The communists saw Nicholas II, the aristocracy and the Church as the controllers and the oppressors of the Russian people. The communists aimed to overthrow the Tsar, the aristocracy and the Church and replace them with small councils or Soviets, which would represent the ordinary people and control the means of production on their behalf.
The communists were split amongst themselves. On one side were the Bolsheviks, who believed that a communist revolution in Russia could only be achieved under the guidance of a small elite of professional revolutionaries. The other communist group was the Mensheviks. The Mensheviks also wanted a communist revolution, but one that was democratic and not controlled by one person or a small group. They wanted a working class revolution. There were many political opposition parties at the time of the rule of the tsarist government and this was likely to pose a threat for the monarchy and tsarist regime.
There was also opposition from the Kadets. Middle class and liberal landowners wanted a parliament like England. Influence from other political systems in other countries meant many people wanted a change, however this caused problems for the Tsar, as they found it difficult to please everybody and still remain in power.
The Bureaucracy swore loyalty not to the state or the nation, but to the tsar personally. It was extremely hierarchical and inflexible, each official being subject entirely to the authority of his superior. There was no cabinet and no Prime Minister, since the Court feared this would reduce the power of the tsar. This was a major cause of inefficiency in the Tsarist government, since there was no overall co-ordination of policy: the tsar often gave contradictory or incompatible orders, and each minister followed his own ends without regard for the problems of his colleagues. Compounding the problem of inefficiency in the central bureaucracy was the relative lack of a provincial bureaucracy. Russia could not afford the money required to administer properly a country of such vast distances and poor communications. In 1900 Russia had only one third as many administrators, proportionate to its population, as France, and half that of Germany. In consequence, a powerful governor, supported by military garrisons administered each province. There were small contingents of police, and agents of ministries such as Finance, Justice and War, but essentially the countryside was self- governing through the institution of the peasant commune, which was responsible for the collection of taxes, delivery of military recruits, and some judicial functions. It also had the advantage of not costing the central government any money. However, it effectively meant that the authority of the central government stopped at the 89 provincial capitals. This lack was sorely felt after 1905 when the government, attempting to win majorities in the , was unable to mobilise support against the liberal and radical intelligentsia who went out into the villages. Therefore this was also a problem for the tsarist government and was shown to be a big problem heading their way.
The church also was likely to cause problems for the Tsar government. The Orthodox Church in Russia was the official religion and held a privileged position. Other religions, and there were many, were permitted in Russia, but their members were not considered 'true' Russians. Converts to Orthodoxy were welcomed, but members of the Orthodox Church were not permitted to convert to other religions. The Holy Synod, effectively the Department of State, administered the Church for Religion, and clergy were paid by the state. The principal political responsibility of the Church was education, or indoctrination, as the government viewed it. The government forbade the teaching in schools of ideological justifications of the existing order; for fear that it would provoke counter- arguments, and avoided the promotion of nationalist sentiment, since this implied loyalty to the country, rather than the regime. Nationalism was also a dangerous force in so multinational an empire. Only religious indoctrination, teaching respect for God and obedience to the tsar, his appointed representative, was therefore permitted. However, since Church schools only taught about one-third of the pupils in education at the turn of the century, and the secular schools contained many teachers with radical views, this effort was not wholly successful. Education inevitably led people to question the existing order, and the Universities were centres of radical activity. This caused problems for the Tsar. It was fear of the effects of education that discouraged the government from attempting to educate the peasantry. That the middle class was educated put a barrier between them and the peasants in the fields and the workers in the factories. Their ideas must have seemed totally alien to the vast bulk of Russia’s population that was still very much under the influence of the church. The churches were believers that God determined your rank and status on Earth and if you were poor, it was because He ordained it.
However, a disadvantage of not educating the peasants also meant that it would make problems for the economy of Russia. It meant that it was impossible to educate peasants about modern farming methods therefore held back the development of Russian agriculture.
The Russian peasantry were organised into communes, which controlled village life. Land was divided into strips and allocated by the commune according to need. Although peasants could, and did, own private land, in 1910 151 million hectares of land in European Russian were owned and farmed communally, and only 14 million were privately owned. Many people in government realised that this system prevented agricultural improvements, since peasants did not own their land and had no incentive to try out new methods, but the peasants preferred it because it guaranteed everyone a fair and adequate share of land. There was a growing feeling in Russia that unless something was done the countryside would soon explode into unrest. The peasants had a simple solution to their problems, to confiscate all private land owned by the landlords and give it to the commune. The peasants were in a permanent state of expectation that they would receive the rest of 'their' land and the only thing that stopped them from taking it was fear of reprisal. Therefore, in spite of the fact that the peasantry were a profoundly conservative group, there existed the constant potential for revolutionary activity.
Also Russia was beginning to industrialise, however there was poverty and poor living conditions which created a large workforce disaffected and concentrated in the capital Petrograd. Also a small wealthier middle class were beginning to want a say in the government.
The impact of the war and the defeat caused uproar in the Russian society, especially with the working class and brought the question up whether the government was a good leadership, it made them look incompetent.
. Russia was relatively backward in its technology and industrialisation. Nicholas II commanded a huge army, but its lack of supplies and poor leadership, especially after the Tsar assumed sole command, left it relatively weak.
Nevertheless, in 1914 the dynasty had ruled Russia for 300 years, so it cannot have been totally swamped with problems from the society. The army supported it, by the Church, by the secret police, and by the natural conservatism of the peasants, who worshipped the Tsar as appointed by God. The foundations of the Tsar’s power were the ancient, historical things that were weakening and going out-of-date, all the things that threatened his power were the modern things that were growing stronger.
