How Far Was Tsar Nicholas Responsible For His Own Downfall?

How far was Tsar Nicholas responsible for his own downfall?
In 15th March 1927 Tsar Nicholas of Russia abdicated in this essay I will be analysing to what extent it was his fault and what extent he had no control over
His mistakes
The first reason that it was his fault is that he was a weak character who was not fit to rule a large nation such as Russia as we can see in source 12 “He keep saying that he was wholly unfit to resign…. But he was not. ” This is a very reliable source as it is his sister being critical of him and they would of been very close we can see this by how she calls him Nicky not his full name Nicolas. This shows he was not taught how to lead this country that is so vast. Also it showed a sort of arrogance that we thought
he was doing a good enough job for him to not resign. He is even getting gentle criticism from his own sister this gives the source weight as when people who are close to you are being critical of you people, who want a revolution will be very critical. This was a mistake that lead to his downfall as his arrogance and his families arrogance got the better of him as they thought there were sent down from god.
Bloody Sunday was another key event that led to his downfall as a holy man called Father Gapon led a march on the Winter Palace Sunday, 22 January 1905 with a set of simple requests for: A high minimum wage, for a say in how taxes are spent and to be treated more like normal people with more freedom of speech. These people were not on an anti-tsar march they wore their Sunday best and had picture of the Tsar. They believed that essentially, Nicholas II (cousin to Britain’s George V) was a good man who had their best interests at heart and that once he knew the extent of the workers’ discontent, he would put in place the means to address their grievances. The Tsar responded badly to these basic requests and sent the place guards to fire on these crowds. The palace reported 100 people dead but the anti-government reported 400. This shows how the palace wanted to downplay this because they knew it was a mistake the Tsar’s mistake. It also shows how antigovernment protestors want to make everything seem worse than it was and if they were given an inch they would take a mile, to try start a revolution.
After Bloody Sunday and the 1905 Revolution Tsar Nicolas introduced the October Manifesto.
Which brought change for a while a parliament system was brought in called the ‘Duma’. It gave more freedom of speech with things like uncensored newspapers and the right to form a political party. However the first and second Duma fell apart very quickly As source says that “ I created the Duma not to have in instruct me, but to have it advise me” This is trustworthy and useful as it is from a school textbook which is written to give good information on this subject. This shows that he only want it to advise him and not to run the country. He did not want to be a constitutional monarchy. However the third Duma had more power and was looked at by the tsar more for them to work together with Stolypin who in the end made good reforms on how to help out this low class of workers called “peasant” who were ex-serfs who had to pay for their own freedom from slavery which they could not afford until Petr Stolypin abolished this charge for freedom. So after the first two Dumas it started to look better for the Tsar, until Petr Stolypin was assassinated by a left wing activist called Dmitry Bogrov. After Stolypin was assassinated the Dumas started to fall
apart
These mistakes he made him look so disassociated with the society of Russians which we can see in source 15 where it states “ He was so out of touch with the feelings of the of the people and has always been “ This is a good informative source as it was from one of the tsar key ministers. It gives good information about his relation and thoughts on the Russian society. he was However at the Duma with the help of Petr Stolypin they started to get Russia to become a developed society however there were still huge opposition with this new idea of communism coming through from Karl Marx’s books equality for everybody. Things were not looking great and the Tsar caused all of the problems, until the second Duma things were getting better for the Tsar until Stolypin was assassinated which was not his fault.
World War One
A Major cause of the Revolution was the effects of The First World War. War was disastrous for Russia and ultimately the Tsar. Russian army was ill equipped to go to war with many solders being without weapon, ammunition or clothing. Many soldiers began to mutiny which is significant because the desertion rate was as high as 25%, many times they also shot there commanding officer , you cannot win a war without an army and as their stories got home; the war also had a massive impact on Russian people back at home with rising prices, food shortages, unemployment and hunger causing anger and resentment. As a result people took to the streets demanding an end to the war, food, jobs and fair treatment all things the Tsar said he would give through the Dumas. Ultimately the war breaking out was not the Tsar’s fault and indeed for the start of the war he enjoyed increased popularity when the war initially broke out.
However when the tsar left to go to the front and lead the troops is 1915 he left the Tsarina in charge who was a German which kept tensions very high. It was said she was also influenced by Rasputin who was in the royal house due to the Tsar’s son having a blood disease. This was a mistake because it meant that any defeat could be blamed on the Tsar but also the Tsarina was left to lead the country and she was not a leader so the country got more out of control. The Tsar’s poor leadership and bad decisions in the war and the catastrophic nature of the war in Russia meant that Revolution was inevitable and that the Tsar was in a position to be held responsible.

One reason that it was his fault is the country of Russia is very vast it is the largest land mass in the world and had over twenty groups of people source 4 shows this. It is from a text book so it is informative and should be reliable. Russia is 17,098,242km² the largest country in the world with the capital being in the west trying to govern the east by monarchy is difficult also most of the land is uninhabitable so not even all the land can be farmed on. 84% of the people in Russia were peasants who were difficult to employ had huge debts. Peasants who could not find work would go to the city in search of work there conditons were terrible. This means new ideas such as communism would spread easily. A new class of people was created called the working class who were these peasants who came from the country side to come and work in factories for better pay. However the peasants who could not find work went back to the country side in search for work that was not there. Petr Stolypin made a land bank where peasants could buy land and pay it off later. But this land was not great it was not very fertile and small. Ultimately he could of managed the situation of the emerging classes.
Another reason is the style of government the people wanted and the Tsar wanted was different. The people wanted a democracy with a type of parliament however the Tsar wanted to say the monarch and rule autonomously. This created opposition groups like the Socialist revolutionaries and professional revolutionaries who were exiled came back and saw weakness in the Tsar such as the Bolsheviks lead by Lenin who wanted it to be a communist socialist state with no Tsar this was led by the workers who were ex-peasants who came to the city for jobs. This was also when the tsar was on