This basic form of opposition was never truly effective as their actions were simply put down by the government partly due to their failure to unite and lack of ideology and political demands. This was, however, not the only internal opposition to Tsar Alexander II with the “Going to the People” movement emerging in 1874. Here young members of the Russia intelligentsia went to the peasants breaching to them about their ideas about how life should be lived. This proved unsuccessful, they failed to appeal to the peasantry and the regime managed to arrest members showing them to be ineffective at this point. However, the populist movement developed from here, eventually splitting into two groups; the Black Partition and the People’s Will.
Describe why the Munich Putsch failed in 1923 In 1923 Hitler’s plan to overthrow the government and create an uprising known as the ‘Munich Putsch’ failed. The Munich Putsch was a fiasco. It had been a bad idea, badly planned and badly executed. Firstly, Hitler was still relatively unknown and new to the political scene, with minimal support whereas the current government had the support of the police and army. Hitler had assumed the army and police would support him and join in with the putsch however they stayed true to the Weimar republic.
The Total Dictatorship of Joseph Stalin The Revolution of 1917 led to the totalitarian dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin perverted the revolution of Lenin and Stalin did not follow Lenin’s example. When Stalin took over he picked up where Lenin left off but took it much further. He convinced the people that he was the only one they could trust after the death of Lenin. Stalin did this on his own; he lied to the people and accused the government of being enemies of the people.
Document 10 explains an economic factor that contributed to the Russian Revolution. Russia, at the time, was not economically ready for the World War I. But, because they were forced to fight by Tsar Nikolas II, which made Russia weak. In Document 9, Miliukov accuses the government for causing the Revolution because of treason. He describes the government as disorganized.
All Russian governments in this period faced strong opposition to their regime with the period as a whole punctuated by riots, disturbances and revolutions. Political change was expected in Russia during this period, particularly during the Tsarist regime where the growth of the revolutionary intelligentsia, ironically an effect of the Great Reforms, led many to question the need for a Tsar or a royal family at all. The first main success of political opposition is widely considered to be the assassination of Alexander II at the hands of the People’s Will in 1881. Although they assassinated their Tsar, it is very likely this did not actually lead to their desired outcome, it being greater political freedom/democracy. Many historians have said Alexander II was considering the formation of a parliament in Russia.
However, whether it was the most significant event must be evaluated against others, for example the 1905 Revolution, the February Revolution of 1917, and Lenin’s death. The October 1917 Revolution was a very significant event in changing the course of Russian history from 1855 to 1964 but I would not argue it as being the most significant event. The revolution was quite important due to the fact that it brought the Tsarist rule to an end and therefore led to the Provisional Government losing control and power to the Bolsheviks. Due to the Bolsheviks coming to power, they were able to attempt to solve their three main policies of peace; Russian people wanted to end the war, bread; there were many food shortages throughout Russia, and Land; they wanted to offer peasants land. The October revolution of 1917 in effect, led to the Russian Civil war which was the exact opposite of what the Bolsheviks wanted and this predominantly moved on to Lenin’s death and the power struggle.
Tsar Nicholas II wasn’t much of a good ruler for Russia; he ignored the fact that Russia wasn’t doing so good and overlooked the industrialization and nationalism that was occurring throughout Russia. Nicholas II disregarded the troubles the Russians were facing and seemed to only care about himself and him staying in power. This caused people to revolt as they needed a good strong leader to help Russia survive. The main leader who started China’s revolution was Sun Yat-sen who believed China should adopt a democratic government if it were to survive. The revolutions led by him eventually led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in China.
According to Alan Wood, Lenin described the 1905 revolution as a ‘dress rehearsal’. Although he was not involved, Lenin saw the weaknesses of Tsardom and developed the Bolshevik party with a future plan to overthrow Nicholas II. Even though Lenin and most of the hierarchy of the Bolshevik party were exiled a majority of the time, they still had influence in Russia. As described by Anthony Wood, ever since 1905 Lenin had been talking and writing about the establishment of a ‘revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and poor peasantry’ There are a number of historians who believe Lenin was not a threat as he was exiled for too long and was out of touch with the revolutionaries back
There were many factors in the survival of Tsarist rule from 1881 – 1905. The divisions among it's opponents played a part, as it meant that Tsarist opposition had no common goals, and couldn't work together to achieve it. The October Manifesto is another factor, it split up Nicholas' opposition even further by dividing the Liberals into two groups. Pobedonostsev & his repressive policies played a large part in the Survival of Tsarist autocracy, as he was able to keep the people down, not giving them enough ground to start a successful revolution. Lastly, Russia's backward society is one of the main reasons Nicholas II survived after 1905.
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.