Lenin was aware that it was the Provisional Government’s unwillingness or inability to act on questions of land and peace that contributed to its unpopularity and allowed the Bolsheviks to take power so easily in October. Lenin’s response to this is represented within the quote by Russian historian Dmitri Olkogonov: “The Russian revolutionaries, including Lenin, rightly exposed the age-old evils of human existence, the exploitation, inequality, lack of freedom”. In response to his Decree on Peace, Lenin created the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that saw the Bolsheviks lose land but ultimately solve external issues with Germany and allowed Lenin to focus all of his efforts on Russia. By acting in ways that the people had demanded from the opposing
The Bible could be interpreted in a way which supported the dissolution of the monasteries and the royal supremacy, representing a clear transition of religious power to Henry and the monarchy from the papacy. It is clear that Cromwell laid the foundations of a nation state. By nullifying the function of the pope and the monasteries which served him, Cromwell ensured that the laity was subject to no foreign influence. Furthermore, the transfer of this influence to Henry meant that the beginnings of a Crown-controlled Church, national rather than international in ideologies, were created by
To what extent did Alexander III measures create a stronger Russia? When Alexander III came into power as tsar Russia was in crisis after Alexander II was assassinated by the people will. Alexander III faced a hard job of keeping control of Russia and keeping supreme political power, this meant reform for Russia. Although he was reforming Russia like many Russians wanted to, he was actually moving backwards and launched Russia on the return to conservatism and brought an end to further political reform.Alexander III brought in new reforms to strengthen Russia after the tsar was assassinated because of Russia bad state, these reforms effected the political, financial and nearly every aspect of Russian society. One of the most radical and important changes the tsar first made was russification , this meant that in 1885 the official language was changed to Russia and was taught in all school and no other language was allowed to be used in school .
At the beginning of the 1900’s, Russian society was suffering while Western Europeans were seeing increasing civic powers. Tsar Nicholas II was uncompromising and did all he could to suppress liberal movements. At the same time, industrialisation was linking the country and with it, socialist ideas were spreading. (Appendix 3). By 1914 revolution was in the making, and Tsar Nicholas II sealed his fate by inadvertently leading Russia into what would become WWI.
Tsars of Russia During the late 19th century, Russia was governed by the Romanov Dynasty who were later known as the Tsar (Czar). They adapted the title of ‘Emperor and Autocrat of all Russia’ and enforced autocratic rule. They believed in their almighty right to rule Russia and that they were appointed by God to be it. The Tsars enforced the autocratic rule in which the Tsars had the ultimate power. Hence, The Tsars never took the use of taking help from an elected parliament to maintain the nation effectively.
However after Karakazov attempts to assassinate the Tsar in 1866, he becomes much more autocratic, revealing that he had no intention of significantly developing politics, his use of the Zemstvas were in fact to help sustain autocracy, through making local administration more efficient. It can be suggested from this that Alexander II had put the Zemstva Act in place to appease the nobles angered by the Emancipation Act. Alexander III was much more of a successful autocrat. His reactionary attitude led to the reversal of many of his father’s liberal reforms, and was in some cases angered by them. Alexander III re-implements Tsarist form, through the use of repression and terror.
Revolutions Essay Vladimir Lenin took power of Russia in 1917 when he stormed the Winter Palace with his troops and overthrew the Provisional Government. This was sometime after the Tsars abdication in February that year. Although Lenin claimed from the beginning that he would make Russia a haven for all people in which everyone was equal and there would be no injustice, it soon became evident that he was simply another Tsar with complete power over all affairs. Lenin’s dismissal of the constituent assembly in January 1918 is a great example of how he was no different to the man he succeeded as ruler of the Russian state. Before the elections Lenin repeatedly stated that the assembly was of utmost importance to the future of Russia and so allowed the elections to continue.
After the 1905 revolution Nikolas II of Russia decided to agree to the terms of the Liberal party (Russia) and create a Duma (Parliament). However the Tsar still believed in his total autocracy, as did his wife, and his Duma (based on the democratic Parliament in Britain) was definitely not a democratic system instead it was just a ‘puppet’ for the Tsar as he introduced the Fundamental Laws of Russia these laws gave the duma very little power. While the Duma held the power of legislation and the right to question the Tsar's ministers, it did not have control over their appointment or dismissal, which was reserved to the monarch alone. Also it couldn’t alter the constitution, apart from when the emperor agreed. The Tsar had the right to dismiss the Duma at any time, for any reason he found suitable.
This ultimately marked the end of Nicholas’ unlimited power as an autocratic ruler and the beginning of a constitutional monarchy. The Manifesto would grant fundamental civil liberties to the people, and create a legislative body known as the Duma through which all laws must be approved by in order to be operative. However, due to the fact that the Duma was merely a consultative body, the people were not satisfied with the law. The Duma’s ultimately represented the mouthpiece of the Tsar’s opposition and the voice of the Russian people. 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.
In the form of totalitarianism governments Soviet Union was considered progressive and if you are not a communist you were considered a non-progressive class that would not amount to anything. The non-progressives were considered a waste of human beings and need to be vanquished or completely eradicated. During the early and mid of the 1900’s, Nazism took Western Europe by storm leaving a trail of concentration camps. Nazism