Revolution Of 1917 Essay Example For Students

Revolution Of 1917 Essay Towards the end of nineteenth century, and the beginning of the twentieth century, most of Europe was going through a great deal of changes, many new ideas were introduced, causing people to dream of a better life, and more economic stability. Nowhere was this factor as true as in Imperial Russia. â€Å"The basic dilemma facing Alexander II, Alexander III, and Nicholas II was that it was impossible to ignore the demands either of external military security or of internal political stability and that these demands pulled hard in opposite directions. This helps to explain why the policies and governments of the last three Romanov monarchs often seemed crisis-ridded and at cross purposes.† The statement mentioned above basically describes the nature of the events which had taken place during the sixty-two years that separated the succession of Alexander II in 1855, and the fall of the monarchy in 1917. Also when we go deeper into the above mentioned situation, we need to note tha t Nicholas II inherited his Empire at a time when there was much agitation going on among the world powers, partially due to the fact that there was an extremely harsh competition going on throughout the world for territory and political influence. After taking all that into consideration, we also have the fact that Nicholas II was very unprepared to rule his country at the time when he ascended the throne, for the most part because of the unexpected passing away of his father, Alexander III. Then there are constant financial difficulties that Russia faced, mainly, that there wasn’t enough money for everyone. That caused the lives of the â€Å"ordinary people† to be generally classified as poverty stricken. Now to add to the above mentioned situation, factor in: the increasing number of educated people, the rapid industrialization of the country, the constant repression of the government, the Empire’s rapid population growth, the spread of nationalist ideas in a country whose population consists of many different ethnic regions, failure to act assertively on the part of the tsarism, and what we have is a country that is marching straight towards revolution. Yet as always, some factors played a much larger role in stimulating the growth, and then later triggering, the Revolution of 1917. From reading the two assigned texts I came to conclude that the key fundamental roles were: the Russian Worker, the governments’ inability to function as a unitary whole, and lastly World War I. One of the major forces that was responsible for laying the foundation to the Revolution of 1917, was the Russian worker. Russian workers were underpaid, their living conditions, their lifestyles, their demands, and their problems were for the most part overlooked. And the already unstable situation among the millions of unsatisfied workers â€Å"was made far worse by the harsh conditions of exploitation most workers found in the factories. Throughout the period the situation remained almost unbearable for most workers. Wages were low, hours long, factories dangerous, living conditions squalid, discipline brutal†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Also there was little or no job security, employers had the power to hire and fire employees, without giving any explanation for their dismissal, and overall the whole system was designed in order to benefit the employer exclusively. This careless treatment on the part of the employers, was one of the major reasons for the unhappy situation that Russian workers had to endure. That caused them to get angry at the government, since it was the most visible target, and it was blamed for whatever problems one might have been faced with. That’s where the revolutionaries came into place and encouraged the worker to seek alternate means for the fulfillment of their needs. This point is confirmed by many analysts, and in particular made evident by the Bolsheviks, who claim that â€Å"these hard-core workers were the backbone of urban political and social unrest.† This not so large, yet quite turbulent sector of the population was often overlooked by Nicholas II, who was assured that the Russian peasants were the key to the survival of the monarchy. When indeed it was the peasant himself who was leaving his home in the village and becoming the urban worker. Animal Cruelty EssayDominic Lievens, author of Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire, published his book at St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, NY in 1993. He is a political historian at the London School of Economics, and his specialty is imperial Russia: Russia’s Rulers Before the revolution. Some of his other works are: Aristocracy in Europe: 1815-1914, Russia’s Rulers under Old Regime, Nicholas II: Emperor of all the Russia’s, The Russian Empire and its Rivals, and, Russia and the Origins of the First World War. Lievens is a traditional historian, therefore his approach in writing this book, reflects that model in many aspects. Traditional historians mainly attribute the collapse of the Tsarist regime to World War I. They also believe that the country’s deteriorating was due to inadequate political organization. And that after the collapse of the tsarist regime, the rule was picked up by the Bolsheviks, who were the strongest political party during that time. In writing this book, Lievens, often uses a comparative approach, where he draws comparisons between Nicholas II, and other monarchs. Lieven also draws comparison between the fall of the Imperial Russia, and the collapse of the Communist Russia. He attempts to fit both regimes into a certain pattern where it could aid us in predicting the future, and possibly shine some light on many current and upcoming situations. He practices topical organization in his book, where he has one main topic Nicholas II, and then brakes it down into smaller topics, relating them back to Nicholas II. His main point throughout his book is that, during the reign of Nicholas II, the political instability, and the stagnant atmosphere throughout his constantly changing empire, made ruling very difficult and even impossible in certain aspects, therefore making the Revolution of 1917 inevitable. He also points out that one of the main reasons for Nicholas II’s inability to rule the empire wi th a firm grip, and without so many shifts between policies, is due to his father’s unexpected death, which cut Nicholas short of his training. The latter making him ascend the throne when he hardly knew anything about ruling a country, causing him to be susceptible to many different opinions. Christopher Read, author of From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and their Revolution, 1917-21, published his book at Oxford University Press, New York, NY, in 1996. He is a historian at the University of Warwick, UK, and he specializes in Russian Revolution, Russian intelligentsia 1900-1930, Communism, and cultural revolution. Some of his other publications include: Religion, Revolution and the Russian Intelligentsia (1979), and, Culture and Power in Revolutionary Russia (1990). He is a revisionist, which means that he pays more attention to the masses. Revisionists are mainly interested with what the ‘ordinary people’ believed in, and their social and economic history . Read could also be classified as a ‘post-revisionist’, which basically tells us that he is a type of historian who looks at the revolution as something that is in the past. Something which has gone, something that no longer has any importance. In writing this book, he uses thematic organization, which means that he carries a certain theme throughout this book, and branches out from it. His main point was that revolutions are not created by revolutionaries, but by the masses. That the Revolution of 1917 was not created by the Bolsheviks, and their party, but by regular people: peasants, factory workers, etc. History Essays