What Are The Effects Of The Psycho-Japanese War On Russia

The Russo-Japanese war, 1904-1905, was a huge milestone that had a significant impact on the reign of Nicholas II. His ruthless thirst for expansion and haughty determination to incite a war with Japan was a shallow decision that led to an embarrassing defeat. This defeat affected the few remaining years or his reign in many facets and was raging fuel for the Russian population. It was a potential ignition many reforms including the social reform of the 1905 revolution, significant judicial reforms such as the forming of the dumas, vast geographical loss of land and finally the deteriorating effect it had on Russia’s weak economy. The degrading war set a crucial common ground, forming a nationwide coalition against the tsar. This alliance of the opposition was indeed one of the major effects the war had on the reign of Nicholas II. “The war with Japan, one of the most terrible blunders made during the reign of Nicholas II, had disastrous consequences and marked the beginning of our misfortunes” . This quote
from the autobiography of Felix Yuspov, a member of one of the wealthiest families in Russia at the time, further verifies the argument that the Russo-Japanese war was one of the biggest mistakes that heavily affected the reign of the last tsar. It was a shared opinion amongst the whole population, regardless of class or political view, that the Russo-Japanese war was one of Nicholas II most prominent tragedies. Secondly, the Russo-Japanese war impacted the tsar in an imperative way by igniting the Russian revolution of 1905, one of the most influential social reforms that occurred in Russian history.
As Trotsky precisely states “The revolution of 1905 grew directly out of the Russo-Japanese War.” The war was responsible for this revolt by the Russian population because, although the Russian population was already aware of Nicholas II’s incompetence and week will, the war acted as a catalyst that ignited the revolution. It was a catalyst in the sense that it worsened the living and working condition of the Russian population, depreciated the economy and finally the loss of the war caused for a dramatic loss in morale. All the negative effects the war had, turned into raging fuel for the revolutionaries. Revolutionary leaders then lighted this fuel of anger, most notably the exiled Vladimir Lenin, who gathered forces of socialist rebels aimed at toppling the
czar. Consequent to the revolution, numerous reforms began to arise, furthering the impact of the Russo-Japanese war on Nicholas II. This was because Nicholas II felt that his authority was threatened and in turn was required to reform. The foremost of these reforms is the judicial reform of the October Manifesto (Oct. 30 [Oct. 17, Old Style], 1905). This legal document, issued by Nicholas II, ended Russia’s unlimited autocracy and introduced a constitutional monarchy. Nichols II created a legislative body (the Duma) whose members would be popularly elected. This in turn had an influential impact on the remaining years of Nicholas II.