The Causes of the Russian Revolution

A detailed Summary of The Causes of the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution is an extremely complex revolution with no simple way to explain how it started, endured, or ended. There are many factors that surround each of these segments of the revolution, but the most important ones that need to be examined are always the factors that begin such an upheaval of a nation. The Russian Revolution was brought on by the climate of dissent that began years and years ago and built up stronger and stronger with each passing day. The main causes of the revolution stemmed from: the social structure of Russian society, the weaknesses and injustices of the Tsarist regime, the February Revolution, and the final blow of World War I to the economy and the people.

Until 1861, Russia had been a predominantly agricultural system, maintained by the labor and taxes of peasant serfs, for the past 300 years. The Tsars distributed land to the nobility of Russia, increasingly binding peasants to the land. Serfs began to be treated as slaves. Tagically, they could be sold off from their land to other nobles, thus seperating them from their family and friends and their familiar ways of life. Often the nobles would organize the serfs into communes, known as "mirs", that were collectivly responsible for mainta

Industrialization eventually came to Russia, just as it had swept all across Europe years before. The same unfortunate results from rapid growth also came along with it though. Cities hurriedly sprung up and disgusting living and working conditions plagued the over crowded factories. Mass unemployment followed as people left their farms in search of work in the cities, only to find the few jobs had been filled. Citizens grew discontented and felt alienated from both their former lives on the farm and the new ones in the city that never quite developed. Because industrialization was concentrated in major cities such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg (later known as Petrograd) and in condensed into large factories that employed thousands of workers, tight-knit groups of workers bound in solidarity formed, making it easier for revolutionary ideas to spread among the disgruntled workers. The spread of education as a part of this modernization was also important. A well-educated revolutionary elite were needed to implant these ideas of revolution in the first place. Everyone knew that they were unhappy and that something needed to be done, all that was needed was people to lay out exactly how it was to be accomplished.

As the peasants grew more and more desperate and educated, the blamed the Tsar for their problems. Nicholas II was unfortunatly an indecisive and impulsive man who could not confront the challenges and complex crises that faced his regime. Russia needed a strong leader at the time to quell fears and govern effectivly. No one is saying that the revolution would not have ever happened, but it is for sure that Nicolas II's personality flaws did not help the situation. Nicholas II also made key mistakes when he began to send military troops into the countryside to fire upon dissenting peasants. In one particular

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Approximate Word count = 1234
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History