Additionally there were developments that occurred without war, which illustrates that involvement in war was not the only cause for change. Therefore war was an important catalyst and factor to significant changes but was not the sole cause of change. The war that caused most change was Word War One due to its role in the February revolution in 1917 and the fall of the provisional government in the October revolution. The defeats of the war dwindled support from liberals and Octobrists for the Tsarist regime, which was further worsened by criticism from organisations including the Central War Industries committee and the union of Zemstva. This formed support and reason for the Progressive Bloc.
The desire of the Russians to press west and south put them on a collision with German speaking peoples in Germany and the Balkans, leading to those nations fighting in both world wars. Japan, being a small island nation with few natural resources, desired national security too. They sought to gain this by control of surrounding territories such as Korea, Philippines, north China, and Southeast Asia. Being isolated for centuries prior to 1870, these goals were fairly recent in the national philosophy, contrasted with the various European goals which had been around for centuries. They were thus rather easily discarded by the populace following the defeat of 1945.
Arguably Russia’s transformation from an autocratic state to a communist one was the greatest modification in the whole period 1855 to 1964, however, despite differing ideals there was in fact a large amount of continuity between the idealistically different styles of governance. Under Tsarist leaders, Russia experience differing levels of autocratic rule, interspersed with sporadic detours to democracy, yet upon the Communist takeover, there was a decisive shift towards autocratic dictatorship. Taking all this into consideration, the October Revolution can be seen as the most significant turning point in the development of Russian government, as the ideological shift influenced all subsequent decisions taken by the government of the USSR. Ideologically, the October Revolution in 1917 represented a unique turning point from Russia, as a 300 year old regime was unceremoniously discarded in favour of Marxism. Condemning the provisional government in his April Thesis, Lenin moved quickly to ensure the Bolshevik takeover was complete, consolidating
The long-term policies of Russification imposed by the Tsar in the 1880s, caused a lot of political unrest within Russia and these contributed to the 1905 revolution. Russia was the only country within Europe with no elected national parliament. The only form of elected representation (what the Tsar referred to as ‘senseless dreams’) was the “Zemstva”. The Union of Liberation demanded in December 1904, that a parliament should be set up because they felt the Russian population needed an outlet to express their views. At the time, the formation of political parties was illegal but despite this, they still existed.
Relationships between Russia and Britain were strained for a long time during the Cold War, mainly because of Russia’s determination to spread their influence over the eastern countries. All four eras show the changes in the relationships over time. Russia and Germany’s relations were more significant in the Wilhelm Period as they knew that they needed each other in order to secure themselves; so obviously they needed to form positive relations with one another. The Reinsurance Treaty of 1887 was a secret agreement between Germany and Russia arranged by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The Treaty came about after the “Three Emperors’ League” (Germany, Austria and Russia), collapsed because of disagreements between Austria-Hungary and Russia for spheres of influence in the Balkans.
These views are expressed in his two key works, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (published in 1995) and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime 1919-1924 (published in 1994). Pipe’s believes that Lenin was primarily responsible for the success of the uprising, even though Pipe’s recognizes Lenin’s role as the most important, he still hypocritically called Lenin’s April Theses “totally out of touch with reality, if not positively mad” despite the fact that this theses played a huge role in the Lenin and Bolshevik uprising. Pipe’s also believes that Trotsky just carried out Lenin’s commands. However the role or Trotsky and his actions before the October revolution were very evidently done on his own accord, with Lenin accompanying Trotsky in his decisions. In early October, 1917, Trotsky was elected
World History Since 1500 04/10/11 Chapter 27 Chapter 27 was about World War I and its economic and political consequences. There were a couple sections that interested me greatly throughout chapter 27. The first section that interested me a lot was the section titled “World War I.” The main section of this that I thought was interesting was the events that led up to the beginning of World War I. In the 19th century, Russia, and Austria competed to expand their influence into the Ottoman Empire. They openly disagreed on the building of railroads through the peninsula, and boundary revisions.
Russia also feared the growing German threat and sought to ally itself with Great Britain, France, and even Germany itself for protection. The British, for their part, tried hard to remain out of the conflict, but found that having the world's most powerful navy made that impossible. Rebellious provinces within the Austro-Hungarian Empire made central Europe extremely unstable, and the leaders of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East sought to expand their power. Historians have generally noted that the European powers had managed to avoid war for so long, that when it did
Devolution has always been a widely debated topic, with many arguments both for and against. Many people believe that devolution would allow for more efficient governing and better representation of the people. It was also believed that a regional government would receive greater loyalty from the people. However, some argued that devolution would ultimately lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom. The expense of creating a Scottish Parliament also raised some criticism, and the West Lothian Question was also a major issue.
For the previous few centuries whilst Western Europe had been developing Russia had been living in the middle ages and the Emancipation of the Serfs put an end to this. Also for a long period prior to Alexander II’s reign Russia had been seen as a major power but after the Crimean War came a realisation that this was not the case any longer. Another large turning point in Russian History is the creation of the Duma because it was a start towards democracy. Also it was the first time any Tsar had been forced to make concessions which paved the start towards revolutions and more power to the people. A fairly insignificant turning point is the period of Russification brought about by Alexander III.