When Nicholas took the throne, he had some experience in Government under his belt, but due to his father's untimely death he had not fully been elevated into the higher tiers of the Russian Government. Nicholas was also very naive in his dealings with the Urban Intelligentsia, which would later hamper his reign, and plague his thoughts and actions he would take during his reign. When the Japanese took Port Arthur in the Russo - Japanese war, and the Tsar realized he must admit defeat, he also promised
The country also felt threatened as its neighbouring country, Russia was part of the Triple Entente and was itself building up a vast army. Keeping a strong army was important to Germany because it helped to demonstrate to the rest of the world that they were a rising power. In addition, Germany was also in competition with Great Britain. At the time Britain had the largest navy; something Germany envied. Once Britain started introducing their new battleships, named the Dreadnoughts, Germany followed suit.
Russia was naturally seen as the superior military power of the two but they failed to utilise this. Russia needed Port Arthur as a war water port for military and maritime trade all year round. Vladivostok was only operational in the summer months so the Russians relied heavily on Port Arthur. Yet, in January 1905 the Russians were forced to surrender Port Arthur to the Japanese. However, the greatest humiliation came at the battle of Tsushima in May 1905.
as a result former serfs had to pay redemption payments to the Russian government for forty three years. The major problem for Alexander III when he came to power was that he didn't agree with what his father had done to the serfs. Alexander knew that he could not reverse the emancipation completely. This was because the majority of the population were serfs and so if he upset them then it would have caused even more problems. This shows that Alexander III was not successful in reversing this reform made by his father.
The loss of support in the Tsar meant that more people sought to join the opposing groups, making them continuously more popular. Opposing groups such as the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks supported the act of a revolution which significantly increased the chances of such an occurrence. Nonetheless, some of the groups did not want revolution. The Octoberists for example were contented once the Tsar brought out the October manifesto. This effectively weakened the success of a revolution because of the lack of organization and co-operation.
The war was caused by grudges countries had held against each other from previous wars. Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy were the Triple Alliance. Britain, France and Russia were the Triple Entente (friendly agreement). These agreements meant that if ever war broke out you would help the country you are in agreements with. Germany was 30-40 years old and wanted to have a bigger empire and navy than Britain, which had the biggest empire and biggest navy out of all of the countries.
The long-term factors that would have built tension and rivalries throughout Europe are the alliance systems and the arms race, whereas the short term factors would be the mismanaged crisis, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which was ultimately the trigger of total war. The Balkan crisis 1908 -12 both increased the likelihood of war. As there had been tensions growing since 1912 between the Serbians and the Austro- Hungarians after their attempt to secure control. These tensions were inevitably going to cause a war; as in the words of Otto Von Bisamrck, quoted at the time, a war was going to brake out due to “some damn fool in the Balkans.” The first Balkan crisis of 1912 didn’t break out into war, however it left tensions high. As Serbia’s confidence was now at its peak, as there sized had doubled, and the army had increased to 400,000, so if the were now confronted by the Austro- Hungarians they were now willing to fight.
One of the greatest ideas introduced was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which effectively ended World War One for Russia. Adam Ulam said “this was the legacy of years of isolation and defiance.” Despite these being opposed to their general ideology specifically to appeal to the masses and generate public support before the introduction of NEP. War communism was an important event that leads to the consolidation of Bolshevik power. Once civil war broke out, the Bolsheviks regime was in a dire situation by the
This was only a temporary victory for the Bolsheviks as they lost support of the majority of the Russian population. In addition, he led the Reds in the Russian Civil War. The success of the Reds proved Lenin’s brilliant leadership. However, again, they lost a lot of support. Lenin had also ended the war with Germany by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
In the 1970’s, the divorce laws changed meaning that a person could divorce their spouse for any reason, rather than only being able to divorce before if there was some type of wrongdoing before. This then allowed unhappy women to be able to leave their husbands for reasons such as physical abuse which was once seen as acceptable. Functionalists would not agree with the decline of the nuclear family. Functionalists believe that everything in society works as an institution to make society on the whole function harmoniously. They say that family is vital for 4 things in society: the regulation of sexual activity, reproducing and raising children, educating or socialising society’s way of life to the younger members and being an economic unit with clear divisions of labour between genders.