The second outcome of the revolutions was that the countries were dramatically changed, two great powers were stopped and communist leaders eventually took over in the two countries. Russia and China both shared similar goals in that they both wanted a new form of government and leadership. Russia’s ruler was Tsar Nicholas II which ruled Russia for more than three centuries. China’s ruling dynasty was the Qing Dynasty. Tsar Nicholas II wasn’t much of a good ruler for Russia; he ignored the fact that Russia wasn’t doing so good and overlooked the industrialization and nationalism that was occurring throughout Russia.
Before 1988 running an enterprise was considered a crime. The new economic reforms did little to safeguard against these cartels forming. Many former KGB agents made redundant after the Cold War found uses for their talents in the new black market. Although at the beginning of Russia’s marketization benefited from criminal enterprise towards the end of the 90’s there was no longer a need for criminal progression. The old mafia bosses having gained significant political support to turn their businesses legitimate (Glenny, 2009,
Many historians have said Alexander II was considering the formation of a parliament in Russia. Furthermore, the assassination caused Alexander III to rule in reactionary nature in which many counter-reforms were created to limit the impact of the Great Reforms done by his father. This supports the view that the People’s Will were highly unsuccessful, even in the taking out of Alexander II. It can be said that the only example in this period of effective political opposition was the October 1917 revolution, where, unquestionably, the Bolsheviks took power and let their political vision be known. They were extremely successful in both the short term and the long term.
Under the rule of the Mongols, Russia changed in that paper money was introduced and diminished, and that Russian language had once again become the main language. It stayed the same in that Russian culture and the aristocrats in Russia stayed in power along with the Eastern Orthodox Church. Paper money was introduced to keep the values of metals up. The flow of silver and gold into Mongol hands starved the local economy. The Khan of the Golden Horde attempted to introduce paper money as a response to currency shortage.
Opposition did influence governmental change under every ruler apart from Alexander III who kept the opposition “underground”. Opposition was responsible for two changes in governments; the assassination of Alexander II and the Bolshevik revolution. However, both cases did not result in any governmental development to a more liberal and modern style of government. The assassination of Alexander II only led to his replacement by the far more reactionary Alexander III who actually caused the development of Russian government to regress as he removed several reforms that Alexander II was responsible for. Lenin had a similar effect as ultimately Russia remained an autocratic state, and also resulted in a regression in the development of Russian government initially as the Communist state had even less representation than under Nicholas II by virtue of the removal of the state duma.
In Japan the Meiji restoration had to stop the warring factions and create a single ruler. From ether, the newly centralized government could dictate what had to be done to expand. This new centralization worked extremely well. A major difference is that Russia used foreign loans to build its infrastructure and assets, including railroads and heavy manufacturing. Ordinarily, this would be economic ruin as was the ruse for the Ottoman, but Russia nationalize those, or essentially stole then during the 1917 revolution.
Some historians even put the fall of the Romanovs down to the Russian people as they claim that Nicholas made reforms and attempted to listen to the people however, the Russian people were just unhappy. However, the main reason for the Romanov’s fall from power in 1917 was Nicholas II. The Russo-Japanese war and WW1 played a big part in the fall of the Romanovs. The failures in both wars lead to a great deal of negative feelings toward the government and the Romanovs. WW1 played a bigger part in the fall of the Romanovs in 1917 than the Russo-Japanese war as
As the grisly and catastrophic days of World War II came to an end, the hearts of the European and Asian population grew with a new fear- the fear of the expansion of communism. Communism was a new system of rule. It was a system in which the state owned most of the wealth of the nation under one political party, and ownership of private property was very limited. Communism was first adopted by Russia in the year 1917, making it the first communist country in the world. At the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had worked together and defeated Nazi Germany and Japan.
Two years after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union buckled. The Communist party was broken because the Russian Republic hindered to eject Gorbachev from office. In December 1991, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) included Russian Republics. “The Russian Republic assumed leadership of the CIS, but the Soviet Union was no more.” The Cold War was a long drawn out battle between Democracy and Communism. The United States believed that a country should have the ability to choose its government; not be feared of it.
In 1861, Tsar Alexander II began to emancipate the serf community and in the following two years over twenty-five million serfs were given their freedom. At first this was seen by the working lower class as a step in the right direction in gaining political representation and basic human rights. Alexander’s reforms, however, suited only the needs of the wealthy Romanov dynasty whilst the people of Russia continued to suffer. Industrialisation brought the working class into urban centres where they worked long hours in factories with terrible conditions for a less-than meagre pay. Essentially, by the turn of the century, the majority of the population of Russia was made up of a poor, working lower class who suffered immensely at the hands of the Romanov dynasty.