There was an early failure by his rivals to rid themselves of Stalin. Underestimating him, they ignored the dying Lenin’s clear contempt for his General Secretary that had grown in the last months of the old leader’s life. By not publishing Lenin’s Testament, his rivals allowed the myth of Stalin as a natural successor to Lenin to
He did nothing to help his case with the League of Nations. He would have it his way or he would not approve of it. (Doc C) This is what made it so weird when Wilson urged his supporters to go against his own proposal. Many people harshly judged Wilson for this as they should have. Even liberals like W.E.B.
The government failed to efficiently incorporate these into the war effort which resulted in them becoming a symbol for the shortcomings in the war effort. The Tsar had lost a lot of support through the Dumas which were set up as part of the October Manifesto to act as a
Stalin was an unchallenged ruler but he believed he had many enemies and recent history made Stalin wary. His opponents in the rise to power- Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev- all had held leading positions in the Communist Party and then fallen from power. Stalin was paranoid that he would face the same fate. He also did not trust his form opponents as he believed they were not behind his version of socialism. They also had a larger following than Stalin which Stalin feared people would be loyal to them.
Stalin, seizing this opportunity, convinced Trotsky that he would not be able to make it back in time for the funeral and the stress of trying would just worsen his condition. This allowed Stalin to be free of a major competitor during the funeral while also ruining Trotsky’s reputation by making it seem like he couldn’t be bothered to attend the funeral of Lenin. With Trotsky temporarily out of the picture Stalin set himself up as Lenin’s disciple, in the eyes of the people
One problem with ideology was that the two powers openly criticised each other’s policies. Khrushchev was very critical about the Great Leap Forward, which led to the withdrawal of Soviet economic aid. Part of the reason was that Khrushchev did not agree with the ideological methodology of things such as the ‘back-yard’ furnaces. It was different to how the Soviets did it. Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech.
These Factors started to turn everyone against the Tsar as they could see how terrible he really was and how much he wasn’t helping the country or its people which finally lead the end of the Tsar. In 1917 people started to lose faith in terms of reforms as the October Manifesto set up by Witte to help people and try to get the country back on track was removed after only a few years of it being in place not long enough for it to have an impact on Russian life. As in 1905 there had never been any real big reforms like on the October manifesto so people where excited as they thought something new and good would be
The other people were middle class people, who were more educated and wealthier than the worker class, but still minor against the tsar. Nicholas II wasn’t a good ruler: he avoided important decisions, neglected the importance of the policy and suppressed any resistance. He tried to crush any fears of a revolution by entering a war and consequently uniting his country, but his war tactics weren’t glorious. Russia’s people, the ones who accepted the life for many years, started to stir up, for example workers were striking, but their actions were brutally wiped out. As long as the tsar had his army he was unconquerable.
There was a time where he opposed the interests of the Communist Party these interests were projects started by Bolsheviks and Stalin so he was greatly outnumbered in making any decision. He argued that if large projects were going to be undertaken they had to be safe, and have considerable conditions for the workers, but the Communist party was willing to sacrifice those regulations to output the projects more quickly. Palchinsky continued to disagree and criticize the projects so he was eventually arrested on April 1928, and then executed from his political position. There was a project in particular that Palchinsky warned the USSR about, and that was the
Nicholas II was the last tsar of the Romanov dynasty, and his own arrogance and incompetence was a key factor in what led him to that title. His decision to maintain an autocratic government, fight in the Russo-Japanese war, and, ultimately, drag Russia into World War I, proved he was not fit to rule, and his actions led to the destruction of his dynasty. In these ways, Nicholas II, while faced with many problems, may have survived had he not ruled the way he did. Nicholas II was an implacable autocrat, and his fear of change alienated the Russian people from their leader. When Nicholas was young, he witnessed his grandfather, Alexander II, being assassinated by terrorists.