Why Did the Tsarist Regime Collapse in 1917

Why did the czarist regimen collapse in 1917? By the beginning of 1917, tsarism was rotting from within. (1) Romanovs had ruled Russia since 1613 yet people were dysphoric and the czarist regime was due to collapse for and it was inevitable that it would happen soon, it finally did under Tsar Nicholas II in 1917. There were many factors as to why the Tsarist regime collapsed some of the most important were Tsars character, political opposition ,peasants and engagementers and The World War I. One of the factors that principal sum the tsarist regime to collapse was Tsars personality.Nicholas II was coronated in 1894 besides he wasnt ready to be a Tsar because that in 1881 he witnessed his granddads, Alexander IIs assassination when his carriage was blown up. Nicholas was not a strong character and he didnt expect to be a Tsar hardly he was religious and both he and his wife Alexandra believed they were chosen by God and couldnt challenge his decision. He had intelligence co rporate trust and courage but he was ignorant about goerning bodyal matters. Nicky had been trained as a soldier. He had not been taught statesmanship and as not a statesman. (2) Also he was more of a family man rather than a ruler and was a devoted husband and father who looked good in the eye of his people but he didnt really bother about what happened to Russia and didnt really do what he was meant to do rule the country, which washed-out him significantly. Although he was a good father he was unhappy as his only son Alexis suffered from haemophilia and it was likely to die young which again out the Tsar away from ruling the country. He was ignorant and refused to share power. He mistrusted most of his ministers and yet was incapable(p) of carrying out the task of ruling the vast Russian conglomerate alone. (7) At first peasants were loyal to him and believed hed carry on what his granddad did, free servants, relax censorship of the press, improve conditions of the army, ch ange education and buzz off in Zemstva locally elective councils, however he made the government weaker, he was almost the invisible Tsar as he never traveled so his people didnt know him and he couldnt see what was best for them.People were vile, the communication and travel were awful as Russia was such a spacious country, there were all sorts of nationalities and religions in the country so people couldnt communicate well, the society was backward as there were too many workers and peasants (82% of population) and they were poor and had no laws, the nobles had everything. As the tsar didnt travel he couldnt stop any renewings and so he weakened himself. People began to question him and his competency to rule Russia they were unhappy and started to plot on how to overthrow him. The present ruler has lost absolutely the affection of Russian people, and whatever the future may engender in store for the dynasty, the present Tsar will never again be safe in the midst of his pe ople. (9) This maneuvered people he was careless and weakened him. Another factor that lead the tsarist regime to collapse was the political opposition. The key question is this-is the peaceful renovation of the country accomplishable? Or is it possible only by internal revolution? (6) There were many people who wanted the Tsar to collapse.Some like Octobrists or Kadets were more peaceful. Kadets were middle-class liberals who wanted elected parliament. They had the support of well educated wealthy people in towns, but that wasnt liberal people and they didnt attract peasants and workers which was bad as they were the majority. The societal Revolutionaries and Social Democrats wanted revolution. Both groups were prepared to work with the liberals, providing the latter continued to push the tsarist regime towards greater democracy and parliamentary power. (5) Social Revolutionaries were support be peasants and they wanted to give peasants overturn to make their life better and make them happy, however because of the size of the country and ignorance of the peasants, the revolution was impossible. They were divided in aims and methods as some wanted to share land and some wanted communism and yettually their revolution didnt happen. Lenin and Trotsky were in the Social Democrats they were supported by mill workers and followed communist teachings.They wanted to overthrow the government, however they were also divided Mensheviks wanted to get a big group of people including the middle class but Bolsheviks wanted small amount of people who would organise strikes and demonstrations. We Bolsheviks will not shirk the task. (1) This showed the people that if so many people wanted change thusly surely there is something wrong with the Tsars ruling. The 1905 revolutions was the perfect opportunity for opposition to show the Tsar how many people needed change and to show people the Tsar was not work to rule.The spark that started it off was the Bloody Sunday it was a peaceful petition from Father Gapon to ask for change but the Tsar got troops to attack the 200,000 workers who marched to him to ask for help, but the Tsar didnt care he feared for his life, maybe he knew he was a bad Tsar and thought that people were coming to assassinate him like his grandfather. This got people to think whether the Tsar actually care about his people.The economic problems also led to the revolution, the government borrowed money, the violence from troops continued, the taxes for poorest went up, the working and living conditions were terrible and people were angry. The Russo-Japanese war meant prices went up and shops lacked food and goods, industries closed leaving people unemployed and hungry and even though Tsar thought war was a good idea he became less popular as people thought he was incapable to rule and Russia got defeated and humiliated which was yet another one of Tsars mistakes. There were riots and disorders in the streets, and I think its the best description of a revolution people were smashing up shops, looting bread shops women particularly. (1) Everyone hated the Tsar which weakened the Tsarist regime as people knew the Tsar wasnt fit to rule them. The next factors that lead the Tsarist regime to collapse were the peasants and workers. At first the people saw Tsar as a father human body as that was what the Orthodox Church taught and people were very religious and they blamed landlords and factory owners.People believed Russia will change under Nicholas, when he was crowned The crowds pay been build up for two days. (1) However this quickly began to change and peasants and workers realised that the Tsar didnt care about them but they had hope. The workers, worked over 12 hours, they were poor, and they had hard work and had no privacy. Factories were open 24/7 and 30 people had to be cramped into a one little room and worked for minimal wages.Whole families including children were working just so they could buy s omething to eat and improve their lives. Both workers and peasants ate cheap, awful food and their life expectancy was less than 40 years. The peasants didnt have enough land some of them were taken to work in factories as 4/5 people at that time were peasants. This angered them and they started to blame the Tsar directly. They pose terrible wages and generally live in overcrowded conditions but manufactures have received permission to use overtime. (3) People were so fed up they progressively formed protests. (4) Which was really bad for the Tsar, as peasants and workers formed protests everyone would soon find out and join them. There were so many of the workers that when Father Gapon made a petition Do not refuse to help your people. Destroy the wall between yourself and your people. (12), it wasnt hard to get 200,000 people to march to Tsar with him but the Tsar was already threatened and killed most of them, The soldiers fired all day long. (8) However peasants didnt give up on wanting their bit of land and so when after 1905 revolution they were promised it as the Tsar promised it to them, they stopped all protests and were overwhelmed but a year later the Tsar took it away from them, which was a vast mistake as he proved that he didnt care about his people at all and was another reason to get discharge of him. Russian people were angry and wanted to get rid of the Tsar. Instead of destroying the wall Nicholas II made it bigger and this weakened his regime.The last factor that lead the Tsarist regime to collapse was the World War I. Russia suffered from shortage of food due to bad harvests, poor transport and loosing rich farmland to Germans, people were sharp-set and were unhappy The combination of a population explosion, backward farming techniques and poor policy making had made for a grave crisis(5) but the Tsar mulish to leave Russia went to be the commander-in-chief of the war. His decisions showed him to be hopelessly out of touch. (1) Russ ia had no good plunders and soldiers had to wait for someone in front of them to die so they could take their rifle and participate in the war. If we should have three days of serious fighting, we might run out of ammunition altogether. (10) The support of the army ebbed away and the Tsar could no longer blame the defeats on his subordinated and had to take the responsibility himself, the soldiers now blamed him directly for their misery.The peasants who made up most of the army and had the image of the wise and compassionate Tsar further shattered. As the Tsar left, he left Tsarina in charge of Russia, Alexandra refused to take any advice from loyal middle-class Alexandra was the dominant personality in the relationship (7) and she refused to share power like the Tsar, and so she was blamed for everything that went wrong. The patriotic people became frustrated at Tsarinas incompetence they were positive(p) someone else would be better.People hated everything German, they even ch anged the name St. Petersburg to Petrograd as it sounded too German, but Tsarina was German, which made her more unpopular. There were rumours that she was sabotaging Russia and was a German snoop so that Germany could win the war. Rasputin was believed to be a holy man as he healed Alexis and so he had a lot of influence over Tsarina, there were a lot of scandals surrounding them which made Tsarina even more unpopular. People believed they had an affair and there were rumours that they were German agents. Alexandra made decisions based on whims or messages from God, mediated by Rasputin. (1) People believed he was leading the country to its doom. Russians were angry as Rasputin was just a peasant and he helped to rule the country and they didnt understand why such person should be allowed to do that. Some were also wondering why the Tsar allowed Rasputin to be so close with the royal family I did realise that the man possessed great hypnotic power. (11) Finally in December 1916, R asputin got murdered by a group of jealous nobles Rasputin was dead ur hearts filled with hope (1) but it was too late to restore the reputation of the royal family in the eyes of Russian people and so this weakened and lead to the destruction of Tsarist regime. In conclusion I think that the most important weakness was Tsars personality as, he didnt want to be a Tsar in the first place, he was ignorant and if he tried to listen to his ministers he wouldnt have made as many mistakes as the Russo-Japanese war or the Bloody Sunday so in effect the 1905 revolution.The peasants and workers didnt want much so only if he improved their wages and gave them some land and continue what his granddad Alexander II had done, he wouldve had their support and void weakening himself. If he was travelling around and was liked by his people, political opposition wouldnt form and so there would be peace in Russia and he wouldve been a strong Tsar. If he didnt care only about himself and his family, t he Tsarist regime would have been strong and Russian people would have been satisfied and the Tsarist regime would continue.