Why Did the Russian Tsar Abdicate in March 1917?

A detailed Summary of Why Did the Russian Tsar Abdicate in March 1917?

Why Did the Tsar Abdicate in March 1917?

The Tsar of Russia was known as the Little Father. He was an autocratic ruler of a vast country, which spanned across two continents, Europe and Asia. It had over 16 nationalities and very poor lines of communication; roads were mud tracks and there was only one railway line. All of this made it a very difficult country to rule. The Tsar was greatly respected by his people and he had total control. However, by 1917, this had all changed and the Tsar was forced to abdicate. In this essay I will explore the reasons why such a respected man several years later became a disgrace, was removed from office and killed, along with his family.

1917 was not the first revolution Russia had ever seen, 12 years earlier in 1905 there was nearly a whole year of revolution. This revolution broke out for a number of reasons. Firstly, the long term reasons were there; working and living conditions for the peasants were very poor. Then Russia started a war with Japan; this could have been a good thing for if they had won it would have renewed faith in the Tsar. This was not the case, Russia suffered numerous defeats, soldiers got angry and started to mutiny, as on the battleship Potemkin.

The Tsar, without the full support of his troops, finally caved into the pressure in October. Here he issued the October Manifesto; in this he promised to give the people a Duma, which was an elected parliament. Civil rights and uncensored newspapers were also promised. Although he seemed on the surface to keep these promises, practically speaking he did not. The Duma had no real power and could be dissolved by the Tsar at any time, as for the newspapers they could be written by different people, but were still censored. The Tsar had still not made the peasants truly happy, so their anger was still there bubbling away under the surface. If the Tsar had kept these promises then perhaps 12 years later the peasants would not have helped to overthrow him.

In 1906, a man named Peter Stolypin was made Prime Minister by the Tsar. This was probably because of his reputation as a cruel and punishing man. He kept this reputation by setting up military courts that could hang people on the spot. Stolypin's necktie was the name given to the hangman's noose. He did however also do many good things for the people. He got the third Duma more power (this was after the first two Dumas had been dissolved). He also improved agriculture by setting up banks, which made a new, better class of peasants, called Kulaks. These Kulaks bought their neighbours' land. This led to bumper harvests. However this in itself made the peasants that were bought out feel jealous and bitter.

The war got worse, more people lost respect in the Tsar and they were appalled by Rasputin's influence. In 1916 there was a terrible winter and prices rose sky high, as food was getting stuck on its way to the war front. Now both peasants and soldiers were starving. In March 1917, everyone was angry with the Tsar. Forty thousand workers from the Pulilov engineering works went on strike along with many

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Approximate Word count = 1272
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History