How far was Nicholas II responsible for the fall of the Romanovs in 1917? While Nicholas II was a major factor in the fall of the Romanovs there were other reasons such as the removal of the Dumas and him losing the support of the armed forces. Nicholas II became commander in chief of the army during world war one and in doing so left his wife Alexandra to rule the country. The fact that he had let someone so inexperienced take control angered many people due to the Tsar not leaving someone more experienced to rule and also due to her being unpopular as a result of her German nationality. Alexandra appointed Rasputin, who had saved her sons life, as her personal adviser.
The army leaders’ harsh treatment of the Allies at the end of the war created an even greater hatred between the Allied countries and Germany. This influenced the Treaty of Versailles as the Allies aimed to ensure that Germany would never be a threat to French or Britain again. Thus, a harsh treatment through serious reparations was created. These large reparations, influenced by the harsh German army, seriously depleted the chance of success for the Weimar Republic as the economy would struggle to prosper whilst paying reparations. 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.
His wife Alexandra was a huge influence on Autocratic power like his father. It was thought that Nicholas’s political lack of sophistication and extreme stubbornness led to the down fall of the Russian Empire. So in 1918, Nicholas II and his family were imprisoned at Ekaterinburg in the Ural mountains by Bolsheviks and on 16th July the family was led to a basement were they were executed. Some of the minor factors that led to the downfall of the Romanov dynasty were the poor leadership of the Tsar. He was a bad decision maker, people thought of him as weak.
Other factors include political issues which were made worse by the Tsar’s lack of understanding of the proletariat society and the poor living and working conditions which were caused due to the Tsar’s … to run a country. All these factors link back to Tsar Nicholas II and imply that Tsar Nicholas was very much to blame for the downfall of the Romanovs in 1917. However, some historians argue that it wasn’t the fault of Tsar Nicholas II and claim that the fall of the Romanovs was down to Nicholas II inheriting a bad situation from his father Alexander III. They also say that Rasputin’s involvement, which had nothing to do with Nicholas II, played a part in the downfall of the Romanovs. Some historians even put the fall of the Romanovs down to the Russian people as they claim that Nicholas made reforms and attempted to listen to the people however, the Russian people were just unhappy.
Germany was not happy about losing all this land as it made them smaller, it damaged the economy and they lost colonies to make them look stronger and to help them if another war broke out. Another reason Germany was unhappy was because they were force to take war guilt. Germany had to take all of the blame for the war. This made Germany angry as they did not actually start the war and there were other people involved. Germany also had to pay reparation.
The Weimar Republic had signed the Treaty of Versailles, 1919, which increased their unpopularity. The Germans hated the Treaty because they saw it as accepting the blame for causing the First World War and admitting defeat. Also, the Treaty came with very harsh including paying reparations of £660 million to Britain and France. The people of Germany did not understand why the government signed this questioned whether they wanted the best for Germany. The hatred for the Weimar Republic kept on growing and this led to the Kapp Putsch, 1920.
After Alexander III died, he left a number of problems so when Nicholas II came to power; he already had enemies because many people (mainly the peasants) hated the idea of tsardom and were being suppressed, people referred to the peasants as ‘dark masses.’ Aggravating the peasants will surely lead to a rebellion, although this was fairly obvious, Nicholas II didn’t do much to improve the peasants lives, he also introduced anti-Semitism which then turned the Jews against the Tsar so Nicholas was creating more and more enemies. In the 1890s, Russia had an economic boom which was known as the great spurt, and with the help of Witte, the finance minister, they used this to their advantage to try to make Russia more modern. One of the ways in which they attempted this was to make a railway that goes across Russia, they believed that this was the starting point where Russia will become more modernised.
The result of this action by the Tsar meant that the people who used to think is was god on earth have now undermine him, this also meant that there was an increase in riots, murders and public property damage. The Tsar, possibly in embarrassment, allowed for the changes they wanted to be allows, it was known as the October Manifesto or the October Promises. However, these promises were never really kept, the voting system was rigged which meant that the poor people had no effect, and was
This was to prevent complacency and make his mark within the military. However, by removing so many important leaders, he weakened the leadership and therefore put strain on his forces, making it more difficult to attain victory, and increasing the chances of the opposition. Additionally, Stalin purged all military intelligence, blaming them for not alerting Russia of Germany’s invasion plans. This meant that he had no eyes on international affairs. Also, generals who performed badly against the Germans were shot on site.
The politicians, who signed the peace treaty on behalf of Germany, were named and shamed as ‘stabbing Germany in the back’. This notion was emphasised by opposing political parties who were egger to take any opportunity to make these politicians look bad to the people of Germany. Germany was a militaristic state which and the republic was not going to succeed with so many opposing forces such as ex-soldiers who were willing to fight any rivals. The treaty of Versailles caused a profound sense of injustice and resentment amongst the German people therefore this translated into hatred of democracy. The treaty was not the only reason for the failure of the Weimar Republic, issues such as the period time and the great depression contributed to this also.