Tsar Nicholas and His Downfall

Tsar Nicholas and His Downfall

In Durnovo's memorandum 1914, he states that a long war is imminent

and that Russia is not ready for it. They would lose causing the

government to be blamed resulting in complete social revolution.

Durnovo was completely right. He predicted that war would break out

which it did later in 1914 with Germany. Russia then suffered heavy

losses after the battle of Tannenberg 1914 and the loss of Russian

Poland 1915. Then Nicholas decided to make himself commander-in-chief

of the army but Russia still took heavy losses. As a result of this,

just as Durnovo predicted, the government were blamed which resulted

in a complete social revolution in February 1917.

Source B is Alexandra's view of what is happening in 1917 a few days

before complete revolution broke out. It says that people are

protesting only to get attention and that everything will pass when

they get bored, cold or hungry. It gives the impression that the

situation is not serious at all and if it is ignored, it will go away.

Source C is Rodzianko's view of what is happening also written in

1917, just before complete revolution broke out. It shows the

situation to be a lot more serious. It says that mutiny has broken out

among the soldiers. The soldiers of course are nothing more than

peasants with uniforms that have been told to fight for the country.

It says that now it is in their interest to fight with the other

workers on strike. Alexandra however does not know what is going on

because she is inside her palace. She has no idea of the seriousness

of the situation because she is not around and can't see what is

really happening. Rodzianko is president of the Duma and therefore has

a better idea of what is going on even though he says the mutiny was

unexpected. He shows the seriousness of the situation and how likely a

complete social revolution is.

Source D and source E do not support what is said in source B but do