Why were the Bolsheviks able to seize power in 1917?

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James Newell

            Why were the Bolsheviks able to seize power in 1917?

        A diverse group of factors sparked the fire of the Russian Revolution. Each of these problems gradually over time built up and caused what would be a major event in Russia’s history.

In September 1915, when the Tsar took control of the Russian Army from his uncle Grand Duke Nicholas – even though the Tsar had no experience in battlefield warfare – he tried to lead Russia into victory. However, the German opposition, the best army at the time in the world, were better equipped and experienced which lead to defeat after defeat over the Russian army. These defeats were blamed on the Tsar which led to many soldiers, by 1917, supporting the Tsar’s opponents the ‘Bolshevik Party’.

The failure of the Tsar to deal with all of the demands made by the people worsened his reputation. He appeared weak and unable to keep any promises he made, and worse still the democratic Duma he established held no effective power, and was obviously a ploy to please the people while the Tsar ignored them.

The long term effects of the 1905 Revolution haunted the Tsar. The revolt had mainly been down to the terrible conditions the workers had to live and work in, as it had been a problem for Russia for the past 350 years. Even through the war this was still the case and the Tsar was doing nothing to stop it.  Other long term effects that caused problems were the fact that there was a lack of raw materials and the Tsar took all the money in taxes whilst the peasants and middle classes were left with none.

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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 ...

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