Romanov essay Romanov family had ruled Russia since 1613 and under a autocratic government, during the time between 1904-1918 Nicholas the 2nd had ruled taking all the responsibilities of the major collapse of the tsarist regime. There were many contributing factors that lead to the eventual collapse of the Romanov regime. The major events that affected Romanov rule included the many social, economic and political problems. Particular events which also acted as a catalyst for the collapse of the dynasty included the 1905 revolution/Bloody Sunday, the Russo – Japanese war, the October Manifesto, Industrialisation strikes and unrest and ultimately resulting in the outbreak of World War 1. As a result of these combination of factors, WWI was the ‘straw that broke the camels back’ and resulted in the downfall of the tsarist regime in 1917.
i) Lenin’s role in the Bolshevik consolidation of power. The Coalition government, that had been in place since the February Revolution of 1917, had to face more and more problems. The Kornilov Affair and the July Days did not go to their best interest, and their popularity was simply going down the sewer by October. It was exactly that month that Lenin thought the time to be right for a Bolshevik takeover. So in October 1917 the Bolsheviks replaced the Coalition Government.
Arguably Russia’s transformation from an autocratic state to a communist one was the greatest modification in the whole period 1855 to 1964, however, despite differing ideals there was in fact a large amount of continuity between the idealistically different styles of governance. Under Tsarist leaders, Russia experience differing levels of autocratic rule, interspersed with sporadic detours to democracy, yet upon the Communist takeover, there was a decisive shift towards autocratic dictatorship. Taking all this into consideration, the October Revolution can be seen as the most significant turning point in the development of Russian government, as the ideological shift influenced all subsequent decisions taken by the government of the USSR. Ideologically, the October Revolution in 1917 represented a unique turning point from Russia, as a 300 year old regime was unceremoniously discarded in favour of Marxism. Condemning the provisional government in his April Thesis, Lenin moved quickly to ensure the Bolshevik takeover was complete, consolidating
The long-term policies of Russification imposed by the Tsar in the 1880s, caused a lot of political unrest within Russia and these contributed to the 1905 revolution. Russia was the only country within Europe with no elected national parliament. The only form of elected representation (what the Tsar referred to as ‘senseless dreams’) was the “Zemstva”. The Union of Liberation demanded in December 1904, that a parliament should be set up because they felt the Russian population needed an outlet to express their views. At the time, the formation of political parties was illegal but despite this, they still existed.
The Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution Why did it happen? The Russian Revolution was due to the culmination of repression and unrest over a great period of time. In the late 19th/ early 20th century Russia was an enormous empire home to over 170 million people of many different cultures, languages and religions, stretching from the Pacific to Poland. It was difficult ruling such a massive state and the complications within Russia caused a revolution which swept the old system away. A variety of long term and short term factors caused this revolution.
In the late summer of 1914, the ancient monarchies of Austria, Russia and Germany plunged their countries into a world war which engulfed Europe in one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. The Eastern Front of that great war had a profound impact on the remainder of the 20th century, even though the Western Front with its British, French and American combatants achieved somewhat greater fame. The statistics for the Eastern war are grim. More than three-million men died in the fighting, more than nine-million men were wounded, and every major country which participated lost its form of government. One of them, Russia, collapsed so completely and catastrophically that the ensuing consequences still resonate in today's world.
The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia.
To what extent was Lenin’s leadership the reason why Bolsheviks were able to consolidate their power between 1917-1924? By the early 1920's Russia was in the authoritarian grip of a one party dictatorship. The Communist Party as the Bolshevik's had become. It had a ruthless leadership which was ideologically motivated to hold on to power at any cost. This was a dramatic change from the Bolshevik party's position in 1917 when the party enjoyed widespread support amongst the peasants, workers and soldiers who saw in the Bolshevik's the best hope for popular revolution.
Importance of Lenin in the Russian Revolution During 1917 way up north in the freezing cold Russia, there was a period of time in which the Russian politics and ideology were in chaos and the governmental power was unbalanced and disorganized. These period of time was known as the Russian Revolution. However besides this, the Russian Revolution itself was a series of revolutions that destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Many leaders influenced the development of this revolution, however, in this occasion, I’m going to evaluate the importance of Lenin in the Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution was divided into two other revolutions, The February Revolution and The October Revolution.
A crucial quantity of Russians had lost their faith on Czar Nicholas II leadership, believing that ceding his command would lead them for more efficacious war outcomes. In January 9th, 1917, over 14,000 workers decided to strike in Petrograd, immortalizing the Bloody Sunday. The situation became worse in February 22nd, 1917, when more than 100 thousand workers decided to strike in the Petrograd, and the Duma reassemble, deciding to be in favor of the population and attack the government. It became known as the February Revolution, in behalf of more and more people joining the cause; in order to reorganize Russia to an enfranchised and fair