Another cause of the war was that Russia wanted to continue its expansion into the Far East and obtain a free port. They chose to go to war with Japan because Japan was a small country with fewer resources than a country of Russia’s size. The biggest cause of the war was that Russia wanted to distract attention from its domestic troubles. However this war was a complete disaster which resulted in Russia being completely humiliated.
Lastly, Russia's backward society is one of the main reasons Nicholas II survived after 1905. There were three main groups that opposed the Tsar up until 1905. The Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) was a Marxist political party for the industrial workers in Russia. They disliked the Tsar the most, and wanted to wrest control from him and have Russia become the first communist state in the world. However, there was a dispute on how the party should be run.
This meant that the lack of leadership of the groups reduced effectiveness of the opponents as a whole enabling the government to be able to crush them one by one and so therefore survive. Additionally, disunity of opponents was a significant factor in survival of Tsardom in 1905 because the opposing groups had conflicting aim of parties such as SR, SD and liberals in terms of whether to overthrow, share power or keep the constitutional monarch. This meant therefore that those groups were fighting themselves as much as opposing the government with the consequence of reducing their chances for success as it was easy for the army to crush them as seen in suppression of Moscow Rising. Summarising, the disunity of opponents against Tsar has been a major factor contributing towards survival of Tsarist rule as lack of coordination and lack of clear direction meant that opponents were not strong enough becoming an easy target for the troops. However, it cannot be forgotten that the availability of
Both soldiers and civilians blame the defeats in the war and the growing crises on the home front on Tsar. Even the Tsars only army stated it wouldn’t support him if a revolution occurred. Explain the importance/significance of World War 1 to the downfall of the Tsar WWI was a very significant event on the rule of Tsar Nicholas 11. Although it initially bolstered his position, it then became a large factor that contributed to Nicholas’ downfall. The Country was ecstatic when the Tsar made the announcement that Russia was going to fight against Germany in WWI.
Nicholas survived the 1905 revolution, but after this his power in the autocracy was weakened significantly. Revolutionaries gained significantly more power, the duma that Nicholas introduced was not supported by 1917 – Nicholas made concessions in 1905 but he could not do this again in 1917, all but his closest advisors were against him – including the army. With WW1 raging on unlike the 1905 revolution, no concessions to make, no support of the army and revolutionaries driving the 1917 revolution, the Tsar abdicated on the 3rd of March in 1917. Firstly, we must look at how Nicholas lost support of the army in 1917. In 1905, Nicholas used the army and the Cossacks to crush protests and revolts.
The First World War had a major effect of the Russians attitude towards the Tsar but a minor contribution to the decline and fall of the Romanov Dynasty. The Romanov Dynasty was destroyed as a result of various disastrous incidents and major mistakes made by the Tsar Nicholas the || himself. The First World War played a role in his abdication, but to a minor extent as they agitated the citizens to rise against the Tsar. Indeed the first world war had fundamental impacts upon the decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty some of these being the plummeting economy, lack of exports, and inflation. However, a major contribution to the fall of the Romanov Dynasty was the views of the Tsar in regards to the war.
Ludendorff’s ‘Black Day’ speech and the army’s refusal to sign the Armistice influenced the failure of the Weimar Republic as they wiped their hands clean of the defeat of war. During these events, the army dubbed the socialist government, among others, as the ‘November criminals’ and began the idea of the stab-in-the-back. Placing the blame of losing the war on the Republic caused the government to be formed on an already tainted image. Hence, the army tore away the foundations of government by blaming them for the loss of WWI. This left the Republic unable to form a stable government capable of reforming an incredibly fragile Germany.
Witte was the Minister of Finance for Russia between the years 1892 - 1903 and held his post throughout the remainder of Alexander III’s reign and the start of Nicholas II’s. He tried to transform Russian economy because he believed that the lack of expertise, insufficient capital and an inadequate level of manpower were holding back the economic development. Vyshnegradsky was the Minister of Finance before Witte; although he attempted to improve Russia’s economic situation, he had the ethos of ‘We ourselves shall not eat, but we shall export’ which resulted in a widespread famine in 1891; Vyshnegradsky was dismissed in 1892. This meant that Witte was left to solve this previous catastrophe as well as continue to improve the country’s economy. Although Witte would have been strongly conservative, as he was hired by Alexander III, and would be expected to not care about helping the peasants who were in distress after the famine, he believed that the economy would only progress if the standards of living were made better.
The Mongols introduction of paper money in Russia failed, likewise to how it did during the Tang Dynasty in 600-900 A.D. in China. People felt as though the Mongol money was worthless and it just added to the declining Russian economy caused by Mongol rule. The one noteworthy economic effect of the Mongol rule is the Russians profited from having the tribute collector of the Khan being in Russia. Also, the Mongols in Russia were called “The Golden Horde” and ironically enough, the Mongols took the Russian's gold and silver. The taking of their precious metals was such a strong action by the Mongols, proving to be a powerful catalyst to the Russian's economic descent.
After some debate, the German senior command agreed on a thrust deep into Russian lines out of East Prussia. The resulting "winter war" inflicted another 190,000 casualties on the Russians, but petered out when the Austrian forces to the south utterly failed to dislodged the Russians. They instead suffered another embarrassing defeat, and even lost control of Dukla Pass, a prime route onto the Hungarian plains. Only severe weather and their unfortunate supply situation prevented the Russians from cracking into the core of the Dual Monarchy's