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 reformist groups formed as a result of his errors, he fuelled the creation of them. He aggravated them by taking away many of their rights for example fees quadrupled to restrict entry to secondary and higher education and their previous ability to vote was made more difficult. The fact that they had been given a taste of liberalism by Alexander II was what made the Russian people more aware of the inconveniences of the Tsarist Regime; they began to lose their respect for him and one of the main problems he had on his name was
How far were divisions among its opponents responsible for the survival of tsarist rule in the years 1881-1905? Divisions of opposing groups and their differentiating ideas were very important to the survival for many reasons, but other factors such as the church, the army and the okhrana played a part in the survival of keeping the tsar in power. Opposition can be identified as four main groups; populists, social revolutionaries (SR’s), social democrats (SD’s), and the liberals. The populists Used violent tactics such as terrorism and violence, within this there was the people’s will, from the populist movement the social revolutionaries grew and they were to include a wider spread than just the peasantry. One of the reasons why this didn’t work was the downfall of communication, and disagreements within the group due to the extent of different opinions was so great causing splits and creating smaller less powerful sub divisions.
How far were the divisions amongst its opponents responsible for the survival of Tsarist Rule 1881-1905 In the years 1881-1905 the Tsarist regime was faced large amounts of opposition from many people. The lower classes caused uprisings, their aims to remove the Tsar from power, while some educated middle class went on strike in an attempt to reform the regime. Many people were revolting and 3 main political groups emerged. The divides in these political groups were heavily responsible for the survival of the Tsarist rule, however there were other factors responsible such as the repression in Russia, which lead to the eventual removal of all opposition groups, and the loyalty of the Tsars supporters, which meant that his power was still stronger than the opposition he was facing. One of the main reasons the Tsarist rule continued during the tome 1881 until 1905 was due to the splits in the political groups.
Alexander III re-implements Tsarist form, through the use of repression and terror. At the end of the Crimean War, Alexander II realised that Russia was no longer a great military power. His advisers argued that a backwards economy which is reliant on the serfs could not compete with modernized powers such as Britain and France. He also became increasingly unpopular at this time, meaning he needed to do something
The term Russian Revolution includes not only one event or even process but a sequence of disruptive and strongly violent happenings which occurred more or less at the same time. It started as a rebellion of the most conservative elements in Russian society, dissatisfied with the Royal family and their connection to the self-styled monk Rasputin and the mismanagement of the decision in the war. But the riots were soon spread to the liberals who feared that of the monarchy remained as it was, the revolution would become inescapable. The Romanov dynasty had lasted over 300 years but Nicholas II, who ascended the throne in 1894, turned out to be the last tsar of Russia. How did such an ancient monarchy collapse so dramatically?
Gareth Parker. A Written Report Of A Discussion On The Rise Of Hitler and the Nazi Party 1918-1933. Identify and comment upon the key weaknesses of the Weimar system of government. The Weimar Republic was born in a time of great turmoil and struggle, encountering many problems throughout its sixteen year history. Possibly the greatest vulnerability was 'the weakness within' - the constitution gave the President, the states and the military too much control, whilst proportional voting meant that the Reichstag was separated and weak.
Stalin was more popular because of Trotsky’s “political paralysis” he couldn’t be a good public speaker. This links to my next point because they both result in Stalin’s getting more power. Stalin made an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev to form the triumvirate. The triumvirate’s main aim was to defeat Trotsky. Trotsky advocated a permanent revolution with Stalin didn’t want.
In particular, he released the serfs, which is generally seen as one of the most significant social reforms of the nineteenth century. Yet, the fundamental inconsistency between Alexander II's commitment to autocracy and his moves towards liberal reform isolated him from both reformers and conservatives. The growth of radical political opposition during his reign, was arguably given momentum by the liberal reforms he made which still left some radical groups pushing for revolution and eventually led to his assassination by terrorist of 'The People's Will' group in 1881. A great obstacle was that compared to Western Europe, Russia was backward economically, socially and politically in the late 19th Century. Russia was determined to not set up a new system by which the government were modernized and autocratic in which this stopped Russia from industrialising.
Did Germany face a bigger threat from the Left or Right wing between 1919-1923? From its start, the Weimar Republic experienced problems from both the Left and Right wing. The hatred for the government of those on the Left was encouraged by the successful Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 whilst the Right wing felt betrayed by a government who had allegedly stabbed them in the back by agreeing to the armistice and signing the Treaty of Versailles. However both threats from the Left and the Right had underlying problems, which made them easier to put down by the government. After the unsuccessful attempt at a revolution, which was easily repressed, the Left never fully recovered its momentum and did not have enough support to overthrow the government whereas although the Right attempts quickly fell short, the threat from the Right wing continued to grow.
In contrast the Tsar weakened the Duma and a progressive bloc was formed. This suggests that the Tsar is vulnerable to revolution whereas the Communist rule is repressive and very few ever speak out against it. Economically the Civil War had the greatest impact in shaping the Russian Government policies. This is because War Communism was introduced and later fine tuned into the New Economic Policy. 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.