Thursday, October 29, 2009
McKeown- A collapse from within
The October Revolution was a collapse from within caused by chaos happening within the country. All the chaos that happened, stemed from the czar and poor choices that he made. During World War One when Czar Nicholas decided to assume command of the Russian military, he lest his wife, the Tsarina, in charge.(WW1 Impact 1) The Tsarina was not fit to rule so she asked the monk Rasputin for advice.(ww1 1) Rasputin wasn't liked by the people, which gave bad rep to the Tsarina and also the Tsar. Though the Tsar did try to appease the people by creating the Duma and giving them more liberties like freedom of speech, press, and religion; he did not enforce them and did not listen to the decisions that were made by the Duma.(Belk 2). He even at one point called Michael Rodzianko, the President of the Duma, a " fat bellied Rodzianko, who has written me a load of nonsense which I won't bother to answer. (WW1 1) The Tsar then was not able to provide for his people or his soldiers on the front. People were dying of starvation and soldiers even had to pick up guns from fallen comrades and enemies in order to fight.(Belk 2). This poverty inspired citizens and even soldiers to begin to dislike the Tsar. Then in order to get food, civilians marched in front of the Tsar's place.(Belk 2) In a letter from Alexandra Fyordorovna to Czar Nicolas II, it states that "...because they worship you and only want bread.".(WW1 1) When the civilians would not leave the Csar ordered soldiers to fire on them. This murder by the Tsar would become known as Bloody Sunday.(Belk 2) Due to the innocent slaughtering of civilians, many of the Tsars soldiers turned against him. (book 3). The revolution against the Tsar came from the inside because of the Tsar not caring about his people so they rose against him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ian I agree with you. The Czar went off the led the military and left his wife in charge of the country. His wife was not fit to lead the country while he was gone and he should have not let her take over the country while the people were suffering from shortage of food supplies and the necessaries of life. Also creating the Duma was a great idea, but ignoring it was not a good idea. It showed how Czar just talk the talk and not go along with what he was saying. This action gives the people of the country reasoning for not trusting the Czar.
ReplyDeleteBut when the Czar left his wife in charge of the Country, what if she had turn the country around in the right direction by listening to Rasputin, do you believe the people would have changed their opinion of Rasputin.
I agree with what you said Ian and seems that most everyone thinks that the February Revolution came about from the Czar ignoring the basic needs of the people and not listening to what they had to say. Do you think that Bloody Sunday was really a large part of the revolution? Would the revolution still have happened if not for Bloody Sunday? It seems to me it would have since people were dying from starvation and millions of Russian soldiers were dying at the front, there were many reasons for the revolution but I'm wondering how significant this specific event was.
ReplyDelete