How far was Nicholas II responsible for the fall of the Romanovs in 1917? While Nicholas II was a major factor in the fall of the Romanovs there were other reasons such as the removal of the Dumas and him losing the support of the armed forces. Nicholas II became commander in chief of the army during world war one and in doing so left his wife Alexandra to rule the country. The fact that he had let someone so inexperienced take control angered many people due to the Tsar not leaving someone more experienced to rule and also due to her being unpopular as a result of her German nationality. Alexandra appointed Rasputin, who had saved her sons life, as her personal adviser.
Since Russia performed poorly against nations like Germany, the people of Russia felt let down, and all sense of pride was lost. However, it was not just the Russian people who felt let down by the Tsar’s actions; after 1916, desertions within the military became more common, in some cases the soldiers would stop and turn around trains so they could get back to the cities from the Front. As mutiny became more frequent, military soldiers and officials were beginning to join in with protests in the cities they returned to. Nicholas’ lack of leadership skills meant that when faced with conflict in the past, he relied upon the army to restore order. Without the military, Nicholas could no longer assert his authority upon the people of Russia.
This basic form of opposition was never truly effective as their actions were simply put down by the government partly due to their failure to unite and lack of ideology and political demands. This was, however, not the only internal opposition to Tsar Alexander II with the “Going to the People” movement emerging in 1874. Here young members of the Russia intelligentsia went to the peasants breaching to them about their ideas about how life should be lived. This proved unsuccessful, they failed to appeal to the peasantry and the regime managed to arrest members showing them to be ineffective at this point. However, the populist movement developed from here, eventually splitting into two groups; the Black Partition and the People’s Will.
Other factors include political issues which were made worse by the Tsar’s lack of understanding of the proletariat society and the poor living and working conditions which were caused due to the Tsar’s … to run a country. All these factors link back to Tsar Nicholas II and imply that Tsar Nicholas was very much to blame for the downfall of the Romanovs in 1917. However, some historians argue that it wasn’t the fault of Tsar Nicholas II and claim that the fall of the Romanovs was down to Nicholas II inheriting a bad situation from his father Alexander III. They also say that Rasputin’s involvement, which had nothing to do with Nicholas II, played a part in the downfall of the Romanovs. 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.
He was not able to convince the republicans to accept this treaty because he did not include them in on it. He did successfully campaign for this treaty by going around the nation but he ended up suffering a stroke and not be able to continue. Although Wilson collapsed on his successful tour, he motives must still be questioned. He did not follow the same ideals as the Founding Fathers at all. He went against them and tried to lead the world.
As it was them who started the protest which turned into a revolution and also they were the ones behind the mutiny of the troops. However, the military was having many problems such as the war was going horribly wrong with many casualties, poor commanding from officers and limited military resources and equipment. The peasants were doing the fighting and the dying. So this could be a small contributing factor to the fall of the Romanov's on several different reasons. Firstly the tsar did not help the peasants personally, but instead leave the burden to the prime ministers when they cannot rule like a democracy today.
With Liverpool gone from office the Tories had lost the only thing that was keeping the different factions together. With him gone old arguments and grudges soon came out into the open. It also meant that the Tory party was now weakened, as it had no united leadership and was unable to settle on a stable arrangement in which all members were agreed. After Liverpool, Canning became Prime Minister and although he had a good plan for improving the country he lost most of his cabinet when Peel, Wellington and five other ministers resigned because they didn’t like his foreign policy or his pro-Catholic feelings. This meant that he had to draft in Whig party members to fill the gaps, which then reduced the Tory presence in Cabinet.
* Lost terriorty in Poland & Western Russia – PG were blamed for losses just like the Tsar was when took charge. * War made finical problems – Inflation still a problem and food shortages were high. * Russia expected these things to be stored out – PG short-lived because they were full of empty promises. Promised land reform to the peasants ( made up a large amount of the population , Bolshevik priority was to keep them on their side) no action was taken * Couldn’t guarantee food supplies as because soviet controlled the railways. * Political reform also promised political reform in an attempt to stop the revolutionaries but no action was taken.
Another factor to the growth of opposition against the Tsar was due to the Rasputin becoming advisor to Alexandria as Nicholas the second went to war. During September 1915 and December there was frequent changes such as; 4 prime ministers ,5 interior ministers and 3 ministers of agriculture. This made it hard for people of Russia to keep up and it made no improvements to Russia’s society. In addition this made the Tsar hated among the people and the opposition grew against him. However, if Alexandra accepted reforms from the Duma instead of Rasputin a reduction of opposition would of
It was clear that the Tsar was not fit to run the country and no longer had the support of the public. On the 28th of February 1917 Nicoloas II train to Petrograd was stopped and representatives of the old duma and a group of generals from stavka boarded and told the Tsar that it would be futile and dangerous for him to return, it was then that they advised him to abdicate. On the former day Nicolas II abdication was publically announced. In conclusion, World war one was a major factor in the fall of the Romanovs, the war caused many problems for the people of Russia including Inflation, food supplies, transport and the army. These issues were meant to have been dealt by the Tsar but he failed to meet his people’s needs, resulting in people disliking him and him being convinced to abdicate.