How far did the political and personal influence exerted by Rasputin lead to the downfall of Tsarist Russia?
General information on this topic
Nicholas II of Russia was the last emperor of Russia (1st November 1894 to 15th March 1917). His reign saw the dramatic fall of the imperial Russian empire. After the Febuary revolution of 1917 Nicholas was forced to abdicate the throne. In 1918, Nicholas and his family were tragically executed by the Bolsheviks. The dramatic downfall of Tsar Nicholas was the ended the Romanov dynasty in Russia. It ended autocracy as a political system in Russia and lead to the creation of the Soviet Union which went on to spark major tensions with the world in the Cold War. This historical turning point shaped much of 20th century history and the lives of over 293 million people.
In between this huge political drama and cataclysmic revolution appears a most mysterious and dark individual who has become a legend in Russian history. Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (henceforth known as ‘Rasputin’) is a …show more content…
The first section will discuss Rasputin’s influence on the Tsar’s looking at the evidence for this and evaluating it. My second section will turn to Rasputin’s influence on other groups in Russia. My final section will look at the other influences on the downfall of the Tsar.
The larger issues I am going to look at would the downfall have happened without the effects and influence of Rasputin. And how far did the influence of Rasputin cause the downfall of Tsarism on his own. Can one person ever hold substantial influence over an event of that magnitude, or are the combinations of other factors leading to a specific situation the reason for an outcome? Was Rasputin simply the straw that broke Tsarism’s