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.
This was one of the main reasons why they gained many followers during the period of the Tsars abdication. Initially the public did think the PG would succeed in helping Russia redevelop from the deterioration of the country that the Tsar was responsible for, however it soon began to show different. They failed to provide food for the country, which is shown through the source of John Reed, an American journalist living in Petrograd in 1917. “Week by week food became scarce.” This will most likely be a reliable source as he is not involved with the Russian politics and government. He merely states what he has seen.
A change in society occurred in June of 1918 with the introduction of War Communism. War Communism meant that all industry was nationalised, private sales were forbidden as personal profits became illegal, strict working rules were put in place, and a class based rationing system was introduced. War Communism brought about major changes to Russian society but in order to assess how successful it was in its changes, each aspect of its original goals must be looked at. As described by David Christian, one of the two pressures that lead to War communism was ‘the need to fight the civil war’. In this aspect the changes brought about by this policy were successful as it resulted in a Bolshevik victory in the war as it ‘...did the job of supplying towns and armies with just enough food and supplies to keep providing war material and to keep fighting.
How far was political change the most the most significant development in Russia in the period 1880-1989? During the period 1880-1989, right from Alexander III’s reign to the collapse of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev political change was very significant in Russia. However despite the importance of the political change that occurred during the period, more significant develops occurred elsewhere which overshadowed this. The importance of political change was significant right throughout the period with the counter reforms of Tsar Alexander III and Tsar Nicholas II fuelling the social unrest in the late 19th and early 20th Century which eventually led to the 1917 Revolution in February and October. The political purges of the Stalinist period eventually led to the attempted raising of living standards and the move away from state terror during de-Stalinisation under Khrushchev.
Goverments that attempted to control thoughts and actions of their people. Throught history there have benn many governments that have attempted to control the thoughts anbd and actions of their people. Peter the great in Russia and Mao Zedong in China are just two leaderds who have treied to incluuence their people and had a major impact on society and the world. Peter the great: Peter the great lived during the period 1672-1725 and was the tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1725. He was a leading figure in bringing drastic changes in Russia from the old medieval life to that of a leading power in Eastern Europe.
WW1 had the biggest effect on Russian Government policies from 1855-1964. How far do you agree? Alex Brader I believe that the Civil War had the biggest effect on Russian Government policies because of the change from an autocratic rule to a totalitarian rule. Tsarism was extremely resilient to the forces of change and under Lenin’s rule Labour was militarised which is a very drastic change. In contrast the Tsar weakened the Duma and a progressive bloc was formed.
Luck played a big part into how Stalin defeated the left side of the party. Because of Trotsky’s illness he often missed political conventions meaning the he couldn’t get his view across to the general public. This meant that Stalin was a lot more popular than Trotsky. Also the fact that Lenin’s testament wasn’t published played a part in Stalin’s success. In his testament he heavily criticized Stalin; if it was published then it would have damaged Stalin’s popularity.
Even though this solved all the immediate needs of the communist state, the majority of the peasants were unhappy about the new policies and rebelled against the Bolsheviks. This, in turn, forced Lenin to change policies and introduce the New Economic Policy. The NEP was seen, in the Bolsheviks’ eyes, as a return to capitalism as it allowed small businesses to open and people to sell goods in the market, even though major industries, such as steel and iron were still under government control. Lenin had a huge impact on Russia. He made Russia a strong state and consolidated her
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
The first revolution in 1917 overthrew the Tsar, hoping that a new government would be formed, and that this new government would end the war. The war had caused the price of food to be multiplied by seven, had weakened the government, which received less money since alcohol sale had been forbidden, and the state had a monopoly on alcohol. The soldiers sent to the front were exhausted and had lost hope, and many of them did not want to fight anymore. Thus, when the Provisional Government came to power and did not do anything to end the war, people were still hungry and angry. This is very important because food is one of the most important and basic things people want, and lots of revolutions broke out because of famine.