On top of all the other chaos, the tsar decided that Russia should get involved in a war with Japan in 1904 over the land of Manchuria. The Tsar, at first, thought that a war was the solution to bring people of Russia together and to stop the people criticising his government. However, he soon knew that he had made a horrendous decision, for the war made the conditions worse then ever before. Prices rose in the cities, as the war cause shortages of food. Lack of industrial materials cause factories to close, also causing the unemployment of workers at the same time. What was even worse for the Tsar was that the Japanese inflicted defeat after defeat on the Russians. Being defeated by a country that was so small in comparison with Russia was about the most shameful thing the Tsar could imagine.
The First World War affected everyone in Russia including the Army, workers, middle classes and the aristocracy.
The First World War was a substantial failure for Russia which massively lowered the Tsar’s popularity and authority. The Russian people began to question themselves whether or not they could put their trust in the Tsar. Furthermore, as well as the appalling conditions at the front line, some levels of the Russian society were already dissatisfied with the poor conditions back at home. They were being harshly treated and affected by mass food shortages which also showed just how much the Tsar could not cope under such circumstances like the First World War. The following factors will show how they worked together to bring about the fall of the Russian Monarchy.
The army were made up of the peasantry and probably hit the most due to the fact that they were poorly supported by the industries. They weren’t producing enough rifles, ammunition, artillery shells or boots and if they were, the basic rail network could not support the deliveries to the front line. At the end of 1914, there were 6,500,000 men in the army but they only had 4,600,000 rifles. This lack of support meant that the Tsar was becoming unpopular and some of the people in Russia wanted a total end to the war, which was promised by the Bolsheviks.
The rise of industrialisation in Russia affected the home front as well as the front line. The lack of raw materials such as metals and fuels made the economy of the country fall as money was unavailable. This led to the poor rail network as there was no metal to extend or develop the system which meant that supplies could not be transported to the troops or even the people in the cities.
When the Tsar he came to power he wasn’t greeted by a prosperous nation. Russia was about to enter industrialisation. Russia was so hard to rule that the sheer size of the country is 17 million SQ KM. It had poor trade links with other countries as it did not have much to offer. Overall it was a huge amount of space for one man to control. Apart from the two main cities Moscow and St Petersburg the rest of the country was cold waste land where poverty was widespread. Farming was the main occupation of people in Russia. There was a single rail track which ran through the whole of Russia called the Trans Siberian Railway. This was the only way to get from side to side so if help was needed in the east it would take a week to arrive in the west. This made it hard fro the Tsars orders to get across the county. Another problem was the many different nationalities living inside the country. The majority of the population was not even Russian. This would mean that the majority of the people would not understand and therefore not listen to the Tsar. So if the Tsar could not understand the majority of his people as they would have not spoke Russian he had no affect in controlling them. Also if the people did not understand him they would not respect him and so might decide to rebel which the control could have not handled.
In 1917 the Russian Tsar Nicolas II abdicated leaving the Provisional Government in charge. However the provisional government were no better than the Tsar and Russia’s economy continued to decline. Later that year in October 1917 the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government led by Kerensky. Some historians see the revolution as a united working class led by Lenin but others see this as inevitable due to the failings of the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government made many mistakes such as failing to conclude the war. The decision to continue with the war was to prove extremely unfortunate. It was unpopular, as there appeared to be few aims to the continued fighting. The government quickly lost the support of a large proportion of the troops. This provided excellent targets for Bolshevik propaganda. The Russian situation in the war worsened and humiliating defeat began to loom. This robbed the Provisional Government of any popular support, and the chance to crush army dissent.
The Bolshevik Revolution was successful in many ways and unlike the February Revolution, which was unplanned, the Bolsheviks and their leader Lenin had planned the October Revolution in great detail. He played such a significant role because he was an inspiring leader with vision, clarity and ability. He noted that the Bolsheviks had a strong control of the soviet; they were at an all time popular high, in elections across Russia and in general public opinion. Lenin’s ally, Trotsky made great use of his outstanding ability in leadership in order to help the Bolsheviks succeed. S.J Lee commented, ‘The situation in 1917 favoured the group with the firmest revolution, the greatest discipline and the most effective powers of coercion.’ He was very intelligent, good at public speaking and very persistent. Where Trotsky had holes and weaknesses in his qualities, they were filled by Lenin and as a result wee an effective pair of leaders, achieving results such as winning the October revolution in 1919. Trotsky had been allocated to, and was developing his main contribution to the Bolsheviks success, the Red Army. They were the fighting force for the Bolsheviks and without them no revolution could have ever taken place.
As you can see, the above factors sparked the Russian Revolution with the Tsar being behind nearly all of them. Clearly then, the Tsar was the main cause behind all the problems leading to the collapse of the Russian Monarchy in 1917. He had entered the war but failed to realise the problems that would result from it. He thought that by forming the Duma he would gain support but in fact he lost even more support from the people of Russia. It was a series of key decisions that The Tsar made that ultimately caused the Bolsheviks to seize power.