Explain How Long And Shortterm Causes Contributed

Explain How Long And Short-term Causes Contributed To The March 1917 Revolution Essay, Research Paper

2) Explain how long and short-term causes contributed to the Bolshevik

Revolution. (10)In March 1917, the situation for the Russians had become desperate and

the workers wanted political changes as well as food and fuel. In Petrograd (as

St.Petersburg had been renamed to avoid any German connection), 40,000 workers

went on strike for higher wages and the people and troops overthrew the Tsar.

The Rominov dynasty was to end after 304 years, bought down by the March 1917

revolution. So what were the long and short-term causes that led to this

milestone in history. Firstly we have to ask ourselves, what is a long-term

cause and what is a short-term cause. I consider a long-term cause to be

something that started more than one year before the event, in the case of the

Russian revolution, before 1916. A short-term cause therefore is something that

happened a year or less before the event, 1916 till 1917. This is usually the

final spark, triggering the inevitable – the Russian revolution. It seemed

necessary for long and short term causes to interact to cause the revolution.The Tsars autocracy was very badly organised and caused many conflicts

between the people and the Russian government. It had been like this for a long

time and needed a complete change. The Tsarist system meant that the Tsar had

complete power and authority. He was the head of the state and had control over

the Russian Orthodox Church. All the important decisions were made in

St.Petersburg, without asking the people of Russia what their views were -

decisions that were made were announced by 1000’s of officials and bureaucrats.

This angered the people as they felt the Tsar was ignoring them and did not

care about their opinions. Nearly 90% of people were peasants and most were

poverty stricken. They worked with the most basic tools. Half the farming land

belonged to 300,000 landowners but the other half was shared with 15 million

peasant families. In the cities and countryside the government and bureaucrats

and secret police appeared to be in control, but underneath Russia was seething

with discontent especially the living and working conditions of the poor.From this discontent, various opposition parties were active throughout

the country, even though they were usually executed, imprisoned or sent to

Siberia. The main group was the Socialist Revolutionaries; they had a lot of

support from peasants. Another was the Russian Social Democratic party, founded

in 1898; it appealed to many town workers but then split in 1903 to the

Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. These two groups followed the teachings of Karl

Marx. The Bolsheviks allowed only fully committed members to join in with

opposing the Tsarist system. The Mensheviks were more cooperative and stood in

elections for duma parties and issued propaganda and organized strikes against

the Tsar. Then there was the problem of the wide range of nationalities in

Russia. Less than half the Tsars subjects were Russian, invaded nations like

the Poles from Poland and the Finns from Finland were anxious to overthrow the

Tsar. Only up until the outbreak of the First World War did these groups cause

real trouble and damage the Tsar’s reputation and ability to rule; this was a

long-term problem that could not be avoided. But in July 1914 Russia entered

the First World War on the side of France and Britain, fighting Germany and

Austria-Hungary.This outbreak of war at first helped the Tsar. All the classes rallied

together and initially wanted to help the Tsar and looked at him for

leadership, but then after their first defeat at Tannenburg, everything changed

after the Tsar made some fatal mistakes. In August 1915, the Tsar left Petrograd to command the Russian army. He

therefore received the blame personally for all their defeats and lost control

of his troops as he left Rasputin and the Tsarina to rule Russia. His army also

consisted of millions of poor, starving peasants with bad equipment, poor

supplies of rifles and ammunition. In 1916, two million soldiers were killed or

seriously wounded, and one third of a million taken prisoner and the civilian

population were horrified. They considered the Tsar irresponsible for taking

over the army and held him responsible for everything; as a result more

conflicts between the people were started.Gregory Rasputin, as mentioned earlier,

was another figure that played a significant part in causing the Russian

revolution. He was a monk in the Russian Orthodox Church and had increasing

importance and influence on the Tsar as he helped cure Alexei of hemophilia. He

made a mockery of the Royal Family and the people of Russia despised him for

his rebellious background and the rumours surrounding him. The Tsar was so

taken in by him; he left Rasputin and the Tsarina to rule

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