Kennelly- The cessation of the Romanov Dynasty was a Collapse From Within

Although there is evidence that the ending of the Romanov Dynasty was contributed to both an overthrow from without and a collapse from within, strong supporting evidence has led me to believe that it was a collapse from within. Unwise decisions, made by the political leaders of Russia at the time, and an unbalance of beliefs and morals among the people of Russia contributed to an unstable and weak government that was facing an inevitable collapse.

In August of 1915, Tsar Nicholas II left St. Petersberg to take control of the armies that had mobilized to help Serbia in the war (1). In his place, he left his wife Alexandra to take charge in Russia (1). Of course it is known that without a political leader there in a country to take charge, different views and decisions will be made that do not fall in the pattern of leadership that the ruler would normally follow. On top of this problem of not having the proper leader present to keep order in the country, the Tsar's wife was born a German, A bitter enemy to the Russians at the time (1). Tensions would surely start to rise as a German was held as the leader of the country that showed great hatred towards Germans. A mistake Alexandra made while being in charge of Russia was taking advice from Rasputin, a despicable monk (1). The people of Russia began to become suspicious of the two, as they were rumored to be German spies (1). Eventually Rasputin was murdered and rumors and suspicians ended. The Tsar leaving to go to the army was one of the first early signs of a weakening country. In leaving, the Tsar put his wife in, raising tensions and an unbalance between the government and the people. Turmoil began to surface as suspicians of German interference within the country was beginning to take place. Surely this was an problem beginning from within the country.

The Tsar not only started distress within the country, but in the countries army as well. A trouble began in Russia, the Tsar took over supreme command of the Russian army in 1915 (1). being the supreme leader now, he was blamed personally for the armies poor performance (1). A poor recognition of a countries leader shown by the countries people can only mean a disturbance within the country as a whole. As a result of poor military leadership, the support of the army began to drift away, and the majority of the soldiers turned against the Tsar (1). Instead of coming to terms with the resentful army and bringing to their needs, the Tsar ignored all requests to from a "Ministry of National Confidence" (1). Of course even stronger resentment towards the Tsar would result. To have a strong system in a country, agreement and trust has to be present between the people and the people's leader. As seen here, the exact opposite was beginning to take place, as it was beginning to happen fast. This gives evidence and value to show that problems within were restricting Russia's ability to have a successful Dynasty.
Feeble equipment and a shortage of materials undermined the attitude of the army and caused many soldiers to desert (1). Such an inadequate technical and economic development led to an army suffering from the shortage of equipment (1). Many soldiers often had no weapons at all and in many instances had to use weapons from wounded or killed soldiers (1). Of course in any case such as this, soldiers would retreat and desert their stand, which was not a good for an army to be doing. This supplied evidence of a weak and unsupporting government towards the need of the army.

At the homefront, people were facing food shortages, causing many families in Russia starvation (1). As food prices rose, wages stayed the same. The food shortages became even higher as an Inflationary spiral occured, as the government tried to print more money (1). At this time, resentment towards the Tsar and the government was beginning to reach its peak. To quiet the people and their hatred, the Tsar sent military assistance to go in and kill civilians (2). this was Known as "bloody Sunday." The Tsar put this action forward to show that he was still and power and that he still obtained complete control. Of course this would only lead to rebellion, as opposition groups began to take form and increase dramatically (2). This was a weakness in the country, as people not only showed resentment, but began to take action and create groups that sought complete downfall of the Tsar. Finally, the built up of resentment towards the Tsar took its toll on February 23 as striking workers began to cry out, "Down with the Tsar" (2). Violence followed, and in the following month, the Tsar stepped down from the throne (2). The fact that the leader of Russia was to an extent forced to step down shows an incompetance toward the people and the government, and an evident imbalance that was in great desperation to be fixed.

The October Revolution was led by Lenin, a leader of the Bolsheviks, a group made up by Lenin himself (3). Lenin was involved in Russia's intelligentsia, a group that saw their own society as culturally backward (3). Groups such as these that showed such great resentment towards Russia mixed even more turmoil into the country of Russia. To make matters worse, these groups were growing rapidly. Groups like these growing at such speeds created a people that were soon to be influenced against their government and were spreading out all around Russia. Like a cancer cell, these groups would begin to demoralize the beliefs of Russia and would turn a whole country against its government.

Lenin was turning Russia away from democracy, and was favoring the positioning of a dictatorship (3). Lenin encouraged "armed insurrection" and "mass terror" and pushed aside any form of liberal democracy (3). Sporadic violence followed. There were in addition an unknown number of crimes against the people, including murder (3). In December of 1917, Lenin forced his idea of dictatorship, an idea that was against the people of Russia (3). This provoked massive havoc onto the people of Russia. Crimes were taking place, and no sustainable government was in place to keep order. Russia found itself not in order and peaceful agreement that Lenin dreamed of in his dictorship idea, but in complete disorder and in a weakening state as all of Russia was against itself. The last straw caused a complete crumble in Russia as the Petergrand Soviet allowed soldiers to elect committees to run the army (3). They abolished military codes of discipline, and in result, hierarchies crumbled everywhere (3). Factories and business owners were humiliated and assaulted. Peasants began seizing land speratically, and murder others. The old order of Russia was falling apart, and led to a complete downfall. Lenin and his idea for dictatorship pulled Russia into its inevitable downfall, as complete caos erupted. The value of this shows that dictatorship and groups leaning towards the idea of an overthrow of the government and control of the people under dictatorship within the country brought decadence to Russia. Factors from within the leaders and people of the country led to an imence and horrific collapse.