[History] Why the Tsar caused Russia to fall into revolution

[Atterdag]

Author: genrally amusing
Original thread: Why the Tsar caused Russia to fall into revolution

Why the Tsar caused Russia to fall into revolution

OK, I think this will hurt my hands, but I'll give it a go.

The Tsar, a demi-god to the Russian population, was an autocratic leader of Russia. The Tsar, during the early 1900s, was Nicholas II. He was essentially a family man, who had simple values and no real political experience. There was no real government in Russia, and the population was built on a feudal-type system. The Tsar and the Church worked hand in hand, where the Church praised the Tsar as a God and encouraged idolism of his pictures, and the Tsar in turn encouraged more people into the Church. We must remember, however, that Russia was split into two parts, Western (European) Russia and Eastern (Asian) Russia. The Western part of Russia was built up with Christians, mostly peasants but with some aristocratic societies that controlled them. The Eastern part was a very mixed land, with Armenians, Muslims, Mongols etc.

The Tsar, in the pre-1905 days, was a quite popular man. But, when war broke out with the Japanese, the Russian population expected a huge victory. To put it bluntly, their army was a huge army of professional, well-trained men, and the Japanese/Chinese were small, yellow men that were to be put into their place. The Russians were quite extremist in their racism, and their anti-semitism was almost as harsh as the pre-Himmler semitism of Germany. The Russo-Japanese war was a huge defeat, and the Russians were dumbfounded. Their army had lost, the Japanese had won, and the morale of the citizens of Russia was at an all time low. The Tsar had failed to defeat the inferiors to the East, and the Russians feared more attacks in the cracks of weakness in Russia. They had to sign a humiliating treaty, and were very much defeated.

Strikes and poverty were a large factor in Russia. 95% of the population were peasant-farmers or industrial workers, in the factories. Living conditions were atrocious, and child labour was still rampant. Many strikes had gone on, moderately small compared to what was to come. The major problem for the Tsar came in 1905, on 9 January. A band of almost 200,000 people, led by Father Dupon, marched on the Tsar's palace in St Petersburg. In Dupon's hand was a petition, signed by hundreds of thousands of people, asking for less harsh working conditions, lower taxes, and other small things. However, the Tsar had fled the city when he heard of a large riot stampeding towards his castle. In his place was the Russian army. The Cossacks were ordered to fire upon the crowd, and the rout became a massacre. Thousands of people died, and this dreadful event sparked off the 1905 revolution in Russia.

Strikes became more common. One strikes made the Russian industry come to a standstill. Sailor mutinies, most famously on the battleship Potemkin, where the officers were killed and thrown overboard. The Tsar's uncle was assassinated in St Petersburg, and the idolisation of the Tsar became very weak. Two political parties sprung from this revolution, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. These were both Marxist parties, but had two very different theories. The Bolsheviks believed in a small, organised party, that was impenetrable to the Russian secret police, the Okhrana. They thought that the peasants were too stupid to rise in revolution, and they would follow anyone like sheep. They believed in a full-time revolutionary force. The Mensheviks, however, believed in a huge organisation, where the sleeping population would be awoken and would be made to revolt. The names (Bolshevik meant majority, Menshevik meant minority) came from one of the meetings of Marxists. After insulting the majority of the Mensheviks, who had left in anger, a vote was carried on which party would be followed. The Menshevik actually held the majority, but with a large group of people leaving, the Bolshevik party won the day.

Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, believed that Russia was not ready for a revolution. The Tsar knew of these uprisings, and he put a stop to it. He exiled Lenin and others such as Trotsky to Siberia, where the stayed for a long time. By 1906, the remaining leaders were dead or exiled, and the revolution had been forced to a stop. During the period of revolution and WW1, there were several laws passed. The Kulaks were introduced, hand-picked, rich peasants who were now able to sell and buy land. The strikes were still frequent, but less effective and not as widely reported. The Tsar set up a parliament, called the Duma, but he severely restricted it in what it could do. Every legislation had to pass through the Tsar, and was usually not passed due to this. Russia remained majorly autonomous.

In 1914, the First World War broke out. Surprisingly, the population became fiercely patriotic. The Tsar was not expecting this, and not on such a large scale. The war was a European conflict, however, the Russian army could quite easily conscript a large force, which it did. The force measured around 13 million by the first year. However, the Russian industry could not deal with such a force. The army needed equipement, food, and weapons. The Double Entente, which comprised of Russia, France and Britain, was supposed to neutralise this problem. However, this did not happen. The army was left severely under-equipped.

By 1915, the Russians had lost a significant number of soldiers on the Eastern Front. The two main offensives had made a small effect through Vilna and other Eastern European cities, and had saved the British/French soldiers a lot of hard work, but at the Russian's expense. The Tsar thought it his duty to lead the army himeslf. He left St Petersburg, leaving his wife Alexander, a German princess, in charge. Rumours began spreading, and due to the appaling control Rasputin had on Russians, people began talking of an affair between the two public enemies.

Meanwhile, Nicholas II had given his men a short-term morale boost. With their Godlike figure, the Tsar, at the head of the army, the soldiers felt that they could tackle anything. This feeling of euphoria did not last, and the defeats piled on each humiliating defeat. The Tsar was inneffective as a leader, and a poor strategist. For example, the second offensive that the Russians led helped them capture numerous strongholds in Lithuania and Poland. However, the Tsar ordered the offensive to drive, and the steam soon ran out with more defeats. The Tsar was no longer a God, he was a failure.

Lenin, accompanied with other revolutionary leaders, returned to Russia proper. The population had seen what had happened to the population, and the huge number of casualties. It is estimated, that out of 13 million peasant conscripts, 9.5 million were dead or wounded. By 1916, the Russians had had enough. Lenin took over the Bolshevik revolution, and overran Russia. Rasputin was executed, as were many others. The Duma, along with other committes and soviets (which means councils), had tried to create new subcouncils to try and create a two-way system with the population. The Tsar quickly dismissed these councils, and a month later he dismissed the Duma again.

When more revolts flared, the Tsar ordered force to destroy them. The army did not accept this order, due to the fact that it was newly conscripted and had more in common with the strike force rather than the Tsar. This was the last straw for the Tsar. He knew that the war would not be won by the Russians, and he removed his force back to Russia to deal with the revolts. In March 1917, the Russian Revolution began. The Tsar abdicated, and put his brother Michael in his place. Michael refused the offer, and the soviets/Duma took over reluctantly. The autocratic system had ended, and Communist Russia, Karl Marx's dream, had begun.

I, personally, believe that the Tsar was responsible for the Revolution. Leading the army was, in effect, his largest blunder. Although he added a short-term morale boost to the army, in the mid/long-term, it was disastrous. Even though the Tsar was not responsible for many of the mistakes, he was now the leader of the army, and had to answer for it. This was, in my opinion, his greatest mistake and the reason why the rest of Russia fell.