russian revoloution empathy task

“The old order collapsed because it failed to solve economic problem”

The Russian Revolution of February 1917 was not directly attributed to the Tsar’s failure to solve economic problems. There were a wide range of causes to the downfall which can’t be directly associated to the failure to solve economic problems.

Russia’s industrialisation as a result of the reforms of 1891 proved crucial in the fall of the old order. After Witte’s reforms of the late 1890s the population of Petrograd doubled between 1890 and 1910. With the working population in the cities it gave revolutionary groups the advantage of having a large group of frustrated workers in a confined space. In relation to the events of 1917 February revolution the population density allowed the numbers participating in the violent revolts to reach colossal numbers. With the Tsar on the war front, the masses persuaded the soldiers to join the revolutionary forces and by the time he came back, it was too late. Cities such as Petrograd and Moscow weren’t designed for the population increase, and as such workers were living in crowded dirty, overcrowded apartments. These living conditions lead to the frustrations throughout the revolutionary groups. Witte’s reforms converted a large portion of peasants into proletariat. As the tension raised in 1917 that same industrial working class responded with strikes. The strikes started by the Pulitov Steal workers on the 18th of February 1917 started out with one company, but the frustration with the Tsar wasn’t just in one factory. In exactly 12 days one strike had turned into a revolution the reason was that the reforms of Witte and Stolypin .With the peasants now in factories it ment they lacked farmers and had nobody to farm the good harvests in the war years, in fact the harvests of 1915 and 1916 were the best of the century. Without the food to feed a starving nation, the Russian government was in trouble and with this Wittes reforms that were designed to push Russia into an industrial revolution ironically took it into a political revolution.

The failure in the war effort stretched Russia resources to the limit. the tsar joined the effort himself leaving the country without leadership. World war one extended further than most expected, if the British were right it would have been over by Christmas. Russia display on the front was poor, it was a national embarrassment. Despite the large war loans Russia’s military lacked funding, and by 1916 mutiny outweighed casualties 4 to 1. Only 1 in 3 Russian soldiers were given arms, If Russia wanted instant war success they needed money, which they did not have. Russia’s economy was rebuilding coming into World War one, but by the end of the war their debt was in excess of 8,000,000,000 Russian Roubles. With the people starving the Russian government needed money so they made the age old mistake of printing more money. This rapid inflation led to the value of the Rouble being halved and the black market increasing. Rapid Inflation coupled with war debts added to the downwards spiral that was Russia’s economy. The lack of funding into the war effort brought failure and the more the failed in the war the more money it cost, thus continuing the downwards spiral. A unofficial survey that took place in January of 1917 showed that 84 percent of Petrograd’s population wanted revolution. With the people starving they took the streets in protests asking for change, and in February of 1917 there wish came true

Tsar Nicholas the 2nd was not a natural born leader, and the revolution of 1917 as well as the events preceding the revolution is a reflection of this. Reports from those who raised Nicholas suggest that taking Russia’s throne was not something that came naturally to him. Several key mistakes by Nicholas between the events of 1905 and 1917 that directly attributed to the fall of the old order. The way Nicholas handled the October manifesto and the Dumas was appalling, His ridged and inflexible attitude made meaningful change difficult. If Nicholas wanted to prevent revolution he needed to work with the population particularly the working class and compromise rather than repress the wants of the public. In Relation the events of 1917 his decision to leave Petrograd and go to the war front was crucial to the outcome of events. Nicholas needed employ an experienced war officer to lead his army rather than do the job himself, Nicholas war success compared to other leaders of the Romanov dynasty was poor he also lacked qualifications and experience in war. From the leadership perspective leaving the Tsarina in charge to be advised by Rasputin was a ill thought out plan. A German Tsarina and an estranged advisor was not a good look for a Monarchy that was struggling for approval from its people. Geographically, when the Tsar tried to returned he was trapped leaving him to make one of the few correct decisions of his reign and Abdicate.

it was the serious of factors both internal and external that caused the Romanov dynasty to end. It is in my opinion that the failure to solve economic problems cannot be deemed the main or only reason. As there is too much evidence suggesting that other key factors such as world war one, the Tsars leadership and the reforms and industrialization to state the Failure to solve economic problems is the direct cause of the fall of the old order in 1917.

Bibliograph
Malone, R. (2009). Analysing the Russian Revolution . In R. Malone, Analysing the Russian Revolution (pp. 10-59). unknown. (2007, april 6). historyfacts.com. Retrieved august 13, 2013, from Russianrevoloutionfacts: historyfacts.com/Russianrevoloution/ wikipedia. (2010, june 15). Russiarevolotuion. Retrieved may 20, 2013, from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russiarevotion