This proves that the Bolsheviks were brutal because they used force to keep themselves in power. For example, the cheka would execute or exile villagers who were against the government and this would prevent opposition because people would be too scared of what would happen to them if they openly critical of the government. This supports my line of argument because a fear of the government, provided by the cheka, would cause very few people to openly oppose the government, creating a very weak, broken opposition. Trotsky created and introduced the red army at the beginning of the civil war to fight again the various white armies. He decided to recruit ex-tsarist army soldiers so that he would have
The Russians suffered a humiliating defeat which shocked the Russian public. Their aim was to expand its control in the Far East. Between 1904 and 1905, in Northern China and Korea, Russia and Japan came into conflict. Russian defeats on land and at sea showed worrying leadership. In January 1905 the Russian army were forced to surrender their Port Arthur Naval Base.
In 1917 after 300 years of ruling Russia, the Romanov dynasty was toppled by the appetite for change. I believe that the First World War was responsible for the downfall of the Romanovs. The main difference between the 1905 ‘revolution’ and the 1917 revolutions was that the army sided with the revolutionaries in 1917. This being the key reason as to why Autocracy fell. When Russia entered World War 1 in 1914 to when they left in 1917, they suffered numerous military defeats.
Thousands of soldiers awaited the crowd having been informed incorrectly that the protestors where there to harm the tsar and destroy the palace. The soldiers fired into the mob, killing and wounding hundreds. The unprovoked massacre, called Bloody Sunday, became the catalyst for further strikes and uprisings against the government, called the 1905 Russian Revolution. Although the Tsar was not in the country at the time and had no part in giving orders for the troops to fire, he still received the blame for the deaths resulting in the Russian people losing faith in Nicholas II and a surge of bitterness towards himself and his autocratic rule. In response to this event and to gain back the trust of his people the tsar was forced to grant a constitution and establish a parliament, the
The Tsar was inexperienced and unprepared when he was anointed to the throne due to his father’s sudden death, his poor leadership skills were tested in the early 1900’s when poor harvests, intensified poverty, poor living conditions and an embarrassing defeat in war with Japan in 1904 resulted in Bloody Sunday in 1905, this is where Russian peasants wanted civil liberties, better working conditions and poverty alleviated by introducing income tax. When the 150, 000 civilians marched to meet the Tsar and reason with him, the soldiers fired upon them-the march was misinterpreted as an act of evil and a rebellion against the Tsar. Nicholas had a determination to always rule under an autocracy, he was intransigent and was fixed to the same beliefs, it was his reluctance to change that lead to Bloody Sunday. The Tsar was heavily influenced by a man named Rasputin, who was brought in as a ‘staretz’ or a holy man in order to help the Tsar’s only son, Alexis, who suffered from hemophilia. Rasputin and Tsarina Alexandra became quite close, and as Rasputin began to
The violent uprising caused chaos across germany with many groups ready to take on the government. This went on between the years of 1919-1920. Left wing communists took action in the spartakist revolt in January 1919 to try and over throw the german government and wipe out capitalism and spatakist is another word for communist. The uprising was led by rosa Luxemburg and karl Liebknecht. They wanted a violent communist revolution but were rejected.
Tsar Nicholas didn’t try to help the aching people of Russia. The economic downfall that he got stuck in the middle of went downhill when he came into the power of Russia. The industrialization of Europe meant that the Russian economy was left behind, leading to decreased working conditions and a dysfunctional society. Russia In the early 20th Century had 80% of the people as peasants. So the social groups were formed by what class they were in.
However, it proved deeply unpopular with the peasants, and although it allowed Stalin and the party to finally gain control over the workers in the countryside, it had devastating effects on this section of the Russian population. The creation of collectives angered many of the of the Russian peasantry. The dekulakisation squads meant that peasants were being forced into collectives, and their crops, livestock, supplies and building were seized as property of the collective. Once again peasants began feeling tied to the land in a similar way to that of serfdome, instead of working for themselves as they did under NEP policies, they were now working for the State, largely losing the independence they had gained. This unhappiness began to manifest itself in violent opposition from large numbers of peasant, particularly in the wealthier agricultural areas, as they had more to lose to the state that the poorer farmers.
Although it has obtained some successes at the beginning, the dramatic changes were not far away. Russia was badly equipped and led; the army suffered a run of disastrous defeats as well as the rail way signalling system breakage of food transportation, causing blocked lines and trains being abandoned, over 200,000 men were found dead. Food riots broke out in Russia’s countryside and major cities. Because Russia was receiving supplies and support from their European allies the provisional government refused to pull out of the war, and began announcing new offensives. Loyal army has been replaced with around 15 million peasants, the army had sympathised with workers and themselves along with the navy began mutiny against a government they had no wish to fight and die for with the Bolsheviks rioting.
Like many other revolutions in the history of the world, the Russian Revolution was against economic oppression, which led the Russian revolution to start out as a revolution for democracy. Russia was known to be an extremely oppressed country in the 20th century, which was ruled by the Czars, Russia was also known as a feudal dictatorship. People from Russia were also horribly oppressed, poor, starving, cold, and also had no direction or hope ("The Russian Revolution", 2003). The Russian Revolution influenced terrorism by terrorist attacks and war. A small group of revolutionaries over threw Czars causing Russia to go into a stage of anarchy and turmoil, after the Bolshevik Party of Lenin emerged as dominant political force ("The Russian Revolution", 2003).