How Important Was the Bolsheviks Threat to Tsardom in the Reign of Nicholas Ii?

1079 Words5 Pages
The Bolshevik threat to Tsardom during the reign of Nicholas II wasn't as important as other threats from other political parties, the war and as Nicholas was to himself. The beginning of World War I signalled the beginning of the end of the Romanov dynasty. On August 2 1914 Tsar Nicholas II issued a formal proclamation of hostilities towards Germany at the Winter Palace to a crowd of thousands of cheering Russians in Palace Square. The Tsar abdicated the Russian throne three years later and the causes and the effects of his abdication were both numerous and large. Some believe the Tsar lacked integrity, others say Alexandra and Rasputin were to blame; still others blame the dismantling of the Duma and the harsh rule of the government. Mutual distrust existing between great powers meant The Hague convention was among the first formal statements of the laws of war. On November 1 1894 Alexander III died suddenly from Nephritis. An unprepared naive Nicholas II took power. A bewildered Nicholas beseeched his brother-in-law Grand Duke Alexander, "What am I going to do? What is going to happen to me, to all of Russia? I am not prepared to be a Tsar, I have never wanted to become one, and I know nothing of the business of ruling." Though his hesitance about ruling, Nicholas II was a strong believer in the autocratic power of the Tsar and opposed democratic reforms. 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
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