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Decline Of The Romanov Rule Essay

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It would be argued by some that the First World War was the main cause of the collapse of the Romanov rule in 1914, as it created a pressure cooker of economical breakdown, social discontent, and political inadequacies. However, western countries survived the First World War without these crippling problems, therefore this is indicative of major existing flaws in the systems of Russia. Many had already been turned politically away from the tsar, including the Populists, Liberals, and Marxists. The war only provided the catalyst to shift the majority view to that of the opposition, thus destroying the last of the tsar’s support. Opposed to an accumulation of genuine hatred of the Romanovs forcing Nicholas to abdicate, it was an insidious discontent which ultimately tipped the scale in favour of revolution - "The Russian Empire was a powder keg, waiting to explode" . The war merely lit the explosion of revolution that would most likely have over time occurred anyway because of the backwardness of the Russian Empire. …show more content…

Making up the majority of the country – if things were seen to be improving for the peasant classes revolution would have been unlikely. Modernisation of areas of the country which affected peasants would create support for the tsar and stabilise the socio-political systems. Stolypin abolished redemption payments in the hope that peasants would be appeased – it is largely maintained that these were the main cause of peasant discontent and Stolypin’s actions stabilised the rural situation, “the countryside was quiet in 1914” . Additionally, “many peasant’s living conditions were actually improving” leaving the social stability of the peasant class in a favourable condition, and there were further advances in agriculture - “between 1861 and 1910 crop yield had increased by 50%” , supporting the ideation the war was the main factor in the breakdown of this

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