Betina Velasco
Mr. Lira
MWH, 6th period
October 26, 2014 Causes of the Russian Revolution
For three centuries before the revolution, life in Russia was not peaceful. It was cold, hard, and bitter instead. “The end of serfdom was a major event in Russia; yet it just wasn 't enough.”, in 1861. Serfdom, under feudalism, is the the status of peasants in which they are bound to a lord, or master, works on their land, and can be sold like property. Despite serfs being given ‘freedom’, Russia was mostly ruled by the czar and nobles. The average person was, and stayed, poor. Therefore, World War I was not the main cause of the Russian revolution. This outdated feudal class structure, inability to modernize, lack of peace, and czars’ inept leaderships lead to the Russian Revolution.
First of all, the class structure was one of the main causes of the revolution in Russia. In the early 1900s, about “90% of Russia’s population were serfs, peasant-slaves” (youtube doc.). They were owned by less than “7% of Russia’s population, the nobles” (youtube doc.). The nobles treated them like currency, even using them for gambling. These nobles were overprivileged and live in the complete opposite way of how serfs lived, dirt poor, illiterate, and virtually without rights. Meanwhile, less than “2% of the population were clergymen of the Eastern Orthodox church” (youtube doc.). They too lived considerably worse than the nobles. The clergy
Many historians argue The Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861, to be a key turning point within Russian history. It drastically altered Russia’s economic, political and social stipulation. One could propose the argument that this event lead to the fall of communism in 1990, further more suggesting the extent to which this event affected Russia. Hence this is ‘perhaps the most defining moment in Russian history, with its impact being seen many years after the event itself’. Although historians identify short term effects of this event, the significance to which this event
Russia struggled to provide food for its populations. Citizens took control into their own hands, Ludovic Naudeau wrote in October 1917, “One morning recently I was awakened by the cries of my neighbor in the next room. His boots had been stolen. The same day the manager of a newspaper office told me that he had been robbed six of pairs of pantaloons, … “Four hundred thefts every night!” he cried; that is the average for the last two weeks,”(One Aspect of Bolshevist Liberty). Russia could not even uphold itself because the economy was not successful compared to other countries. This led people to desire a change in the government; therefore this led to the Russian Revolution. People went to different maters to get what they wanted such as stealing since they were not getting the aid that they needed and they needed financial support. This caused them to protest against their government because many people from the lower class could not take care of their families. This cause led to a greater impact compared to Tsarist weak authority.
This demonstrates that since the stress of waging war was tremendous, it should be no surprise that the first war could be a primary cause of the Russian Revolution. Moreover, the major powers of Europe hurt Russia in World War I; yet, by 1917, all the combatants horrifically suffered from the strains of war economically, proving this to be a long-term cause. This was, to a great extent, considerable because the military defeats and social strains of World War I had created a crisis in Imperial Russia. Before, Russia had some military accomplishments and they were on their way to being successful. Nevertheless, their triumphs were not long-standing; hence, Russia was not able to be victorious due to the fact that Russia decreased in economy because of the limitations in Russia. Similarly, restraints included the shortage of food and the huge problems with getting the obligatory materials for the army during World War I, which shows that this was momentous. Along with Russia being defeated and having a scarcity of supplies, Russia also showed economic oppression due to the pressure in jobs workers faced.
The Russian Revolution began in 1917 and lasted until late 1930’s, the revolution was very brutal with total death of 3 million people and 7 million people were arrested (Document 12). The revolution broke out when Nicholas II comes to power because Bloody Sunday leads to Duma, then he steps down and the Duma sets up a provisional government thus sparking the want for domination and the revolution kicks off (Book). By the end of the revolution Russia was definitely weakened in some aspects but strengthened as a nation. Therefore, the Russian people were better off after the Russian Revolution because they benefited from a better economy, government, and living conditions.
In 1917, Tsar Nicholas ll is the current ruler of Russia. Russia’s economic growth is increased by the czar’s reforms of the production of more factories. Since, Russia desperately needed to keep up with the rest of Europe’s industry. This reform worked out perfectly, but the working conditions of these factories didn’t please factory workers. After the events of the Russo-Japenese War, “Bloody Sunday”, and WW1, all of Russia was in utter chaos under the czar’s ghastly leadership. With no signs of the czar’s attempt to solve the problems that kept coming up, all of Russia banded together and filled the streets with strikes and riots. A revolution was peaking among the peasants. The uprising brought Nicholas ll no choice but to abdicate
During the early 20th century in Russia, the country was a tsarist country which was ruled by Tsar Nicholas II. Russia was a vast country who had one of the largest agriculture producer. During that time Russia rely on agricultural as their national income. This peasant country have a population of approximately 127 million people. The rich were very rich and have a comfortable life while the poor was treated unfairly, many people had died because they don’t have enough food.
(doc.1) so the peasants were pretty much like slaves. There were more poor people who were farmers and they didn't have food .this lead people aka poor people go into a rant and wanted to overthrow tsar's government. The middle term cause was that tsar had too much power in his hands. In ‘' the 19th century a significant minority of the Russian population began to call for a voice in the government'' (doc.1) so people thought the ones
Russia reborn The Russian Revolution can be argued, that it was started for many different reasons but i believe it was caused by three main reasons that happened in Russia during this period of time. The three reasons are, the involvement of Russia in WWI, the autocratic government, and the poverty/non-industrial economy and agriculture. In Document 1 it says “ Before the twentieth-century, 80%-95% of the population were poor peasants”. Since economic struggles were country wide and the people were suffering, a change or a revolution was close to come.
For many decades, Russia was isolated from other part of the world politically and geographically. During the First World War, Russia’s industrialization was progressing fairly, as they implemented an education reform program to promote literacy among people. The program would have been successful if it was continued without obstacles. They also implemented a program named Stolypin in order to modernize the agriculture, which was bringing successful changes to the country; however, the Stolypin program was not completed because of problems such as War, the absent of a proper parliament institutions ,the corruption and excess of power among the secret police. Ethnicity in Russia groups was also among the problems as the Russian empire was becoming anarchical and it was getting difficult to maintain it due to pressure form the population who felt that their basic need were not being responded while the monarchy was having an extravagant lifestyle (Kennan,1). By 1917, most Russian were now convinced about the fact that Czar Nicholas II was not good enough to help revive the economy in Russia. Also, Corruption in the government was still untouched and the king had already dissolved the Duma because they did not agree to his will. The economy was still backward, without jobs, frustrated people were tired of the conditions that they lived
In 1917, there were many major world events going on. World War I was under place and had been since 1914. There were civil rights movements in the United States. A worldwide influenza epidemic had broken out. The Chicago White Sox won the world series against the New York Giants. During the year 1917, there was also a major revolution in Russia. The people of Russia split themselves into several political groups, all fighting over how the government should be run. One of these groups was the Bolshevik party. They were a communist party and ended up taking over Russia by the end of the revolution. For the revolution to begin and finally end with a communist power in Russia, there needed to be causes. The three major causes of the Russian Revolution were Russia’s participation in World War I, an unstable government and Vladimir Lenin.
Imagine what life was like back then as a peasant. Imagine you were in Russia back in the early 1900’s, where there was no personal electronic devices, there was no television, and you were probably too poor to afford a radio. Pretty soon however, your life will change because of an event called Bloody Sunday, which started the Russian revolution. I think that the Russian revolution was partially necessary to improve the life of the peasants, because the result of a couple of the leaders turned a good opportunity into a bad one by having a corrupt government.
The Russian Revolution is a series of political events that occurred during the years 1905 to 1924. The February Revolution, in which overthrew the imperial government and the October Revolution, placed the Bolsheviks in power (britannica.com). The Russian Revolution happened because of discontentment of with the tsar, poverty in Russia, and lack of control over the government. During the In January of 1905, protesters were protesting in front of the winter palace because of extreme poverty and starvation due to peasants’ wages decreasing. The Russian workers and peasants wanted a better working and living conditions. More than 1000 protesters were killed and injured after the tsar, Nicholas the II, ordered his army to gun down the protesters. This incident, known as Bloody Sunday, led to the 1905 revolution. During the 1905 revolution, Russian Social Democratic Social Party split into two factions, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Later in October of 1905, Nicholas the II issued the October Manifesto, which ended the Russian Revolution of 1905. In July of 1914, World War I begun which caused the Russians a lot of damage because four million Russian soldiers killed, wounded or captured. The Russian Soldiers refused the fight and people back in Russian were starving because of the lack of income from the war. World War I also caused the tsar to lose control of Russia as the war has caused chaos in Russia. Soon, continuous protests and revolts led to the March Revolution of
Imperial Russia from its conception, has not been an economic or agricultural power house. Often enough the majority of Imperial Russia’s population lived well below the poverty line and struggled to get by while the rich lined their pockets. This economic inequality became possible through serfdom. The emancipation of serfs in Imperial Russia has been greatly scrutinized for its ineffectiveness in promptly bringing about this change. However, ultimately the biggest question is how important were serfs to the economic ability of Russia and whether or not their emancipation was a positive economic force or negative.
Political movements, social movements, and economic movements all have a part in pushing colonists farther towards the Revolutionary War. What was the cause from these movements that pushed us to revolt though? Was it the strict laws Britain placed of America? Or was it the even stricter taxes placed on tea, and other items? Well there is only one way to find out. To keep reading this essay.
Along with the behavior and abuse from the government, this caused people to be treated with disrespect. Both men and women were physically punished if they disobeyed. The fight for social and political change became massive problem for people in general. Russia had suffered a minor setback in government, as neighboring states saw improvement in freedom. Russia controlled its power by the forces of the army, the dumas, who held the “authority to assess taxed and to organize pubic services” (Merriman, 710). … controlled by the zemstvos wealthy landowners who elected members in where more of a value then the town people and or peasants. The caused the Russia Empire to endure the same outcome. It’s when the individuals who want to help shape their