Overthrow from without due to an Internal collapse-Albowicz

The February Revolution was an overthrow from without caused by a collapse from within.

Before the first World War, the country of Russia was suffering. They had lost soldiers, dignity, and pride all to Japan when they were defeated in the Russo-Japanese war. By this point, the country is at a pretty low state, and they are willing to say that. Because they do, the Tsar issues soldiers to fire at innocent civilians, which became known as Bloody Sunday. (2) This was the Tsar’s way of saying “Hey, I’m still here and you won’t forget that!” (<-remember this) This very forceful example of power puts the Tsar in a bad light to the people. It was criticized by Mikhailaich that “It is impossible to rule the country without paying attention to the voice of the people, without meeting their needs, without a willingness to admit that the people themselves understand their own needs.”(1) In response to the attack on his competence Tsar Nicholas II creates the Duma. Along with the Duma, Nicholas II promised the people some more freedom including that of speech, press, and even more say in the leadership.(2) He was basically promising a more democratic government, but these promises were not met. The Duma was basically what we know as the Cabinet.(2) It was supposedly the Tsar’s advisors, given the status as “voice of the people” but in reality, they were fairly ignored. It was a political ploy to make himself look good to the people and let them know “Hey, I’m still here and I’m for you” (looks like a trend is starting. Keep reading) Tsar Nicholas II was even quoted saying “Again, that fat bellied Rodzianko[leader of the Duma] has written me a load of nonsense, which I won’t even bother to answer” (1) As the country is still under a mental defeat from the Russo-Japanese war, the Tsar, without listening to the Duma, decides to enter the war to be a status booster. He then joins the military on the front lines, despite his lack of military background, leaving the country to be led by his German wife, who is not only from an enemy country, but is rumored to have an affair with the monk Rasputin.(1)
Not only were these occurrences putting Tsar Nicholas II in a bad light with the citizens, but the citizens had previously seemed to have troubles with the tsarist rule. The group called the intelligentsia assassinated Tsar Alexander II on March 1, 1881 (3) They then tried to murder Alexander II’s successor, Alexander III on the anniversary of Alexander II’s death, but authorities caught the group and arrested them before this could happen. (3) The fact that attacks on the Tsars came one after another leads me to believe the Bolsheviks did not favor the tsarist government much in general. Because there was already resentment towards tsars in general, Nicholas II’s actions did not bode well for the Russians. When they tried to act up and speak out, Nicholas repeated the past and had a repeat of Bloody Sunday. (3) (I think we’ve seen that before)
So, since the Bolsheviks were not thrilled with the ideals of the tsarist government, each Tsar was criticized further because of their title. So, when Tsar Nicholas ignored the warnings and the signs, and cared more about his position than his people, the Bolsheviks stepped up and spoke out. That is why this was an overthrow from without. But, because of the actions of Tsar Nicholas II such as, controlling the army, ignoring the people, breaking promises, and caring more about position than people, the people were ready to fight for themselves. All of this could have been prevented had Tsar Nicholas followed through on his promises and not ignored the warning signs that were given to him from all sides. Had he decided to listen to the so called “fat bellied Rodzianko”, the leader of the Duma and the main voice of the people, he could have prevented the majority of the dispute. Therefore, it was in his control which would make it a collapse from within. So because of said collapse, the people stepped up and made their own change. It was an overthrow from without that was caused by a collapse from within.