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Modern day revolution
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A cause of the 1917 Russian Revolution was the Tsar's reign and the lives people lead beneath it. For over 300 years the Romanov family had been ruling Russia. But in the years leading up to the second revolution, unrest had been growing between the population and the tsarist leadership. The last Tsar family were autocrats and this left citizens unable to challenge their power. During those times the disparity of wealth between the rich and poor was significant. Statistics from 1897 showed that 82% of Russia's population made up the "peasant class" and a drastically smaller 12.5% was made up of nobles and royalty. The reason behind the large population of people living in poverty in Russia was due to there once being a lower class than the
Discontentment with their leader and the living conditions that the poor faced led to many protests throughout the year. The catalyst for the revolution was an initially peaceful protest on January 22nd. Despite the protesters non-violent intentions, they were met with force at the winter palace that resulted in dubbing it "Bloody Sunday". The January protest was led by a Russian Orthodox priest with a following of 150,000 people. They were asking Nicholas II for help, to improve their lifestyle with no political agenda such as overthrowing the monarchy. Regardless, the troops outside the palace opened fire on the protesters, however, the exact number of deaths is uncertain. When word of what happened spread through Russia, strikes and protests - some involving 400,000 people - spread quickly. The demands became more political, citizens demanding freedom of speech and an elected government. What had been a peaceful protest for better living conditions exploded into national outrage. Nicholas II's response to the protests was to issue the October Manifesto which promised a constitution. There was mixed reactions to the document but it convinced many protesters to return to work, weakening their numbers and bringing the revolution to an end the same year it begun. The 1905 revolution solidified that the majority of Russians were unhappy with their leadership which is how the Bolshevik party
The Bolshevik Party was founded after the split of Russia's Social Democrat Party and lead by Vladimir Lenin until his death in 1924. In the 1905 revolution their impact was weak with little more than 200 supporters. However, in the years leading up to 1917 they gained more appeal to the masses because of the ideas that Lenin proposed if the Bolsheviks came into power. One of their promises was to take Russia out of World War I and after Nicholas II's poor performance, many people were eager to withdraw. The Bolsheviks being willing to withdraw from the war made them popular with soldiers and their families. They also promised to redistribute land back to the peasant class and give them power in their local communities. These ideals to assist the poor and give them more status appealed to the two biggest social classes in Russia. This lead to the massive following that Lenin had behind him. The goal of the Bolsheviks was to attain power and Lenin's goal was to have Russia under their rule as quickly as possible. The Bolshevik pursuing power and gaining support after the Provisional Government had been established following Nicholas II's abdication links to the immediate effects of the
Russia's industries were beginning to develop and the number of people living in towns was increasing. These people were the urban working class of Russia and they were not as eager to accept the poor wages and conditions as the peasants were.
The Seizure of Power by the Bolsheviks in 1917. How did the Bolsheviks seize power of the Russian Empire in 1917? They were able to do this as a result of taking advantage of the current political and social situations in the country at the time. Through such decisions as disbanding the army and siding with the majority. the peasants, through such promises as land, food, equality and peace.
In February of 1917 a group of female factory workers and led a revolt in which the Tsar was dethroned, only to be replaced by a provisionary government composed of the Russian elite. When this government did not live up to its promises of an end to Russian involvement in World War I, the Bolsheviks (“majority”), a revolutionary movement led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the provisionary government in what bacame known as the October revolution.
... food making it into the cities and towns and the little food that was already there was now overly expensive due to inflation. There was trouble in the countryside, peasants had started demanding land in order to grow their own food to survive. The people in Russia were fed up with how things were going and were ready for a revolution.
The Russian Revolution occured in two stages/times, February nd October of 1917. As cited in document 1, "Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and a liberal democratic government came to power." What lead to the Febraury Revolution was the peasant agriculture to the Russian population, autocracy, and the outbreak of WW1. A long-term cause was the peasant agriculture to the Russian population. As said in document 1, "For all of its history before the 20th cwntury, 80-95% of the population were poor pasants, farmers just barely scratching a living form the land. For most of that history (between 1694-1861) the majority of these peasants were enserfed." to enserf means to be aprovd of liberty and personal rights. Before 1917 peasants recieved sympathy from
Lenin’s pragmatic leadership was the most considerable factor in helping to fortify Bolshevik power. His willingness to take power in October/November 1917 and the successes of the move, through his right-hand man, Trotsky, was critical as it helped give him unquestioned authority within the party despite members of the Central Committee i.e. Zinoviev and Kamenev who suggested industrialisation needed to occur first. This highlighted Lenin’s communist ideology in practice which was essential to the Bolsheviks maintaining power. Following the failure of the Provisional Government, Lenin recognised that it was the Bolshevik’s priority to legitimise their government. As a result, issues of ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ were addressed through the issuing of a number of decrees in late 1917 including decrees on land, peace, Workers’ Rights as well as reforms to marriage and religion. ...
Deplorable working conditions, strong ethnic divide, political repression and an autocratic rule where the underlying conditions that made the people of Russia desire a Bolshevik revolution. During the late 19th century everyone including the nobles were deep in debt because of the failed attempts of land reform. The final straw that really made the citizens of Russia to side with the Bolsheviks would be during World War I where even with their suffering economy they decided to go to war.
I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent, along with economic hardships, caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution, as they did in 1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards.
The Russian Revolution Made a immense change for the best for its people. The Everyday sadness of the people of Russia grew as the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. With World war l taking place and Russia being involved many Russians were being killed by the Germans. Millions of casualties and starvation all across Russia caused the Russian people to become frus-trated. Under the control of Czar Nicholas II the people were hoping for a change. Russian be-came furious wanting Nicholas out blaming him for what was going on in their country without getting assistance by their ruler.
The Russian Revolution (1917) was a series of economic and social upheavals in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-socialist Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party.
Bloody Sunday was a big impact of Nationalism, what started out as a peaceful march of Petersburg workers marching to the Winter Palace led by Father Gapon turned out to be a nightmare. The marchers wanted to establish an eight hour work day, establish minimum wage, and assemble a constitution, while the marchers marched they was fired upon by Russian troops and several hundred marchers was killed. People believed that Bloody Sunday happened under Nicholas II because he could not be found when the marchers were marching to the Winter Palace causing Russian troops to panic. The result of Bloody Sunday caused riots to break out; forming the councils of workers in St. Petersburg and Moscow and the bond between Nicholas II and the people was broken causing October Manifesto. A result of a short term solution October Manifesto was granted, which was a constitution to stop the riots. The primary intentions of the October Manifesto were to divide the revolutionaries.
Bloody Sunday was the day that father Gapon walked to the winter palace with thousands of workers and a petition to outline the problems and hardships caused by the tsar and to demand change be made consisting of an improvement to working conditions, a reduction in working hours and an end to the Russo Japanese war. This is an extract from that petition, “We workers, inhabitants of St. Petersburg, have come to Thee. We are unfortunate, reviled slaves, weighed down by despotism and tyranny. Our patience exhausted, we ceased work and begged our masters to give us only that without which life is a torment. But this was refused; to the employers everything seemed unlawful. We are here, many thou sands of us. Like the whole of the Russian people, we have no human rights whatever. Owing to the deeds of Thy officials we have become slaves.” However this peaceful march ended horribly as when the group of marchers arrived at their destination they were confronted by Russian troops and the police and shots were fired into the crowd resulting in hundreds of dead Russians lying in the street. The events of bloody Sunday were a key factor in the causing of the 1905 Russian revolution as they made Russians angry at the way the tsar, his army and the police dealt with things causing many of
The Russian Revolutions of 1917 led to the riddance of the czarist Russia as well as the ushering in of the socialistic Russia. The first of the two revolutions forced Nicolas II to abdicate his throne to a provisional government. Lenin headed the second of the two revolutions in which he overthrew the provisional government.
In the years leading up to the revolution, Russia had been involved in a series of wars. The Crimean war, The Russo-Turkish war, The Russo-Japanese war and the First World War. Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite. Rents and taxes were often unaffordable, while the gulf between workers and the ruling elite grew ever wider.
As communication was poor to the rural areas of Russia, the peasants had little or no knowledge of political parties and so did not support the Bolsheviks in their takeover. When the Bolsheviks changed to the Communist party in 1918, many peasants believed these to be a new party challenging Bolshevism and so made banners saying ’Down with the Communists, Long live the Bolsheviks!’ The national minorities currently part of the Russian empire, predominately Finland and Poland, were demanding independence and Russia’s allies, Britain, France, USA, Japan, etc. were growing ever suspicious of Bolshevism and so were set to intervene if the Bolsheviks were to pull out of World War 1.