Allen- A Collapse From Within Caused By An Overthrow From Without

The February Revolution was a collapse from within the Russian government that was caused by an overthrow from without. For almost fifty years prior to the beginning of the Russian Revolution, the intelligentsia had grown more and more radical in its beliefs and actions (source 3). In this time, the radical revolutionary group had had a lot of time to improve their tactics in overthrowing the government and began gaining followers during World War I. Along with the intelligentsia, other opposition groups to czarist rule began to grow (source 2). With so many opposition groups on the rise, both the people and the czarist government began losing faith in the established form of government. How could they have faith in a government that was being picked apart by so many Russian citizens and people? In 1902, Lenin wrote a small pamphlet What is to be Done?, which made him popular with the underground Russian Marxist movement (source 3). In this, he began to be able to speak out more and tell his views on the government; Lenin strengthened the revolutionary movements by doing this. He gave people courage to stand up against the government by supporting them and speaking out himself. Lenin supported a group of revolutionaries dedicated to the overthrow of the czarist government; his view was that “revolution would be brought about not by elections and democracy, but by small cells of dedicated revolutionaries who would use violence and any means necessary” (source 3). By saying this, Lenin showed he did not expect the government to be easily overthrown, but was expecting and prepared to fight. Because of bad harvests, poor transport systems, and the loss of large areas of fertile land to the Germans following World War I, Russian citizens were starving in cities and soldiers were dying from the shortage of equipment (source 1). These food shortages, lack of military training, and lack of equipment caused the Russian citizens to become more enraged by their government. The government tried to combat this food shortage, which had led to high food prices and low wages for workers, by printing more money (source 1). However, this only caused inflation of the money (source1). By trying to improve the situation and printing more money, the government worsened the problem because the excess money made it all worthless. The czar created and ignored the Duma (source 2), but as World War II was starting up, the Duma dissolved itself to show support for the government (source 3). In doing this, the Duma stopped itself from working and can no longer blame the czar for ignoring their thoughts. It dissolved to symbolize full support of the Russian government, portraying to the people they should support the government also. However, how can the Duma dissolve itself and yet those people still spoke out against the government after saying they fully support the decisions of the czar? In this, the citizens of Russia were going against their word, not the government. Because of the low level of technical and economical development in Russia (source 1), the czarist empire “had the largest army in Europe but lacked the resources to fight a prolonged struggle” (source 3). Because of the revolutionaries speaking out against him, the czar was forced to try and rebuild his reputation. He attempted this by taking full control of the army from the front lines (source 1). He had no military training but saw it as his duty to fight alongside his peasant soldiers against the Germans. This, however, once Russia surrendered to Germany was turned against Czar Nicholas II, and he was blamed for the bad showing of the Russian army (source 1). On January 9, 1905 (source 3), the Russian government shot into a riled-up crowd of citizens (source 2). Though this action was to try and quiet the crowd, the government lost a lot of respect from its people in doing this. However, had revolutionary groups not gotten the people so outspoken against the government, the crowd never would have formed. The riot never would have happened. And the citizens never would have been killed by their own government officials. While the czarist government should have had more patience with its citizens and listened to their needs and wants more often, the revolutionary groups, such as the intelligentsia, are more to blame for the February Revolution. These groups gave the people courage to stand up, speak out, and take action against their government. In this way, the February Revolution was a collapse from within the Russian government caused by an overthrow from without.