These losses sparked off political unrest and left the floodgates open for criticism on the incompetence of the Tsar’s government ministers. The Minister of War Vladimir Sukhomlinov and the Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaievich ,who commanded the army, mutual contempt of each other greatly weakened Russian command. The lack of supply caused political crisis’s which were fuelled by the press. The Middle-classes were filled with criticism. The Tsar responded to this criticism
Russia’s role in World War I quickly led Russia’s people to the strong dislike of their Provisional Government and further into economic downfall which continued to upset the citizens of Russia. The Bolsheviks, a left-wing political party that were socialists, began to grow in popularity among the peasants and industrial workers whose pay was very low and in most cases among the industrial workers; their working conditions were very poor and unsafe. The Bolsheviks then instigated a revolution, resulting in Bolshevik power of Russia. Bolshevik power led to further unhappiness. The months before and during the Bolshevik revolution, as well as the signing of the peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk cause turmoil among the socialists and brought Russia into civil war.
War Communism was radical and involved the militarisation of Labour which was disliked by the people and made people focus purely on the needs of the war. This contrasts greatly with the First World War (WW1) because the Tsar didn’t militarise Labour completely and so the demand for supplies in WW1 couldn’t be met by the factories. Starvation was nothing new in Russia and during WW1 the supplies couldn’t reach the troops on the front line and so many soldiers had little to eat. With War Communism the majority of the food would be taken from a household to feed an army and the result was that Russians starved, this time the household starved and there was little incentive to grow more. War Communism was introduced as the focus of Lenin was on the military and getting supplies to the soldiers of Russia quickly.
This was terribly inconsiderate of the military as the other 82% of the nation was left to starve as the military was the government’s top priority. This led to extreme cases of hunger across Russia which soon became famine. Food shortages were at their worst in the towns and cities, Petrograd suffered particularly badly due to the remoteness from the food-producing regions. Secondly, transportation was a key pre- existing war condition; it was the disruption of the transport system rather than the decline in food production that was the major cause Russia’s wartime shortages. The attempt to transport millions of troops and masses of supplies to the war fronts created unbearable pressure on the Russian transport system, and it bucked under the pressure.
Alexander was hopelessly out of touch with the emerging realities of a modern Russia. For example, agriculture was exploited as a source of export earnings; this helped cause a series of famines, especially in 1891. This made him hugely unpopular as he took grain from the people in an attempt to make money and improve the economy. Due to his slow intelligence and lack of experience, Alexander forgot the fundamental rule of keeping his people happy and instead chose to supress them. He did not realise that, following Alexander II’s emancipation of the serfs in 1861, he could not return to a state of rigid autocracy when the serfs had already had some freedom.
The outbreak of World War One in 1914 also spelt disaster for the Tsar upon his decision to take direct command of the Russian army, which meant that every military failure would now be associated with him personally and contributed to the growing sense of dissent. Nicholas was not a trained general and had no experience in the area of war; both he and his generals were incompetent, the army lacked resources and equipment and the men had minimal training. All of these factors placed both Russia and their forces in a fragile position, and with their numerous military failures coupled with the initial destruction of their standing army, the finger was pointed at the Tsar. This notion of military failure under the Tsar is highlighted in source A, where the military is described as
The military leadership was terrible and the Tsar took it upon himself to have the role of personal command in 1915 (as told to him by Rasputin). This had put a great strain on Russia. Transport dislocation occurred because of fuel shortages, which made it hard to send troops and food to the front. Because of this neither the military nor the civilians had enough food to eat. Revolution occurred because of the rise of the opposition, which consisted of the army, protestors and civilians.
Before the PG came into power, the already dire economic, agrarian and social problems were getting worse and worse as the war continued and as a result, the majority of Russians opposed the war effort. This meant that from the beginning of their reign, the PGs decision to carry on with the war made them unpopular as food shortages and the economy got worse and worse. For example, by 1917, the price of bread had doubled while the rations halved from their original figures in 1914. This discontent was proven as early as April the 20th as a riot broke onto the streets demanding that Milyukov, the head of Russian foreign affairs and key war minister, was sacked. This was significant as it meant that in the times of potential danger for the PG, they couldn’t rely on the people to support them.
Another disease soldiers caught during World War 1 is dysentery. Dysentery is an infection of the intestines marked by severe diarrhoea, caused by poor water supply, water cleanliness and no proper toilets for the soldiers to use. Dirty drinking water caused a lot of problems during World War 1, mainly because it contains all sorts of illnesses and diseases, which once you have in your system, cause you to get ill. Cholera was cause by dirty water, causing sickness, diarrhoea and even death it if was left untreated for long enough. Trench mouth was also common during World War 1. This is where you get an infection of the mouth, caused by poor oral hygiene and lack of important vitamins, due to a poor diet, smoking, tooth or mouth infections and stress.
Assess the causes for the creation of the duma in 1905 During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the nation of Russia was undergoing a period of turmoil, change, poverty and revolt. The current Tsar, Nicholas II, was a leader put in charge at the wrong time, and coupled with a few bad choices, was falling out of favour with his people. He was losing his grip on the Russian leadership and drastic change was needed to make the people happy, thus the Duma was created. The Duma was an elected parliament for Russia, with the power to make laws, and due to this Nicholas II could no longer be called an autocrat. This allowed freedom of speech in Russia, letting all males in Russia the right to vote.