The Abdication Of Tsar Nicholas II In 1917

The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 was a major event in Russian history. This was caused by a variety of reasons, including appalling conditions suffered by the people, the Tsar’s weak autocratic rule and the revolution of March 1917, which ended with the Tsar being forced out of power. The abdication of the Tsar also had several consequences, which changed the course of Russian history. Firstly, the newly formed Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet vied for power for several months in the wake of the Tsar’s sudden abdication. Russia then left World War One following the treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918. This was followed by a six-year Russian Civil War, resulting in Bolshevik Victory.

The immense adversity endured
130 million people resided within the borders of Russia during the early 1900's and over 80% were peasant labourers, meaning they lived in abject poverty working for barely any pay. The vast majority of peasants farmed the land, and due to Russia's harsh climate, crops would often fail, leaving the peasants starving and penniless. Particularly huge famines occurred in 1900 and 1902, which resulted in famines across large parts of rural Russia. Due to the land-owning conditions of 1861's Edict of Emancipation, peasants had to pay instalments of money every year for 49 years, so there was virtually no hope of peasants being able to farm their own individual land. With the rise in city factories, peasants who formerly lived in the country were lured to Russia's major cities with hopes of a stable income and better living conditions. However, they worked long, tough shifts of up to 15 hours and were payed virtually nothing for it. A witness from the time, Father Gapon, wrote a book detailing
Tsar Nicholas II chose to uphold the values of the Romanov rulers that held complete power before him. His determination to maintain his autocracy whilst lacking the ideas and abilities to do so resulted in growing public resentment and discontent. Naïve and incompetent, Tsar Nicholas II remained ignorant the peasant population’s problems, focussing his attention on retaining the medieval system of society that was in place when the Romanov family first gained power. This way, he ensured that the equality gap between the rich and poor stayed the same. The poor had no way to improve their desperate situation, as there were no opportunities for peasants to gain higher qualifications. Because of this, the peasants became increasingly disgruntled. In addition to this, the Tsar was a pious man, who had been brought up believing that he and his family were specifically chosen by God to rule Russia. Therefore, he believed that no one could contest his decisions. During his 23-year rule, the Tsar made many great mistakes that further increased discontent among his subjects. In 1905, he sent his feared Cossacks to several uprisings that occurred during that year. By killing innocent protestors, he only increased the people’s hatred of him. As a response to the uprisings of 1905, he created a government called the Duma, which appeased the public for a short time. However, it was soon realised that