Assess the Causes of the Downfall of the Russian Monarchy

War

Russia's Geography + Population

Opposition Groups

Backwardness and troubled economy (agrarian + lack of industry)

Weaknesses of the Monarchy

Tradition of autocracy

lead to discontent of the people, lack of rights

undemocratic monarchy, fragmented society

The character of Nicholas II

Rasputin and (German) Tsarina Alexandra

Bloody Sunday

Failures of domestic leadership

Government became increasingly weak and ineffective post 1915 - Tsarina in control

100x the size of the UK

difficult country to govern

disunited, lack of national pride

Inflation - the rouble had fallen 1916

Farmers were conscripted which lead to food shortages

Transport/communications lead to shortages of raw materials, finished goods + food due to war

Army facced major food shortages

World War I

Russo Japanese War 1904-5

1914 - Battles of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes (humiliating defeats)

1915 - Tsar took personal command of the army

"hooligan movement" feb 1914

Social Democratic Party founded in 1898 (split 1903)

Bolsheviks - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Mensheviks - Julius Martov

Social Revolutionary Party

Liberals

Strikes in Petrograd - attacked bakeries, strikes, joined by soldiers (dismissed by the tsar

The People's Will

Nicholas named his brother Grand Duke Michael as successor, but as he refused the position, the Romanov dynasty surrendered control

125m Russians

Required Okhrana (secret police) and Cossacks (personal army) to maintain control

"Tsar and Autrocrat of all the Russias"

I am not ready to be the Tsar. I never wanted to become one. I know nothing of the business of ruling.

1900 - 80% of Russians were peasants

1/2 new born children died before 5, the average life expectancy for those who reached 5 was only 50

Disease and malnutrition

Urban workers unhappy - long hours, trade unions and strikes illegal

Many were unemployed and so urban workers were disposable

Tsar Nicholas owned 8 palaces and 15000 servants

Nobles only 1% of Russian population but owned 25% of land

Divine Right of Kings

Fighting organisation - organised terrorist campaigns

1900-1905 - 3 government ministers and dozens of government officials killed

Law abiding russians who wanted a constitutional monarchy

Peasants paid heavy taxes, redemption payments and workers wages were extremely low

1902 = industrial slump - thousands of knew workers lost their jobs

poor harvests 1902-1902

War made conditions worse than they had been before - shortages of food

Russians humiliated by the Japanese (lost Port Arthur)

Peter Stolypin - Prime Minister (Military courts - sentence and hang a person on the spot (Stolypin's necktie)

22nd January 1905

October Manifesto

Dumas

200,000 people marched to winter palace lead by Father Gapon,

April 1906

Could not pass laws

One representative for every 2000 nobles, but one for every 90000 workers

First two dumas of 1906 and 1907 very radical, but these were dissolved

1907-1912 - Third duma created that favoured the rich, more conservative

1912-1914 - fourth duma achieved little but tsar began to work with it

1905-1914 - total industrial production increased by 100%

World's 4tth largest producer of coal, pig iron and steel

1914- 2/5 factory workers were in factories with over 1k workers - easier to organise strikes

Average wages in 1905 were pitiful

1912 - Lena goldfields massacre - 170 workers killed 373 wounded (similar to Bloody Sunday)

Rasputin - a starets (holy man) from Siberia belonging to religious sect - Kylysty - way to religious ecstasy lay in the senses

Stolypin exiled Rasputin to siberia, who returned upon stolypins death in 1912

Articles about Rasputin were censored, seen as attack on freedom of the press and increased gossip