The Reasons Of Tsar Nicholas II And The February Revolution

Tsar Nicholas II’s poor leadership made the people lose faith in him, and therefore lose faith in the Tsarist regime, resulting in anarchy and revolution. Nicholas was unprepared for the difficult situation he was put in as Tsar, and he was totally unequipped to deal with it. Founder of Spartacus Educational and former history teacher John Simkin states, “Nicholas inherited from his ancestors not only a great empire, nut also a revolution. And they did not bequeath him one quality which would have made him capable of governing an empire. Or even a country" [Simkin, 1997] The system needed reform, but he was unwilling to limit his power at all, for the sole reason that he thought it was his duty to pass on his full and complete autocratic powers …show more content…
The February Revolution (which occurred in March on the Gregorian calendar), began on March 8 1917, when female factory workers were told there was no bread, and as they had waited for hours and needed to feed their families, they rioted. The February Revolution was centred in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), and happened on International Women’s Day. It was the event that ended the Tsarist Romanov dynasty. The primary cause was food. Urban areas were particularly close to starvation, Dernsin also discusses, “Caloric intake fell by a quarter, infant mortality doubled, crime rates tripled, and children are sent into the streets as prostitutes.” As “Virtually every worker protested.” [Dersin, 2005, 120]. 90,000 people protested, flocking to the Imperial Duma with their demands. There were no demonstrations anywhere else in the city. Secondary causes included the fact that Russia had been fighting in WWI for 31 months, impacting a huge amount of war weariness as soldiers were slaughtered while fighting. On the revolutionary day, protestors sang revolutionary songs, and waved red flags with ‘Down with the War’ on them. The Tsar ordered that riots be shut down, and sent in the military. Russian soldiers did not like killing other Russians - so led a mutiny against their officers. This was how the people were able to remove Tsardom from Russia. Leon …show more content…
The Soviets or workers unions, and the Duma-appointed Provisional Government were born from the revolution. The Soviets gained strength, and the Provisional Government was formed directly after Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication. These groups held a tentative dual alliance which held until the October Revolution. The Provisional Government failed because it didn 't have clear rights. It also didn 't want to make permanent change, as the group itself was not permanent, so they wanted to leave that for a permanent government (Constituent Assembly) which was intended to be elected efficiently, but wasn’t. The people also didn 't trust them because they were not elected, but appointed by the Duma. They also had issues enforcing policies - due to the dual alliance. In the months between the February and October Revolutions, the Soviets held the real power, while the Provisional Government just made the laws. The Minister of War in the Provisional Government, Alexander Guchkov, when discussing the dual alliance, stated, “We (the Provisional Government) do not have authority, but only the appearance of authority; the real power lies with the Soviet”. [Quoted from Wikipedia, 2016]. This meant that when the Provisional Government passed legislation, it would be decided by the Soviet if it would actually be imposed