From the sources given, the Febuary Revolution was a collapse within but unlike popular belief it was not only due to the "Inadequate equipment and shortage of materials", even though these factors were minor causes. a major cause was from source two "it is impossible to rule country with out paying attention to the voice of the people". This quote is referring to many occasions in which the Czar would ignore the people or make dumb/bad choices, making the people frustrated with the government slowly leading to more rebellious talk.
1) Czar had no military background, after taking over the army (1)
This is one example where the Czar makes a dumb/bad decision. After he feels the leaders of the current army arent getting the job done to make an analogy he feels that even he could do better so he tries but fails even worse then the leaders(considering he had little background), but if the Czar had never had tried to redeem themselves after the embarassing lost to japan but instead try to replace the leaders of the army then possibly it could have made the Czar seem like there was action somewhat being taken. The people had a right to say if they should go to war but instead the Czar jumped into it without a full plan.
2) While the Czar left for the front he left the running of the country to his wife alexandria
This is a small action that the Czar did that caused a great uproar by the people. Even though one may argue that this action was TOO small to affect anything, it is the build up of these little types of actions that have the people of Russia wondering "my leader did WHAT?! left his wife in charge and im starving to death" and causing anger and disrupt in the country, also the people could have a feeling of "I'm starving right now and he just left?" causing even more controversy of the purpose of his actions.
In the end it was the incompetence of leaders that led russia to its famous start of a new world AKA the Febuary Revolution, and the build of the Czars dumb ideas to leave his country in a time of need or trying to take control of something that he has nothing to do with and the people being constantly tired of having to deal with this leaders dumb and incompetent decisions.
-BOOM!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Alex, you show a lot of details with the examples given but I have to say I think it was also a factor of a overthrow from without. I say this because, what about the factors that the Czar could not control? For example the food shortages and weapon shortages. I do not think he should have sent soldiers to the front lines without adequate equipment but their economy was not stable enough to have everything they needed. The decisions the Czar made with taking over the army, and leaving the country to his wife are his fault and do make it seem like it was a collapse from within but there are many other factors.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the food shortages in Russia there were many strikes and protests that led to overthrowing the government. It also did not make it any better that the Czar created a Duma that he paid very little attention too. This angered the people greatly making the want to overthrow him in order to have their voices heard. The Czar established the Duma and got the peoples hopes up that he was going to hear what they had to say and then did not keep his promise. This led to an overthrow without along with the collapse from within.
I agree that the Czar was incompetent and that his unwise decisions caused the February Revolution.
ReplyDeleteI think Russia's loss to Japan during the Russo-Japanese War had a great deal to do with Czar Nicholas II taking over the military. He replaced his cousin, who fought in the Russo-Japanese War, but did not command troops at the time. Czar Nicholas was already disliked by the people, and thought that bringing Russia to a victory in WWI would improve his image and raise Russian morale at the same time. This clearly failed, since the Czar had no experience and Russia was not victorious. Anyway, I think he took over the military to regain the public's favor.
On the other hand, Alex mentioned that the Czar decided "to leave his country in a time of need"...I wonder if the Czar decided to leave his country BECAUSE it was in a time of need. Maybe he felt Russia needed something he couldn't provide, and decided to escape the whole problem by taking over the military and leaving his wife in charge, hoping she would be able to fix everything and please the peasants. However, she did no better job than the Czar himself did. This provides a reason as to why the Czar was so stressed out after WWI.
I agree with your reasons as to why it was an overthrow from within, but in my opinion it was for these very reasons that lead to it being an overthrow from without.
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the main reasons the soldiers joined the civilians in rebelling against the government was because of their poor treatment and constant defeat. They were poorly equipped and then had to take orders from a leader who had no experience. I agree with you saying it is a collapse from within due to the Czar’s poor decision making, but it would be these decisions that drove them into rebellion which would help in bringing the overthrow from without.
I know that it was bad decision making that helped bring about the end of Czarist rule but there had been suffering and poor decisions made for years and the government remained intact. So this is why I feel that it was a combination of both because without the rioters and rebellions then the Czarist rule would have remained intact