Account for the Collapse of Tsarism in February 1917

ACCOUNT FOR THE COLLAPSE OF TSARISM IN FEBRUARY 1917

In February 1917 the outdated Tsarism in Russia finally collapsed. The Romanov dynasty had oppressively ruled Russia for three centuries. The Tsars were absolute monarchs believing they held divine right to rule, and although Russia went through many changes both socially and economically they were never prepared to modernise themselves, relinquishing any political power. The difficulties which came about through the Great War coupled with many longer term problems proved to be too much for this old aristocratic system's survival and so led to the abrupt end of Tsarism. It is necessary to examine some of Russia's long term and early twentieth century problems to understand the reasons for this sudden downfall.

Russia in the mid-nineteenth century was very backward compared with the rest of Europe. Her economy was overwhelmingly agricultural and over eighty percent of her people were poor peasants scraping an existence from the land. Russia's immense size and geography and poor road and railways infrastructure coupled with her very harsh climate, rendering waterways frozen for most of the year, meant that there were many problems concerning transport. This had a big effect on her economic development. Few of Russia's people had any notion of Russia as a nation, although they were loyal to the Tsar. Less than half the population was actually Russian and only associated with their localities. Being peasants they had no reason to travel and transportation was difficult. Also Russia had a rapidly increasing population which created further hardship for the peasants as agricultural land became shorter in supply, resulting in smaller holdings and many peasants migrating eastwards.

Following defeat in the Crimean War, Tsar Alexander II became aware of how backward Russia was. In order to modernize Russia he brought in many reforms to the military, education, finance, and the judiciary system and introduced new elected local government assemblies called the Ð''Zemstrva'. He also emancipated the surfs, which although freed actually made life more difficult for them as the landowner's previous obligations to the surfs were removed. The Tsar also encouraged the development of industry and railways. However in 1881 he was assassinated by revolutionaries and replaced by his second son Alexander III.

The new Tsar was repressive against those seeking political reform and persecuted Jews and other non-members of the Russian Orthodox Church. He pursued a policy of Russification of national minorities such as imposing the Russian language and Russian schools on the Polish, German and Finnish people living in Russia. He supported industrialization realising its importance for Russia, but failed to introduce agricultural reforms, resulting in a series of famines as agriculture was exploited for export earnings. The industrialization of Russia led to rapid social changes as peasants left rural areas for cities in order to find work in factories. The working class grew quickly, and living and working conditions were appalling. The government did nothing to regulate employment, even concerning children and factories paid starvation wages. The want for revolutionary change increased in the cities. Alexander III was wary of assassination attempts against him; of which there was several, but died of liver disease in 1894 aged only forty-nine, to be succeeded by his eldest son, Nicolas II.

Tsar Nicolas II was the weakest of the Tsars. Although described as being a charming and approachable man he was an ineffective and easily influenced ruler who was indecisive and unable to respond to the building pressure for change in Russian society. He was a cultural nationalist, opposed to the Westernization of Russia and was very much a family man who often appeared to be quite detached from politics. The Tsar steadfastly strove to maintain the old aristocratic system and continued with his father's policy of Russification and persecution of religious minorities. Opposition to Tsarism was illegal which angered many liberal and radical reformers. He suppressed opposition groups such as Liberals, socialists and communists, and many of his political enemies were forced into exile abroad.

The peoples' discontent

with the Tsar increased further with the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) over Manchuria in northern China. Japan's invasion was a threat to Russian control of the Trans-Siberian railway and Russia was expected to win the war. However the war proved to be disastrous for the Russian side with four-hundred thousand men killed, wounded, or captured, and the Tsar forced to accept defeat. The financial cost of the war was also great.

On January 9th 1905 there was a mass demonstration in St. Petersburg led by Father Gapon, a priest and trade union leader for factory and workshop workers. The demonstration involved two-hundred thousand workers and was intended to be a peaceful procession to the Winter Palace to hand the Tsar a petition concerning the workers' low pay and bad working conditions and an end to the Russo-Japanese War. The demonstrators were unarmed, dressed in their Sunday best clothes and carried pictures of the Tsar, religious icons and church banners, as political banners or slogans were banned. Troops brutally crushed the demonstration by opening fire on them outside Winter Palace killing two-hundred and injuring hundreds more. The event became known as Ð''Bloody Sunday' and was the start of the Ð''1905 Revolution'. The people lost all faith in the Tsar and strikes and riots broke out in the cities and towns as workers protested against their rulers. In the countryside peasants turned against landowners and there were also mutinies in the army. The army and police struggled to take control. In August the Tsar accepted that a Duma (parliament) should be formed in an attempt to pacify the workers' movement. The state Duma was Russia's first experience of Western-style democracy but was only a consultative body with no power to legislate and did not represent the workers. The creation of the ineffectual Duma failed to pacify the workers and reform leaders and the strikes continued to get worse. Sailors on the battleship Potemkin mutinied which sparked off further demonstrations in their support. Two thousand people were massacred when troops opened fire on the demonstrators.

The Tsar began losing the support of the military. Political groups began to be formed to challenge the Tsar. The Constitutional Democrats was formed by the middle class to press for reforms in towns and cities and in rural areas the Peasants' Union was formed in August 1905. More importantly, the soviets