A large number of Russia’s problems were caused by pre-existing conditions such as poor distribution of food supplies, transportation, and inflation. There are a number of other conditions that contributed to Russia’s war problems; however these are arguably the most important factors. Firstly, the requisitioning of horses and fertilisers by the military for the war effort made it difficult to sustain agricultural output, since farmers still used medieval farming techniques horses were needed to produce a harvest, this resulted in a huge decline in food production and threw the lower class into starvation. Furthermore, the army had first rights on the limited amount of food being produced and they had priority in the use of various transport systems, they also commandeered the railways and roads with the result that the food supplies that were available could not be distributed easily to the rest of the nation. 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 lack of organisation also lead to food shortages and issues with transport. A common occurrence within the army was troops trading their weapons- of which there was a shortage of- for food or other basic necessities. War weariness also created other issues such as inflation. At the start of 1914 Russia had achieved financial stability, yet from 1914-17 government spending rose from 4 million roubles to 30 million. In an attempt to raise capitol taxation was increased, coupled with heavy borrowing from other countries.
Agriculture in Russia was far behind other great powers and peasants were suffering greatly through the repeated famines in 1902 and 1905. Sergei Witte had done nothing to improve agriculture only focusing on the economy of Russia. This led to subsistence agriculture. Grain was being exported and there wasn’t enough for the peasants. This also meant that the land was not used to it full potential, all these factors lead to the famines and causing peasants to up rise using violence against government officials.
Tsarina Alexandra was influenced by Gregori Rasputin, an unpopular and scruffy “holy” man, who was supposedly controlling her son’s haemophilia condition. Nicholas’s decisions at the Eastern Front caused the country's military failures; by 1917 over 1,300,000 men had been killed in battle, 4,200,000 wounded and 2,417,000 had been captured by the enemy. First World War had a disastrous impact on the Russian economy; food was in short supply and this led to rising prices. By January 1917 the price of commodities in Petrograd had increased by six times. In an attempt to increase their wages, industrial workers went on strike.
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.
Nicholas II fell from power in February 1917, there are many reasons for the collapse of Tsarism but to what extent was World War 1 the most important reason? World War 1 seems to be the most contributing factor to why Tsarism collapsed in 1917; the huge effects and problems that the War had on Tsarism was able to overturn the monarchy, that before then, had never died. This is due to the impact of War on Russia’s Political state. In 1915 Nicholas II as Tsar toke power of the Russian army, this had a huge effect on the outcome of World War 1 on Russia. Despite this, the collapse of Tsarism could be blamed on different factors of Russia, such as the civilians; the percentage of peasantry in Russia was extremely high, not only the percentage but also the conditions of peasants was awful.
One of the main problems was the social problems it caused because of the loss of agricultural workers in the war led to a massive food shortage in Russia it also dint help when the tsar announced their would be bread rationing, in the war Russia also didn’t perform very well they lost 1.6 million Russian soldiers 3.9 million were wounded and 2.4 million were captured. another reason why the 1905 revolution survived was because the Tsar issued the October manifest which meant that a lot of people were happy because it allowed people to have a freedom of speech it also said that the Tsar would share his power which he had to intention of doing over time he started undoing concessions and arguing that the Duma was only a shell of democracy as it could not pass laws without the approval of the monarch, and that freedom of speech was heavily
Firstly, the loss of agricultural workers and horses to the army, combined with the takeover of railway lines by the army, led to food shortages in towns and cities due to poor internal communications between most main cities due to how spread out they all were. Moscow, for example, had been receiving 2,200 railway wagons of grain per month in 1914, but by Christmas 1916, this figure was down to around 300 wagons. Therefore, there was not enough food to feed the people of Russia – and to make matters worse, rationing was in place, under which each Russian citizen was entitled to only 50g of bread per day. This resulted in the people of Russia becoming agitated and taking part in the strikes and demonstrations in Petrograd, this created great unrest with Russian citizens but also meant all classes where affected by this. Secondly, the First World War crippled the Russian economy.
To what extent did the policies of Sergei Witte address the problems facing Russia at the end of the nineteenth century? Russia faced many problems at the end of the nineteenth century. Under Minister of Finance Ivan Vyshnegradskii there had been famine because of high taxes on consumer goods which had forced peasants to sell more and more grain. The government were slow to act and, although they eventually enforced a ban on grain exports, 350,000 died of starvation or disease. Economically and industrially Russia was also falling far behind many other Western countries at the time, like Britain and Germany.
However, he was a weak ruler and failed to rule his people properly * he treated opposition with violence and the Okhrana (the secret police) * Political repression; compared with other countries democracies; Tsar was VERY WEAK and easily influenced. Long term –economic • Size of peasant landholdings fell- they were angry- little father isn’t helping them • 1892,1898,190- harvest failures= famine- still squeezing the peasants • Backwards agriculture compared to Europe • Rapid growth of population of towns & cities- crowded- would work for less because want work Russo Japanese War- Catalyst o R underestimated Japan-Jan 1905- forced to surrender-J- better tactics & more modern army • National humiliation- why would they be proud of a Tsar that conducted such an army?- it was his fault he had not modernised • J- knew position of R ships & when they would arrive • Unrest against the gov • Economic