks and unlike the other parties Lenin limited membership to a small number of full-time revolutionaries.
During World War 1 Tsar Nicholas II remained totally focus on winning the war and did not hesitate before committing more men and supplies to the War effort. But the Russian public was already losing faith in him. They were starving of hunger because trains that supplied food could not deliver food to the peasants at war and in inner cities. While this was all going on Lenin was making his way up; he was getting more people on his side. Finally the Russian public and his army went against him and the Tsar had to abdicate the throne in February of 1917. He left a weak government behind, which was run by Soviet Councils. Their leader was Alexandra Kerensky. The government was called the Provisional Government, and they failed to make deadlines and lost a lot of support. In November Kerensky asked Lenin and his Bolsheviks, with help on arming Petrograd. Lenin used this to overthrown the Provisional Government in October 1917.
I feel that without the Tsar abdicating that Lenin would not of been able to seize power from the Provisional Government and the Kornilov Affair. Without the Tsar Nicholas abdicating none of the Revolutions would have been able to happen.
