FREE ESSAY ON CAUSES OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

CAUSES OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

Causes of the Russian Revolution
The Russian revolution was caused by the continual breakdown of 
the governments in Russia and the incompetency and authoritarian views 
of it's czars. Their failures as leaders included policies that 
neither pleased nor benefitted the people. By the end of the 
nineteenth century, Russia's economy, government, military, and social 
organization was at an extreme decline. Russia had become the least 
advanced of the major European nations in terms of political and 
social development. There was no parliament, and no middle class. The 
Church, officers, and other important people and institutions were 
firmly against social progress. The disastrous defeat of Russia in the 
Crimean War in 1855 and 1856 exposed weaknesses of Russia's various
organizations.
For the first few decades of the 1800's, Russia's outlook was 
brighter under Alexander I, who was relatively liberal. He became more 
reactionary however, and following his death, a group of young army 
officers tried to overturn the Czardom. This was called the Decembrist 
Revolt. The next czar, Nicholas, was a die hard authoritarian. The 
Administrative system continued to decay regardless of his iron fisted 
rule. The gap between the rich and the poorer continued to widen. Over 
five hundred peasant revolts took place during his reign.
Alexander II, who took the throne in 1855 tried to avert revolt 
by attempting reform. In 1861 he freed the serfs and gave them
expectations of free land allotments. But to their surprise, and 
anger, they were only given the opportunity to share it as members of 
a village commune(mir). In addition, the mir had to pay back the 
government for the land over a period of 49 years with interest. 
Alexander also formed a series of elected local councils that gave 
districts restricted jurisdiction of certain aspects of life. He too 
became more of a reactionary towards the end of his reign. The result 
was his assassination by a group of conspirators called the People's 
Will movement. The next Czar, Alexander III, was yet another 
reactionary. He was active in silencing criticism of the government, 
exiling agitators, and stamping out revolutionary groups.
Industrialization began to appear and with it an increase of 
dissatisfied workers. They were underpaid and forced to work in
unfavourable conditions. The peasants farmers were doing fine on their 
farms but a famine in 1891 caused extensive suffering. Revolts again 
became fairly frequent. Intellectual groups organized and continued 
the fight against serfdom and autocracy.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Russian people were in the 
mood for revolution. The loss of the Russo Japanese war to Japan, and 
the resulting hardships, made concrete the opposition to the 
autocracy. In December of 1904, unrest surfaced in Baku. Strikes 
occurred in factories in the capital. Priest Father Gapon lead a 
peaceful march to petition the czar for a redress of grievances but it 
ended violently with the Czar's troops firing on the crowd. In October 
of 1905 a general strike was declared that crippled the country.
On October 30th, Nicholas dispatched the historical October 
Manifesto which provided for a constitution under which civil
liberties were granted and an elected state institution called the 
duma was formed. This broke the czar's absolute power. However, the 
czar chose reactionary ministers to lead the duma and the secret 
police force was improved and strengthened. The first two were filled 
with radicals but quickly dissolved. The members of the third were 
conservative in outlook. Social conditions improved too slowly to 
reverse public opposition to the absolute monarchy. Poor political and 
military leadership in the First World War led to widespread desertion 
of Russian soldiers. Their army suffered great casualties and a 
battered economy.
It was the accumulation of discontent for governments, czar's, 
and living conditions along with Russian defeats in various wars,
including WWI, of the working class citizens in Russia that eventually 
boiled over and resulted in revolution. The public dissatisfaction 
continued to fill for over a decade like a powderkeg and eventually 
was set off and caused an explosion of great impact to the future of 
Russia. They displayed their anger in various ways, but the 
authoritarian Czar's which attained power did not react to the 
incoming tide. In fact, they resisted change at every avenue possible 
and proved to outrage certain people to such a point that Czar's were 
assassinated. By 1917, the Russian people had had enough, and a public 
disturbance in Petrograd soon spread throughout the city and had 
become a widespread revolt. The resulting revolution proved to 
restructure the politics in Russia for years to come. 
Bibliography
Bibliography
Campling, Elizabeth. Living Through History: The Russian Revolution.
London: Batsford Academic and Educational, 1985.
Hayden, David. Russian Revolution. Merit Students Encyclopedia. New 
York: Macmillan Educational Co, 1982. 16:241?3
Robottom, John. Russia in Change. New York: Longman Group Ltd., 1984
Trueman, John, et al. Modern Perspectives. Canada: McGraw?Hill Ryerson
Ltd., 1979.