Secondly, a flaw in the governing of Russia was the rifts between the classes, as nearly 90% of Russia was made up of peasants, who had absolutely no power in society. This meant that the power in the population is coming from a very specific, very small amount of people, and this was an issue because it wasn’t an accurate representation of the whole population. Another reason that Russia may have been hard to govern was its sheer vastness. Its size meant that messages would take about 8 days to cross the country (3000 miles), given that that was the length of time it would take for the only trainline to get from the west to the east. This meant that it was probably hard to organise people if they lived in the far east of Russia, and it would have been harder to get an army, for example, to somewhere if they were needed.
The Tsar’s ability to make false promises to the people was a reason for him being able to survive the revolution of 1905 but not of 1907 as people knew by then that he was untrustworthy. Secondly, the 1905 revolution happened before the outbreak of WW1 which meant although there was a lot of discontent in Russia in 1905 there was a lot less that the people could blame the Tsar for. In 1917 the Tsar had the power to pull out of the war which was a main reason for the suffering in Russia at the time. This was because millions of men went to fight in WW1 and this meant that back at home there was little food being produced
In fact, most of the population lived to the West side of the country because the eastern side, Siberia was not at all industrialized at this time. Most people lived in St Petersburg, the capital of Russia, remaining to become very crowded. This was a long term economic problem for the government, especially during the reign of Nicholas II showing the population had doubled from 65million to 130million from 1861-1905. This also effected/created other economic problems, one being a huge problem of communication across the country. Russia was seen at one point to have 125 different languages being spoken.
This meant that the Russian agriculture was poor and the remaining farms used outdated methods and had no advancements for a while, due to illiteracy and such. This was a problem for Russia, as they were losing income and the economy was
These ideas seemed great but they did work much as Russia’s economy only grew by 50%, compared to other countries this was nothing. 80% of the country’s population were still peasants farming for themselves and having problems with land hunger, so they were generally unhappy. Because they were peasants and not workers in the cites, this shows that Russia was STILL not very modernized. The Trans-Siberian Railway was an ambitious project. It was a railway that started in the west of Russia, going through all of the major cities and then ending up in the east near the Pacific sea.
Despite this, the collapse of Tsarism could be blamed on different factors of Russia, such as the civilians; the percentage of peasantry in Russia was extremely high, not only the percentage but also the conditions of peasants was awful. Before World War 1, the Russian political state was extremely corrupt and fragile. Nicholas II held absolute power and his dynasty had ruled Russia for 500 years and was increasingly unpopular. Nicholas II traditional ruled Russia without a parliament. The Noble class of Russia owned most of the countries wealth and land.
For a long time, Russia had been considered backward, both in its political methods and its ways of life. 80% of the population were peasants and Russia itself was a very large country to govern. Modernisation was a way for the country to keep up with its European neighbours. There were two key areas that Sergei Witte, Finance Minister for Russia, was focused upon: Industry and Transport. He felt these areas would help to solve Russia's three biggest problems; Communication, Size and Social Divide.
Yet, popular support alone cannot bring military success nor can it bring stability. In the period leading up to, and during, the civil war the Red Army, under the guidance and influence of Leon Trotsky, were transformed from a ‘rabble to an incomparable fighting force’[2]. They were vast in number and located in Russia’s key industrial centers providing firm foundations from which they could build and also resist attack. The formidable pair of Lenin and Trotsky combined to create a party which boasted military might and also political and social awareness. Propaganda and foreign intervention helped to portray the Soviet leadership as ‘leaders of a national liberation struggle against foreign imperialists’[3] and this won them support from the masses whilst the Whites reliance on foreign aid rendered them vulnerable if such aid was to be withdrawn.
Most households that are poor experience one of these problems: The house is overcrowded, not being able to get medical care, or not being able to eat. The average poor people’s way of living doesn’t mean that all poor people live without having any type of hardship. Some may just be that they have food, but not exactly what they want to eat. What really is considered to be a poor family? It’s not just people that are homeless, no food or clothing.
In fact, the hangman’s noose became known as Stolypin’s necktie. It may have seemed that Stolypin helped peasants but actually a lot of poorer peasants were forced to sell their land and work for other peasants. Overall life did not get much better for people in Russia, there were many signs that life should have improved like the creation of the Dumas but life did not actually improve enough to