Hossain-Collapse from Within

The February Revolution was the result of numerous factors that reached a critical point in 1917. While some causes occurred beyond the control of the Russian government, such as World War I, many were largely decided by the government’s actions, such as Russia’s response to the War. Considering the various reasons that led up to it, the February Revolution was largely a collapse from within.
Though I said before that WWI was outside of Russia’s control, this actually is not accurate because of Russia’s had in setting of the war. They chose to mobilize even though Germany had warned them that they would consider mobilization a hostile act tantamount to declaring war. Beyond this, however, Russia’s reactions to entering battle only exacerbated a bad situation. Tsar Nicholas’s II decision to place himself as head of the armed forces and leave Russia under the direction of his wife, Tsarina Alexandra (1) was doubly disastrous. On one hand, he had no military training and was entirely unqualified to lead an army. What’s worse, he replaced a general that had had notable success (1). His insufficient military skills lost Russia many battles and soldiers and contributed to the army’s loss of moral. This further led to increased lack of confidence from the Russian people in the government, because they were losing the war. The growing discontent of the people left them prone to revolt. The Tsarina was as unfit to run the country as the Tsar was to run the army. This resulted in growing instability in the country and increased rebellious groups. To make matters worse, the Tsarina tunred to the largely unpopular monk Rasputin for advice (1). Their close relationship spawned rumors of an affair and/or conspiracy. This further hurt the people’s confidence in the monarchy.
Other steps taken (or not taken) further contributed to the deterioration of the government’s stability. The Tsar established the Duma in order to appease the people and make them believe that their concerns would be addressed (2). However, the Duma did little to better the people’s situation, and instead only enhanced their unhappiness. During the war, both the Russian civilians and the army suffered severe shortages. The people lacked food and basic resources because of decreased production and lack of transportation (1). While the government cannot be blamed for bad harvests, they certainly could have worked to improve the transportation systems and/or the economy to ensure a reliable source of food. The government printed more money to solve the problem, but ended up only making it worse by increasing inflation and lowering the value of existing money (1). The army lacked proper equipment and training. Soldiers, who were mostly peasants, were expected to arm themselves with abandoned weapons from the battlefield (1). All these factors demoralized the people and ultimately the army, who increasingly turned against the government.
The many bad decisions made by the Russian government only served to worsen the citizens’ situation. Their growing discontent and the continued negligence of the government turned the people away from the Tsar’s rule. They became much more vulnerable to the increasing numbers of opposition groups. Later, when Tsar Nicholas chose to abdicate in favor of his son and his brother, who refused (3), he left the country in the hands of a weak, disorganized government that could not stand up the angry forces of the people. Ultimately, the collapse of order within the Russian government pushed the people to overthrow the government from without.