This would lead to the army losing their faith in the Tsar which was extremely vital, for as long as the army remained loyal to the him, they were able to put down any threat of revolution however, the poor conditions eventually led to them refusing to fire upon rioters. For these reasons, the First World War contributed majorly to the downfall of Imperial Russia. After his downfall, the War became increasingly unpopular. Popular demands for peace were growing intense, especially within the army. The Provisional Government attempted to regain the support of both the Russian
However, although these factors were important in contributing to the decline of the Provisional Government, it was ultimately their internal decisions, one deciding to continue fighting in the war, that lead to the failure of it. Actions made by the Provisional Government towards the continuation in the war can be the seen as the main reason for their failure in 1917. Many within the Provisional Government believed that it was Russia’s duty to stay in the war, in particular, the foreign minister, Paul Milyukov, strongly believed that Russia’s future lay with victory over Germany. This sparked conflict between the Soviet and the Provisional Government, as the Soviet only accepted the continuation of war to stop Germany taking over, where as the the Provisional Government had other aims to claim territory. This clash of aims created trouble for the government, as in April 1917 demonstrations in Petrograd began to stop the war.
The other people were middle class people, who were more educated and wealthier than the worker class, but still minor against the tsar. Nicholas II wasn’t a good ruler: he avoided important decisions, neglected the importance of the policy and suppressed any resistance. He tried to crush any fears of a revolution by entering a war and consequently uniting his country, but his war tactics weren’t glorious. Russia’s people, the ones who accepted the life for many years, started to stir up, for example workers were striking, but their actions were brutally wiped out. As long as the tsar had his army he was unconquerable.
The leadership of the Bolshevik party, after Lenin had been forced into exile in Switzerland, didn’t press for an armed uprising. They even considered joining the Provisional Government, after they attended a democratic congress. However, with Lenin’s return he succeeded in convincing the Central Committee to put an armed uprising in their plans. Despite this some leading Bolsheviks, Zinoviev and Kamenev were unsure that this uprising was a good idea and spoke out against Lenin in a newspaper article which alerted Kerensky of the danger. Although, Kerensky did not act decisively with this knowledge, this shows that without Lenin at the front of the Bolshevik party the rest of the Bolshevik’s weren’t as eager to rise and seize power.
Theme: Assess the view that throughout 1855-1964, Russian rulers opposed change. To assess this view it is important to consider a number of areas including the role of opposition, and backwardness and poor state of the country. Trotsky described war as a ‘locomotive of change’ and Russian involvement in war throughout the period meant that this was very much the case. Russian rulers were also to some degree reluctant reformers who were opposed to change as most changes throughout the period were forced upon them and were usually followed with restrictions, such as the Fundamental Laws reducing the impact of the Duma. This was probably due to their authoritarian ideology.
His task of defeating the Whites was made a great deal more difficult by the Czechs if he had kept his word and let them move freely out of Russia, this problem would not have occurred. The Politburo blamed this solely on Trotsky – and the man who led the critics was Joseph
Opposition to the Tsarist regime increased due to a number of reasons many of which could have been helped and others that were more natural. The key aspects of the opposition of the Tsars was Wittes programme of industrialisation, which while vital to Russia, exchanged the loyalist peasants into the disgruntled working class. While there were problems that the Tsar could not control such as the great amounts of other nationalities wanting independence and resisting Russification, such as the Poles and Jews. In 1881 opposition started due to ordinary people having little to no rights, as it was a criminal offence to question the Tsar and with no parliament to try and change the course of their country they would have to rely on the rich autocratic Tsar to decide to make changes to help the common people. As the government had strict censorship on books and journals when information did get through it would usually be made even more powerful as the government had attempted to ban it.
During the civil war, he was consistent in disobeying orders made from Lenin and Trotsky, as they were the main organisers. However, after Lenin’s death, he was elected politburo, in which now he had central power over the Bolshevik party. Trotsky was expected to take power on the death of Lenin but was not as
As an individual Lenin was extremely important in the October revolution. After he had been forced into temporary exile in Finland the remainder of the Bolshevik party leadership didn't seem to to press for an armed uprising. In fact they had attended a democratic congress, much to Lenin's chagrin, to maybe consider joining the Provisional Government (PG). After Lenin's return and the success of placing an armed revolution on the Central Committee's agenda some leading Bolsheviks still had grave doubts about whether this was a good idea; in fact Ziniovev and Kamenev went as far as to speak out against Lenin in a newspaper article, which alerted Kerensky to the imminent danger. What this shows is that without Lenin at their front haranguing them, the other Bolsheviks weren't so keen to rise up and take power.
There was a time where he opposed the interests of the Communist Party these interests were projects started by Bolsheviks and Stalin so he was greatly outnumbered in making any decision. He argued that if large projects were going to be undertaken they had to be safe, and have considerable conditions for the workers, but the Communist party was willing to sacrifice those regulations to output the projects more quickly. Palchinsky continued to disagree and criticize the projects so he was eventually arrested on April 1928, and then executed from his political position. There was a project in particular that Palchinsky warned the USSR about, and that was the